The word mantra entered my vocabulary in the mid-seventies when I was 10 years old. My mother was "into" Transcendental Meditation and every afternoon around 5:00 she would disappear into the living room and silently repeat her mantra, leading her into a meditative state. It looked a lot like sleeping to me. As far as I was concerned, Mom was dozing off somewhere and otherwise inaccessible to me while I had urgent needs—like dinner. Mom wouldn't tell us her mantra, either, no matter how many times we asked. As I look now at my own life and the role that sacred sound plays in it, I have a whole new appreciation for mantra practice and for what my Mom was trying to do way back then.

The Bible says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…." The Hindu Vedas say, "The name of Brahman is OM, and OM is Brahman Himself." We use OM to describe the Supreme, the Divine, or God. All mantras are born out of OM, the Divine sound of the Universal Hum. When you chant OM you are experiencing all mantras, all vibrations in one sound. Since there are different people with different vibrations, preferences and needs, there are an endless number of mantras for use in mantra japa, or mantra repetition. There are also different mantras for healing, for purification and even for death. Mantra japa is practiced in various traditions including: Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Greek Orthodox, Sufism and many more.

By constantly repeating God's name we steady the mind and become filled with divine vibrations. It is said that during this time of the Kali Yuga mantra japa is the easiest, quickest and most effective way to achieve self-realization and spread peaceful vibrations to the world around us. The mantra can be repeated aloud or silently, as in my mother's case, to lead into one-pointed concentration and then meditation. Silent, heartfelt repetition is considered the highest form of japa. In To Know Yourself, Sri Swami Satchidananda Maharaj says "By repeating your mantra you spread the vibration through your system until it pervades your body and mind. Your entire personality vibrates on that beautiful wavelength and automatically attracts similar vibrations. You become in tune with others who have similar waves, and ultimately the cosmic wave." The mantra is the key to open you to higher states of spiritual experience, but it is in the steady, continuous effort of repetition that the real transformation occurs.

Often a spiritual aspirant will request a mantra from his or her Guru. When the seeker is ready, the Guru will give a mantra appropriate for his or her capacity. You do not have to be initiated by a guru, however, to derive benefits from mantra repetition. There was a time several years ago when I really needed to pull myself out of the "stuckness" I was identifying so strongly with. So I selected a mantra for myself and began to repeat it with all earnestness. I used a mala to help count the repetitions as I sat at the altar, and then I learned to count using my fingers in a coordinated system. I chanted it while meditating, driving, cooking, cleaning, before sleeping—as often as I could remember. Every time my mind would drift to the unpleasant situation, I repeated the mantra. Pretty soon the mantra started to "play" all the time inside my head. When I noticed this, I realized that I felt much better, much more steady. Gradually the emotional pain that I was feeling began to subside. I then began to experiment with other mantras. I started to use the Gayatri Mantra while cooking, a practice I had heard about through a beautiful Indian Saint named Shree Maa. Shree Maa says: "Always think you are preparing this food for God, make everything as an offering to Him". All of a sudden, people raved about the meals that were coming from my hands!