The Power of Mantra – As Described by Mohandas Gandhi’s Family Servant [Excerpt]

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Excerpt: The following is an excerpt from The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. In it, he describes how Mantra can help settle, calm, focus, and direct the mind in powerful ways.

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Introduction: Have You Ever Had One Of “THOSE” Days…?

Have you ever felt like you were wreaking havoc in life as you made your way through one of those just awful days when you felt like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed?

You know, one of those days when it feels like everything you do causes a disruption, leaves behind a mess, gets misunderstood and causes conflict, or plays out just plain wrong. I think we all have had those days.

The toughest thing about days like that isn’t even the one or two things that you mess up or that go wrong—it’s how the day tends to progressively get worse and worse and spiral more and more out of control as it continues. You know the expression—when it rains it pours.

If you can relate then this excerpt is for you. Rather than trip and stumble over each mistake or problem throughout the day and let things progressively get worse, this excerpt shows you how you might reclaim control of your mind and how you might better center yourself before moving on to whatever comes next.

The key understanding with this is that rash decisions beget more rash decisions. “Scattered brain” actions beget more “scattered brain” actions. The you that’s having THOSE kind of days will continue to have THOSE kinds of days until something changes. And all change starts with the mind.

“But the wise elephant trainer,” said Rambha, “will give the elephant a stick of bamboo to hold in his trunk.  The elephant likes this.  He holds it fast.  And as soon as the elephant wraps his trunk around the bamboo, the trunk begins to settle.  Now the elephant strides through the market like a prince: calm, collected, focused, serene.  Bananas and coconuts no longer distract.” 

So too with the mind.  As soon as the mind grabs hold of the mantra, it begins to settle.  The mind holds the mantra gently, and it becomes focused, calm, centered.  Gradually this mind becomes extremely concentrated.  This is the beginning stage of meditation.

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Afterword: Some Examples

And once you can get into a meditative state, all of your following actions will adjust accordingly. Just like the elephant, messing up won’t stress you out and lead to more messing up because you will have something to focus your mind on that’s OTHER than the mess up.

A mantra like, “Life is beautiful—I am grateful” can be a good place to start. Other popular mantras are, “I belong. I have faith.”, “Love is in everything. Love is everything.”, or “I am full of light.” A mantra may also be as simple as a word and can signify your effort towards a specific goal like, “Peace.”, “Love.”, “Present.”, “Empowered.”, “Resilient.”, etc.

The key is to find the mantra that sits well with you and reels your mind in. The second key is to then practice it consistently. Because just like any other habit, the power of the results come only from the consistency in the practice. Practice daily. Practice when you have “THOSE” days and practice when you have the opposite kind of day—great days. Keep your mind reeled in and within your control and walk through life in that meditative state. It’s a simple trick that can make all of the difference in the world.

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If you enjoyed this excerpt from The Great Work Of Your Life, then you should read Stephen Cope’s Book in full! It comes highly recommended:

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