Deva Premal & Miten: On the Wings of Mantra
World renowned chant masters Deva Premal & Miten with Manose and the Temple Band will be appearing at the Edmonds Center for the Arts Tuesday, May 21 - details here.)
-Below is an excerpt from Deva Premal & Miten's 21 Day Mantra Meditation Journey: Day 1 - Om, The Cosmic Yes
Miten: Deva and I have seen so many people benefited from chanting the mantras... The main thing for Deva and I is that we feel like we move around in our life on the wings of mantras and we really have a mission now to share what we feel to be amazingly precious healing vibrations. And I mean healing not just on a level of psychological healing or something but also on a physical level, you know these mantras actually have powers that effect our physicality... I think we all agree that sound has power so it's only natural that to refine sound creates a certain response in the body that is scientifically generated.
Deva: What is my passion about the mantras is that they speak equally to every one of us. You know they are in a language, Sanskrit. which really no one on the earth speaks anymore as an alive language. But it's the Mother language, it's also called the matriarchal language, and so we are all connected to it in the same way. It's like our cellular language, it's the language that we understand on a very deep level, it starts vibrating something within us that no other language, no other sound is able to do.
So in that we all become one. You know it doesn't matter at all what belief system we have, what nationality we have, what religion we follow, it's a universal cellular sound language ... the sounds themselves are enough to create the benefits... It's about how we feel with the sounds, it's about being open to how they affect us individually, which can be very different for everyone. And it's also about having the intent of going as deep as possible into this meditation. And to respect these sounds as the powerful, medicinal sounds they are.
Miten: If you're new to mantras then you might want some information as to how they came into being and it's interesting that these sounds were created and channeled many, many, many thousands of years ago in India by the wise men there - they realised that if they started to refine sound, it actually created responses in the body and in the metaphysical body - it was a scientific exploration.
Deva: We'll start with the most basic and most universal of all mantras – which is the mantra Om. Most mantras actually start with the sound 'Om' because it is so encompassing of all the energies of the whole universe... 'Om' is a sound that's called a seed sound, which is a one syllable sound, and it's not translatable at all, there is no way to put that in any other language. 'Om' contains that energy which is the unification of masculine and feminine energy. And it's also called the soundless sound, it's called the sound of the universe, it's the cosmic 'Yes'.
There are so many ways to try to get closer to a translation but it's impossible. So the best way is to just experience it. To give ourselves a few minutes to chant the sound 'Om', and as you chant it, sit with your back straight and give that intention in those minutes to be fully present for that sound, how it feels in your body. How it sounds within you, make it so it's loud enough that you can actually really feel the vibration of your voice and give yourself enough breath and space for the 'mmm' so it's not just the 'O' but also the 'mmm' sound. So it becomes a circle of energy, of deep breaths, the 'Om' and then until the very end of your breath. And then another deep breath.
...At the end of the journey, give yourself a few moments of silence. Don't open your eyes yet, don't move around, really this is the moment while we are chanting, when the silence happens, the silence that is full of vibration, full of energy, full of the life that we have been celebrating with the sound 'Om'.
Don't miss your chance to bathe in the beauty of Deva, Miten & Manose's inspiring music on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 7:30pm at Edmonds Center for the Arts. Click here for more information and to register.