"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.
The next time you look at an image of Lord Shiva,
notice that stream of water that appears to
flow down from his hair. Some of us
know that that stream of water is the
divine river, Ganga. And once we know the
symbolism behind why Shiva
has a river tied up in his hair, We will learn
something new about our emotions, our
aggressions, and the best way to deal with them.
Let's talk about that in today's episode, dear listener.
Welcome back to the Mahakatha Meditation Mantras
podcast. I'm your host, Preeti. And in today's
episode, we are visualizing the stream of
the river Ganga that is always depicted to
flow from the tied-up knot of Shiva's hair.
Now the river Ganga is one that has beautiful
legends surrounding it. And while there are many
versions to the story of Ganga and lord
Shiva, the simplest one that I'd like to share
with you today is that Ganga was the most ferocious,
most mighty, most powerful force
of water that existed and when it was
destined for Ganga to flow onto the earth,
Lord Shiva knew that the earth would
perish under her intensity, her
force, her aggression. Lord
Shiva knew that such was the flow of river Ganga that
it would cut through mountains and forests and it would destroy
every little and giant thing that
stood in her way. And Lord Shiva, the
protector of the earth, the protector of this magnificent
planet that enables life, couldn't
let earth perish in this way. So
while he wanted the earth to be blessed by the divinity
of the river Ganga, who is also considered to be a
goddess, he knew there had to be some way in
which her intensity could be softened and
could be moulded into something that enables life
instead of harming it. It is believed
that that is why lord Shiva tied up
The intense and powerful river
Ganga in his hair, he has her tightly
entangled in his dreadlocks and
securely tied up so that by the time the river
drips from his hair and flows down
to the Himalayas and down to the rest of India,
it becomes a life-giver. It
becomes spiritual nectar. It becomes the
source and the flourisher of life.
That intense aggression, that unstoppable energy
that could destroy worlds needed to be wound up, and
tied up in something, entangled in something. It needed to
go through a medium that would soften that
energy So that on the other end of it,
it would come out as something that is precious,
that is useful and that is full of
life. Now I know on some level, you and
I are just energy Residing within
our body and beyond our body, we are
energy. And sometimes, The things we
go through in this physical life, things like
pain, things like grief, things like
betrayal or trauma. These things can
spark off very strong, very deeply rooted
emotions. Something that happened in the past
might have caused us to hold on to this vicious
stream of anger, this vicious stream of Hurt
and pain and resentment within us.
This storm of sadness that we
That we struggle to deal with and whatever the
strong emotion is, it seems to destroy a lot
of things that stand in its path. Your anger from the
past seems to destroy a moment of happiness
that stands ahead of you. It seems to destroy The
enthusiasm or the excitement that you have towards your
future, it seems to destroy the goodness of your
memories and you start seeing only the bad things that happened in
your past, it becomes this rising and
falling volatile and wild River
that has been flowing from that past moment and
continues to flow and continues to Cut through so
many moments of joy, so many moments of peace, so many moments
of promise and potential and opportunity
and we find ourselves unable to control
it. We find ourselves unable to change it no matter
how much we Force ourselves to. There
may be some things in the past, my dear listener that you feel
like you may never be able to forgive, You may never be
able to forget, you may never be able to get
over. You feel like this intense stream of
that emotion, That pain, that energy,
that anger will forever continue to gush
through you for the rest of your life
And all we're looking for and all we need
is a channel to put that energy through So that
it comes out at the other end in a changed way.
It comes out as energy that is calmer, Energy that is
gentler, an energy that is more constructive and
useful to us rather than destructive in our own
lives. I know we want a way to soften and
tame our emotions so that they don't get in
the way of our happiness but they facilitate our
happiness. What if we could put the
weight and the force of all those emotions
through that knot on Shiva's head.
What if we could surrender all our emotions
to lord Shiva Just so that he can securely
and safely hold all that unbearable
emotion, so that when it flows out of his hair,
Our emotions become pure energy. Our
anger becomes energy. Our grief becomes
energy. Our resentment, our sorrow, our
disappointment becomes pure
energy that we can use once again
in the pursuit of our happiness in this lifetime.
While we may not be Ganga that had the
good fortune of flowing through Shiva's hair,
we still have One beautiful medium
that can help us achieve a similar effect.
There is still one thing, The greatest thing that
lord Shiva has gifted to humanity.
The medium that you and I can use today.
Just surrender all our negative emotion and
when we put it through that medium, we come out of
it Feeling energized, we come out of it
feeling lighter, calmer and little
by little, We are healed.
That beautiful medium my dear listener,
that greatest gift of Lord Shiva To the
world is meditation.
Think of meditation in this new way. Think of
meditation As that knot in Shiva's hair,
think of meditation as the act of surrendering
Yourself and your emotions and your highs and
lows and your volatility and your impulses,
Visualize it as that stream that is now settled
on the top of lord Shiva's Head,
and then when you meditate and you simply observe your
breathing, you do nothing more than wait for
all your thoughts To end and for the
brief moments of complete silence and
complete peace that come after that. Once
you do this for a few minutes every single
day, dear listener, then everything that
felt Like a burden on your heart, will
feel transformed, will feel softened, will
feel lighter. Let this new
visualization of meditation, this beautiful
symbolism of the stream that runs down lord
Shiva's hair, inspire you to start
using meditation As a daily habit
of filtering and purifying and
moulding your energy, Let it become the
daily activity of surrender and the daily
ritual of transformation. Cultivate
that meditative mind. If you could cultivate
that ritual of meditation That would be
one of the best ways to celebrate
and honor and please lord Shiva.
Speaking of pleasing Shiva, dear listener, I bring
you a mantra today that you can use In
your meditation sessions, to envision Lord
Shiva to visualize him and to deepen your
meditation experience. That mantra is
the Shiva Prataha mantra. Prataha
translates to morning or dawn. So this Mantras
is typically to be used for meditation in the morning
and I truly believe that the best time
to meditate is first thing in the morning when your
mind is open and activated
and receptive. When it has just left
the dream state and entered the waking stage,
try to listen to this Mantras for a few minutes
As soon as you wake up and do nothing apart
from simply observing your breath and
observing your thoughts slowing down
one after the other. You will eventually
reach that Beautiful space of thoughtlessness
even if it is for just a few seconds.
And once you come out of that state of thoughtlessness,
once you leave your meditation session you will come
out Restoring the natural balance of
your emotions, you will come out feeling calmer,
more energetic, more eager towards your day.
Now if you do not have the Shiva Prataha mantra, you can avail
the mantra at a 30% discount by using the code
mentioned in the description of this episode. Go ahead and avail
this mantra, try this mantra out for a couple of
mornings this week and let me know Your
experience. Let me know if you were able to
visualize Lord Shiva with Ganga
knotted up in his hair And let me know how you
felt after your meditation session. With
that my dear listener, We've come to the end of this
episode. I really hope you enjoyed this
new picture that I painted for you. This
reimagination of what meditation is and what meditation
can be for you and me. Thank you dear listener for being here
today. Thank you for all the continued love and support
that you share towards Mahakatha. And if
you haven't already, Please leave us a review about this
podcast. Please let us know what you are liking about it
and which episodes you've enjoyed the most so far. I
would love to hear from you. Keep meditating,
keep transforming and stay blessed.