Mantramala: The Big Book of Mantras (Sanskrit Text with Transliteration and English Translation)

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The only book on Mantras you will need. Over 400 mantras in Sanskrit and transliteration, sourced from the ancient mystical texts. Full explanations of the mantras and how to chant them. The Hindu calendar decoded. Learn how to make mantras more powerful with visualisations, how to enhance your day with shlokas and how to use the festivals for self growth. From the vast selection, find the mantra which is just right to help you fulfil your desires.

Rohini Gupta is a writer and teacher who lives by the sea, surrounded by trees, cats, dogs, crows, books, coffee shops, art galleries and a sprawling metropolitan city. She writes poetry, short stories and non fiction and is working on a novel.

It is raining outside, an unexpected November thunderstorm. The rain is surprising and so is this-writing this introduction to the second edition. This book has come a very long way. around two decades. The first edition was published a full decade ago, by Dronequill Publishers in 2010. Ten years later, I am readying the book for a second edition.

It started as a small personal project back in the late 90s or early 2000s when I scribbled down some mantras for my own use. I discovered very quickly that there were far too many I could have filled piles of notebooks with them. I was amazed at how many mantras there were, and just as surprised by how little was available about them. It was easy to find the mantras but almost impossible to find anything detailed and comprehensive explaining them. Most of the books I found were not in English and had very little explanation.

The few books in English were often written by non-Indians who neither knew Sanskrit nor had access to vernacular sources. They made simple mistakes like confusing the short form and long form of the Gayatri. The long form is used for pranayama, breathing but they did not seem to know that. They had never heard of samputs or vyahartis. Neither had I, but I soon found out.

The other problem was that the books suggested old methods which are not easy in the modern world. I live in downtown Mumbai, one of the biggest cities of the world and many of the old instructions given with the mantras are really quite impractical in a city. Wake up at 4 am and sit by the river - I'd rather sleep at 4 am than get up that early and where would I find a river? All those methods were meant for a different and more leisurely lifestyle.

In my efforts to learn about mantras I followed the usual route. Went for lectures, visited ashrams and talked to whichever swamiji I could approach. They were not very helpful. They mostly looked upon me with suspicion. Some were rude women should not waste their empty heads on mantras. Women should not even be saying mantras. Especially modern women like me. Eventually I gave up on learning from that source and concentrated on the texts instead. What, anyway, can I learn from a swamiji who can't even control his temper?

I haunted the libraries and obscure little bookshops. I bought everything I could the ancient Sanskrit texts and plenty of vernacular books in Hindi and in Marathi. Some of the Sanskrit texts still have no English translation. It was almost too much and overwhelming - such an immensity of mantras and no explanations. How was I ever going to make any sense out of them?

I conducted my own experiments in my classes and meditated on the mantras, sitting late into the night and early morning. The Times Foundation invited me to do monthly mantra workshops in their stately headquarters and that enabled me to try out methods on larger groups. I learned the power of mantras with meditation and visualisation and the energy of the ancient Sanskrit words.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages