For beginners, mantras can be a powerful way to feel the inner peace and joy that comes from meditation without having to worry too much about silencing your mind. Many of our class-givers really enjoy including mantra-meditation exercises as part of their classes.

Often they will begin with simple mantric songs such as these:

Aum Aparajitaya Namah (meaning: Aum – I bow to the inconquerable. This can be taken to mean the inconquerable soul)

Aum Govindaya Namah (a mantra for protection, invoking Govinda)

These 2 mantras are part of a series of 61 ancient Sanskrit chants that Sri Chinmoy set to music. Each chant invokes an Indian deity, or aspect of the Highest.

• The above arrangements are courtesy of our friends from the Sri Chinmoy Centre in the UK, and their music group Ananda; you can download their full album of 16 mantras (plus words and scores) here…
• If you can read music, you might also be interested in browsing the full songbook of 61 Sanskrit mantras on Sri Chinmoy’s official songs site