Introducing a mantra temporarily interrupts the
incessant association process that keeps the mind active.
Introducing a thought that does not carry meaning
momentarily breaks the cycle and allows you to glimpse
the silent space between your thoughts. This starts the
transformation of your identity from mind to spirit.
The best-known mantra is the sound AumorOm,
traditionally said to be the sound the universe makes
when it manifests from potential to perceptual. Using the
sound that represents the junction point between local
and nonlocal can take your awareness back to the field of
awareness that gives rise to the mind.
At the Chopra Center, we teach a mantra meditation
technique called Primordial Sound Meditation, which
assigns a person one of 108 mantras based upon the date
and place of a person’s birth. This requires personalized
instruction, which is available through our certified med-
itation instructors in most cities throughout the world.
According to the theory that underlies Primordial
Sound Meditation, the universe expresses a different
vibratory frequency at different times during the day. You
can appreciate this principle by considering how the
environment feels different at dawn from the way it does
at high noon or at dusk. Over the course of a lunar
month, the “sound” of the world changes about 108
times. One of these 108 sounds is assigned based upon the
time, date, and place of a person’s birth. This primordial
sound or mantra is said to represent the sound of the cos-
mos at the doorway between potentiality and individual-
ity because until we emerge through the birth canal we are
potential human beings. This primordial sound can be
used as a meditation vehicle to take you back through the
Meditation 81