Have you been in a yoga class and encountered mantra? It’s not incredibly common in the West, but in some studios (like ours) you’ll find it. In this post we’ll give you more background about why we work with mantra.
At a fundamental level, everything is energy. Physics shows that matter isn’t solid the way we think it is—it’s vibrating. If you want to understand mantra, then you have to understand: We live in a vibratory universe.
As solid as we seem, we as human beings are also energy. And energy carries vibration, making us vibrational beings.
Every molecule in your body hums at its own characteristic frequency. Your heartbeat pulses around once per second. Your brainwaves oscillate between 0.5 and 40 hertz. Your breath moves in rhythmic waves, your cells follow circadian patterns, and your heart and brain even generate measurable electromagnetic fields.
Whether or not we’re aware of it, we are made of rhythm.
Principles of vibration
Everything is energy, and energy interacts with itself in certain ways. Vibrations can interact, synchronize, and sometimes transform one another.
A stronger frequency can amplify a weaker one through resonance. Over time, even differing frequencies can align through synchronization. And if an energy is out of harmony, it can be transmuted—shifted into a higher, more coherent state.
When we work with mantra, we are working with these properties. We’re tuning the instrument of the body and mind, helping our personal energy field return to harmony with nature’s greater rhythm.
In this way, we can consider mantra a tool for correcting energy. And all of nature responds to frequency.
Mantra + Sanskrit
Sanskrit is the language of mantra, and it’s unique in that it was never meant for casual conversation. It is a vibrational language—used for sacred texts like the Upanishads and Tantric scriptures.
Sanskrit mantras are onomatopoeic—they sound like the essence of what they describe. This is why chanting them can feel hypnotic or spacey; you’re not just saying a word, you’re invoking a frequency.
Mantra, Heart, Mind
The practice of mantra is deeply connected to the heart.
In Sanskrit, the heart center is known as Anahata, often translated as “the unstruck sound.” It refers to a vibration that exists before contact—a sound that arises from pure being. The heartbeat is said to be the first mantra of life, the original rhythm that carries us into existence.
When we chant from the heart, we charge the sound with feeling. The mantra becomes animated by our emotion and sincerity. The heart, after all, is not only the seat of love but also a natural amplifier of vibration.
Mantra also refines the mind. Through repetition, it gently reshapes the patterns of thought, creating new pathways of awareness and quieting old mental grooves.
It offers the mind a rhythm to rest in—something steady, intentional, and alive. In time, the practice deepens: the mantra ceases to be something you repeat, and instead becomes something that moves through you.
Working with mantras
There are countless mantras, each with its own energetic signature or “stamp.” Some are specific—used for invoking certain qualities or deities—while others are universal prayers meant for all beings.
Many mantras contain bija or “seed” sounds—primordial tones that arose from silence itself. These don’t translate into words; they are pure frequencies that awaken subtle energetic responses within us.
Intellectually, we might understand a mantra’s meaning. But the deeper power of mantra is experiential. The true meaning can only be realized through practice—through feeling, vibration, and resonance.
How to work with mantra
There are four primary ways to work with a mantra:
- Out loud — Sends the vibration into the physical world, allowing the sound to move through space. When chanted in a group, the shared resonance amplifies into a powerful collective field.
- Softly — Spoken just above a whisper, it turns the vibration inward, awakening subtle sensations in the body and mind.
- Silently — The mantra becomes internal, echoing in the quiet of your own awareness. It helps dissolve thought and draw you into deep stillness.
- Tuning in — The mantra begins to repeat itself naturally, arising unbidden from within. At this stage, you’re no longer chanting—the mantra is chanting through you.
And four aspects to attune while chanting:
- Bhava — The feeling tone or emotional attitude you bring to the practice; the devotion that fuels the sound.
- Intention — The clarity of purpose behind your chanting; what you wish to invoke or align with.
- Sound current — The specific vibration or energetic quality carried by the mantra’s tone.
- Pronunciation — The accuracy and care with which each syllable is expressed, allowing the mantra’s full resonance to emerge.
The bottom line
Mantra is both ancient science and living art. It bridges energy and awareness, sound and silence, mind and heart.
To chant is to remember that you are vibration itself. To practice mantra is to tune your frequency back to harmony—with yourself, with others, and with the pulse of the universe.