Let us see how far we can help ourselves in this difficult work. I will
draw your attention to one fact which is of enormous help to the
beginner.
Your vehicles are ever restless. Every vibration in the vehicle
produces a corresponding change in consciousness. Is there any way to
check these vibrations, to steady the vehicle, so that consciousness
may be still? One method is the repeating of a mantra. A mantra is a
mechanical way of checking vibration. Instead of using the powers of
the will and of imagination, you save these for other purposes, and use
the mechanical resource of a mantra. A mantra is a definite succession
of sounds. Those sounds, repeated rhythmically over and over again in
succession, synchronise the vibrations of the vehicles into unity with
themselves. Hence a mantra cannot be translated; translation alters the
sounds. Not only in Hinduism, but in Buddhism, in Roman Catholicism, in
Islam, and among the Parsis, mantras are found, and they are never
translated, for when you have changed the succession and order of the
sounds, the mantra ceases to be a mantra. If you translate the words,
you may have a very beautiful prayer, but not a mantra. Your
translation may be beautiful inspired poetry, but it is not a living
mantra. It will no longer harmonise the vibrations of the surrounding
sheaths, and thus enable the consciousness to become still. The poetry,
the inspired prayer, these are mentally translatable. But a mantra is
unique and untranslatable. Poetry is a great thing: it is often an
inspirer of the soul, it gives gratification to the ear, and it may be
sublime and beautiful, but it is not a mantra.