Combining Classic Chakra Seed Sounds with Goddess and Other Seed Sounds

Background Information

In November 2021 I was asked to create an online course about mantras, chakras and the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and akash.   Akash has no obvious English translation, we can call it a field of potential.  The request to create the course came in a flash of consciousness when I was relaxing after work.  The source of the message was, I believe, Yogananda's paramguru Babaji, whom I prefer to call the Mahayogi.  It took me a while to grasp what the Mahayogi required of me, but after re-reading a book by David Frawley entitled 'Mantra Yoga and Primal Sound', I realized that using combinations of bija mantras (seed sounds) on one or more of the chakras is a simple but brilliant way to explore one's chakras system and energy field.  

CHAKRA SEED MANTRAS

ROOT  SACRAL  STOMACH  HEART  THROAT BROW  CROWN  ABOVE THE HEAD

LAM      VAM      RAM             YAM      HAM       OM*    ANG*      SIM

*OM will not be confined to the brow chakra in seed mantra combinations we will use.

*ANG comes from mantra purusha and is thus not strictly a chakra sound

THE SEED SOUNDS LISTED ABOVE CAN BE COMBINED WITH GODDESS SEED SOUNDS: 

EIM (AIM): Expansion and creativity (Saraswati)

HRIM:  Illuminating gently (Bhuvaneshwari or Parvati)

KRIM: Driving and reminding (Kali)

SHRIM: Noursihing (Lakshmi)

AND WITH OTHER SEED SOUNDS ENDING IN ‘IM’

IM: Focus and deliberation (left eye in mantra purusha)

KLIM: Attracting

SIM: Above the head chakra

STRIM: Strength and expansion

TRIM: Crossing and connecting

MORE  SEED SOUNDS

AUM: Depth

GLAUM: Ganesh seed sound

GUM:  Ganesh seed sound

HAUM:  Clearing (associated with Shiva)

HOOM:  Energizing

SAU: Permeating

WHERE DO MANTRAS COME FROM? 

Many classic mantras come from sacred texts.  However there are probably thousands of mantras that are not found in books but are passed on from person to person, and I suggest that many mantra practitioners down the centuries have composed new mantras, or altered traditional mantras very slightly to suit the person they were advising.  

I had not thought of composing seed mantra combinations until Babaji/the Mahayogi asked me to create this course.    David Frawley gives examples of how to enhance existing mantras by inserting seed sounds into the body of a mantra.  

Over ninety per cent of the seed sound combinations that I will be offering for these courses are ones that I composed myself.   Of course that does not mean that down the centuries nobody has  ever come up with exactly the same combinations but I started with a blank slate.  I encourage people who are serious about mantra and about healing using sound in general, to consider composing their own combinations of seed sounds which of course do not have to be aimed at one or more of the chakras.  I would say that these seed sounds are powerful and should be treated with care and respect.  

 

SARASWATI 

The Goddess Saraswati represents growth through any kind of learning.  I owe a massive debt to the late Thomas Ashley-Farrand who wrote books on mantra and included CD's to help the Western audience with pronunciation.  Thomas was trained by Sant KeshavaDas.  I was also helped by reading 'Healing Sounds' by Jonathan Goldman and 'The Naked Voice' by Chloe Goodchild.  With regard to this seed sound combinations work, I would not have been able to do it, had I not read David Frawley's book entitled 'Mantra Yoga and Primal Sound'.

Mantra is not quite the same as music, in the sense that the freedom to improvise is not really there, unless you are composing seed sound combinations.  Unlike pure musical expression, where of course you still have to hold your discipline, but have freedom to bring so much emotion into your voice or your playing; mantra practice is more confined.  If you are keeping your attention on one or more of the chakras, possibly shifting that focus from chakra to chakra, then you have a wonderful sense of flow, but your attention is still on your subtle energy system, whereas when you sing a song, the lyrics can take you out of yourself, so to speak.  

PHOTO CREDIT: Glastonbury Tor by Nick Edge