Most western teachings try to make Mantras accessible to westerners. This makes sense; generally they’re selling something (a book, a meditation workshop , etc.), and you’d better make it accessible to your target audience if you want them to buy it. But often they do this to a fault, leaving out things like:
- The importance of pronunciation. Mantras aren’t affirmations; they are sound technology. The sound is the Mantra. If you pronounce it at all differently, the effect will change. Sanskrit pronunciation may seem simple when you read the pronunciation key at the start of an English book, but they just give approximations. The correct pronunciation involves holding the hollow of the mouth in a subtly different shape to pronounce almost every vowel, removing diphthongs that are habitual in English, placing your tongue slightly differently to pronounce almost every consonant, etc. Truly correct Mantra pronunciation requires years of careful study for a native English speaker to master.
- The correct approach to many Mantras. Lots of Mantras, especially Shakti Bijakshara Mantras or longer Mantras that incorporate them, traditionally should not be practiced by someone who has not been initiated in their use by a qualified Guru who has attained Mantra Siddhi and places the use of the Mantra within the metaphysical framework of the Guru-Shishya relationship. Many Tantrik Mantras, though extremely potent at achieving spiritual results, are particularly unsafe to practice outside such expert context.
- The fact that many Mantras will not work if practiced alone. Lots of Mantras are designed to be used along with certain Yantras, certain rituals, at certain times of the day, the lunar cycle, the solar cycle; in water, or surrounded by fire, or in the smoke of a certain wood; only mentally, or murmured, or pronounced loudly; sung in certain meters, etc. Gurus and Acharyas are in the tradition for a reason. They’re not just there to read the scriptures to you. The scriptures are the basics.