Question: What is the power and significance of a mantra?

Sri Chinmoy: A mantra is an incantation. It can be one syllable, it can be a word or it can be a phrase or a sentence. Each mantra embodies a particular aspect of godhead. When we chant a mantra, immediately we invoke the presence of the presiding deity of that manta. We may not know the name of the god or his particular capacities, but this does not matter. A mantra is like the root of a tree. If we can touch the root, then immediately we feel that the current in the root will take us to all the branches and flowers and leaves and fruits. When we chant a mantra, all the capacities of the particular god that is being invoked will come into our system.

But this chanting has to be done most soulfully. When we chant a mantra, most of us do it like a parrot, so the mantra has no efficacy, and there is no result. But if the mantra is repeated most soulfully, then the infinite power that the mantra has becomes a manifested reality in us. We don’t have to know all the divine qualities of a particular god. But through a mantra, inwardly and in a very unmistakable way, we enter into all the capacities of that particular god. Chanting mantras can be practised from the beginning to the end of our spiritual journey.