Mantras For Abundance In Tight Times, and Liberation

Fulfill, Or Free?
Let's just jump right in. While it's interesting to think that a given sequence of sounds or syllables can actually produce a difference in what shows up in your life, here's one thing I can guarantee : the mantra itself really means very little without a little elbow grease from you! That's right, it's the practice of repeating it that does the heavy lifting. Change is created when your extremely-powerful mind holds a new pattern of thought and vibration for a period of time – long enough to forceably shift the habitual patterns radiating from your belief system. This energy pattern is usually called "attitude," and I think everyone agrees that our attitude is constantly determining our outcomes – what comes back to us in every circle of time, from seconds to days to years to lifetimes. It's the mechanism of karma.

So how is a mantra a better "attitude shifter" than, say……a glass of wine? The answer is : sometimes it isn't! But it's a matter of what you want to accomplish. The wine might be a good prescripiton for simple relaxation right now, but the subtle and sustained shift required for attracting abundance is a bit greater. That's where the practice of mantra repetition comes in, and commitments to perform the practice for a minimum number of days. A common length is 40 days.

Now Let's Go A Level Deeper
A number of scriptural references give validity to fulfilling our desires so we will be free of them. Wait, that's a twist, isn't it? Normally, we desire what we don't have, and fulfilling them has the effect of making them grow and multiply – but there's another option. The scriptures do not anywhere say that these desires will necessarily be fulfilled by physical means. Hunh? That's right, there's the key : we have to be willing to let the hand of the Divine fulfill our desires by simply quenching them within us, if it so decides, rather than by an outward manifestion. We continue down the road, we pray or chant, we turn, we pause, and we notice the desire that had been dogging us is simply gone. It's the perfect calm in the storm. It demontrates that all outcomes are up to God, not you or me, but we are allowed to petition (ask) for what we want. The outcome may be granted (or something similar), or the desire may simply be swept away, which is another form of its fulfillment.

This can be the intent of prayers and mantras. For example, Om Aim Shrim Hrim Saraswatiyai Namaha is a classic Vedic mantra for attracting abundance, but in this light, what does it really accomplish? Understanding that the deeper purpose of any mantra repetition is A. the purification of the subtle body and B. the evolution of the soul toward its final liberation, we have to accept the Vedic conclusion that all our desires are splinters of the desire to be liberated. "No not really," you say. "I really do want to make more money. And I want to eat chocolate truffles without getting fat." As we move through this lifetime, we attach to certain things (or they attach to us) that give us tiny glimpses of the extraordinary bliss of liberation. That's why someone may like chocolate truffles. It's a radical understanding, granted, but it's also true.

Enter the Essence
OK. Mantras allow the mind to dip into the essence of its own source, and that source is the ground of being from which all manifestations emerge. A result of chanting authentic mantras is thereby to merge with the universe's creative force and in so doing, becomes a co-creator with the Divine. Of course, the purpose of having this ability is to free the mind from itself, but mantra can also be used to live a more gracious life while still here. Think of it as a vibrational power tool. In this regard, you will be in the good company of many high beings who used this power to make their own worldly journeys more bearable, and to help others along the way.

But do yourself one favor if you chant mantras for specific outcomes : spiritualize those desires before supercharging them using mantra. Get to the essence of the desire first. For example, those chocolate truffles. The question to ask is always "What do I want to feel when I (eat chocolate truffles)?" Deep pleasure? Satisfaction? Having cheated death (just joking)? Direct your mantras toward that goal, chant for it to be done, then release it. Let the Fates determine the outcome.

Being Here, The Purpose Of
Classic Hinduism lays out the purposes of human life perfectly for anyone who really wants to know. The four unchanging goals of a human ebodiment are Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasure), Dharma (duty/righteousness), and Moksha (liberation). Wealth comes first because it is said that without it, the other three cannot be attained (accepting an expansive meaning of 'wealth' of course). Liberation comes last because when it is at last achieved, the others are seen to have little value.

There are other levels of effect. The Vedic scriptures and their commentaries teach that we have seven main chakras or energy wheels that spin within us and that their condition determines our state of spiritual unfolding. Radiating out from them, the nadis are a massive, threadlike system of energy channels in the human subtle body (also interpenetrating the physical body). Chanting mantras purifies the chakras and nadis and 're-tunes' them to the frequencies of the mantras. Yes, this is an oversimplification

A good portal in which to deepen this body of knowledge is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which describes the subtle anatomy of the seeker and the exact practice requirements for spiritual unfoldment.

Wealth. Repeat.
But back to Artha, wealth. Another ancient abundance mantra is known as the Mantra of Kubera, the Celestial Guardian of Riches.

Ha Sa Ka La E I La Hrim
Ha Sa Ka La E I La Hrim

Composed entirely of smaller seed (bija) mantras, this one has no literal translation. To chant it re-creates a very ancient matrix of sound to which no words apply. Chanting Kubera's mantra is good for saving and safeguarding 'riches' in addition to acquiring them.

Next time I'll go into the proper way to repeat these mantras, at the different levels from fairly casual to deeply serious. I'll introduce the idea of an anusthan and discuss numbers : how many repetitions are recommended for what results. Yes, the scriptures talk about specific numbers, if you know where to look.

So, how cool is that? It's as close to a "guarantee" for spiritual results as life will yield up. Notice the quotes there.

Burma's Rubies: Conscience & Human Rights

The 'dirty' rubies mined in Burma are a perfect symbol for the tensions that are emerging all over the global import/export world. In so many industries, consumers are rapidly waking up to the human rights and environmental abuses that accompany many of the imported products we love and depend upon.

Nowhere is the revelation more eye-opening than in the gemstone mining industry, not only because of our fondness for the brightly-colored and clear sparklies but because of the particular horrors of their origins.

Recently, the democratic uprising against a long-standing military government in Burma (now "officially" called Myanmar) was brutally put down and subjected to media blackout – by the same government. Before the eyes of the world, hundreds, if not a few thousands of Buddhist monks and other non-violent protesters were killed or injured. Though Burma may be 7000 miles away from the US mainland, none of us need go farther than our local jewelry store to find a central root of the conflict. Over 90% of the world's gem-quality rubies are mined in Burma. Cash from large gemstone auctions go directly to funding the government's military junta, buying weapons and paying soldiers. Enforced working conditions include the following :

• Subsistence wages that do not afford a nutritious diet
• Force-feeding of amphetimines so workers can work longer hours
• Workers are beaten or jailed if they don't meet high quotas
• The use of highly toxic chemicals and explosives with few or no safety arrangements
• Workers are not permitted to talk to outside observers or journalists

Just the human rights abuses are sufficient motive for a full-on boycott of all gem mining in the region, but the emerging accounts of the environmental impacts are equally heart-breaking, and will be posted in a later article.

Sources right in the Mogok mining region (where most of the rubies are found) confirm that much of the money goes directly to the unelected Myanmar government. The military camps out right at the mining sites to make sure their employer gets its "revenues." It was dirty gemstone money that allowed the #1 general Than Shwe to throw a $50M wedding for his daughter. See it here www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJxREGhmAJc.

Last year, Gary Roskin, a gemologist at JCKonline, a main industry voice of the US fine jewelry trade, attempted to dissemble the case for the boycott, blogging that A. "dealers in the region" say that most of the gemstones are sold into channels that don't go through the government and that B. instead of starving the government, the international boycott is only hurting the miners. The simple response is A. international buyers come directly to government auctions and B. when there are layoffs in mining and gemstone cutting/polishing, the workers are trained for other work. Of course a publication like JCK has every agenda to distort the ethics equation of a gemstone source so vital to the revenues of its own industry.

While rumors are emerging of modest improvements in working conditions, the full impact of a boycott on the global market, led by US-based companies like Tiffany and Bulgari, has yet to be seen. However, Chinese companies are all too happy to buy the gems, which due to the boycott have been falling in price. So all we can do is turn the heat up in countries where consumers are willing to demand a higher standard of conduct. Put another way : spread the word.