Inhalte
Booktitle
Preface
Introduction
Life with mantras
First experiences with the healing effects of mantras
Encounter with a saint
Healer with water and word
For medical study to Europe
How I received my own mantras
Sounds from another world - a divine gift
Support in a crisis - as even doctors get sick
What are mantras?
Everything is sound
Origin and beginning of mantra tradition
Word and sound
Realisation of a mantra by repetition
Sanskrit - language of mantras
Resonance
Sanskrit works beyond cultural boundaries
Holy scriptures - Vedas, Upanishads and the »Bhagavad Gita«
Language and poetry
The primordial syllable »Om«
Different states of awareness
Mantra-meditation and spirituality
Why spirituality?
What is spirituality?
Craving of the soul for spirituality
Meditation and spiritual experience
Reaching the meditative state
Smirti - memory of the source of happiness
Meditation reduces stress
Spirituality and attitude towards life
Knowledge of a higher meaning gives strength to life
Respect for fellow men and for the environment
Mantra and mood, thinking and feeling
Influence on body, mind and soul
Attitude is Decisive
Basic attitudes determine outward appearance
The vicious circle of negative thinking
Negative emotions create stress
Stress-processing in the brain
Reactions on the physical level
Why negative experiences repeat themselves?
The autonomous nervous system
Mantras - positive influence on thinking and feeling
Influenced by willpower
Overcoming negative emotions with reason
Working with mantras
Choice of a mantra
Start with a short mantra
When mantras are applied?
Types of repetition
Getting familiar with mantras by listening
Music - universal language with healing power
Contemplative listening
Singing mantras oneself
The ear
Don ´t be too critical with yourself
Instrumental accompaniment of mantra song
An open heart and mind for the mantra
Application of mantras in everyday life
In almost all situations
Mantras in conjunction with medicine
Practise mantras together with friends
For whom mantras are helpful?
Personal benefit
Your inner attitude matters
Fields of application- realising self-healing powers
Do not forgo medical aid
Mantras for a good sleep
Problems with falling asleep and sleeping deeply
Do not be ruled by your thoughts
Nightmares
The message of spiritual dreams
A better understanding of the content of dreams
Help with breathing disorders
Misguided behavioural patterns
Respiratory disorders and their consequences
Mantra exercise to balance respiration
Pranayama breathing exercises
Dealing with pain
Autogenous training, hypnosis and mantras
Give pain as little space as possible
Pain memory
Overcoming addictions
Listening to the inner voice - escape dependency
Mantras to strengthen the desire for withdrawal
Dealing with fears
Support in crisis
Focus your attention on healing
Words from the heart - balm for the soul
Mantras as consolation
Immortal soul
Mantra-chants for reconcilation with fate
Mantras in pregnancy
Build up a spiritual relationship
Examples of mantras
Also in daily life a source of spiritual power
Namo and namaha
Traditionally bequeathed mantras
Mantras of the Goddess
How Beeja-mantras are made to sound
The idea of God as mathematical equation
Other seed syllables and mantras
Examples of mantras which I prefer to use
Mantras for healing
Mantra for enhancing the healing power of water
Mantras for daily use
Mantras for peace
Mantras as prayers
A mantra for the sun
Mahavakya - mantras as phrases of wisdom for self-reflection
Examples from other traditions
The Chakras and their seed syllables
Newly received mantras
Healing symbols
How I came to new mantras
Introduction to the audio samples
Audio samples to the ebook
Namo Namo Vasudevay
Om Namo Narayanay
Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra
Saraswati Mantra
Hari Om
Note to our readers
Impressum
CDs and references
More publications of the editor - Vinay Sarita
The Mantra Calls You
new received mantras
Jewels of Indian wisdom
Orientierungsmarken
Cover
Preface
It was more than ten years ago that I heard for the first time »the call of the mantra«. At the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation, where I worked in the cultural
programme, a CD entitled “The Mantra Calls You” had just arrived. Mohani Heitel looked at me from the front cover, nearly
hidden behind her Tanpura; the bulbous, decorated, string instrument from
India. Was it her facial expression which made me curious?
I put the CD immediately into the player. Mohani ´s voice came out of the loudspeaker and it tantalized me. As a musicologist with
a special interest in the Middle Ages, I was pretty well acquainted with
religious songs, with Indian music counting as one of my key subjects in the
radio programme. But Mohani ´s mantras, they were something special. Her voice seemed to address me directly
and the instrumental accompaniment had created a space like a peaceful,
heavenly firmament.
At that time I was responsible for the weekly broadcast »meditative music«, and soon the listeners got the opportunity to come to know Mohani ´s songs. Although I was accustomed to positive feedbacks, this time there was
far more demand than usual. People told us of their personal feelings while
listening to the broadcast and were interested to learn more about it: Where
can I purchase the CD? When can I experience Mohani in concert?
Note:
Mohani Heitel is a doctor, psychotherapist and musician. With her mantra songs she builds a bridge
between East and West and touches people all over the world.
Bridge builder between continents and centuries
Quite soon I myself attended Mohani ´s concert. After this first encounter with her, it developed into a closer
contact and a friendship. I started to understand, what a multiple bridge
builder Mohani is. She combines medical and psychological experience of two
continents. She is a physician, psychotherapist and musician. Her music has its
deep roots in Indian tradition but it is not unfamiliar at all, because Mohani
is open to the influence of western tonal tradition. Due to this fact, it came
to be a bridge through the centuries, as in western music one already knew the
power of mantras - except that they were not called as such.
Apart from the deep impact of her music, I was again and again astonished about
how Mohani could manage to sing her long song texts without pausing, and at the
same time accompany herself on the instrument. The mantras like »the thousand names of Vishnu« take often more than an hour, and she holds the suspense without »breaking off« once. This makes it clear, to which degree of meditative concentration
mantra-singing can lead, and which spiritual strength Mohani thereby develops.
And this power of tranquillity transmits itself. I had personal experience with
Mohani ´s songs, in periods of heavy work-load, during difficult decision-making
processes, and once, even when a young girl ´s life was “hanging on a thread” in an operating theatre. The audience of the radio broadcast also sense this
unusual power. Again and again, I introduced Mohani ´s new publications in »Meditative Music«, and each time the response surpassed normal levels by far. Students reported
on the positive effects during examination stress, housewives on deep
tranquillity in daily chaos, and artists, on inspiration while painting their
pictures. In the radio department Mohani Heitel proverbially became known as
the »meditative number one«.
»Mohani« means one who creates attraction. Nomen est omen; this I can fully confirm in
her case. Nevertheless, I am delighted that with this book, a greater number of
people will get the chance to become acquainted with Mohani Heitel and through
her, the call of mantra.
Dear reader,
Mantras are familiar to me since my childhood. I was accompanied by them in
different phases of my life - first in India and subsequently in Germany. I
utilised their holistic healing effect for many years, not only for myself, but
also as a doctor for my patients. I have personally found through
mantra-singing an ideal way to live out my spirituality. For many years now I
have been giving concerts across Europe.
In this regard, I was asked repeatedly if I had written something about the
mantra. Till now, I have had to answer this in the negative. Now, in this book,
I want to share with you my personal experience with mantras and at the same
time give you some instructions on their application.
Mantras can be of great help in one ´s life. You learn about what mantras are, how many different kinds of mantras
there are and on which cultural ground they were developed. And what you can
realize individually, according to your inner needs, with the aid of mantras.
Mantras offer you inner support, are helpful in overcoming disease and crisis,
keep you healthy and free you from negative feelings and anxieties, help you to
overcome offensive insults, to raise your self-esteem and to relieve pain.
Working with mantras can also aid the development of intuitive ability. In many
cultures different healing methods are applied, which are beyond orthodox
scientific medicine. Several of these healing approaches – originating from Indian culture, especially Ayurvedic healing methods and Yoga
exercises, to which mantra application counts – have been practised for centuries. Mostly, they have religious and
philosophical backgrounds and a fundamental comprehension of disease and
healing, which differs from the modern western view. These alternative healing
approaches take consideration of the psychic aspect alongside the physical
aspect of a disease. Often healing words and comforting sounds and songs are
used, which in a subtle way activate the self-healing potential of a person.
Today, these alternative healing tools are applied by many people in the
western world, valued and practised also by therapeutics. Mantras are syllables
or words with special sound character, with vibration of frequencies fit for
healing. Their healing capacity is based on their vibrational energy, which has
a relaxing and harmonizing effect on body, mind and soul. At the same time they
are prayers dedicated to the primary elemental force. They comprise the
spiritual dimension of life and respond to our heart and soul. Mantra-Yoga was
already mentioned in ancient times as a natural healing aid, to improve the
sensibility of our senses and to widen our consciousness.
Anybody can benefit from the practice of mantra. They have a relaxing effect on
the body and a harmonizing effect on the soul and improve concentration. In
this respect, a sick person can utilise this effect for the recovery of health.
For the same reason, the application of mantra plays an important role in the
prevention of disease.
In my practice, I have used this fact as complementary support to treat
insomnia, nightmares, depressive moods, anxiety disorders, obsession and
addiction problems, respiratory disorders, lack of concentration, low
self-esteem and trust, vegetative disorders, acute stress situations and above
all, by psychosomatic complaints, and gained good experience of healing
results. Due to the pleasing effect of mantra, I have recommended mantra to
expectant mothers during pregnancy, for themselves, and for well-being of their
babies in the womb.
Mantra practice is excellently suitable, in an uncomplicated way, to access to
one ´s own spirituality, to train the consciousness and to have a harmonic relation
to oneself, to fellow men and to the environment. The curing aspect of mantras
is understood as an additional support to medical treatment and for the
prevention of illness and optimizing recovery. Nevertheless mantra cannot
replace the medical treatment fully! This ebook contains audio samples, so that
you may make your own experience with mantras. They can be used to sing along
or just to listening for relaxation. Whenever you listen to the mantra song
please do it without any distraction. I hope this book will help you to find
access to mantras and that these give you happiness and inner power, thus
enriching your lives.
Dr. med. Mohani Heitel
Note 1:
Today, I think that without the development of my mantra songs, I would have
missed something very important in my life, for which there would have been no
substitute, in spite of all what I have accomplished and experienced.
Note 2
Life with mantras
Childhood in an Indian mountain village
Mantra-chants have accompanied me ever since I can remember. Even as a child I
used to listen to my fathers daily mantra prayers in the north Indian mountain
village, where I grew up. The people who lived in this remote region – in part still primitive - were close to nature, which they felt inspiring and
animated with gods, and upon which they were dependent. The cause of disease
was understood as disharmony with nature and with its prevailing supernatural
powers.
In order to cure the illnesses and alleviate the pain and to treat the wounds,
they relied on traditional knowledge about everything which nature offered them
- herbal juice, herbs, roots, barks and seeds. For curing serious psychic and
physical problems, there were the mountain shamans.
Note:
First experiences with the healing effects of mantras
Encounter with a saint
My father also had a plant, Tulsi, a wild, holy species of basil, about which it
is said that it was Krishna ´s favourite plant. Tulsi is regarded as a medicinal as well as a sacred plant:
what heals is indeed sacred. This plant is worshipped and with mantra one
endows it with additional healing power. Its leaves are supposed to heal the
one who had activated its healing energy and had cherished and applied it. I
had the daily task to circulate around it with a butter lamp, while singing
mantra prayers. It was very important for me and it required of me a certain
amount of discipline. One day, I went to listen to a cow-girl singing a mantra
on a distant mountain-side. Her voice echoed to us and it amazed me and grasped
me so much, that I deeply desired to come to know her personally. She must have
known something from another reality. Otherwise she would not had been in
position to sing in such a heartfelt manner. Because it was so distant, my
father accompanied me along my way to meet the singer of this joyful and
mysterious song. This encounter was very important for me. I had great respect
for this mysterious woman. She was so glad to see us and soon began to cook
some vegetables from her garden. At dinner, she told me that she often
perceives God as a divine light, and that she had discarded all attachment to
the world, and that singing songs for the worship of God was her way to purify
the mind. That evening was unforgettable for me and I was convinced of having
met a beneficious living saint.
Note:
Healer with water and word
