Mantra japa recordings part 1: Narayana, Devi and Shiva key mantras

 Hari Aum.

Om Namo Narayayana. I hope all readers had a wonderful Diwali celebration yesterday. May God bless us and the world with peace and prosperity.

I have recorded the chanting a few mantras and am sharing these below in the hope this will be of some help to those yogis who desire to take up mantra recitation/japa but are less familiar with Sanskrit pronunciation. My pronunciation of these mantras is fairly standard and applies across various yoga traditions (though I learned these in the Sivananda centres/ashrams). 

The videos show an altar at my home. I apologise for the somewhat basic quality; these were made spontaneously using the video feature of my phone yesterday on Diwali evening after putting my three year old to sleep so I'm afraid they are not very fancy!  They are also rather short as the blog only permits very short recordings to be uploaded. I do hope they do the job of clarifying the pronunciation of the mantras though and are of some help to readers.

1. Om Namo Narayanaya (meaning obeisances to Lord Narayana)

2. Om Shri Durgayai Namah (meaning obeisances to Goddess Durga)

3. Om Shri MahaLakshmyai Namah (meaning obeisances to Goddess Lakshmi)

4. Om Shri Sarasvatyai Namah (meaning obeisances to Goddess Sarasvati)

5. Om Namah Shivaya (meaning obeisances to Lord Shiva)

(Note- due to the Sanskrit 'sandhi' rule of joining words, 'Om Namah Shivaya' is pronounced as 'Om NamasShivaya; the 'h' sound becomes transformed into 's' which then merges with the following word 'Shiva'. The overall result basically sounds like 'Om NamaShivaya'.)

I will create a second post and upload further recordings of other mantras including the Hare Rama mahamantra, the Mahamrityunjaya mantra, the navarna mantra and some others.

Hari Aum Tat Sat

P.S. I hope you had a spiritually fulfilling solar eclipse today. The next eclipse, a lunar one on November 8, is an important one and again, an excellent time to do sadhana.

I tend to recite mostly the ashtakshara mantra of Narayana during eclipses, and also include shorter sessions of reciting mantras of other deities such as those mentioned in this and other posts. The sankalpa or purpose of the recitation is spiritual progress, health and wellbeing of all, and of course, very importantly in these turbulent times, world peace. May God stregthen the forces of goodness on this planet, may He/She prevent another major world war, may we all become instruments of the Divine, may His/Her Will be done.