So as to be able to focus the mind on the feeling of bliss, we use a mantra. Man means “mind,” and tra means “that which liberates.” So mantra means a word or phrase which “liberates the mind.” Although we rely mostly on our eyes, sound actually has the most powerful effect on the mind. So the internal sound of a mantra is the most powerful way of focusing the mind. It concentrates the mind on a particular idea – the idea (or rather feeling) of infinite peace and happiness.
The mantra has three qualities which empower it to do that:
1. Concentrative: It acts as an object of concentration, because the mind has to have something to focus on; it cannot be objectless.
2. Incantative: Everything has a particular vibration. You like music with a congenial vibration to your own. You like someone when their vibration suits your own. The mantra also has a particular wavelength, and that wavelength vibrates the mind with the feeling of infinite happiness – bliss.
3. Ideative: “As you think, so you become.” This powerful psychological principle is the mainstay of meditation. If you think negatively, your life will be negative; if you think positively, your life will be positive. We are continually in the process of becoming the object of our ideation. So the meaning of the mantra is vital. It must be the most uplifting ideation; the most positive of thoughts. Again: infinite happiness; perfect peace and contentment – bliss.
By ideating regularly on the thought of bliss, one’s mind gradually expands, and that expansion continues until one’s limited sense of existence merges into the infinite cosmic existence. One’s individual experience of pleasure and pain eventually gets transformed into the constant experience of cosmic bliss, just as a river attains total freedom when it merges with the sea.