A Wish for World Happiness

Welcome back friends to another episode into the world of mantras. We have been looking at various kinds of mantras in our previous shows. Today I'd like to share with you another one on a prayer or a wish to bring about happiness in the world around us. The mantra is loka samastah sukhino bhavantu. There are other mantras that we can do which are conscious invocations for the well-being of everything around us.

The mantra loka samastah sukhino bhavantu means may all the worlds be happy. Loka meaning worlds samastah all sukhino, happy coming from the word sukhah bhavantu may they be so may all the worlds be happy. The word sukhah in this is particularly interesting because it is comprised of these two parts which are suh and ka. So when we think about what happiness really is we can get a certain indication when we look at the word sukhah. Suh in Sanskrit means excellent, beautiful and ka means space.

So sukhah or happiness is excellent beautiful spaces but the question is where are these spaces? Are they just outside us or are they inside us? And if we investigate this question further we discover that true happiness actually is within us. It depends on the quality of space that we create within ourselves. The more we focus on creating this excellent quality of inner space this in turn reflects in our outer spaces and changes the atmosphere around us into more light and joy.

So the main focus of happiness or creating happiness should be on trying to manage inner space. So happiness or the science of happiness is really the art of inner space management. What that means is a lot of discussion in itself and it can mean different things to different people but for now just keep this idea in your minds that happiness is essentially this excellent space within us. And then we'll chant the mantra of saying may all the worlds have happiness space, all the worlds within ourselves and all the worlds outside of ourselves. So I'll say it and you'll repeat after me, loka samastah sukhino bhavantu, lovely.

I'll draw your attention on the precision of sound for two words. The first one is samastah which is again a soft T samastah and then at the end with bhavantu. Again it's a soft T bhavantu and in the bh make sure that you have enough breath into it bhavantu, lovely. So we'll chant it and we'll also add the om to add some more power to the mantra. I'll sing it in a particular melody, please repeat after me, om loka samastah sukhino bhavantu when we do the words loka and samastah when you do it slowly allow the breath to release at the end of the two words.

And you will see that it allows us to also let go in a certain way, anything that is unnecessarily any blocked air within us. So we can do this mantra using our actions as well. So feel free to do it the way that is comfortable with you and you're happy doing. There's a little bit of Indian dance that I will introduce here. So when you do loka it means worlds and samastah all.

So all the worlds, so from your center of your heart spread your hands out and look at the whole world around you. So loka samastah sukhino, sukhino is happiness. So I suggest that you create this excellent space by taking your arms from along your body from the sides and all the way up to the sky and do it with as much joy as you can. So sukhino and then bhavantu you can just bring your hands in front of your chest and with your palms facing out as if you're doing or giving a blessing. So may all the worlds be happy, all right?

You got that? Listen to the action once along with the mantra so om loka hands out samastah stay with it sukhino create that excellent space within you bhavantu as a blessing may it all be. I'll chant it and you repeat after me twice and the third time I request you to join along and then if you want to do it silently once just feel free to stay with the sounds and experience it, all right we start. Sukhino bhavantu loka samastah sukhino bhavantu nice could almost feel it as you did it along with me in terms of actions you can either do it with one hand the other hand both hands just feel free to suit yourself. The adding of the gesture is really to try and translate into the physical world the subtle sounds that we are making through our thoughts first then through our sound and then transferring that into an intention a concrete intention through our gestures.

So say these sounds as often as you can in a world today where there seems to be so much of disturbance and unhappiness in different parts. A way that we can contribute to it is maybe try and put our focus very concretely on in those areas sometimes it can even be within ourselves it can be in our family circles it can be in our friends circles at work wherever we think that we could bring in or we would wish for that space to have more positive spaces more excellent spaces feel free to send your energy into those areas put your intensity in it and I'm sure at some level we will make a difference so loka samastah sukhino bhavantu om