Mantras and the Mind

Mantras and the Mind
Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa

In Kundalini Yoga we talk about mastering the polarity; in the world of psychology they speak of unifying the four principle dualities. They are much the same thing and even seek the same goal, though they have different names: enlightenment, awakening, healing, inner peace. What I have come to appreciate most about the Teachings of Yogi Bhajan is how simple some of the mantras seem on the surface and yet how deeply they cut through the levels of consciousness to address the various polarities and projections within the mind/psyche/ego complex. Ken Wilber identifies four primary dualities in his book , The Spectrum of Consciousness, and each progressive split has its own accompanying neuroses and behavioral patterns. Essentially, Wilbur shows how “man’s identity at each level, for each major dualism results in a progressively narrowed and restricted sense of identity, from the universe to the organism to the ego to parts of the ego.” I won’t try to synthesis his arguments, but I would like to make some connections between his description of the spectrum of consciousness, our identity as Kundalini Yogis, and four simple mantras given to us by Yogi Bhajan, the Master of Kundalini Yoga.

God and Me, Me and God, Are One. The primary duality occurs at the level of mind and it is the first separation of the self from the Self. This is the birth of the other, the first step away from the infinite identity and toward a limited identity. It’s most profound effect is the sense of separation from our environments and from God. We begin to project God outside ourselves. We separate ourselves from the natural world and from the vastness of our own minds. This primary dualism is the seed which ultimately gives birth to the shadow. Fear of death, fear of the other, fear of ourselves all flow from this initial division of self and other. How do we reunite this fundamental polarity? Yogi Bhajan gave an English mantra that says it simply but challenges the psyche on profound levels: God and me, me and God, are one. With this simple rhythmic mantra, the master has planted the seed of reunification. Stop looking outside yourself. Know your own infinite divinity. Understand your vastness. Rest in the ever-present now. With this unified consciousness, the fear of death, which drives so many of our compulsive and self-destructive behaviors, dissolves like honey in water. With this mantra, we affirm and confirm our identity: co-creators, infinite, timeless and vast, without beginning and without end.

God and Me, Me and God are One is on this album, perfect for beginners to Kundalini Yoga.

Ang Sang Wahe Guru. The secondary duality occurs at the existential level. Here we split our psyche from our soma, our mind from our body, our soul from our self. In this splintering we do one of two things: we disassociate from the body and reject it as ugly, sinful, grotesque and apply harsh and often painful austerities upon it; or we disassociate from our self and our values and allow the body’s desires to express themselves unchecked, falling into a pattern of self-destructive behavior. This secondary duality builds upon the first by splitting our bodies off from their original goodness, their original divine natures. The body as a temple becomes either something to ignore or destroy because I don’t claim it as me, I don’t recognize it as my own. With the mantra Ang Sang Wahe Guru, Yogi Bhajan gave us the opportunity to experience our animal nature, our bodies, as what they truly are: beings of divine light. “Every cell of my body vibrates with the ecstasy of Divinity.” Our minds are not separate from our bodies, and our bodies are not separate from our minds. The body is a map of the mind, and the mind is a map of the body. When we heal this secondary duality, we reunite our psyche and soma. The body becomes a temple once more, where our entire being can be experienced and nourished. We become self-sensory humans.

Mata Mandir Singh's version of "Ang Sang Waheguru" is one of many lovely versions.

I am, I am. The third duality occurs at the level of ego. Here we have what remains of the psyche v. soma split: our collected memories, our projected behaviors, both successful and unsuccessful, and our own idea of who we are as well as the collective idea, our understanding of how others view us. A healthy ego can serve us, but what often happens at this level of consciousness is what Yogi Bhajan called the “identical identity.” We become split from our own projection and lose sight of our self. Often, we confront this split projection at the major transitions in our lives—the 7-year itch, the mid-life crisis, or Saturn’s return. We no longer identify with our identity, we no longer relate to who others know us to be, or who we’ve known ourselves to be. We feel lost. The mistake we make at this level of consciousness is to imagine that who we’ve been isn’t true; that it’s all been a lie. When in fact we’ve simply lost touch with our self and created an identical identity; we’ve disassociated from our own ego. Another mistake we make at this level of consciousness is to attach to an ego identity that we truly have outgrown. When we recreate our self-image from old information, childhood ideas that still impact who we think we are, we’re not able to recognize who we’ve become—and who’ve we’ve always been. With the mantra, I am, I am, we affirm the ego and expand into infinity. We recognize the identical identity as our self. We realign ourselves to our values and virtues and we use the ego to serve our mission rather than letting it lead us away from who we truly are—divine. The initial I am is an affirmation and recognition of the ego, the second I am is an expanded awareness of who we truly are, taking us directly back to the primary duality and reuniting our consciousness with the consciousness of all that is.

Sat Kartar's version of "I Am, I Am" is perfect for yoga practice.

The other person is you. The fourth duality is known as the shadow. When the ego splits itself into parts and we begin to project both positive and negative behaviors outside ourselves; at this stage, the primary duality has gone viral! We often think of the shadow as negative, but it can actually be positive, too. Any behavior, any talent, anything that we don’t recognize within ourselves—the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly—and instead project onto others. “The other person is you,” though not a mantra per se, it is a sutra, a slogan, which can heal the shadow and reunite us with all our bits that over time we’ve projected onto our family, our friends, our enemies and even strangers. The simplest way to recognize your shadow is to make a list of all the qualities you admire in other people and all the qualities you loathe in other people. Then, take a deep breath and ask yourself, “Do I recognize any of these qualities as me?” The other person truly is you. All those things you admire and all those things that agitate you are you. Once you invite them in—the good and the bad—they lose their power. Because, you see, in projecting these qualities outside ourselves, we also give our power to them. When we reintegrate them, we regain our power.

Our true identity—Sat Nam—is the fruit of mastering the polarity and reuniting with the fundamental field that is the mind, the God within. We lose our fear of death, we lose our fear of the other, we recognize our self in all that is and we rejoice in the creativity of the creation. We dance in the vibration. We live in the love. We celebrate this moment with this breath and rejoice in our identity.

Satkirin's "Sat Naam" helps you connect deeply with this sound current.

Practice these mantras, use these slogans, and be victorious: Man jeetai jag jeet. “Conquer your mind and you conquer the world.” –Guru Nanak Dev Ji

For more information about Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan® please see www.kundaliniresesarchinstitute.org or www.yogibhajan.org.