Mantras are invocations of different aspects or powers of the One. Depending upon where they come from they carry the vibrations of that plane that can act as a key to open a door leading us to the state or the plane from where they have emerged. Some mantras can also draw a Deity through the power of rhythmic sound. Their effect depends upon three things. The power infused into it by the one who gave the mantra, for example, Sri Aurobindo’s Gayatri is meant to be an invocation of the highest Light for the entire being and not just the mind. Secondly, it depends upon the power its practitioners have invested in it through association and faith. Finally, it depends also upon the recipient consciousness. It is not like a mechanical utterance that works like a tool or a device that will work always in the same manner and in the same way for everyone. The higher ranges of consciousness have a degree of freedom and plasticity that cannot be subjected to rules that may apply to the most material nature.
Then there is Savitri which the Mother has confirmed as the mantra of transformation whose reading itself can take us through the stages of the yoga and the realisations that come through it. Its rhythm and power are infused with the consciousness of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and hence it has an advantage over all the mantras we have known so far.
The Mother’s Name however is much more than a mantra, since it invokes not just a power or an aspect of the One but Her who is beyond the One and holds within Herself both the Being and the Non-Being, Manifest and the Unmanifest, Saguna and Nirguna, and yet transcends them all. She holds the key not just to the ascension to the different planes but also the integration of the higher with the lower, of god and world. The key to transformation is with Her. But of course, it requires a certain faith and opening which is unfortunately not easily found in human nature, where there is plenty of belief and superstition or sometimes doubt and scepticism, but very little faith. Her Name ‘Maa’ is self-sufficient as an All-encompassing Absolute.
