Mahakatha's Meditation Mantras

In all the depictions of lord Shiva, you will find

a snake coiled around his neck. The

snake has its head upright and never

appears to move. And this still

snake represents something we humans

all have within us. Let's talk

about that and invoke lord Shiva In today's episode

of the Mahakatha Meditation mantras podcast, I'm

your host, Preeti. And in the next few episodes, I will

take you through some of the most beautiful and

powerful symbolics of lord Shiva,

who is known as the destroyer of all evil,

and yet is known as one of the most kindest,

most benevolent forms of God.

Coming back to the snake around lord Shiva's neck,

there are many wonderful interpretations of what

this snake stands for, but the

most important one, but the most profound

and meaningful interpretation of the snake,

something that we humans can learn from, Is that the

snake is an impersonation of

ego. Shiva wears

ego around his neck. Does that

mean that Shiva is an egoistic god? Not

at all. On the contrary, Shiva

finds no place for ego within his mind,

within his heart, within his consciousness, and so he

wears this ego as a mere

ornament, as nothing more but an ornament

on his body. That ego has no other

purpose, defines no part of him

other than just being an ornament

on his body. The presence of that snake around

him symbolizes that lord Shiva

has externalized his ego. He

has mastered it and conquered it

to such an extent that the snake is always

still. But for us humans,

ego is generally not just an ornament,

not just secondary to us, but it occupies

a huge space in our minds, in our

subconscious. It often takes over

our thinking, our decision-making, Our

intentions and it makes us do things that might be

disruptive to our own peace of mind and to

the peace of mind of others. That is why

we are never able to maintain a state of

meditativeness, of calmness, of peace of

mind. What breaks that state of meditativeness

is nothing but our own ego.

So if you were to visualize this ego

rising out of your body and gently

coiling itself around your neck. And

if you were to visualize this presence around you,

this snake of an ego, Still,

motionless, and unthreatened.

Perhaps we would make very different choices in our daily

lives. For instance, when somebody snaps at

you, somebody is being mean to you, insulting to

you, then this ego that is around you but separate from

your mind, it is suddenly disturbed. It moves. It

reveals its fangs and it becomes ready to attack

the person that instigated it. But with the

practice of meditation, with the practice of

Self surrender and self awareness every day.

This metaphorical snake of ego around our neck

learns not to respond. Its head

stays risen, it stays alert, always

receptive, always aware of everything that is

being said and being intended and being done.

However, the snake knows better than to react.

Instead, the snake is your ally and the

snake won't let you lose your peace of mind by

being triggered or acting on an impulse.

That is why the snake of our ego,

even when faced with the toughest conversations

and toughest situations and harshest

words, will remain still

Just like the ornamental snake around lord

Shiva's neck remains forever

aware and alert and still.

This is perhaps one of the most important

learnings from lord Shiva. Externalize

your ego. Master your ego so that it

won't react and it won't destroy

your powerful deep-rooted peace of

mind. And while this externalization of

ego sounds like a god-level accomplishment,

let's not forget that we visualized

these gods. And if our minds are capable

of visualizing, then the mind is capable

of manifesting. If we can visualize a

divine being that is free of ego,

then we can manifest and activate

and nurture that part of us that is

free of ego. And there is no greater divine

being to learn this from, than

Lord Shiva. This brings me to the mantra

for this episode which is our very special

Shiva Panchakshari Stotram or the Panchakshari

Mantra. This is a brilliantly composed

mantra that expands on the

primary chant of Om Namah

Shivai. This chant expands on the sounds of

- Om, Na, Ma, Shi, Va, and Ya - describing the

symbolics of these sounds and

channeling into the sheer energy and power

and peace that comes from each of

these sounds. So if you haven't meditated

with this mantra or haven't heard it in a

while, this is your sign from the universe. To sit down

and meditate, if you don't have it yet, you can

avail this mantra now at a 30% discount. Simply use

the code mentioned in the description below and start

meditating and start conquering your

ego. On that note, my

dear listener, thank you so much for tuning in to

today's episode. I hope you enjoyed learning

about this particular aspect of Lord Shiva.

I promise you we will cover more in the weeks to come.

In the meantime, if you are enjoying these episodes,

please take a minute to leave us a review like many

of our listeners have. And if you have a personal

story about how mantras have helped you or

transformed you, please do write to us as well.

I will see you in the next episode with a brand new

mantra ready to uncover and discuss

another common aspect of our lives. Until then,

stay blessed.