Mantra Virya- Tantroktam Devi suktam

We approach spring’s Navaratri (Goddess’s nine nights); Basant Navaratri. One mantra recited at this time is “Tantroktam Devi suktam”.

Mantra virya means the potency/power of the mantra.

As I’ve mentioned earlier in the post “Mantra virya”, the mantra (and the word) was seen to have 4 different levels, from the most physical form (as spoken or written word) to increasingly subtle forms. Read more under the entry “Mantra virya”.

The outermost form was considered to be the most potent force of the mantra. This is where the magic takes place.

The Yogic and Tantric tradition sought to achieve and speak from this level. A speech that is also related to Satya (truth).

A mantra can be received by someone else as a practice or practiced in the form of repeting the mantra yourself.

When practicing a mantra through your own voice, it is important to relate to Satya (truth) in this practice.

We therefore do not sing the mantra, but we let the mantra work on us in the same way that we let an Asana work on us. Something we do, not by pretending that we have already mastered this Asana, but by allowing this Asana to reshape us.

In the same way that an Asana encounters and opens blockages in us, we need to let the sound come across and open blockages in our throat, chest and abdomen, and further through our body like a vibration.

It is important that, as in Asana, we allow ourselves not to achieve the desired shape in the sound, as well as in the body when we do this. We must allow it to become ugly, sound strained or rebuked, and then fall into authenticity. Allow dissonance and hesitation.

These blockages are physical, emotional and mental. We can let the mantra work on all these parts of us.

But the greatest power of the mantra is also beyond that.

It is the level of mantra/word that communicates with the soul that is of the utmost importance.

That’s when the mantra becomes a bridge to what is ultimately true.

So let the mantra touch your soul. Listen from the soul! Recite from the soul! And let it be heard.