Soham...i am that i am that i am that i am...

Soham

My own personal and officially initiated mantra by Swami Durgananda on Friday 4th of November 2011.

I chose 'soham' as my mantra, as it is correlates with a word that I stumbled across earlier this year and resonated with instantly. So much so that I had it tattooed on my right forearm in Sanskrit "tatvamasi" so that I never forget...  (see my tatvamasi post)

Soham and tatvamasi mean exactly the same thing, though the biggest difference being, soham has a sound vibration which represents the inhalation and exhalation of breathe to which one can use to meditate and when repeated, soham soham soham... translates to "I am that I am that I am that I am..." Tatvamasi on the other hand is used more in a philosophical context, it is derived from vedic philosophy and translates to "thou are that" or "i am that".

To be completely honest, I had never heard of 'soham' until this month. I was familiar with 'hamsa'  which is same, same but slightly different. It is actually the same sound vibration as 'soham' but in reverse. Let me explain... with 'soham', on the inhalation you say soooooo and on the exhalation you say hummmmm. and with 'hamsa' on the inhalation you say hummmmm and on the exhalation you say saaaa.

Sounds a little complicated but if your like me and fairly new to mantras, its best to keep your mantra the same and keep it simple. Find a mantra that you like the sound of (there are hundreds, if not thousands' and repeat it in your mind while taking your 20 minutes of silent meditation. If your mind wonders, just keep repeating the mantra in your head and focus on the space between your eyes. The Ajna chakra. Though the Bija mantra for this chakra is om (aum) it is a nice simple method for keeping focus and bring your mind to silence.