Chant to Remove Obstacles

Namaste dear yogi friend. Today I'm going to share with you a practice which is very dear to my heart, something that I practice every day and receive great benefit from, the practice of repeating mantra which is known as japa. So in essence we are vibratory beings, we're vibrating at certain frequencies, energy levels. The higher the frequency, the vibration, the more we tend towards health and well-being, happiness and inner harmony. And when the cells in our body start to vibrate at lower frequencies, that's when disease and depression starts to show up. So the thoughts that we think, the sounds that we make, the energies that we ingest, they all contribute to the energy at which we're vibrating. And thoughts are extremely powerful and left unchecked the mind has a tendency to cycle the same thoughts over and over again, generally kind of negative thoughts which keep the sense of the ego in place. Thoughts like I'm separate, I'm alone, I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough, I need to do more, I need to have more, I need to be more in order to accept myself or be accepted or loved by others. So these are kind of like really universal human tendencies to go towards these thoughts and these thoughts have the effect of lowering the vibration in our body and ultimately causing disease, causing depression, causing just general dissatisfaction. So the practice of mantra, we bring these high vibration sounds, thoughts into our body as medicine to raise the vibration and to actually improve our health, our well-being, our happiness. So mantras are like medicine for the being. The word mantra comes from man, it comes from manus, which means mind, and tra means to protect or carry across. So mantra is that which protects the mind or carries us across the craziness of the mind. So just like with different medicines for different illnesses or situations, there's different mantras that we would employ for different effects. For instance, if you wanted to create abundance in your life, you might chant to Lakshmi. If you wanted to awaken more creativity in yourself, you might chant to Sarasvati. Today we're going to chant to Ganesh. So here is my dear friend Ganesh. He is represented as an elephant-headed God. So these gods and goddesses, these deities of the Hindu philosophy, they are merely representations of energies that already exist within us. So as we say these mantras, what we're doing is we're evoking the energy within ourselves that creates abundance or that brings up our creativity. And for Ganesh, he is the energy within ourselves that removes obstacles from our life, from our path. So he's often invoked at the beginning of a journey. You know, it could be a physical journey that you're going on. You would chant to Ganesh in order to clear the path and let the journey be smooth. He may also be invoked at the beginning of a symbolic journey or a journey that you're on, perhaps the journey of spiritual awakening or whatever it is. If you have obstacles that you're currently facing in your life, we would call on Ganesh to help remove those obstacles. And from my experience, he works very quickly. Really profound and obvious things start to happen for me in my experience as I chant these mantras. So what we're going to do today is I'm going to introduce you to the mantra that pertains to Ganesh, to call Ganesh up. It's like calling him, dialing the telephone number, calling on Ganesh. And so we'll just take a moment to kind of go over the sounds of that and then we will chant together 108 times the repetition of this mantra and then you will be invited to feel the effects in your body. So I'd like you to get comfortable at somewhere that you can sit with your spine upright and be comfortable. So you might want to sit on a chair if you're comfortable on the floor, choose the floor, just wherever you can have the spine upright and be relaxed. Beautiful. So just finding yourself, finding your seat, allowing the hands as we begin just to rest on the thighs or the knees, either palms face up or palms down. Take a deep inhale and exhale out through the mouth. Just letting a sigh soften you from the inside. Beautiful. Inhale and exhale. So the mantra, the sound that we use to call on Ganesh, begins with om, which is the primordial sound of the universe, that sound from which all sounds emanate. The next sound is gam, G-A-M, also sort of said gam. And that's like the seed sound of this energy of Ganesh. So it's the seed sound within ourselves that calls up this energy that removes obstacles. And then Ganapati is another name for Ganesh. So the next word is Ganapataye, Ganapataye. So let's just begin by saying these sounds. Can you repeat after me, om, gam, Ganapataye, and the last sound is namaha, which means I bow to, namaha, namaha. So with these mantras, the most important thing as we're saying them is to really rest our awareness in our heart center and with our soul, with our heart, with the core of our being to want to connect with this energy and to call it into your being as you pronounce, as we say the sounds. To keep your full awareness on the sound. And then there's another level which is the sounds of Sanskrit, of these words, have a very particular way of being pronounced. And if we can get those pronunciations correct, we are closer to evoking the correct vibrations within ourselves that we're trying to evoke. So I'm still in the process of learning how these sounds are really meant to be said. And I'm going to share with you a little bit of what I know about this mantra and feel free, you know, to just do your best just to join in and rest your awareness in your heart. So one thing is, as we pronounce ganapataye, gana, the na, naturally we would just say na by bringing the tongue to the teeth, say that na, feel how that sounds. But in this case we, as we say na, we bring the tongue to the center of the roof of the mouth. So we say na, so it's like you're placing the tongue at the center of the roof of the mouth as you say the N, na.

Just try that with me, na. And you can hear, you get that sort of Indian sound. So then ganapataye, ganapataye, ganapataye, beautiful. And one more thing is that when the, we have the M at the end of the gum before the G at the beginning of the ganapataye, the gum becomes gung. So it's like G-U-N-G is the sound, gung. Can you say that? Gung, gung, ganapataye, namaha. Let's say that two more times together. Om, gung, ganapataye, namaha. Om, gung, ganapataye, namaha. Beautiful. So I have here a mala. Mala means circle and it's a circle of beads. So this mala contains 109 beads. The last bead, the 109th bead, is the bead on which we pause and we honor the satguru, the inner teacher. And 108 beads are the beads we use to chant one round of the mantra. So 108 is a symbolic number, is an auspicious number in the Indian spirituality, the philosophy. And there's many reasons and ideas why it's such a special number. One that I've heard is that there's a 108 nadis, which are energy channels that emanate from the heart. So if you have a mala and you'd like to use it, just find your mala and we can chant together with the mala. If you don't have one, you don't need it at all. So the way that I work with it is I hold the first bead, which is next to that one by the tassel, and I hold it between my middle finger and my thumb, and I say the chant once. I use the beads to count, but as I'm saying the mantra I also put the intention into the bead. So then I move to the next bead, I say the mantra, I put the intention into the mantra, and I move around like this. And so the mala ends up holding the vibration of the chant, and then I wear that and energetically it supports me as I go about my day. So finding your mala, if you have one and you'd like to use it, finding a comfortable position with a spine upright, we're going to chant together. Let's just take a moment to rest into our seat. Just closing the eyes, take a deep breath in, exhale out through the mouth, again dropping the belly down into the earth. One more time, inhale, exhale. Feel the tailbone drop back and down. As you inhale, reach the crown of the head up, feel the spine lengthen, feel the heart, the chest expand and broaden.

It's dropping your awareness inside. Bring your awareness onto the breath. Drop your awareness into the center of your chest, the heart center. Feel the breath moving effortlessly in and out of the heart center. Now the jaw to relax, inner body relaxes. Invite you to connect with a journey that you're about to begin or a journey that you're on and that you'd like to clear the path of any obstacles. Maybe a physical journey, it may be a symbolic journey. Or maybe connect with any obstacles that you're facing in your life at this time. Just set the intention that as we chant to Ganesh that he removes and clears these obstacles. So as we chant the mind will come in and distract you. Bring your awareness back to the sound, back to the vibration. So there's no skill needed, the only thing is to be willing to give it a go, to participate and to allow the sounds to really work you from the inside. So you're evoking this energy within you using your own sound. Beautiful, let's go for it. Deep inhale, exhale everything. Just join me as it feels comfortable for you.

It's really connecting from your heart calling in Ganesh, resting your awareness on the sound of the vibration. Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha. Letting your awareness soften into the sounds, bringing the attention back to the sound. Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha, Om Gan Ganapatayena Maha. Resting into the vibration in your being. Take a deep inhale, exhale.

You may want to lie down for a few minutes. Just keep resting and feeling the effects, feeling the vibration in your system. I'm just going to end here by bringing my hands together and invite you to join me if you feel to. Take a deep inhale, exhale soften. Gently allowing the eyes to blink open.

Many blessings on your journey. May it be free from all obstacles. And know that all the obstacles that show up are also placed there by Ganesh, ironically as opportunities to evolve and to grow. So nothing is here by accident, it is all a blessing. Many sweet blessings on your journey, much love to you, Namaste.