“Things which are different in order simply to be different are seldom better, but that which is made to be better is almost always different.”
Dieter Rams

Chanting – Panca Maya

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Chanting is one of the more intriguing tools in Yoga. In my first years of practice I was uncomfortable with chanting – it took me time to overcome my fears of letting my voice be heard (I don’t even sing in the shower). Since then, I have had an opportunity to learn only the basics of voice and chanting and know only a few chants. I would be happy to learn much more.

It is said that a practice of Asana & Pranayama is an effective preparation for meditation. My experience of chanting is that it can pierce directly into the heart of meditation and beyond. Over the past few days I have re-opened my chanting resources and re-introduced some chanting to my practice. Tonight I also made a short recording and was surprised to (1) thinking of uploading it and (2) actually doing it.

Placing the sound of my voice online feels like a whole new dimension of exposure. Especially now, when I am alone and on some days almost completely silent:

click to play

I don’t have the tools to present a proper transliteration of Sanskrit – so this is as close as I can go for now.

Panca Maya

ma aham – ahama annam
me I am – I am the body

ma aham – ahama pranam
me I am – I am energy

ma aham – ahama manah
me I am – I am the mind

ma aham – aham vijnanam
me I am – I am the personality

ma aham – ahama anandam
me I am – I am the emotions

ma aham – aham sarvam
me I am – I am all

ma aham – aham aham
me I am – i am I am

This entry was posted in Chanting, Yoga. You are welcome to read 1 comment and to add yours

One Comment

  1. Louise
    Posted March 3, 2021 at 6:14 pm | Permalink

    Thank you so much for this (and your very interesting blog). My teacher is chanting the panca maya in an online meditation class and I couldn’t quite make out all the words. I’ve copied them out by hand so hopefully I will be able to follow along much better next time 🙂

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