What is Tratak Sadhana? Part 2: The Benefits
Tratak is an advanced technique. Seek the help of a Guru before starting its practise.
This post continues from the prior article on Tratak – click here to read.
The benefits are many
The point of tratak is to ultimately still the mind and use the resulting concentration to access soul power within.
Aside from improved focus, mental acuity and memory, other notable benefits are:
- Precognition. One may experience such heightened levels of perception that your observation skills border on precognition. IE – you can almost read someone’s thoughts or know what they are about to say before they say it. This occurs because the mind is usually attempting to process more information from your 5 senses continuously than is usually possible. Most of the time it must ‘delete’ the majority of this information flowing in and just focus on the relevant details. With the practice of tratak, one starts to delete less and absorb more.
- Influence. Your powers of influence improve as you can no only ‘read’ people better, your added awareness and mental acuity give rise to greater levels of confidence. In combination these two factors allow you to improve your oration abilities, stick to the strength of your convictions and therefore much more easily influence others.
- Siddhis. The advanced practitioner of tratak can reach the stage where their cognitive abilities can access the subtle realms of existence and channel divine power to manifest siddhis (when used in conjunction with mantras); the easiest being clairvoyance, remote vision, psychic communication, etc.
Vashikaran Mantras and the Siddhi of Inception (Part 2)
Magnetise your personality to attract friends and influence people through mantra
Ignore the hype, here’s the review
In the first part of the series, we looked at the potential for inception through mantra. You can read the first part by clicking here if you did not have a chance to do so already, or wish to refresh your memory on the debate.
The general conclusion of the post was that having a limited degree of mental control over someone is possible – as clearly demonstrated by the practice of hypnotherapy – but doing so through mantra is highly unlikely, even if you had a ‘genuine’ mantra and attained siddhi (perfected the technique) due to the presence of individuals’ free will.
The Sequel!
A more interesting and plausible idea is that anyone can influence those around them in a positive manner through a personality transformation.
What does this mean? The answer is simple and within everyone’s frame of reference. Haven’t we all met a person in our lives who was so charismatic, who held everyone’s attention perfectly, who spoke beautifully, articulately and intelligently to captivate an audience? I am sure we all know someone like this – be it our favourite school teacher, a great spiritual Master, or great political/military leader. Why can’t we be more like our role models?
A new story: change yourself to change the world
In this regard, the answer is: there is no reason why we cannot. The idea of ‘leading from the front’ – ie by example – is an age-old concept. If you can think of no other, one example is known to all – the great Mahatma Gandhi, who led India out of British Rule by setting a firm and clear example of non-violent protest through his own actions.
The methods of how we can change ourselves through mantra are outlined below.
Mantra transformation
One can affect a great transformation – spiritual and otherwise through the use of mantra. Chanting certain mantras can have a deep conscious and sub-conscious effect on our psyche to enact incremental positive changes which over time build up and transform us completely.
The transformations considered are: character, speech, mental strength and action. These four concepts are the cornerstones of great personalities.
Here are the mantras to gain such benefits:
- Character: Worship Hanuman and Rama to understand and become the ideal personality. Click here to read my prior articles on improving one’s character and another article on writing Rama nama.
- Speech: Worship Saraswathy to master the art of articulation – click hear to see a powerful mantra.
- Mental Strength: Worship Ganesha and Narasimha to improve mental control and increase determination to achieve anything. Click to see Ganesha’s gayatri mantra and here to see the Narasimha Gayatri.
- Action: Thoughts are meaningless within firm action to drive them into reality. Click here to read a post on worshipping Skanda.
Those who are serious and wish to undergo a full effective change in their personalities should attempt at least an anusthan of each mantra to see real differences.
Click here to read the first article in the series on Vashikaran mantras if you missed it.
Follow me on Twitter: @MantraYogi
Vishnu Gayatri Mantra
Command respect and authority by worshipping Narayana!
Transliteration:
“Om NArayanAya Vidhmahe,
VasudEvaya DhImahi
TannO VishnU PrachOdayAth.“
(Semi-literal) Translation:
“We know the Abode of Man,
We meditate on the Son of Vasudeva,
May The All-Pervading One enlighten us”
Purpose:
- Gain respect and authority; leadership and management abilities
- Character and wealth
- A strong sense of right conduct (Dharma) and diplomacy
Worship Vishnu to develop Leadership
Vishnu is the grand Manager of the Universe – the CEO if you will! Worshipping Vishnu through the Gayatri above will help one ‘lead from the front’. First, it will establish a strong intuition of strategy, the correct way of doing things and more fundamentally, a clear cut understanding of what is right and wrong. Second, the improvement of one’s character in this regard will shine for others to see and they will automatically fall in line to your leadership.
One should also worship Vishnu to regain control of one’s life, develop a strong sense of inner direction and improve your diplomacy in dealing with others in a fair and just manner.
Follow me on Twitter: @MantraYogi
Narasimha Gayatri Mantra
Eliminate the evil of others with prayers to Narasimha!
Transliteration:
“Om VajranakhAya vidmahe
TIksnadamstrAya dhimahi
Tanno Narasimhah PracodhayAt“
(Semi-literal) Translation:
“We know the one with diamond nails,
We meditate on the sharp-toothed,
May Narasimha enlighten us”
Purpose:
- Defeat enemies
- Protection from attack – this is a powerful counter in times of grave personal danger
- Increases your courage and bravery in the face of adversity
- Nullifies the effect of evil deeds by your enemies
A powerful force against the evil deeds of others
There comes a time in everyone’s life where others wish you harm or misfortune. The worship of Narasimha and invoking his grace at times of distress – particularly during physical attack can have great power against such people.
In more practical and sattvik terms, you can consider the mantra to nullify the ill wills of others and steadily remove their feelings of enmity toward you.
Follow me on Twitter @ MantraYogi.
The Power of Dreams: Part 1 – The Dream Drive
Where have your dreams gone?
What motivates us?
What motivates a person? Love/hate, pain/pleasure, future gains and past failures? Perhaps all of the above, but what has always struck me is the incredible power of a persons dreams in motivating change, often within ourselves, and bringing out the greatest personal achievements and deepest changes in society.
The Power of Dreams
Dreams are powerful constructs of the human mind. Psychologists say dreams manifest subconscious longings and desires, help resolve emotional traumas and defeat our internal demons.
No matter how creative the individual in their daily pastimes, untethered from the realities of day to day living, the human mind is capable of establishing incredible visions and fresh priorities well beyond the normal conception of a waking man or woman.
Beyond the mundane, great historical figures have often seen a brighter, more promising and better future. When such noble dreams are unleashed on the world, it steps back and must take notice – such as powerful speech of Dr Martin Luther King in presenting his universal views of equalities and peace between people of all races. In others, such as Mahatma Gandhi, it can enact great social change and sow the seeds toward toppling entire empires.
Returning our lives to the Dreamworld
Whatever the rhyme or reason for our dreams, they are undoubtedly powerful. It is every person’s right to attempt to live our their noble dreams. Oftentimes we struggle to gain traction in our efforts to move toward our dreams. We become stuck in daily routines and a slow grind to make ends meet.
How do we break out of such a rut and recapture the enthusiasm, dynamism and optimism of our youth? It is arguable that Will Power, Creativity, Leadership and Energy are the necessary pre-requisites. This article series will investigate all the above and the mantra yoga necessary to manifest such abilities within oneself.
But it all starts with a vision – a Dream.
The Dream Drive
A powerful method of visualisation that I have had personal success with in this modern, computer-led society is to use the Dream Drive, Dream Folder or Dream Drawer.
The method is simple, yet incredibly effective. In an environment where we spend most of our lives in from of a computer screen, this forms an ideal technique to break out of an unhealthy routine and refocus on what our core needs are.
There is only step: Create a new folder somewhere on your computer drive, desktop, inbox, or in your actual desk draw and fill it with your dreams! I’ll describe in more detail assuming you will be creating a folder on your computer desktop. In essence, you want to:
- Run through a list of every area of your life you want to change, are unsatisfied with, or have specific goals for
- and find a picture, a quote, a file, a newspaper clipping – anything that has deep personal meaning and resonates emotionally
- and place it in the drive.
- An example is: I have always wanted to drive a sports car. I will then find clippings of my favourite cars. Money should be no limitation when choosing your ideals! I’d rip out pages from magazines with adverts, print pictures from the net and take photos of cars that you spot on the street that match your specifications, then place them in the folder.
Why is this so important? Why not just make a list? The point is ultimately to bring your thoughts, your emotions and all of your senses in line with what you want. Choose objects that are important to you that bring out the feelings you’d feel when you think about having that car, or house, or anything else that you are aiming for.
Every day, look through your folder, examining each item in turn. Day by day you will feel a gradual transformation take place in your thought patterns –
- Your subconscious mind will begin to find ways to help you reach your goal
- You will become much more motivated toward reaching the goal
- You will move far beyond what you thought your capabilities were in your efforts to achieve this goal
More than Self Management: Divinise your Goals
Now the steps above should help you form a solid foundation to develop clarity and hunger to improving many aspects of your material life where you feel you are lacking.
What if this is taken to the next level? What if you set goals for the betterment of others, your own spiritual development or charity? You divinise your goal: your ego is sacrificed; your goals take a higher purpose and you attract divine aid. In streams of Vedanta, setting unselfish, higher goals are the milestones on the path to the divine.
In the next few articles we will address the mantras related to the other pre-requisites (Will Power, Creativity, Leadership and Energy) to help you toward achieving your dreams.
How to Detox with Mantra (3/3)
This is the third and final part of a multi-post article; click here for the first part. Click here for the second part.
Are you ready for Mantra Detox?
Mantra Detox! Part Trois.
In my prior posts on performing a spiritual detox with mantras, we established a theoretical framework as:
- Increase discipline and curb one’s desire for excess;
- Burn negative karma;
- Build character and Bhakti.
The first step was covered in the prior post as pursuing the blessings of Ganesha and Rama; the second was to pray to your chosen deity, or alternatively, use the Gayatri mantra to effect a karma burn.
Building character and Bhakti
What is Bhakti? Many have written excellent articles and deep theses on such a broad topic. For the purposes for simplicity, we can take it to mean spiritual devotion. How is this developed? One can say that Bhakti is the third step of spritual advancement; the prior two being intellectual introspection and study (Jnana), and physical preparation (the well known concept of Yoga).
One method I have previously highlighted is prayer to the ultimate Bhakta – Hanuman (click here). To flesh out the detail, however, a classical point of reference is the 11 point step-by-step method revealed by Sri Ramanuja, the well-known Rishi, outlined below:
- Abhyasa or practice of continuous thinking of God;
- Viveka or discrimination;
- Vimoka or freedom from everything else and longing for God;
- Satyam or truthfulness;
- Arjavam or straightforwardness;
- Kriya or doing good to others;
- Kalyana or wishing well-being to all;
- Daya or compassion;
- Ahimsa or non-injury;
- Dana or charity; and
- Anavasada or cheerfulness and optimism.
Each step is a vast ocean of explanation unto itself; for the purposes of brevity, I will leave the reader to pursue his/her own research.
Mantras for Effecting the Transformation of Character
Character is one again Hanuman’s strong point (click here for prior post). There are other options, however, for example through the grace of Lakshmi. Lakshmi is a goddess traditionally associated with material wealth. Yet wealth does not stop at materiality; it subtends far further into the wealth of knowledge, wisdom, ability and of course, wealth of character. For what is the worth of wealth without the wisdom to spend it?
In a prior post, the Shreem mantra was proposed as a powerful method of attracting abundance through the grace of Lakshmi. One further method is the Lakshmi Gayatri; see my post here for the details.
With these broad strokes one should be able to establish a firm foundation for development along the spiritual path once the poison of prior negative karmas and old useless thought patterns are shed.
Future posts will aim to elaborate on these points in more detail.
Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow me on Twitter @MantraYogi.
How to Detox with Mantra (2/3)
This is the second part of a multi-post article; click here for the first part.
Are you ready to Detox with Mantras?
Mantra Detox! Part Deux.
In my prior post on performing a spiritual detox with mantras, we established a theoretical framework as:
- Increase discipline and curb one’s desire for excess;
- Burn negative karma;
- Build character and Bhakti.
The first step was covered in the prior post as pursuing the blessings of Ganesha and Rama.
Burning Karma – the root cause of pre-destiny
For the second step, we look into how to remove the burden of Karma. Karma is a well known concept in both the Eastern and Western schools of thought. In the east, its specified as the multi-birth repercussions of actions in your past lives. In the West, it can be simplified to: “what goes around, comes around”.
Why is this important? An enlightened master once told me that bad karma puts you on the downward slope toward difficulty and pain. Your positive actions and willpower can help you resist gravity and prevent yourself from rolling down the hill; but it takes twice as much effort to move up the hill. In essence, removing the burden of negative karma, puts you back on a level playing ground to allow you to freely move toward your personal goals.
So let’s deal with it! Broadly speaking, one may say any good deed helps you burn karma (this idea is loosely what is known as Karma Yoga). An equally effective technology is Japa Yoga – the practise of chanting mantra – which we will deal with here.
Mantras to burn Karma
The process in itself is simple: choose a mantra and burn that Karma! The grace of any deity will ultimately allow you to achieve this. But some mantras are more effective than others for the simple reason that some deities are more powerful than others and some mantras are more powerful than others.
In this context, why not aim for the best? The two most powerful mantras from the Veda are the Gayatri Maha Mantra and the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra. Their workings and meanings are complex, but suffice to say, they are well known to be the most universal and power means of destroying negative karma.
Reams have been written on both – a quick internet search will yield the methods, pronunciation and some beautiful commentaries. I will be summarising these soon in later posts.
Next article: Stage 3 – (Re)-building Character and Instilling Bhakti !
Until then, comments and feedback are welcome. Follow me on Twitter @MantraYogi.
How to Learn the Divine Art of Speech
Powerful speech is the mark of a true leader
Tongue-tied? Speechless? Inarticulate? On the tip of your tongue?
How is it that some of us are excellent at expression through spoken word, writing, pictures, art, music, drama yet others struggle to string a sentence together?
Simplistically, these frustrating problems are symptomatic of two issues: (1) a lack of confidence; (2) a lack of skill in articulating oneself. Physical ailments may also be present – for which medical advice should be sought, but let’s deal with the former two points here.
Boosting Confidence
I have already covered confidence in a prior post (click here to see the article).
Divine Speech Therapy
If repetition is the mother of skill, it can be said that the Hindus believe the Mother of creative skill is The Goddess Saraswathi. Ancient references to Saraswathi begin in scripture, mostly of the Saraswathi river, which once flowed through the Indus Valley, but then increasingly to Saraswathi as Vaak Devi (The Goddess of Speech).
Oral tradition was the primary method of knowledge transfer and presentation for the Ancient Hindus; hence, before writing, there was speech. To gain proficiency in speech, and the Arts in general, one prayed to Saraswathi.
There are two straightforward mantras I would highlight; the first is below.
Transliteration
“Saraswathi Namasthubyam
Varade Kamaroopini
Vidya Aarambam Karishyami
Siddhir Bhavatume Sada”
Translation
I prostrate myself before Saraswathi,
Invite the form of everything I desire to bless me,
May I attain proficiency as I start my studies.
The second is the Gayatri Mantra – the most popular, powerful and sacred of all Vedic mantras. Chanting the Gayatri specifically gains the blessings of Saraswathi, amongst other deities.
The Gayatri Mantra is an ocean unto itself, and I will leave the reader to find other sources to learn more.
Please feel free to leave comments and feedback or follow me on Twitter @MantraYogi
How to Detox with Mantra (1/3)
Are you ready for Mantra Detox?
Material abundance is not a bad thing…but can easily be abused.
It is undoubted we live in a culture of excess. In the Western world, food, drink, drugs and material possessions are frequently consumed to the point of personal harm. Moreover, the exposure of youngsters and youth to such excess is increasing while role models are clearly lacking.
This is nothing new and I will save you the sermon! But the effect is clear. Consumption in excess causes our self-discipline to wane, selfishness to increase and ultimately causes us to wander from the spiritual path.
Mantra Detox!
For those who want to step back, regain some control over their lives and reduce the excess, I first propose a detox!
What is detox? It is the process of lowering the toxicity of one’s blood through: (1) preventing yourself from introducing more toxins into your system; (2) removing the remaining toxins; (3) introducing positive agents to nourish and strengthen you.
The spiritual aspirant can follow a similar path: (1) increase discipline and curb one’s desire for excess; (2) burn negative karma; (3) build character and Bhakti.
Stage 1 will be addressed in this article; stage 2 and 3 will follow in later posts.
Discipline is freedom
Discipline has many negative connotations in the West, such as tying oneself down to a routine, lacking creativity, and perhaps harsh judgement or treatment for those who cannot conform. However, for those that practise it, (borrowing heavily from Tony Robbins at this point…!) discipline is freedom: it means that when you tell yourself to do something, you have the focus and drive to get it done!
How to we improve our discipline? After millennia of contemplation, the Rishis (Seers, or more broadly, spiritual teachers) have instructed us that stilling our minds is the key first step.
Let’s keep this simple. Ganesha, the Lord of beginnings and the Mind addresses both requirements neatly. Why? Simplistically, Ganesha’s vahana (mount or vehicle) is a rodent. A rodent is fast, unruly, mischievous and difficult to catch – this is a strong metaphor for the human mind. Worship of Ganesha, who has mounted the rodent, is mastery of the mind. See other articles on the symbolism behind the worship of Ganesha and a mantra here. Once the mind is under control, your willpower increases and discipline improves.
What would Jesus do? What would Rama do?
Have you ever seen anyone wearing a bracelet which has the letters: “WWJD?” inscribed on it? I found out a while back that this means: “What Would Jesus Do?”. The point being, whenever one is unsure, seeing the words on your wrist lead you to look to the life of inspirational spiritual teacher for guidance. I am sure that this incredible technology can be used by everyone – not just those of the Christian faith.
So how would one apply such a concept to the Hindu faith? Rama and Hanuman present excellent choices. Whilst Rama is widely recognised by most Hindus to be the Avatar of Vishnu, more generally, he can also be appreciated as the perfect man who followed the idea of Dharma (right conduct) to the letter and embodied its spirit, judging by the way he dealt with ever more difficult decisions throughout the epic Ramayana. Hanuman, in being the greatest bhakta (devotee) of Rama, symbolises the spiritual aspirant in all of us, striving for such perfection. Praying to Hanuman helps us to have the courage to do what we known deep inside is the right thing, and the perfect complement to the worship of Ganesha to this degree. I have just posted a mantra for Hanuman here.
Next article: Stage 2 – Burning Karma!
Until then, comments and feedback are welcome. Follow me on Twitter @MantraYogi.
Hanuman Gayatri Mantra
Hanuman is the supreme example of the perfect Bhakta (devotee).
Transliteration:
“Om AanjanEyAya vid-mahE,
Vaayu-putraaya dheemahi,
Tanno hanumath prachodayaat”
(Semi-literal) Translation:
We know the son of Goddess Anjani
We meditate on the son of the “Wind”
May Lord Hanuman enlighten us.
Purpose:
- Success in difficult endeavours
- Improves your bhakti (devotion)
- Increases your courage and bravery in the face of adversity
- Curbs the malefic effects of Mars (Angarak/Bauma)
- Curbs the malefic effects of Saturn (Shani) – this is an extremely popular reason for worshipping Hanuman
- Negates the effects of black magic
A powerful force against Black Magic
Hanuman is an excellent deity to worship for all for daily protection, character development, inner strength, bhakti and spirutual advancement. A true Bhakta of Rama, he is the embodiment of the devotee striving toward all of physical, mental and spiritual perfection.
He is also known to be the saviour of those experiencing the negative astrological effects – particularly from a malign Saturn and Mars – and of black magic.
It is said that the worship of Hanuman will gain one access to the ashta siddhis.
The Original Mantra: the Pranava - OM
Swami Mantra Yogi 