Transcript of the Guided Meditation on 7 March 2026 at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) Ashram in Rishikesh during AHYMSIN Sangha Gathering 2026.

Sitting still, inviting the Guru’s presence.

Inviting the Guru to settle down within you, offering your body, prana and mind to the Guru force.

Establishing the internal connection to that living stream that is our tradition.

Becoming infused with the light and the blessings of our Guru lineage.

Thereby allowing the mind to rise into higher frequency levels, allowing the awareness to rise into higher frequency levels.

Breath flowing as an even and smooth stream, an even flow.
In that flow allow our new community mantra to arise in your mind, being an expression of the ananda, the joy, the love, the completeness of the indwelling deity.

With that sentiment again offering your complete personality to the divinity dwelling inside of you.

Allowing the mantra to rise into more higher frequency levels of the mind, by which you may start to feel the touch of the Shakti embodied in the mantra. Allowing to be filled with that mantra-shakti.

Allowing this mantra-shakti to lift you up into even higher frequencies of the mind, where the Shakti starts to transform into a presence, the pure presence being embodied in this mantra sound.

Allowing yourself to dive deep into that presence.

Now allowing your mind to enter silence, resting in that presence.

Again allowing the mantra to reappear in the mind as this constant presence, the shakti, the spiritual force that the mantra carries.

Slowly returning to the syllabic form of the mantra.

Then allowing the awareness to return into the body presence, that outer framework that we call our personality.

Again settling down in this asana, sustained by the breath.

Now allowing your internal awareness to open up to the outside.
Returning into that room in which we are gathered.

Opening the eyes with pranaam to the Guru.

Transcript of the talk given on 7 March 2026 at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) Ashram in Rishikesh during AHYMSIN Sangha Gathering 2026.

We are going to dedicate this session at first to point out to some degree the importance of Ishvara pranidhana, or Bhakti, the attitude of devotion, surrender, in context with the mantra practice.

Rabindra pointed it out yesterday, the same applies here. I’m not a teacher. I am a student trying to be a practitioner.

My hope is to be able to share some of the experiences during my long journey in meditation.

For me, the attitude of devotion, of surrendering one’s buddhi, prana, mind to that spiritual force that we are trying to connect through our mantra practice. Be it our guru mantra, be it the community mantra or some special mantra we may use for certain purposes. It is this attitude (of devotion) that carries us from the purely verbal form or mental syllabic form of the mantra into experiencing some higher levels that are to be found in the mantra.

In our practice we pointed out certain steps, certain stages in the practice.

Swami Ritavan ji in his opening to the Vasudeva mantra pointed towards the same, by way of the four stages of the shabda, the divine word. Starting from vaikhari, the outer sound, we move to the mental vibration, then through higher frequencies until entering into silence. And then returning from there. Each stage comes with a certain kind of internal experiences.

The texts tell us about two major stages in the mantra practice. One is the mantra-shakti, the experience of the spiritual force. That’s when we get in touch with the specific qualities, attributes, forces that the mantra carries. Then gradually, gradually (it’s a process) starting to touch the spiritual presence embodied in the mantra. Once we touch this presence, it may appear as if the mantra is dissolving. At that point there are no more syllables, there is just presence, the core of the mantra. It’s syllabic form is just the outer shell or body.

From there entering silence, allowing the mind to go to rest completely. Probably none of us is able to describe this kind of internal state. This silence is still an experience within the mind field, not yet that supreme silence beyond the mind, the Amanaska state.

Silence comes in many stages or depths. We surrender ourselves into this silence. But our minds may not yet be purified enough to stay there. After some time some samskaras will be stirred which pull us out. That’s how it goes.

In our practice all depends on purification. All depends on purification. Also the depth of our mantra practice and silence depends on purification.

Now, mantra in itself is a purificatory. When the mantra shakti starts to touch our personalities, it will start to remove everything that is in the way. It will start to show us our limitations, our unresolved emotional attitudes, thereby creating an opportunity to look into these things and clarify these things. We too can turn these arising obstacles into an offering and allow them to be consumed, burned in the internal fires.

That’s one way of purification. There are many ways. In yoga, mantra may probably be considered to be the most important one.

Purification starts with cultivating the yama-niyamas. A hard task in itself. But mantra is our companion from the beginning of the path to the end. Mantra is our connection to the Guru, is our connection to this living stream that is our tradition. In the moment of mantra initiation this connection is established and that is why it is so important to hold on to the Guru Mantra.

The community mantras that are usually given every three years, they serve as means to build and form this worldwide community.

Sometimes when we receive a mantra, our minds, our egos start to cling to the syllables, struggle with the mantra rhythm or with the syllables. Sometimes people are unhappy feeling like they are not progressing in their mantra practice.

Often there’s too much clinging to the syllabic form of the mantra. Our ego comes in trying to keep control of the process. That’s somehow the job of our ego. It wants to control everything in life. This also applies to our meditation practice. This tendency of our ego is probably the most disrupting factor in our practice. So, to loosen that kind of tendency, to go beyond this tendency, the major key is bhakti, is Ishvara pranidhana, is the internal dedication, is in surrendering oneself to the higher forces. By this the shakti in the mantra can start to touch us, reach us, can start to lift us up. Our ego may not like it, because to some degree it loses its control, being afraid of any change.

What to do? Observe. Observe the fact that there are obstacles, that there are tendencies of resistance. Surrendering that too. Gradually, gradually turning this personality into an offering to the guru, to the deity dwelling in the mantra, to the Supreme. This is the internal gesture that lifts us up.

The Vasudeva mantra is the direct expression of the attitude of devotion and surrender, of bhakti, and thereby is nurturing our longing for completeness.

Stoma Ji calls it the urge for joy, the fifth of the primary urges. It is the longing for completeness. It is through devotion, bhakti, in our mantra practice, in our meditation that carries us upward, touching more subtle layers.

Swami Veda often mentioned that Ishvara pranidhana is a shortcut. The fast line towards realizing our true selves.

For me this comes perfectly true. Before I met Swamiji, I explored different paths, being blessed to have met great teachers, masters. The moment I met Swami Veda all of that was somehow wiped out. At that point I was not at all interested in mantra. I thought, well, mantra, why should that be useful? Coca-Cola might be a mantra!

But experiencing his initial guidance into a very simple meditation, and then starting with very basic explanations, the very moment he opened his mouth, I knew I was waiting for that. Nothing else. I was waiting for that. Through his guidance I was touched by an inexpressible beauty, touched by some shakti. That’s what caught me, the connection was there. It was like coming home. Next day I asked for mantra initiation.

Ishvara pranidhana is an internal gesture of offering oneself to the internal divinity. Divinity comes in many expressions. How many mantras are there? The essence in all is the same. There’s one divinity that is the core of our beings. We all are that.

Practicing with this sentiment, we start climbing the ladder through more and more subtle layers (of the mantra), until eventually, not through our efforts, not through our efforts, we may enter that supreme silence beyond mind. This is by way of grace of the Guru.

So, mantra is the shortcut, Ishvara pranidhana too is a shortcut. They go together.

At first I was wondering about the new community mantra, why this one? Meanwhile I get to understand that by deepening this attitude (of Ishvara pranidhana) our whole worldwide community may be lifted to further advanced stages of the path.

Editor’s Note:

Michael Kissener is a mantra initiator within the Himalayan Tradition and a member of AHYMSIN Spiritual Committee. He is also the Vice-President of AHYMSIN.