Everything is Possible in India: The power of mantra

Many countries have unique sayings that encapsulate their cultural spirit. In Costa Rica “Pura Vida” (Pure Life) is used as a greeting, farewell, and affirmation. In Thailand “Mai pen rai” means “Don’t worry about it,” “It’s okay,” or “no problem.” In India, the words “Sab Kuch Milega” (Everything is possible) are thrown around liberally.

Initially, these words passed me by unnoticed. But after hearing them repeatedly, the phrase began jumping out at me and I started to ponder its meaning.

Could it be true that e-v-e-r-y thing is possible? It brought my hidden inner pessimist into plain view. That half-empty-cup lingering in the murky corners of my subconscious mind. But positivity is much more fun than negativity, so I decided to try it on.  To use another common Indian quote:  “Why not?”

 

 

After 6 turbulent months in India and all the trials it put me through, I began to live from a different perspective of possibility, and it all comes down to thought, belief, and what I’m willing to mentally entertain and consume.

 

 

The Power of Thought

Growing up in California during the New Age movement of the ’80s and early ’90s, the concept of ‘positive thinking’ is not new to me. I’ve studied my mind and watched thoughts project into reality when identified with. For this reason, I avoid complaints and strive to avoid negative thinking.

My innate skills lie in empathy, intuition, communication, and healing. For years I studied the atrocities of the world with a yearning to understand and learn how to bring balance and healing. In the end, what I actually learned is that it’s dangerous to focus on darkness because we feed and empower what we focus upon. Giving attention to negativity only makes it stronger (and myself weaker and sick). I’ve learned to be deliberate with where I gift my attention. Attention is precious.

I don’t turn away from world suffering but I also don’t pause there for long. I made a choice to feed goodness; I don’t believe we have time for anything less. Negativity gets way too much air time. My life is more productive and happy when I focus on goodness. I’m on team light!

 

 

India provided me a good look into the ways I continue indulging in negative thinking, and how much unconscious darkness I’ve yet to uproot.

 

 

Pay Attention

On a friend’s last day in India, we met for breakfast and discussed our time in Rishikesh. I expressed how surprised and delighted I was to remain healthy after hearing countless tales of dysentery, amebas, parasites, and ‘Delhi Belly.’

After breakfast, we walked to the Ashram where we’d been attending Satsang (a meeting with spiritual teacher and community). We sat in a familiar spot just behind a young couple and their gentle baby. Day after day that baby slept or sat quietly through the entire 2-3 hour Satsang.

 

 

After we settled into our spot, I leaned over to my friend and said “I’m surprised we’ve not heard a peep out of that baby.” He nodded and smiled.

Catching myself, I added, “I hope I didn’t just jinx us.” To which he laughed.

During Satsang, the teacher relayed a fable about a man visiting a “magic land” where thoughts manifested instantly. Delighted by his newfound abilities, the man proceeded to think of all the good things he ever wanted, and they all appeared instantly for him and his family. Everyone was happy.

One day, the man considered the danger of this magic: “I should be very careful”  he thought. “What would happen if I thought about monsters for example?” Immediately two monsters appeared and ate the man.

We all laughed.

But the story was making a point, and a short while later the baby began crying inconsolably. The mother had to leave Satsang. My friend and I looked at each other with wide eyes and began laughing at this ‘coincidence.’

By the end of the day, I was doubled over with dysentery so painful that I couldn’t stand up and didn’t move from bed for 48 hours straight, completely missing my friends going away dinner. Is it a coincidence that I had just that morning been doubting my own health?

 

Breaking Patterns of Negativity

India is not a nice place to be sick alone. In the wee hours of the night, I felt desperately sorry for myself and spiraled into deep misery, panic, and ‘monkey mind.’

 

 

It was dark and my pain was magnified by focusing upon it. I was making it worse but didn’t know how to stop myself. I began to reflect on the day’s events and saw how I’d suggested that a crying baby was somehow more normal than a peaceful baby, and that being sick in India was more appropriate than being healthy. I basically thought these into existence.

“Perhaps Rishikesh is a bubble of instantly manifested thought-forms“  I mused.

 

 

 

I don’t actually believe a place on earth holds more potential to manifest thoughts than another. Yet, I wondered if the ‘collective unconscious’ of a culture steeped in karmic belief may play-out in the way life unfolds here.

 

 

I had to shift the direction of my energy, so I started to chant the Mahamrityunjaya healing mantra taught to me by Baba Hari Das some twenty years ago. The mantra (a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation) is said to benefit mental, emotional, physical health and longevity.

Everything is energy, and energy is vibration. Sanskrit being a vibrational language has the ability to affect all of existence. The sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet (48 audible and 3 inaudible) were revealed to ancient sages through meditation. The 51 sounds are linked to the 51 energy pathways (nadis) and chakras of the body.

The Sanskrit language is unlike any other in that it gives verbal expression to states of consciousness. Mantra not only distracts mind patterns and redirects in a beneficial direction, but mantra stimulates the chakras in such a way that you become the state of consciousness of that mantra.

I chanted Mahamrityunjaya Mantra through the entire night, holding onto it like a light in the darkness.

 

 

When dawn arose, I felt the negative had been transformed into positive. I’d literally benefited from the illness.

 

 

India has not been an easy place for me but its hardships have had a purifying effect. I couldn’t stand to be upset about everything and grew tired of my own inner complaints, so I just stopped. It’s called surrender.

In ceasing to entertain my miserable thoughts, I began to react less and give India my best regardless. Life is continually teaching lessons. We suffer less when we pay attention and learn.

 

 

 

This Moment

A few weeks later I traveled to McLeod Ganj where the Tibetans live in exile at 6,831 feet on the steep slops of the Himalayan Dhauladar Range. It had recently snowed and I was cold.

I don’t like being cold.

 

 

I was milling around a general store picking up supplies for breakfast when I noticed a bright young Indian man walk in with bare feet. My jaw must’ve dropped.

“Aren’t you cold with those bare feet?” I asked.

“My girlfriend and I are traveling the world with no shoes.” He replied cheerfully.

“Good for you,” I said. “But what I asked was: Aren’t your feet cold?”

“No,” He said. “It’s all about living in the moment.”

“But I have three pairs of socks, leg warmers, and hiking shoes on,” I replied. “And I’m freezing!”

“If you stop telling yourself that and live in the moment, there’s no problem.” He said.

Busted.

“Yes,” I affirmed, appreciative of the reminder. “Thank you,”  I said. “I need to work on that.”

“Oh no,” He said with a smile. “You don’t have to work on it. Just live in the moment.”

Busted again.

I laughed at how quickly I run back to my suffering (which exists in time. Time = mind), and the relief to free myself of it.

“Yes! Thank You.”  I said as I walked out of the store.

“Have a nice moment!”   He called after me.