We are now ready to dive into our eSatsang’s second-ever full-length book study! We’ll be reading Easwaran’s Mantram Handbook, starting this week from page 11 to the top of page 18. In his preface, Easwaran outlines some of the essentials:
“The mantram is a short, powerful spiritual formula for the highest power that we can conceive of – whether we call it God, or the ultimate reality, or the Self within. Whatever name we use, with the mantram we are calling up what is best and deepest in ourselves. The mantram has appeared in every major spiritual tradition, West and East, because it fills a deep, universal need in the human heart.”
“But,” Easwaran ends the preface, “nothing I can tell you will have as much meaning as using the mantram for yourself. If you use it, you will know its power.”
We are supporting each other to deepen our mantram practice and know this power together, and we believe the potential effect on our satsang and our communities is tremendous.
Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? What tips does Easwaran offer in this reading that you could try out in this situation? Even if the tips don’t seem to directly apply, try them anyhow and tell us what you find.
As we start in on The Mantram Handbook, let’s return to our exercises for extending our practice of the mantram which we began back in January. This week, on your regular mantram walk, try repeating the mantram very softly (in the mind) as if whispering.
If you don’t yet have the book The Mantram Handbook available, make sure you get it so you can join for the rest of the book study. You may want to order from an online retailer that offers expedited shipping. (If you’d like to buy a copy in our BMCM online store you can use the coupon code manymantrams to receive a 40% discount, however, shipping may take 2-3 weeks for delivery. Please note that the BMCM discount on books is not available from online retailers.)
For this week’s spiritual treat, let’s dip back into the Audio Talks section of the Easwaran Digital Library. This is a vast collection of talks that will be permanently available. Let’s continue with the Patanjali talks,* this time beginning Talk Two. The full talk is over an hour, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with just the first five minutes, where Easwaran draws on mystics east and west in his introduction on divine grace.
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