In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores the meaning of mantra and how sacred sound can help guide and refine the mind.

My mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda, used to use a folk etymology for the word mantra. He would say that mantra is man ki taarana, “that which transports the mind.” It is a useful definition because each one of us, whether we are aware of it or not, is transporting our mind all day long through our internal dialogue. We give ourselves commands, “Do this,” “Don’t do that,” and we deliver those commands, hear them, and obey them.

What a mantra does is different. Instead of creating more complexity and confusion, it gives us the opportunity to enter into a coherent relationship with the world, allowing our energy to become coherent, refined, and focused in the direction of Supreme Reality.

One of the fundamental principles of Indian thought is Namarupa. Nama means name and Rupa means form. As human beings, when we create our conscious understanding of ourselves and our environment, the two senses we most rely upon are hearing and sight. Through hearing, we name things. Through sight, we perceive forms. Together, these create the way we understand the reality around us.

Whenever we hear words that change our understanding of the universe, they change the form through which we perceive that universe. Likewise, whenever we truly see something, we naturally attach words and meanings to it.

A properly formed mantra, whether it comes from Sanskrit, Arabic, another language given through a Guru, or from any other tradition, is a word of power. It carries energy connected to it. Some mantras receive their power through the recitation of millions of people over many generations. Others receive their power through a direct transmission between Guru and disciple.

Whatever the source, we are already creating our experience of reality through the words we use. Therefore, when we take up a mantra, whether it was given to us by someone, found in a book, or encountered somewhere else, and we use it with faith, it can influence the way our awareness moves.

Vimalananda especially emphasized the importance of mental repetition of mantra rather than only speaking it aloud. When a mantra is spoken outwardly, it influences our external expression of reality. When it is repeated internally, it has a stronger effect on the inner world, the microcosm within us.

Through this inner repetition, the mind can gradually be transported in the direction we wish it to go.