In early December 2020 I was asked to do a voice and mantra session for Ashram team members. I had not offered such a session for months. I took the opportunity to use that class to introduce a long mantra addressing Saraswati, to some of the team. Days later, I was in my room chanting a mantra to Shiva when I became aware of other presences around me and got a clear message in my mind, to start chanting a mantra to Kuan Yin. The mind being incredibly complex; one can never know for sure what exactly is happening when one individual believes that they are being addressed by an archetypal energy; you could say that this person has simply retuned her receptive abilities and has thus opened herself up at the right time and place. Doing any mantra can act as a broadening of one’s receptivity, and I was in the middle of chanting 108 rounds of the mrityunjaya mantra when I was stopped suddenly and ‘guided’ to begin a different mantra. A moment of grace came my way at the end of the 108 rounds of the Kuan Yin mantra, following which I was inspired to write a song. The track which names both Kuan Yin and the Roman Goddess Abundantia, is very uplifting and easy to sing. When I come to record it I may well add cello, flute and a little percussion for the chorus, if I can find some kindred musicians. Other Ashram team members really enjoy singing the song.
I had not worked seriously with the Kuan Yin mantra before that evening in December last year. I did not decide to chant the Kuan Yin mantra daily, despite my profound experiences on that fateful evening, yet I have on occasion done a thousand rounds in one go, on other days a few hundred rounds have felt right. I am convinced that introducing the long Saraswati mantra to team members brought about a deepening of my connection with Kuan Yin, which in turn gave me the song. When I came to do the first online voice and mantra session I chose the long Saraswati mantra and the short Kuan Yin mantra for the final part of that workshop. I hope that among the many who attended that first session, some folk may have decided to adopt one or both of those mantras into their practice. As I said in the session, it is my belief that any creative gifts a person might have will flower with the repetition of what Thomas Ashley-Farrand calls the Maha Vidya (Great Knowledge) mantra.
Mantra One
EIM HRIM SRIM KLIM SAUH KLIM HRIM EIM
BLUM STRIM NILATARI SARASWATI
DRAM DRIM KLIM BLUM SAH
EIM HRIM SHRIM KLIM SAUH SAUH HRIM SWAHA
Anglicized pronunciation
I’M HREEM SHREEM KLEEM SAW KLEEM HREEM I’M
BLOOM STREEM NEE-LAH-TAH-REE SAH-RAH-SWAH-TEE
DRAHM DREEM KLEEM BLOOM SAW
I’M HREEM SHREEM KLEEM SAW SAW HREEM SWAHA
Mantra Two
(the well known Mrityunjaya Mantra)
OM TRYAM BAKAM YAJAMAHE
SUGANDHIM PUSHTI VARDHANAM
URVARUKAMIVA BANDHANAN
MRITYOR MUKSHIYA MAMRITAT
Mantra Three
NAMO KUAN SHI YIN PU SA
Anglicized pronunciation
NAH-MOH KWAHN SHEE YIN POO SAH
Kuan Yin is regarded as a female Bodhisattwa in the Buddhist tradition and is popular in China, Japan and Taiwan.
