Note: For the complete lessons, with additions, see the AYP Easy Lessons for Ecstatic Living Books.

Lesson 358 – Can I Trust the Mantra?

From: Yogani
Date: August 26, 2009

New Members: It is recommended you read from the beginning of the web archive, as previous lessons are prerequisite to this one. The first lesson is, "Why This Discussion?"


Q: I am quoting from Lesson 355 on the finer points of deep meditation procedure, a sentence there that has triggered my question:

"…Or we may be in stillness, barely aware we have gone off the mantra. In that case we favor the mantra as stillness itself. That last one may seem to be a paradox – favoring something in nothing…"

It seems to me that I am handing over everything to the mantra, giving all power and control to the mantra. Extremely put it means kind of making the mantra to be my God. Can the mantra be my God? And it is at the base of an essential question: Can I trust the mantra?


A: The mantra is a vehicle for systematically opening awareness to your inner silence, your Self. The process is quite mechanical. This does not mean you cannot make any part of the process sacred, your chosen ideal, including the mantra. However, ultimately, bhakti will expand to the Self, which is also God, your essential nature, and the essential nature of all that is. That relationship is according to each individual's inclinations, and, therefore, no one else can define what it will be for you.

So what more can I tell you about the mantra? Not much more than has been said in the AYP writings already. It is what it is. How you regard it is your own inner process.

Can you trust the mantra and deep meditation, the simple procedure that refines the mantra repeatedly into your own stillness? I can only tell you what it has been for me, and others will do the same. In my case the experience goes back nearly four decades, but it does not take that long to develop a sense of what is true. In your heart you will know.

It is really your own Self you are asking about. Can you trust your own Self? We all come to it gradually over time. It is a slow surrender to who and what we are. Unbounded pure bliss consciousness!

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on deep meditation, see the Deep Meditation book.

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