The Life-Changing Secret of Connection, Joy and Calm
Mantra Meditation
RĀDHIKĀ DĀS
‘Mantra Meditation is timeless and timely. Rādhikā has made an ancient method simple and accessible for our busy lives.’
JAY SHETTY
Mantra Meditation
Mantra Meditation
The Life-Changing Secret of Connection, Joy and Calm
Rider, an imprint of Ebury Publishing Penguin Random House UK One Embassy Gardens, 8 Viaduct Gardens, Nine Elms, London SW 11 7 BW
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Copyright © Raˉdhikaˉ Daˉs 2025
Co- author: Vandna Synghal
Illustrations © Vilaˉsinıˉ Raˉdhaˉ
Raˉdhikaˉ Daˉs has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
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First published by Rider in 2025
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To my cherished teachers, dear family and friends, and to all who seek truth and love
Foreword by
Sacinandana Swami
Chapter 1: ‘Give me another chance’ with Narayana Narayana 37
Chapter 2: ‘I commit’ with Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya 51
Chapter 3: Find your tribe with Jaya Gaura Bhakta Vrinda 69
Chapter 4: Get happy inside with Shri Rama Jaya Rama 85
Chapter 5: Find strength with Om Hanumate Namah
Chapter 6: Overcome fear and anxiety with Namaste
Chapter 7: ‘Rescue me’ with Shri Krishna Sharanam Mama
Chapter 8: Transform with Shiva Shambho, Mahadeva
Chapter 9: Access true love with the Maha Mantra
Chapter 10: Send love to others with the Maha Mantra
FOREWORD
The tradition of chanting is ancient and spread across the cultures of the earth. But practices need to be translated to remain relevant for contemporary people. Traditions should not become museums filled with artifacts that collect dust. However, the challenge is to make such practices accessible without losing the essence.
Raˉdhikaˉ Daˉs’s book speaks to us in the language of modern times, while maintaining the high spiritual values, wisdom and insights of the venerable Bhakti tradition. Thus, the book is a vibrant guide to the treasures of chanting – a living connection and highly invigorating relationship with the Supreme. Explore, apply and experience the wonderful world of mantra.
Sacinandana Swami
Preface
‘Think of mantra as a compassionate cosmic friend.’
I’ve always wanted to be free. As a child, I dreamed of becoming an adventuring pilot who soared through the skies. As a teenager, I desperately wanted ‘out’ from parental restrictions, and as a young adult, I couldn’t believe that the rest of my life would be bound by a nine-to-five schedule. It just didn’t make sense to me. I wanted to be free to sing, make music, reach out, live a life less ordinary – free to be.
At first, I thought it was everything outside of me making my life difficult – rules, norms, expectations, disappointments. But that wasn’t true. Somewhere along the way, it started to dawn on me that my most challenging opponent was inside: the mind.
What is freedom?
A most unyielding adversary, the mind sometimes puts on boxing gloves and does your dreams over with fears and doubts. Sometimes it creates a traffic jam of plans, wants and needs, all heading in different directions. At least, it did for me. Over the past 15 years, I’ve been redefining freedom for myself:
_ Freedom is becoming unperturbed (or at least much less disturbed) by the endless pushing and shoving of my mind.
_ Freedom is knowing that I am not my mind.
_ Freedom is not feeling dependent on cheap stimulants, sweet foods, alcohol or entertainment to feel good.
_ Freedom is no longer seeking validation from others to feel confident.
_ Freedom comes from creating a sacred space inside, separate from all else, a spot of bliss.
_ Freedom comes from filling my cup and letting it overflow to others.
_ Freedom is plunging, diving, floating in an ocean of love.
_ Freedom came after making mantra my best friend . . .
Spain 2010: When mantra found me
My relationship with mantra began in the Spanish mountains of Brihuega. I had joined 50 other young people on a spiritual retreat organised by the Hare Krishna temple in Hertfordshire. The retreat was a summer annual to encourage young people to engage with mantra practices and philosophy. Every trip was based in a beautiful European temple. This was my fourth time. The previous three summers I had gone mainly to get away from home. Let’s face it – my parents were only going to let a 16-year- old traipse around Europe if the trips were organised by the temple, which meant no alcohol or funny business. In all the retreats, I would sleep in with a few other rebels, skip classes, as they seemed heavy, and avoid mantra sessions because singing and dancing felt awkward.
In 2010, the guys convinced me to go to Spain. I knew this was going to be my last shot at these retreats, as I was by then old enough to travel without supervision. Deep down, I liked the people, food, fun, but I hadn’t clicked with the whole package.
These retreats brought another inner conflict, too. At home, I was part of a cool clique who were into the clubbing and drinking scene. I was scared that they would think I was a weirdo. I never let on that I was going to these retreats. It was like living a double life. The temple guys were a different kind of ‘cool’ who were into mantra and meditation. The two lifestyles were uncomfortably different.
For Spain, I also lied to my new girlfriend. She was fiercely atheist and would have said this was all weird religious malarkey. I told her I was going on a family holiday to celebrate my uncle’s birthday. Though I didn’t want to be dishonest, I was still working up the courage to tell her that I somewhat liked this new stuff.
On the last day of the retreat, she unexpectedly dumped me! Worse, she did it by text message, without any explanation. I couldn’t understand it. I also couldn’t catch enough reception to text back. So there I was, sitting at the back of the hall with nothing to do but notice that everyone else was absorbed in kirtan (a meditative practice where sacred names of the divine person are chanted to music). I liked kirtan, though not in a serious way. I understood that the practice was said to cleanse and lighten the heart of misery, but I wasn’t convinced about this or the other claims that it raises our consciousness and fills us with love.
Nevertheless, I listened now, more intently than previously. The mridanga drums (a two- sided classical Indian drum) seemed to soothe with their rhythm. The violin reverberated sweetness in the air. The devotional lead singer seemed to offer his whole being as he chanted a mantra. He called it out. The audience repeated. He called it out again. As this carried on, the sound called out to me. It called me to attention. It called me to my feet. I guess I was so frustrated about the break-up that it was easy to sing out these emotions with the chanting. The lead singer invited us to offer our truest sentiments upward with the mantra. ‘Infuse the chanting with a heartfelt calling,’ he urged us. That was easy enough for me. I was hurt, confused and
desperate for clarity. I found myself getting up and shuffling about to the music. Dancing wasn’t really my thing, but the beat was catchy. I started to feel soothed.
Anger found an outlet as I concentrated on the mantra, and gradually I organised my emotions as I channelled them through my voice. I expressed upward. I let it go. The feelings of frustration were subdued and I woke up to something else –the sound. Rise up, it said. Flow with me. Go with me. All will be. I felt connected. It was a marvellous feeling. I never imagined a balm for heartbreak could come for free and with no hangover.
Throughout the meditation, the lead singer sang with an irresistible, comforting smile. It was mesmerising. At the end, I whisked to the front to talk to him. ‘What is this? This is for me,’ I tried to say in one breath. He grinned.
I told him about my troubles. He listened. He offered some gentle words – something about how it takes time to find ourselves. I don’t think I even understood what he meant, but I knew there was something deeply real beneath his soothing gestures.
And that was it. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that was the turning point in the journey of my life. Thankfully, my girlfriend relented and took me back. We married and have been happily together ever since. After seven years of informal guidance, the mantra leader was gracious enough to formally become my spiritual guide in 2017 and remains a pivotal part of my life.
To my utter surprise and joy, I also found my way to a much-more-than- ordinary vocation! As I dived into kirtan for myself, opportunities to sing for others grew, and before I knew
it, I’d embarked on a career of sharing mantra as kirtan with public audiences. And that’s me now: singing at the top of my lungs and from as deep down in the heart as possible – and hoping to spend the rest of my life learning to make mantra my dearest friend and protector.
With this book, I hope to be the go-between for you and mantra, and I trust that you will discover how its super-powerful energy can raise your mood, brighten your day and transform your consciousness. The practice of chanting can create for you a personal space for nourishment, reflection and healing. It can positively change your life, too – in many ways, big or small. In mantra I trust.
Let’s begin.
Introduction
Sound alters reality.
‘Mantra gives us shelter and respite in a moment of timelessness.’
Usually, we think change comes with time, spontaneous or planned events, new decisions, a new look, new people or jobs or homes or holidays. Certainly, these can spark a pivot in direction, but there is also one fundamental element that is essential to our lives but doesn’t get much press for its powerful ability to bring about change. Let’s make some noise about it . . drum roll, please . . introducing the changemaker extraordinaire: sound!
We are shaped by sound
We are permeated by the myriad forms of sound: music, a good ol’ hum, talking, laughing, crying, singing, arguing, gossiping. From the buzz of our alarm clocks first thing, our every day is shaped by a clamorous track of audible alerts from phone messages, train doors, traffic lights, shop tills, coffee machines and more. News, views and advertising surround us, shape us and often overwhelm us. Throw in some honking, drilling and sirens . . . the blaring beats go on and on, pushing and shoving us along in life.
The power of these sounds is obvious. Our moods alter with a favourite tune, a harsh tone or an abrasive interruption. We are lifted or deflated. Why? Because sound alters reality. But not just our emotions and feelings; it changes physical, tangible matter, too. Take a wineglass, for example. Sound, which in its essence is a vibrating wave, can make a wineglass sing or break when certain frequencies are passed over its surface.
For centuries, shamans (healers and priests from traditional indigenous cultures) have used ancient song and instruments to heal the body. In modern times, we use ultrasound to create images for medical diagnoses. There are many documented experiments where plants repeatedly ‘spoken’ to in abusive curses have decayed, while plants that received complimentary praise bloomed. Sure, scientific evidence for these experiments may be lacking, but our human experience clearly demonstrates that positive self-talk energises us, while depressed and derogatory self-criticism deflates us. Thus, all these examples show that material sound waves move, influence and change us and the objects around us in many ways.
Transformation through spiritual sound
Spiritual sound can bring phenomenal change, according to the Bhakti tradition – an ancient Eastern movement that formalised in the seventh/eighth century in India, and that held loving devotion to divinity, represented by a supreme divine person, expressed in mantra, song and poetry as its core practice. Setting itself apart from casteism, ascetism and ritual, the Bhakti philosophy welcomed all parts of the community to serve, worship and feast together. Communal devotional chanting with music and dance was considered the most fundamental catalyst for the deepest transformation possible.
Over primeval history, sacred sound has manifested as mantras – utterances that have formed into audible words or phrases. Said to come from a sublime dimension far beyond material reality, they carry pure, superhuman, supercharged energy that bestows enduring benefits.
To me, mantras are gifts from divinity. Expressions of love. Made of love. In fact, mantra is love – love shaped and arranged as an auditory experience, overflowing with the intention to bring peace, presence, connection, vision and fearlessness to anyone whose ears are touched by it.
At an elemental, atomic level, mantras are made up of Sanskrit sounds called akshara , which means words that are imperishable and immutable. Once released into the atmosphere, they may change from one energy form to another,