The Secret of Mantras

William Samuel also writes:
Once in China, I was given a simple verse to read and then to give my interpretation. I was ready to give an answer immediately but was informed that I had twenty-eight days to think about it. ”Why so long?” asked I, with the usual impatience of a Westerner. 

”Because nothing has been read once until it has been read twelve times,” Was the answer. ”Read and re-read.” 

I did. Twelve times twelve to make twelve readings – and I heard a melody I could not have heard otherwise. Since then I have known why it is that certain lines in the Bible, or any other book, that have been read countless times will one day, upon just one more reading, suddenly take on a grand new significance.

That is the whole secret of mantras. A mantra is a condensed poem; it is essential poetry. Just by reading it, you can’t understand it. Not that you don’t understand intellectually – it is simple, the meaning is apparent – but the apparent meaning is not the real meaning. The apparent meaning comes from the first language, and the hidden meaning will have to be waited for. You will have to repeat it in deep love, in great prayerful moods... some time it will suddenly erupt from your own unconscious, it will be revealed to you. A melody will be heard. That melody is the meaning – not the meaning that you had deciphered from the first reading, on the first reading. And one never knows when it will happen.

Hence, in the East, people have been reciting the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada; they go on reciting. Every day, morning and evening, they go on reciting. They recite as many times as possible. They don’t even keep count; what is the point of keeping count? But with each reciting, something goes deeper into you, the groove is deepened. And one day the melody is heard. When you have heard the melody, you have come to know the real mantra. You have stumbled upon the second hidden layer, the real poetry in it. That cannot be understood: that can only be heard. That cannot be understood: that can only be experienced.

Take it easy

Osho