An Indian mantra is a phrase created by a great master or handed down to the people by a Hindu deity and is meant to transform and evolve the person who recites it. Some people told me that the sounds and vibrations of these mantras when correctly said effect some change in the body, others said that the only good mantra is one designed specifically for you by your master (who has diagnosed your condition fully and knows your mind/body/soul state intimately enough to prescribe a mantra to you).

The Gayatri Mantra is called "the mother of all mantras" by many and is supposed to be one of the oldest from the time of the first written works (Vedas) of the Indo Aryan civilization in the Indus valley. I first heard this mantra on a tape played by a German woman Sabine I met upon arriving to Varanasi, India. She had spent several months prior to our meeting learning her yoga practice in Rishikesh at a small yoga school and living with a separate yogi up the hillside. She was instructed by the yogi she lived with to listen to the mantra on cassette tape for some period of time each day to focus her mind. I heard her listening to the cassette and found the presentation of the mantra there extremely catchy and groovy. On its own it was a nice piece of music and all the better that it helps one to evolve. Tapes of this mantra are available everywhere in India and I sent my best copy to Koji Otsuka in Houston: he can be reached at kojio@hotmail.com if you would like to get a copy (cant promise he will respond but you can try!).

As are most mantras, the Gayatri mantra is written in Sanskrit (a precursor of Hindi and Nepali) Here are the words of the Gayatri Mantra with the word meanings as copied from a sheet Sabine was carrying with her: