Yoga for all (mantra japayoga):

  Intense yoga is for the adepts who are far advanced in the first four steps of ashtanga yoga sutra  of Patanjali, such as yama, niyama, pratyahara and Ishvarapranidana. These four steps as extremely difficult for ordinary people. In fact, the pancharatra says, "the four important inherent traits of the jiva are: to speak, untruth, cheat, run after things that are elusive and finally face disillusionment. The human life is governed  by avidya (ignorance). To abstain from speaking untruth is the biggest problem in Kaliyuga Everybody knows what happened to Satya Harischandra and thereby avoids speaking truth! Even maintenance of cleanliness ('shoucha') is very difficult; keeping clean all the parts of external and the internal environment, is extremely difficult. This is evident from the garbage accumulated in cities and towns and villages. Also, withdrawing our out-going senses and surrendering our will to God are the other big problems. Our ego will not allow to bend our head to others (including Guru)! Many great teachers have said that the jiva is stay put, condemned for ever (due to its ego and avidya), and will never be redeemed from this mrutyu loka. However, one need not worry; as one proceeds in life certain things happen on their own accord due to 'divine intervention', purva punya, and daiva anugraha, The supreme Lord takes pity on the jiva and shows the way! One should have complete faith in Him, that's all. 

  There is often a very interesting question that of the karma. Is it the karma that the jiva suffers and does yoga help to get rid of this? The answer is very simple. The yoga is the only way to get rid of all the evil forces, such as prarabhda karma, sanchita or agami karma. Actually, yoga especially mantra japa is meant for cleansing the jiva of all karma kleshas.

   Mantra means the great protector; 'trayate iti mantraah'| Mantra protects! 

Mantra is sacred word, a sacred seed letter (bijakshara). Om is the most powerful mantra of all. HrIm of Srividya meaning Hari, Hara, Virinchi (brahma), is the same as AUM (Om) of Vedanta. The next important two letter mantra is RA MA where Ra means Ravi and Ma means Mother earth (Sita);  the jiva is connected by Prana (Anjaneya) to the Body (earthen shell) and the Sun (Atmarama/soul). Hence Ramayana is the Jiva that suffers due to ignorance. The jiva is redeemed by the Rama naama japa. There are other sacred mantras such as:

  Om, Ghrunee, surya, adityaH| eight letter mantra that protects the jiva from all evils since the Sun is addressed here. Ghrunee is the sun rays and Aditya is Narayana who gives Light, Heat, Life Energy and Intelligence to jiva through the Sun rays. There are panchakshari, ashtakshari, shodashaakshari mantra such as Om namah Shivaya, Om namo naaraayanaaya, Om namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaaya. All these are potent mantra that protect jiva from all evil forces. In Kaliyuga, the only redeemer is the mantra japa since these have a seed letter and a deity. For e.g.. Om Gam Ganapataye namah |

 Chant the name of Vishnu and walk into Vaikuntha or chant the name of Shiva and walk into Kailasa. By the way, Vaikuntha or Kailasa mean the same abode of the Lord, the pure consciousness.
Mantra helps cure many ills. Faith is the first requisite here; second requirement is purity of the highest order (parishuddhata)- kayaa vachaa manasa budhhisvabhaavtmika parishuddhata is essential. Mantra can cure cancer and all body aches and pains! This is known as 'mantra therapy'. Chant the mantra 1008 times concentrating on the part of the body where pain is felt, pain disaapears! Gayatree mantra is the best.