Risks and Dangers of Incorrect Mantra Pronunciation
Can your yoga teacher recite or pronounce mantras correctly? Do you incorporate this key ingredient to enhance your practise? Read on to find out the risks and dangers of incorrect pronunciation and what you are missing out of if you leave it out.
Mantras are an essential part of the yogic practise. In simple terms a mantra is a high frequency word or sentences. These mantras like a psychologist’s suggestion enter your mind and make profound and positive changes in you. Combining your asana practise along with mantra, pranayama (breathwork), dharana (focusing on a single point), mudras (gestures made by hand usually, but can include any part of the body or even resemble an asana), and bandhas (energy locks) is an essential requisite to ensure you derive the full benefit of your yogic practise. Likewise, when practising pranayama, you need to combine the rest (sitting in the correct or best asana, reciting, or mindfully stating the correct mantra, using the correct mudra, and performing the correct bandhas). In the same manner when practising meditation (we call it dhyana in yogic language) all the other components must be incorporated correctly.
It is like driving a car. You must be precise with using the steering wheel, brakes and clutches, mirrors, understanding and using the elements on the dashboard, seatbelts, signal lights, tools during a breakdown and your body for signalling or doing visual checks. You cannot perform a drive if these elements are not coordinated correctly or if you cannot do one of them correctly. All must be learnt and followed precisely.
Mantras, which is the focus of this article has power and meaning. It has vibrations that affects every part of your body. If this is excluded from the practise (like not knowing a skill in driving) or pronounced incorrectly (like using a skill in driving incompetently or incorrectly) the benefit is lost or can even be harmful. So, it is essential that you learn and use it correctly.
Mantras like the other elements of yoga are essential secrets that take your yogic practise to the next level. It is not enough to keep doing asanas. Asanas are just a simple component of the eight limbs of yoga, and you must move beyond it in your yogic practise. However, in the Western society and culture asanas are the stand-alone component of this ancient and powerful system.
Every mantra must be pronounced using the correct length of the syllables and the speed of recitation is important.
Vibrations originating from a mantra recitation should be felt on a specific part of the body, it must travel throughout the body in the correct manner and finally have its impact on a specific part of the body or heart or brain to impact you physically, mentally, or emotionally. Say, for example during kundalini awakening, certain pranayama and mantra vibration should flow correctly through your spinal cord. If this is not coordinated and sequenced correctly, the benefit is lost or can harm the practitioner.
Most mantras were devised by the sages in the languages prevalent in ancient India. This includes Tamil (most yogic gurus and teachers were Tamil), Sanskrit or even Pali (meditations derived from Buddhism such as Vipassana meditation). Unless a non-native speaker learns and masters these languages the mantra cannot be incorporated correctly. In my personal experience (go check out YouTube) you will note most yoga teachers struggling to pronounce the names of asanas. Even experienced teachers pronounce it (here I mean the name of the asana, because they leave out the mantra as it is too difficult) with an accent which is risky and sometimes downright dangerous.
Mantras have healing powers when recited correctly. So obviously the benefit is lost when this is not done correctly. Yoga when practised correctly has therapeutic benefits and used as a tool to heal many medical conditions, especially those diseases called psychosomatic diseases that stem from the tense mind affecting the body such as stress and other mental diseases. Psychosomatic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, migraine, asthma, ulcers, digestive disorders, and skin diseases arise from tensions in the body and mind. The leading causes of death in developed countries, cancer, and heart disease, also stem from tension. Modern medical science has been trying to tackle these problems in many ways, but frankly speaking, they have failed to deliver the necessary health to man. This is because the real problem does not lie in the body; it originates in man’s changing ideals, in his way of thinking and feeling. Unless your mantra works its magic in the overall formula and healing process, the benefits are lost.
Mantras like mudras have the power through their vibrating effect to make your body supple and flexible increasing your body awareness to perform asanas and meditation. Again, incorrect pronunciation can have a negative effect on the practitioner. Examples include om or oum pronunciation in HUMSO mediation and Om Namasivaya meditation).
Hence I hope I have provided useful guidance to students and teachers alike on the value of using mantras as an essential part of yogic practise. Use it as a secret souse improve and enhance your practise.
Copyright Kumarasingam Skandakumar (Sydney Yoga School)
