Search

Keeping it simple

Colleen Ferrière
Jun 20, 2016
2 min read

My Malas are going to wonderful homes and Im really proud of this... but... often when I hand one over, Im asked how does one choose a Mantra, especially an easy one. Now ideally I guess, one should receive a personal Mantra from a Master, but thats not always available to us in the West. So I am introducing my favourite short Mantra... Om Hrim (pronounced Om Hreem)

My students are familiar with this Mantra as I often bring it into a class, usually at the end after Pranayama. I get them to focus on the Spiritual heart centre, in the centre of the chest in line with the physical heart and visualise a large emerald shining here... while keeping the inner gaze focused on this point we intone Om Hreem... or just Hreem. This is a meditation I learned from the divine Shiva Rea and which I love to practice. Engage in it long enough and you sense the vibration in the heart area, and feel an opening... a releasing, which in some instances has brought me to tears.

The Mantra Hrim is the seed sound of the Heart, Space, and Prana. It opens and heals the heart Marma (a potent vital point in the body of which there are 107, and which are considered in Ayurveda to be access points to body mind and consciousness ) and is a force of health, vitality and enlightenment.

So sit with your beads in a comfortable cross legged position, perhaps engage in some nadi shodana (alternate nostril breathing) before hand, and then beginning from the first bead next to the Guru bead, with the thumb and middle finger, move along each bead intoning Om Hreem or just Hreem, until you reach the Guru bead again... this is one round of 108. If you want to do more just turn around at this point and continue until you reach the Guru bead again. Keep your drishti (a point of focus where the gaze rests during meditation or engaging in a yoga posture) on the heart centre if possible , and give yourself up to the Mantra.

Listen to the video so that you can get familiar with the sound if you are new to this... obviously you will intone your mantra with your beads a little faster.. although its fine if you just want to do say 27 slow ones. (or even a whole Mala of slow ones, depending on how much time you have available.. whatever suits you is completely correct for you.

Om Tat Sat.