To Light One Candle

Author(s): Pramoda Chitrabhanu
Publisher: East West Unity Press Ananda Ashram New York

Page 12

capsule opens and releases the dormant energy within you. You feel dynamized and ready to live and give from a place of truth inside yourself. New and creative thought patterns may emerge. Mantras can help you realize your true nature.
Lastly, the sounds of a mantra have the power to harmonize and heal the body and mind. According to the ancient masters, each human being has seventy-two thousand nādīs or nerve channels of varying sizes through which prāņa or subtle energy moves. The fifty-two letters of the Sanskțit alphabet are capable of producing more than seventy-two thousand frequencies on these nerve channels, due to the law of combination and permutation.
For this reason, the sounds, when pronounced precisely, with the correct intonation, can have a healing impact on all of our nerve channels and endings. Traditionally, mantras have been transmitted orally, from master to disciple. Thus, to chant our book's mantras, it is best to learn their accurate pronunciation from our beautiful audio cassette sung by Acharya Roop Verma.
When we meditate, recite a mantra, or contemplate truths, we can place our hands in a gracious hand gesture, called "mudrā." Accompanying each of the five parts of the book, you will find an illustration of the mudrā which represents the theme of that section. Many generous attitudes are captured and symbolized in these mudrās, such as humility, appreciation, forgiveness, equanimity, calm, blessedness, and peace. Mantras and mudrās both act as catalysts for our spiritual unfolding, drawing us closer to our divine essence, our intrinsic nature.