'mantra'

 There are a number of Upanishads devoted to mantra. These mantras are our guides to sane and sensible living. Proper rendering of mantra is enough to sustain life and evolve into higher forms- with or without an elemental body covering the Atman. Some yogins have realized this truth and possess enormous powers. Some people devote themselves to mantra yoga (as yogopanishad), and some to pranayama, Hathayoga and kundalini yoga. There are beautiful standard texts such as the 'yoga deepika', agama samhitas, etc. for emancipation, mukti, moksha, or emancipation, that is liberation of the embodied soul.

Almost 180 Upanishads are enumerated in the muktikopanishad where Shree Ramachandra is giving instructions to His ardent devotee Anjaneya. Anjani putra Anjaneya asks his master Ramachandra as to the path of salvation. Sri Rama advises him to read the ‘Ishavasya upanishad’ and that would bring emancipation. He read and did not understand a single word in it. When this failed, Anjaneya goes back to Sri Ram, who in turn advises him to read the selected ten Upanishads- the Ishavasya, katha, kena, mundaka, maandukya, brihadaranyaka, chhandogya, shvetashvatra, taittiriya and the aitareiya. Even after going through these, Anjaneya was not happy and satisfied, and again went back to Sri Ram. This time Sri Rama advised him to read all the 108 Upanishads and he would be liberated whether he understood the meaning of these Upanishads or not. Thus, mukti or Moksha (liberation, emancipation) of the embodied soul is guaranteed from the mere reading of the Upanishads, if one is to believe Sri Ram, the Redeemer. But one must have faith. By reading all these Upanishads, it is no wonder that one will automatically get merged in the higher knowledge, knowledge concerning Atman, the brahmn.

     The philosophers- either the modern or the ancient, have so far not been successful in conveying all that is profound in these Upanishads. Almost all of these great thinkers have failed to bring out the essence of the sacred words, the esoteric meaning of the verses that are deeply symbolic, full of imageries like the two falcons of golden feathers- ‘dva suparna’. Most of them have not realized the importance of the prelims of the ashtanga yoga sutra, such as yama, niyama, pratyahara of yoga sutras in understanding these ancient Texts. There are also stalwarts who profess profound knowledge and say, ‘aham brahmasmi’ or simply, ‘i am’ (so'ham) in this un-tread path of mukti, moksha or Salvation.

 Some learned ones advocate a holistic approach to all these. The seeker has to travel the path and realize by his self-effort through introspection, atma avalokana, a ‘search within’, and get an insight into all these complicated issues! No other person- a guru or teacher, a priest, or pundit, will be able to impart anything in this regard. It is simply not something to be imparted by a teacher or learnt by a student. Svadhyaya  (study of scriptures), satsang (company of learned), nidhidhyasana (focused attention), dhyana (meditation) are advised in this regard and the rest is in the hands of divine grace (daiva anugraha). Nobody can give any assurance in this regard. So, one is left to go on his own without any support and mend his self.