Om Namah Shivāya

Many many years ago when I lived in California I received a mantra from my teacher:

om namah śivāya

Little did I know at the time how much this mantra was going to be part of my life from that point on. Om namah śivāya is my constant companion. I repeated at all moments during the day. I repeat it silently if I see something beautiful,  or if I am going through something challenging, or when I need to calm my mind down, or when I need to go deeper into myself in meditation, or when I am on the train, or sometimes when I am just walking on the streets. I repeat it eleven times before each meal and one hundred and eight times before falling asleep. Over the years I have come to feel like this mantra is an angel watching over me all the time.

In yoga mantras are not mere phrases that somebody at some point thought it would be good to repeat. They are very sacred sounds that were heard by the yoga sages when they were in deep meditation. 

The night of February 26th is a special night in the tradition of yoga that I follow because on this night we celebrate Supreme Consciousness in the form of Śiva. The name Śiva means auspicious because experiencing this ultimate and all encompassing state of Consciousness is the most auspicious experience we can have. During this night the mantra om namah śivāya is believed to be more potent in the sense that it can more easefuly take us deep into meditation. So we repeat this mantra that evening as much as possible.  

During this week I will be playing the mantra during śavasana so we can relax and have a powerful experience of the emptiness of pure being.

Look forward to seeing you in class

Blessings

Jorge Nihāl