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Re: Power of the Mantra
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: Power of the Mantra
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From: santhosh@iss.nus.sg (Santhosh Kumar)
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Date: 13 Jun 1996 02:33:47 GMT
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Followup-To: soc.religion.hindu
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: Institute Of Systems Science, National University Of Singapore.
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References: <4kks8b$kam@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4kt6sd$jdb@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4plu3i$hma@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
Anand (anandk@ksc.net.th) wrote:
: > : > Come on if there was really somuch power within these mantras, then
: > : > surely we would have been in a far better state then we are in today.
: > : > After all there must be millions of people who over the ages have been
: > : > following the rules for reciting them - what good has it done to the
: > : > society - one word comes to mind - never mind!
: >
: >Do mantras have "magical" powers ? I have never witnessed any such
: >power. But one should not confuse the emphasis that the sages placed
:
:
: How long have you practised ?
:
: Secondly i will like to know what you mean by "magical powers " ? What
: are your excpectations ?
:
: As you yourself have elaborated below , different sounds have different
: qualities and capabilities like calming down the mind or making it
: perturbed etc etc . So let me put it this way , if anyone chants a
: mantra due to which he/ she feels calm and relaxed the effect can be
: compared with going to the counselor and speaking your mid out at the
: end of which you feel calm and relaxed. But in the former case you have
: saved some $ 100. So will I be stretching the truth very far if Iay that
: the mantra has saved you $ 100 or to say that the mantra created $ 100
: for you . If so will you not call it magical ? Themantra has created $
: 100 from nowhere!!!
Different sounds have different powers as you perceive them
with certain meanings, not otherwise. For example, you maybe
praising a person in Hindi or let us say, in Sanskrit, but the
person only knows German, what would be the effect of such
a praise? Nothing!. Of course, facial expressions and gestures
conveys some message, but for that there would not be any
other meaning for the German listening to you. I am just trying
to understand the whole concept of power of the manthras,
I am not yet convinced with the arguments that they indeed
have powers. There are stories about the power of faith,
like Sri Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar getting back his
lost voice by the grace of Guruvayoorappan(Sri Krishna), etc.
These are only examples of "Power of faith". The power
of manthras, is it derived out of the faith? If a person
chants manthras without faith, will he have the same
effects as that of a person with complete faith?
:
: I am just using it for argument sake .
:
:
:
: >on proper pronunciation and phonetics with magical power. Even today
: >scientists study the effects of sound, yes in language even, on the
: >mind. It turns out that when human beings speak or emit certain tones
: >or sounds, it affects the temperature of the brain. Lower brain
: >temperature tends to be more conducive to learning. There was
: >actually an article on it in the New York Times of last Tuesday I
: >think. Certain facial muscles when contracted tend to lower the brain
: >temperature.
: >
I would greatly appreciate if you could get me the details on
this literature.
:
:
: >So the short of it is that the theory of sound or phonetics having
: >some subtle influence on man may not be as ridiculous as people think.
: >But then there are those who immediately jump the gun and insist that
: >it can bring world peace, cause destruction etc. And they are
: >generally the ones who are the least informed on the subject.
:
Then, what is the truth? Do you mean to say it has only limited
powers?
: > I think ancient india went to the extreme of
: > being highly religious, we had a lot of sages
: > who spent their time on their salvation alone,
: > we sacrificed the social uplifting of millions for the
: > salvation of a few. A balance of the two should have been
: > the right approach. As Vivekananda points out in one of
:
: I disagree. At the times of the sages , India was the most affluent
: country in the world and the stories of prosperity of India were told
: the world over.
:
It is something like the famous saying that "My father
had an elephant(but, I am a very poor fellow!)". The
great sages, if they could make the India prosper with
spirituality alone, why did they fail to keep it going
in the same way. I do not buy the theory of saying that
the ancient india was wonderful, the British is responsible
for all what is happening in India now. Even during
Mahabharat times, we can see that caste system based
on birth was established and no great saint could
correct it to a healthy system. If there is one reason
for the decline of Hindu religion, I would say that
it is the "Caste based social order". One may argue
that it is the social order, not the religion, religion
based on the Srutis is perfect. It is difficult to
accept this argument as in the ancient India, religion
shaped the social setup, whether it is the rituals like
Agnihotras, human sacrifices, or accepting the Gurukula
education. Even,we can see that Sreemat Bhagavat Gita
is a mix of both Sruti and Smriti ( defining the social
order ).
:
: Definitely . What you are referring to as philosophy has come out of
: thousands of yeas of experimentation by the sages and similar people .
: The only reason it sounds too esoteric today is because we have been
: giving too much credence to the western thought instead of taking the
: Indian approach of looking inside ourselves.
:
It is ridiculous to blame the western thoughts for every damn
thing happening in India. In fact, but for the western developement
and opening its own eyes to have economic development, India
would still have remained as a country of beggars.
regards,
Santhosh
