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june / july 2018yogajournal.com.sgfinished with 11 minutes of mantra-based
meditation. The subjects recited the
Sat nam mantra(roughly translated as “true
identity”) while placing their hands over
their hearts.
The same group also performed a
finger-tapping control condition—in which
they were instructed to perform slow-paced
button pressing on a four-button keypad.
The subjects’ default mode networks
were more suppressed during the mantra
meditation than during the finger-tapping
exercise—and suppression grew as mantra
training increased. “The study suggests that
mantra training can more effectively reduce
[default mode network]–related distractions
than something like tapping along to the
beat,” says Rozalyn Simon, PhD, who
authored the study.
Research findings such as these do not
profess to prove that mantra is a life-saving
technique. But as Malia knows well, when
we are beholden to our discursive mind,
we can easily be led down the path to
negative headspace—further away from
our true, relaxed nature. In fact, research
suggests that it doesn’t matter whether
you recite an ancient Sanskrit mantra such
asSat nam,or the Lord’s Prayer, or any
sound, word, or phrase—as long as you
repeat something with focused attention,
you’ll get results.
Since the 1970s, Herbert Benson,
professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School and founder of the Benson-Henry
Institute for Mind Body Medicine at
Massachusetts General Hospital, has been
researching how meditation and prayer
can alter mental and physical states.
He’s been particularly interested in what
brings on a meditative state, which he
calls “the relaxation response.” Benson
has experimented with subjects repeating
Sanskrit mantras as well as nonreligious
words, such as “one.” He’s found that
regardless of what the practitioner
repeats, the word or phrase has nearly
the same effects: relaxation and the ability
to better cope with life’s unexpected
stressors.
More recently, scientists at several
universities and institutes have applied
modern brain-imaging tools to reach
roughly the same conclusions as
Benson. A 2015 study from researchers
in Israel found that people who silently
repeated the word echad (“one” in
Hebrew) experienced a quieting of the
mind, particularly a deactivation of thetypically active default mode network in the
brain. “When people said ‘one, one, one,’
everything that had been active during the
resting state in the default mode network was
shut down,” says Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, a
neuroscientist in the Department of Education
at the University of Haifa. “Subjects reported
that it was relaxing and that they had fewer
thoughts.”The Roots of Mantra
In understanding how mantra works,it can be helpful to look at its translation. The
word mantra is derived from two Sanskrit
words—manas (mind) and tra (tool). Mantra
literally means “a tool for the mind,” and was
designed to help practitioners access a higher
power and their true natures. “Mantra is a
sound vibration through which we mindfully
focus our thoughts, our feelings, and our
highest intention,” says music artist Girish,
author of Music and Mantras: The Yoga of
Mindful Singing for Health, Happiness, Peace
& Prosperity. Over time, that vibration sinksOm gam ganapataye namah
vakra-tunda mahā-kāya
sūrya-koti-samaprabha
nirvighnam kuru me deva
sarva-kāryesu sarva-dā
GANEŚHA, GOD WITH A CURVED TRUNK,
OF GREAT STATURE, WHOSE BRILLIANCE
IS EQUAL TO TEN MILLION SUNS.
GRANT ME FREEDOM FROM OBSTACLES,
IN ALL THINGS, AT ALL TIMES.The Mantra
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