Many of us are feeling untethered. Our ground has shifted and we cannot perceive the horizon. At least, we cannot perceive the horizon as we once knew it. Covid and the fallout of it is affecting us all very deeply.
Our world changed over night. We may have experienced loss and grief. Separation from our loved ones, and a separation anxiety from what we once knew to be normal. What do we tether to now? Where do we turn for comfort, for a sense of certainty, for hope?
We all have our various tools we turn to when we are going through a transitional upheaval. I want to add another tool to your toolkit. It can accompany you wherever you are.
It is a song. Yes! A song!
But not just any song.
It is a sacred song from 16th century India. It is a love poem to the Divine. Its vibration is so high it can begin to erode old hurts, grief, and wounds from separation, from love. It is an antidote for our times.
This song called Mera Man Lochai is sacred because it is a shabd guru form of poetry. A shabd guru is a special sound that teaches you and transforms you. Reciting it, or even listening to it, brings you into union with the Divine. It expresses in deep terms the true sense of the hurt of separation from the Divine and the pain endured by the heart when the thought remains focussed just on union and nothing else holds any meaning. It is an ultimate love song, the expression of love and longing for the Divine.
Our bodies are incredibly fine tuned instruments. In the yogic tradition, it is believed that we have 17,000 subtle energy channels in the body with three main channels that the seven main chakras align to. When we chant sacred sounds, like this shabd guru Mera Man Lochai, the vibrations we create begin to pluck at these energy channels, invigorating them. These subtle energy channels are like the highway our soul’s light moves through. And our soul is the Divine, at one with it. So when we chant, we begin to literally vibrate at the same frequency as the Divine, through the instrument of our body! How incredible is that?
I lost my mother in 2010. I chanted Mera Man Lochai every day for 40 days following her death. It helped me to grieve (I cried often while chanting) and to heal. I chanted it again this morning because I am healing my body from a downturn in my health (I have a chronic blood disorder and I’m in the late stages of peri-menopause). I began to chant and the tears flowed as images of the suffering of the people of Beirut following the explosion on the 4th of August came into my mind and into my heart. I sat in silence when the song was over, feeling the vibrations of the song in my body and feeling at peace and relaxed.
Mera Man Lochai is like being held in loving arms, a place of safety, a place of no judgement where you can be as you are. It helps you to ease emotional and physical pain, releasing the hurt and the grief, often into tears. And then providing space for love, joy, peace and relaxation to return to you.
It is effective to have it playing in the background as you go about your day-to-day or have family and friends over for dinner (if your current situation allows for that), or on headphones while out walking. It is still working for you. But if you choose to sit in meditation and chant it, I leave here for you the sounds from the Gurumukhi language it is chanted in, and the English translation.
Link to the song on YouTube (it is also found on Tidal and it may be on Spotify)
I give myself and my soul for you darshan, my beloved
Your face is so beautiful and the sound of your words is so filled with inner wisdom
It has been too long since this rain bird has had even a glimpse of water
Blessed is the land where you live, my friend and loved one, my Divine teacher.
I give myself and my soul to my beloved, my Divine guru
An instant away from you brings darkness
When will I meet you, my beloved?
I can’t endure this night, sleep eludes me
Until I see your home, my beloved.I give myself and my soul to my beloved, my Divine guru
By good fortunes I met my beloved guru
and I have found that the immortal creator is within the home of my own self
and so I will always serve you and never be separated from you even for an instant.
Guru Nanak** says- I’m your love, my beloved
I give myself and my soul, servant Nanak lives to serve you
*darshan is the spiritual qualities of a holy person.
**Guru Nanak is a saint, poet and philosopher from India who lived in the 16th century.
Rachael Lowe.
