Your state of consciousness, feelings, and spiritual clarity are significantly influenced by the sounds you listen to. Sounds can be categorized into two types: positive and negative—those that elevate you spiritually and those that degrade you.
Benign mantras are sounds that liberate you, balance your emotions, and help you transcend this realm of existence. Conversely, malignant mantras are the sounds that degrade you—such as news broadcasts, arguments, and criticisms in social networks; basically any noise that is not spiritually uplifting.
News, in particular, are especially contaminating. The mind craves novelty and shock, much like junk food consumed daily. This craving explains the strong addiction to mindlessly flipping through images on the internet while your meal warms up, or constantly reading headlines. It becomes an addiction to a drug that kills your vitality.
Reading can also be considered a sound, albeit a more subtle one that only resonates in your mind. What you read plays a crucial role in shaping your state of consciousness. Yet, it’s evident that many people do not read anymore, right? People do read but they often consume the wrong material. They focus on comments on YouTube, responses on Twitter, or critiques of Facebook photos. These are toxic drops that contaminate you, sip by sip.
However, there are also good mantras: protective ones, meditative ones, and others that serve as lifelines. Books that are purely spiritual, such as the Bhagavatam, envelop you and provide an embrace; reading them feels like diving into a rich pool of milk. They are dense and nourish you through every pore of your being, reaching your soul, which is the essence of their value.
Benign mantras dismantle the layers of ignorance that shroud the soul, while malignant mantras add new layers of ignorance.
Therefore, to break free from this cycle, one must concentrate on diminishing the influence of malignant mantras in your life while amplifying the presence of benign mantras.
Picture this: you jump out of bed and rush to work because you’re running late. On the way, you check the news about a war and become frustrated by the headlines. At work, overhear conversations about how wonderful coffee is, leading to annoyance at the superficiality of it all. You crank up aggressive music in your car, thinking it fuels your energy in response to the day’s challenges. You eat your lunch while watching a video your friend sent, reading through the comments, then get sucked into more videos. You eat, sleep, wake up, and return to work, feeling a pervasive sense of disdain until one day, it all culminates in death.
Now, consider an alternative: you wake up early and engage with a spiritual book. On your commute to work, immerse yourself in benign mantras through recitation or listening. At your workplace, even as people talk about the merits of coffee, you remain untouched due to your spiritual shield. You enjoy your meal while listening to a spiritual podcast, complete your workday, return home to read, and indulge in more uplifting mantras.
What’s better?
