Aum Namah Shivaya

Transcript

It’s kinda funny the other day walking inMercado 4 here in Asunción, Paraguay. I went to find some coca leaves.

It’s kinda weird to think about. Millions of people in Peru, Bolivia and through the Andes wake up a little bit by sticking some natural cocaine in their mouth. Chewing it a bit and applying some alkaline solution or baking soda, ash, they call it lejía or something like that to make it a little tastier.

Picks them up, gives them a boost of oxygen in their blood to help them deal with the altitude sickness that you get living on a mountain range. It’s also full of nutrients about 5 types of vitamins and other things.

Probably better for you than coffee, hopefully one day it’ll be legal in most of the world.

I want to talk to you about one of the oldest mantras in the world. Recorded in the Vedas, oldest known mantras I should say.

Aum Namah Shivaya. You can kinda hear the poetry, the softness coming through those words. We will break it down a little bit.

I think everyone knows Aum the primordial sound. The sound of the universe. It’s a sort of magical formula they say that contains in the three sounds Aum Namah Shivaya. The creation, the sustenance and the destruction of the universe.

This mantra serves as kind of a preamble to say “Hey, here’s something cool.” Or “Hey, everything is complete, on with the show.”

Aum Namah Shivaya

Aum it means I bow, or I salute. Salutations.

Shiva of course is the god Shiva. Some people know Shiva represents death. Shiva also represents consciousness and to our brothers and sisters in the Siddha Yoga School they recognize Shiva as the most powerful deity because he represents consciousness himself.

Shivaya the final part of the mantra, grammatically is just to indicate that the bowing, salutations is towards Shiva.

So what does this mean? I asked my friend Bob, Bob’s been involved at the Siddha Yoga School for many years and when I heard him chanting this mantra he would fill up his backyard shed with powerful vibes and invite me to sit there with him and chant for 40 minutes filling the room with positive energy.

You could feel a little buzzing of positive energy after we were done.

And I said “Bob, what does this mantra mean?”

He said “It means I bow down to the god within, or I bow down to divinity within.”

So as I said Shiva represents consciousness of course. Of course each one of us has consciousness within us.

Repeating this mantra the other day I started to realize the truth or depth of this. If you imagine every time you say Aum Namah Shivaya you’re actually saluting, noticing, recognizing, acknowledging, praising that beautiful most powerful most still part of yourself.

A lot of people in western culture think of God as all powerful all knowing, all seeing. Which is kind of funny it is a cultural symptom of course our great teacher St. Thomas Aquinas told us that God is that thing that is beyond matter, beyond motion.

It’s kind of funny to think of something as all powerful when it’s just all still

What would happen if you recognized that most still part of yourself? Aum Namah Shivaya

That stillness that’s within you and you never need to struggle to find. It’s always there, it’s always got your back. What would it feel like to the rest of your being to send salutations to the purest part of you? Aum Namah Shivaya

In my experience, it feels pretty good. Sometimes when chanting this mantra on the inbreath I’ll say Aum Namah Shivaya and think “Praise to the god that is within me.” And on the out breath Aum Namah Shivaya and think “Praise to the consciousness that is without me. “

It all comes together in the end. I should tell you I was gonna mention a disclaimer at the start. I dn’t claim to be a yogi, I don’t claim to be a guru.

I’m just sharing my opinion and my experience with this wonderful mantra in the tradition of yoga, the vedic tradition people will take a rosary or a prayer bead or they’ll call out 108 or 109 chants of Aum Namah Shivaya every day to remember that sacred still part of themselves.

Thank you for listening, thank you for praising that subtle of yourself. Thank you for being at peace. I’ll talk to you soon, have a great day.