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"Meditation Mantras Podcast - Ancient Chants from India by Mahakatha" by Mahakatha is an immersive and enlightening journey through the ancient chants of India. The podcast delves into the rich history and origin story of these powerful mantras, which have been used for centuries to promote sound healing and personal transformation.
Each episode features a different mantra, such as Shiva mantras, Buddha mantras, Krishna mantras, and devi mantras, with an in-depth exploration of the lyrics and meaning behind each one.
The host, Mahakatha, is an expert in the field, and provides valuable insights and guidance on how to incorporate these mantras into your own meditation practice.
Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or new to the world of meditation and mantras, this podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and inspiration to deepen your understanding. Additionally, it will enhance your spiritual journey. Discover the ancient wisdom and transformative power of these sacred chants from India through the "Meditation Mantras Podcast" by Mahakatha.
If you've been listening to this podcast for a while now, then you
know about the favorite person. My favorite person in the
whole world, the man I've loved the most.
He was the first and the best
storyteller in my life. He was the
earliest source of inspiration and wisdom and chance
and mythological mystique and magic.
It was my grandfather, and I'm bringing him up again
today because the older I get, the more
perspective I have on our relationship and the more
discoveries I make about how deep our relationship really
was and how much of him I carry within me.
So I bring him to you in this episode
because he taught me the way to soften
the toughest people, to get through
to the most challenging individuals,
to make them listen, to soften their edges,
and to make meaningful human
connections. But before I tell you about any of that
and introduce you to today's mantra, let me brag about my
grandfather just a little bit. Stay with me. My
grandfather was two people. One
of them was a living, walking
treasure of knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom that found
its roots in ancient scriptures and mythology.
I loved listening to him narrate
anecdotes and describe events from the epics
in such detail, almost as if he was a witness to
them. This person would lose track of
time. This person would immerse himself in
a story. This person would paint pictures and
bring tears to the eyes and make you laugh till your
belly hurts. This person could tell a story like he
had all the time in the world, and you were the only
person the story was written for. But
he was also this other person. When he was
not narrating or discussing these things
with me or with anyone else. He was
mostly an old man. He was a man
who felt awfully tired and weak.
He was a man whose back hurt and feet hurt.
And this other grandpa was very
quiet. He would mostly withdraw into his
room and switch on the television and not really watch anything.
This other person was someone who would sit
quietly and worry and
overthink. This other grandpa was
angry too, at a lot of things and a few
people, but mostly annoyed at his
own growing limitations and restrictions on
his body and his mind and his life. This other person
existed too, and I loved
this other grandpa as well. But
this version of him didn't stand a chance when
you asked him a random detail about some mythological
character from some story in an epic written
thousands of years ago. Then suddenly
his eyes would shine, his back
would straighten, his voice would roar and enrapture
and captivate you, and he would rise
and become a part of his story. He would cry
when he uttered the words of gods. He
would laugh at his own witty lines and interpretations
that would completely crack me up. And
he would always have one more story to
tell. Now, I would take notes from him, from
his narrations from time to time, and he would even give me some of his
old treasured books every now and then.
But then one day, and I will never forget that day,
this larger than life version of my grandpa
said to me, there is so much I have to
share, my dear, but all of it,
all of it will get destroyed with me, won't
it? It's all going to go away. I'm
going to go away and it all goes away with me.
No matter how much I try to share, no matter how much I try to
write or to give away, the rest of it is
still going to be destroyed with me.
And that hurt. That really hurt.
Here was a man who wanted to give everything away.
Most of all, he wanted to give away his time and everything
he had learned. He wanted for someone to sit and
listen as he recollected and shared everything he had
learned from his mother, from his father, his
earliest teachers, things that he had carefully stored in
his mind since he was a child,
things he wanted to pass on before his memory wore
thin and created holes in his preserved treasure.
Before he forgot his favorite chants and his favorite
stories. Before he forgot who he was.
In that fragment of his mind,
that small fragment of his mind that I
did manage to scoop into my little mind and carry
with me that small sliver of
preserved treasure of wisdom and learnings and
experience and curiosities that
is my biggest inheritance from him.
We're never going to have any new photos together.
We're never going to laugh about so many new things. And we may not
sit under a tree discussing a powerful scene from the
scriptures or laugh at a silly joke until our jaws
and bellies ache. But I can summon his
voice in my head anytime I want to. I can
ask him for guidance. I can ask myself, what would grandpa
do? What would he say? How proud would he
be? And there will always be an answer.
And so, by accessing this inner
vault within him that he kept open for
me to scoop out from, I created
a connection with him that defied time.
I created a connection with him that gave me more
access to this first version of my
grandpa who brought him to the forefront.
That lively, childlike,
young, vibrant, energetic, yet
soft version of my grandpa, even when I knew
that a colder, quieter, more withdrawn version of
him existed, too. Just by wanting to
access this vault that was buried deep inside
him, just by asking him about it
and listening to everything he was willing to give me,
I found a way to preserve a connection
with my grandfather beyond time.
Now, I know not all of us have had this kind of a relationship
with our grandparents or even our parents. I know there are people
in our lives, our families, or even at work that we
don't like to talk to anymore. Perhaps they appear too
cold or unwelcoming, but even
they carry that vault of things they want to give
away before they go away.
Even they fear having to leave this
existence with a full bag on their backs.
And if you can become the years that they crave
for, if you can give them the time that they
crave for and the empathy they want, it can be
the greatest way to humanize them, to
soften their edges, to get them to leave their
outer versions, their harsher versions, and
be who they really are with you,
and be who they never got to be with
anyone else and tell you things they never get to tell
others enough. You don't have to be really close to
them to ask and talk and share and open
up. You just have to be human.
And if you allow yourself to be naturally curious
about the stories and the lessons and experiences
of other people, then no matter who they are
to the outside world, no matter who they are
to everybody else, you will have
managed to activate, to summon up
a softer, more lively, more willing and a
warmer version of them. And they will remember you
for being someone who cared enough to open up their
inner world when the rest of the world had thought
of them as a closed book. This is a beautiful
way of developing connections that are
meaningful not just with the people you love and are close
to, but even with the most difficult people in your life
right now. And to help you
cultivate this natural curiosity and
kindness and empathy that allows you to create
meaningful, lasting connections. I bring you
a very special mantra today. And that
mantras is the Sarvesham Swastir
Bhavatu mantra. This is an ancient
chant that is a universal prayer to
activate wellbeing, kindness, joy
and abundance within every soul that
exists in the world around us. Through this
chant, we pray that everyone, no
matter what they're going through, no matter what
their past, and no matter what future they
stand to face, we pray for them to experience
peace and health and prosperity
in their lives. When you practice this
mantra every day, before you enter a challenging
situation or before you are about to deal with
a person who usually ticks you off or a person with
whom you have a particularly strained relationship.
Then, with the help of this mantra, you
cultivate the kindness, the empathy
and the compassion necessary to see
them without their faults and to access a
version of them that is pure and positive.
And so if you'd like to give this mantras a
try, and if you would like to build longer, more
meaningful connections in your life, at work, at home,
among friends, then I encourage you to avail this
mantra right now. There is a 30% discount available
for you if you use the link in the description of this
episode. Avail this mantra.
Use it to practice this intention of
becoming a better listener and developing more empathy
and patience and forgiveness and curiosity
towards the people in your life. May this mantras
help you see the light in every human
being that you come across. With that
in mind, my dear listener, this is me,
Preeti, thanking the universe yet again for a
wonderful grandfather and wishing only joy
and happiness upon you and your loved ones.
I will see you again in the next episode. Until then,
stay blessed.