Why do we chant Brahmananda Swaroopa?

Following last week’s Spot, we received some questions from you about the meaning of the chant:

Brahmananda Swaroopa, Isha Jagadisha
Akhilananda Swaroopa, Isha Mahesha

Brahman means boundless or the ultimate reality. Ananda means the blissfulness or ecstasy of the Creator, and Swaroopa is the form or image of the ecstasy of the Creator.

Isha is that which rules and Jagadisha is the ruler of the existence. Akhila means everything, all inclusiveness is Akhila. And that which is everything, the image of that, is Mahesha. So the Creator is referred to in so many ways. When we chant Brahmananda Swaroopa, we are saying everything is an image of the ecstasy of the Creator.

The chant is significant not just for its meaning, but because it is a consecrated chant. So here in Isha, we have consecrated these sounds. And it is the simplest way for you to connect with what you refer to as Isha - you can use this as my ID.

When we consecrate a certain set of sounds, it is done with the intention that a large part of you will become absolute stillness, but you will retain the liveliness of life around you. And slowly, this becomes like a coating, like a shield around you. A cocoon of a certain energy. So Brahmananda Swaroopa can be used as a raiment that you wear; it is a clothing that you wear all the time. This chant is more like your clothing, this is not a seed. If you keep on chanting with sufficient involvement, it will be around you. If your life breath becomes this, people can feel it.

So if you chant it substantially enough, it will make a full raiment. If you are only the few-minutes kind, you will have a bikini.