Mantra Therapy- A therapy using Mantras

In every religion, one can find provision for Mantra-therapy. In the beginning of human civilisation, these rituals must have played a large part in the absence of any medicines or qualified physicians to cure you of your ailments. With the increase in human knowledge regarding the functions of human body, new therapies developed. Still, apart from ordinary ailments, there are many examples of curing serious sicknesses with the help of mantra –therapy. The Mantra –therapists make use of traditional medicines together with mantras. The knowledge regarding these medicines is handed over from generation to generation, but their miraculous power to heal has baffled people many times.

There are some 46,500 verses in ‘Atreya Samhita’ an ancient treatise dealing with Ayurvedic of treatment. In this book Atreya has divided the diseases into two parts. About one type of diseases, he says that they are serious and cannot be treated by ordinary means. The other part deals with diseases that can be cured by a little treatment. Apart from these ailments, there are some which cannot be treated by ordinary treatment, but can be tackled by special methods by mantras and amulets.

This method of therapy, that is treatment by mantras or wearing special amulets, developed some eight hundred years before Christ. A lot of people still have faith in this method of treatment. But, a majority does not have any trust in the efficacy of this form of treating sickness. Its protagonists assert that these mantras are effective in the same way as sound waves are caught by radio or the pictures transmitted by television reach your screen. It is argued that as every lock has a key, and every television has a special number allotted to it, then why should the effect of certain mantras on disease is looked upon with suspicion and derision. 

The protagonists of mantra therapy claim that even a disease like Cancer is amenable to treatment. The following mantra is used by them for its treatment. It is ‘Om…..raksha Raksha sarva klaish nashay swaha.’ The name of the affected part is recited at the blank space. The patient has to touch his right thumb to the affected part after having washed it in the urine of the cow and drying it in a shaded place. The patient should repeat this mantra on an empty stomach before sunrise. He should then drink the urine of a black colour she-calf after an hour. He should then chew leaves of tulsi plant. He should not rinse his mouth. One piece of black pepper should also be chewed with tulsi leaves. Food can be then taken an hour after prayers to God. This routine has to be followed for 45 days. It is said that the extent of disease is lessened. The same treatment has to be continued till it is rooted out.

Wife or sister can repeat the mantras in the disease like blood pressure, hypertension and heart troubles. The mother can also help in mantra-jap if her voice is sweet and pronunciation correct. The person who recites the mantra sits in front of the patient. He then touches the head of the patient. He then keeps his hand moving and away from the patient body. The distance should be two inches from the legs and body. He intones the following mantra: ‘Om bam bajra has tabhya swaha’. This mantra is repeated twenty-one times in the above manner and the treatment is given for the duration of 45 days. The diseases are expected to be eradicated within this period. 

In this way, many diseases are treated by mantra-therapy. Some people have great faith in this method of treatment. They believe that the most chronic and incurable diseases can be successfully treated by this method. But the truth can only be known to those who have tried this method. Those who do not believe in the power of mantras without trying it in any case.

With the intonation of specified mantras in this form of treatment, many houses hold remedies and indigenous things are used. Sometimes, we may see an extraordinary and miraculous effect of these things. The eminent Spanish physician, Davi Werner, has the following opinion about these domestic rituals, He says, “these household remedies and rituals can be beneficial in case of illness that is connected to the mind. Some such diseases are fear without any reason, undetermined pain, and worry, asthma of some kinds, hiccups’, indigestion, stomach ulcers, migraine and warts. The attitude of the physician is very significant during treatment of such diseases.” The patient develops great tolerance on account of faith, with the result that fear vanishes from the mind of the patient, pulse rate becomes normal and he generally gets cured. Thus, we can come to the conclusion, that those who do not believe in the efficacy of mantra-therapy, at least, admit that this therapy has a psychological effect on the patient. 

There is no scientific basis of the mantra-therapy. Nor we know of any research carried on this subject. But, it cannot also be termed as useless or ineffective. Even the people who practise mantra-therapy advise the patient to continue treatment under other forms of therapies. Mantra-therapy can be undertaken along with that treatment. It should supplement it. Perhaps, they feel that there might be complications if their therapy does not prove efficacious. Maybe, they are not confident about the usefulness of their own methods.