Question: What is the importance of mantra?

Sri Chinmoy: Mantra is of paramount importance in the spiritual life. But again, there are many people who do not repeat mantras: they aspire and meditate in a different way. Mantra is an incantation process for going deep within or to accelerate one’s spiritual progress. By repeating a mantra we can either invoke the presence of a particular god or we can bring to the fore our own inner divinity. But we cannot say that mantra is superior to prayer and meditation or that prayer or meditation is superior to mantra. No. We can call mantra one road that leads to realisation.