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Mantra

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Mantra means spell. The most basic is Om, Satchitananda. It is the expression of the Cosmos, of Brahman. The spell of the Ananda of the Universe, the enchantment of Beauty. The Japanese writer Yukio Mishima said that whoever has seen Beauty with his eyes is condemned to death. It has been 43 years since I first read Mishima and his phrase continues to resonate like a mantric body. Dying for Beauty is not having to die again, paraphrasing Kabir.

Whoever writes with the heart leaves a mantric body that resonates with Om... and remains as long as the Universe remains. Later it will lose itself in Silence, searching for Silence in order to find perfection.

Today I want to offer you a fragment of the mantric body of Sankara (788 A.D.) his Nirvana Shatakam. I have sung it countless mornings of my life and it has given me deep joy in moments of pain.


Nirvana Shatakam

I am not the manas mind (ordinary mind), nor the buddhi mind (higher mind), nor the ego, nor the Consciousness (Chit).

I am not the organs of hearing, taste, smell, or sight.

I am not sky, nor earth, nor light, nor air.

I am the form of Chidananda (the Bliss Consciousness).

I am not the prana nor the 5 breaths,

Neither the 7 material essences, nor the 5 sheaths

I am not the organ of speech, nor the organs of grasping,

neither those of movement, nor those of excretion.

I am the form of Chidananda (the Bliss Consciousness).

I have no hatred or rejection, no affiliations or tastes,

Neither greed, nor phantasmagoria,

Neither pride nor haughtiness

I have no feelings of envy or jealousy

I have no Dharma, no money, no desires,

Not even the desire for Liberation.

I am the form of Chidananda (the Bliss Consciousness).

I do not perform good deeds, nor bad ones,

I have no pleasures or pains,

I do not have sacred mantras, nor do I make pilgrimages,

I have no sacred writings, no rituals,

I am neither the food nor the one who eats,

Nor any experience.

I am the form of Chidananda (the Bliss Consciousness).

I am not bound by death or the fear of death,

Nor am I bound by any creed, nor any caste.

I have no father or mother, I have never been born

I am not a relative of anyone, nor a friend, nor a teacher, nor a disciple.

I am the form of Chidananda (the Bliss Consciousness).

I am not conditioned, nor do I have any form

I am neither bound by anything nor am I free,

I am Omnipresent, I exist in all times and places.

I am the form of Chidananda (the Bliss Consciousness).




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