PRESENTER NOTES

WEEK 16 – THE DEITIES AND
THE MANTRAS
Divine Sounds

Essential / Avoid
Focus on the vibrations. / Encyclopedic details.

THE DEITIES

·  Deities personify the different qualities of God. Another way of saying this is that the Deities embody pure divinity in a form.

·  Another name for Deity is incarnation or avatar. In Sanskrit, avatar means “descent of God to earth in bodily form.”

·  At the time when each Deity appeared in a particular form, the living force of that Deity was established in evolution, and placed in the subtle system of human beings.

·  The Deity of each chakra is awakened when a person receives self-realization.

·  As we meditate and clear out blockages in the chakras, the powers and qualities of each Deity are more and more expressed in our behavior, attitudes and in the events in our life.

MANTRAS

·  We have discovered in Sahaja Yoga that after realization one can generate more of the divine force of a Deity by saying the name of the Deity.

·  The saying of the names has been formalized into mantras.

·  These are a series of sounds in the Sanskrit language which increase the flow of vibrations.

·  There are mantras for the left and right channels and for each of the chakras. While working on ourselves, saying a mantra for a particular chakra or channel helps to clear it.

·  In prayer, we can also invoke the attention and force of a particular aspect of God by reciting a mantra for a particular Deity.

HOW TO SAY A MANTRA

·  Teach one complete mantra. Ask them to refer to the mantra handout. Depending on the group, decide which are the best mantras to begin with.

·  To model how to say the mantra, it helps to start with the last sound--“ha,” then work slowly backwards—“namaha”. Everyone is then able to repeat the entire mantra simply by listening to it.

·  Explain that we can substitute the names of the Deities at the same place in the mantra.


MEDITATION

·  Collectively put attention on a particular chakra and say the mantra for that chakra. Check the vibrations before and after doing this.

·  Repeat with other chakras.

·  Ask if anyone is feeling a catch in a particular chakra, and then collectively say the mantra for that chakra. Meditate for some time and see the effect.

VIDEO FROM NY VIDEO COURSE COMPILATION, TAPE #3


Krishna Puja, 2001 (21-minute excerpt)

·  Starting point: “Today we are gathered here to worship Shri Krishna.”

·  Ending point: “When we are one, when we are connected, then the bhakti that you do that time, whatever music you have of devotion, whatever expression you have, it should be ananya. That the word He said—that do ananya bhakti.”

HANDOUT

How to Say Mantras

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December 2002 Presenter Notes—Week 16 3

Sahaja Yoga Yoga