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The bīja mantra of the Maṇipūra Chakra is "Raṃ." The incarnation of God Viṣṇu is called Rāma. "Rāṃ" also means ātmā. When you speak "Rāṃ," you are speaking that universal ātmā, universal consciousness. As we spoke yesterday about Parā, Paśyantī, and Vaikharī—these are the levels of sound. Parā is the seat of sound at the navel. If someone is a singer and goes to study singing, their singing Gurū will tell them to sing deep from the abdomen, from the navel. A person who teaches singing, a singing teacher or healer, will try to feel that sound below the area of the navel. You can experience many beautiful things during meditation and chanting if you concentrate and chant from the navel. If during speaking, singing, or mantra you concentrate on the sound originating from the navel, you will experience many beautiful things. It is said that the unity of the prāṇa and apāna śakti unites in the Maṇipūra Chakra, and then the pure prāṇa or consciousness enters the Suṣumṇā Nāḍī. The Suṣumṇā is the central nerve. It guides the resonance to the Sahasrāra Chakra at the top of the head, which we call Brahmarandhra. "Brahma" means the Supreme, so that is called the door to the Supreme, the gate to the highest. Through the practice of your mantra, concentrating on the sound of your mantra, and practicing Prāṇāyāma—the practice of Kuṇḍalinī Yoga through which kriyās you purify your chakras—you are enabled to enter into the Suṣumṇā Nāḍī. Many of you here in this Anuṣṭhān retreat are doing these practices. If you are doing them truly, with concentration, devotion, and dedication, then you will surely experience it. For example, last week, every day, many had beautiful experiences: awakening of the chakras, awakening of the Kuṇḍalinī. Similarly, you can also have them. It is only the third day that you are here, and it will take one or two days more. We will come to the subject of Parā at the Maṇipūra Chakra later when we discuss Kuṇḍalinī Yoga and Chakras. Paśyantī is in the throat at the Viśuddhi Chakra, from where the area of the vocal cords is located. From these vocal cords, when you come a little up to the tonsil side, there is a small hole called Amṛt Randhra. Through that Amṛt Randhra, you can taste or get the nectar from the Bindu Chakra. Besides that, there is the connection with the nasal cavity in the throat, where 50% or 60% of the nāda, the sound, enters into that space. That resonance which goes into your head also has a hole here at the center of the eyebrows. We have sinuses here and also here at the forehead. So the Amṛt Randhra, the nasal space, and this Ājñā Chakra become like a flute to resonate that power which comes from Maṇipūra up to the Viśuddhi Chakra. Many people don't have holes here; it is compact. A doctor was making an X-ray and said, "I don't have the hole." I said, "Well, I'm compact. That's a good sound." So when the resonance of the "Rāṃ" mantra—"Ra" from Maṇipūra, "A" coming up, and "M" going to the nasal space—becomes such a beautiful resonance, you can experience it yourself. You can hear from all of us what we are chanting, the resonance, the sound. So try to sit up straight. Put your chewing gum in your pocket or bag, because when we send a resonance, maybe the chewing gum goes into another space—like a story in Mahāprabhujī's Līlā Amṛt about a merchant who got a chickpea in his nose and it went to the sinus. So please don't use chewing gum now in this minute, or a cherry seed. Sit straight, relax your shoulders, make your chest free so the lungs can have volumed air, and assume chin mudrā. Keep your spine straight. The distance between your chin and collarbone or chest should be about a hand's width like this. You don't see because of my beard, but it's like this. If your chin is too high, then you are bored; if it's too low, then it's not. So this is straight, exactly a hand's width. That means your head is straight. Some say only these four fingers, but the easy and best is this side, that is the exact side. We will chant 21 times all together, slowly and continuously. From time to time, you can inhale according to your requirement. So sit straight again. Then you become like this. If you would like to experience, close your eyes. The resonance begins from the navel. The vibration comes from the area of the navel, and the waves rise upward. Close your eyes. At the end, I will sing one long "Oṃ." After 21 repetitions, I will sing a long "Oṃ," and you will sing it with me. So the mantra of the Maṇipūra, the bīja mantra of Maṇipūra, is "Raṃ." It is the ātmā, which is known as Rāma, and it is the incarnation of God, Rāma. So take what you like. Relax your body, keep your body upright and straight, close your eyes, and feel your breath. You will begin to chant with me. Rām, rām, rām. Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar