Jainism

Author(s): M R Gelra
Publisher: Createspace

Page 26

Let us study how the wave theory helps in explaining the effect of Mantra?
In Navkar Mahamantra, the first and the last letter in each salutation is cerebral in nature. The first consonant letter is 'nam' and the last one is 'namn'. When they are pronounced, the tongue strikes against the 'Talu' i.e. the root of mouth known as palate which produces vibrations, these vibrations affect the life forces within. Hence the life forces running through the body are driven by these vibrations of mantra. The seers have found that in this process when the mantra is repeated again and again, the breath becomes natural i.e. deep and slow. Once it is achieved all of these varied types of vibrations generate the highest intensities of rhythmic movement, the highest intensities of interwoven verbal form and positive thought-substance, interact and create extreme heat. This leads to detachment of karmas, but how? We have to understand the physical nature of karma. Though the karmas are very fine massless pudgal but are material in nature with four characteristic qualities of the touch of hot and cold, the touch of attraction and repulsion. It is therefore, the gain of heat and the quality of repulsion helps in breaking the physical bonds existing amongst karmas and causes detachment of the Karmas from the empirical soul. In this process, the more and more part of consciousness opens and the purpose of the Mantra is achieved. In short, the process can be described as follows:
Firstly, the repeated recitation of the mantra keeps the breathing deep, slow and rhythmic to an extent that the pudgal used for breathing becomes mass
less,
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Secondly the fine waves of breathing interacts with life forces, Thirdly the process creates extreme heat and breaks the bondage amongst Karmas, Finally the physical Karmas are detached from the empirical soul.
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This description gets support from the Jain literature which illustrates that the pudgala i.e. matter used during deep breathing is very fine and the waves produced are physically similar to the waves of karma pudgala. Such physical similarity of fine matter, causes them to interact easily. We should remember that the rules of mutual interaction of fine matter are different than that of gross matter. Therefore, the breathing material acts as a bridge in between the bodily material and the Karmic material.
In case, the pronunciation of the mantra is not proper, and deep breathing is not achieved the qualities of cold and attraction of fine matter will come into force and the new bonding of Karmas will take place. Hence, one must be very alert in performing the Mantra.