Mantra Yoga and Primal Sound: Secret of Seed (Bija) Mantras

A hard book to wade through with all the unfamiliar words and definitions gleaned from thousands of years of East India for an American guy, but I persevered and read some paragraphs two or three times and I am getting it. And it is well worth the concentration and focus to get a real foundation for meditating. I meditate words from the Sanskrit, but I did not know what I was chanting, the origin and the meaning. Now I do and my meditation has a lot more meaning now and a lot more hope it will materialize what I was meditating for. There are definitions for the words in the back of the book which is a huge help with other books, like the standard texts such as Deepak Chopras books and Paramahansa Yogananda. It tells you what words to inhale or exhale. An amazing amount of information for a person that did not know much. If you really want to learn what you are meditating about, don't be lazy or half knowing , read this book. Thank you.

While I could have done without the admonition that one needs a teacher to learn mantra from, I did learn a lot from this book. Many "spiritual" teachers have sleazy and greedy agendas, while great teachers are rare and hard to come by. I have gotten better results as a solitary practitioner than most people I know who have recieved the initiation, the shakti pat, formal instruction etc from a guru. Additionally many of these devotees have been violated and abused by their gurus. I prefer working my own path. Having said that, this book is very useful. The deeper meanings behind the seed mantras are explained and some formulas for using them are presented here. The seed mantras are the building blocks of reality, thus an understanding of them in important. I'm using mantra to obtain real world results rather than performing mantra as a part of a devotional or religious practice. This book along with the books and cds by Thomas Ashely Farrand are really useful in terms of an approach that has a greater likelihood of reality creation. So far my results in terms of manifestation have been robust in several areas of mantra intention. Others are still in process, so time will tell. I am convinced that mantras are powerful and life changing. This book would have been better had it a phonetic pronunciation approach to mantra included, but overall an important contribution to the serious practitioner of esoterica in regards to manifestation technique. Perhaps Mr. Frawley will produce a cd that will instruct the student in the art of mantra pronunciation. If you want to understand seed mantras, buy this book.

Great Book. I would recommend one to read anything produced by David Frawley. His information and insight is unique and original giving the proper respect to Santan Dharma. He is the proper voice for Santan Dharma to a western audience.

Frawley's book is an excellent and very readable resource on the technical aspects of mantra science and practice. It is an excellent companion volume to Swami Veda Bharati's (Usharbudh Arya) Mantra and Meditation. Without access to Sanskrit in order to read the Mimamsa and Kashmira Shaiva texts where the mantra science is preserved, it is essentially impossible outside of these two resources to find an authentic account of the depth and breadth of the mantra science. The theory of divine creative speech (distinct from language as a communicator of meaning) is what the Christian Gospel writer John refers to in the opening words of his text, but Christian tradition has no text that gives the details. These details are found in Shaiva tradition and to some extent in Jewish texts of the Kabbalah, especially Zohar, Sefer Yetzira, and Sefir Bahir. For the serious student of mantras and their relationship to meditation, to ritual practice and to astrology and Ayurveda this is essential reading.

This is a really good book about mantras and their meanings, applications. Very easy to understand and useful for the beginner. Only thing I didn't like was that it took the author about half the book to actually get into pronunciation of sanskrit alphabet. First 5 chapters explain the mental state in which one must approach any mantra, which will prove very valuable to any beginner without experience. I am not an expert but after the first 2 chapters, it seemed that the author kept repeating himself with previous material. other than that very good book and would recommend it as a tool to better understand mantras before putting them into work.

I have been fascinated by mantras for some time now, but wanted to find a book that captured and sustained my interest. You know...something that pushed me from where I am, something a bit unique. This book served my intention powerfully. I read it in a pace that didn't create that feel of a reference book. Undoubtedly, this is a good reference guide. But it is much more. As I read this book slowly, I found the feel that one gets when reading a story. By the time I knew it I had read it twice straight through. Now it is a reference book that I go to time and again. My knowledge of the material feels solid. The text has impacted my personal and professional practice. Definitely a must for the library if you are anywhere close to working with mantras and how mantras work alongside other important spiritual systems such as the chakras, astrology, and the body.

I am a student of Frawley and find his works to be both pithy and easily assimilated, simultaneously. As a life-long follower of Eastern philosophy and esoterica, I find his works to bring valuable insight into the workings of both. This particular volume covers nearly, if not all, of mantra applications, purposes, and history. It is from a Vedic perspective of course, but Buddhists alike will find the subject matter informative and instructive. Highly recommended. 185 pages long, includes diagrams, pronunciation guides, seed (bija) mantras explained and their purposes and applications; required reading for any mantra yogic practitioner.

One of the best informational compilations on the market for the truer devotional hearts guidance. Graced with a little more.

Be prepared to be enlightened

A difficult topic has been explained quite lucidly. Lots of examples and ideas to anyone either pursuing the path or just for academic reasons.

Anything that Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shaastri) writes is always authentic, scholarly, but accessible, and based on his own study and practice, being one of the rare pandits who practices what he preaches. His astoundingly vast scholarship brings to light hard to come by knowledge from otherwise obscure areas of spiritual and yogic research. This work is basically a specialist’s exposition of the letters and sounds of the Sanskrit Alphabet and the effects of bija mantras exclusively. There are three chapters alone on the on the vowels, semi-vowels and consonants, offering an exhaustive account of the attributes of every letter of the Sanskrit alphabet and what they represent on physical, psychological and spiritual levels. These in-depth studies, will be fascinating for the linguistically inclined who wish to delve into the nitty-gritty basics of the Sanskrit language, although it may be information overload for the average reader. The enumeration of the remarkably diverse powers attributed to each seed-sound stretches credibility. But such is what tradition has handed down (or elaborated upon), as is the way with successive generations of yogis, each adding his tithe of experience or outlook. However, it is a mind-boggling effort to attempt to remember all the complex ramifications of every letter and their combinations in mantras. This is not a book to read lightly, but a well-referenced textbook to be referred to at need. Strangely, Dr. Frawley, following certain Shaivite traditions, reverses the roles of Shiva and Shakti in his exposition of the Sanskrit Alphabet, designating the vowels as the Shiva principle and the consonants to Shakti or Prakriti (matter or nature). Whereas, in the tradition of the Tantra-Mantra master with whom I studied, the vitality of the vowels were give as Shakti energy and the consonants as the inert Shiva principle, unpronounceable without being combined with a Shakti vowel. Otherwise, on the practical level, he concurs with my own experience as a Tantra-Mantra practitioner, regarding the importance of regulating mantras in accordance with the breath, which is rarely evident in Vedic chant, but which in my experience makes all the difference. And interestingly, he insists that speech, mind and breath, must be brought down to the base of the spine before it can arouse the rising of kundalini, but unfortunately does not offer any specific method for achieving this. The ‘Divine Word’ is here defined as ‘the Goddess’ and we are enjoined to use speech as a means of worshipping her. Whilst this is a worthy notion, for my sensibilities I have no concept of a ‘Goddess’ in my world. For those, like me, not constitutionally drawn to visualising the Absolute as a Mother Goddess (or Father, for that matter), or humanly conceived god or goddess of some sort, it may be preferable to connect not with a particular deity, but to the divine quality its name symbolically represents. Complex mantras are given, but unfortunately without an accompanying CD, the metre or rhythm in which the longer bija mantras are to be chanted is lacking. We are cautioned that such mantras “should be learned and practised with appropriate guidance.” But alas, “appropriate guidance” is far and few between, making the majority of these mantras out of reach for most students. While concentrating on the quality of the Tantric bija mantras he also finishes off the book with a chapter on Vedic mantras. Frawley has crammed a lifetime’s study into this slender 200 page book. And it really looks crammed. The layout of the book seems to have been done by an amateur. The Sans Serif typeface throughout (rather than Times Roman) is tiring to the eye. And the text is packed onto every page like there is a shortage of paper, with less than half a centimetre margin down the edges and sometimes only one millimetre space at the bottom of the page. Dr. Frawley’s excellent work deserves better than that. And Lotus Press could advisedly take note for their next edition. Muz Murray (Ramana Baba) Author of Sharing the Quest.

Great book that gives new insight into the metaphysics and deeper meanings of the Sanskrit language

Bel libro e consegna veloce.