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The mantra itself is the embodiment of the Supreme. A mantra is a source of energy that you may call a blessing, that you may call kindness, or that you may call a curse. Consider a hot ball, a piece of fire. There is heat around this fire. The source of the heat is that fire. Or with cold, the source of the coolness is that ice. Similarly, the mantra is the source of the energy. This mantra is in human language, developed by human consciousness. It can be in any language; it has to go through the human brain, human consciousness, and human mind. How the human will utilize that sound is key, and that sound is created by some word, and the word is also nirguṇa. It is like Ākāśa Tattva, so it has no form. But we gave it form for our information—in different languages, in different letters, or different symbols. So though it is nirguṇa, this nirguṇa goes through the consciousness of the saguṇa. It is like this: how you filter this sound? The mantra is not the sound but the origin of the sound. This origin of the sound is radiating energy, and that radiation we may call the first step is sound. The sound can create good or bad energy. Sound can create war, and sound can stop war; sound can make you happy, and sound can make you unhappy. When someone tells you good things, you are happy. When someone tells you something not nice, you are unhappy. So from where did this come? The sound is from the origin, and that origin is that mantra, which you may call a mantra, you may call words, you may call symbols. Now, how you will utilize that, how you will put it together, will influence the prāṇa. It is the prāṇa which is keeping our life. Perhaps the ātmā is the prāṇa, because again, prāṇa you cannot measure, prāṇa you cannot see, and prāṇa you cannot destroy. Prāṇa comes, prāṇa goes. This prāṇa is for a while connected to something. So we call in the Hindi language prāṇa ādhāra: you are the source or the basis of my prāṇa. It means that you are depending on something, or you have an immense supply of the energy which you need. The prāṇa is in the entire body. We cannot say where the soul is sitting in the body. It may be in the whole body. We say God is in every heart because the heart is such a sensitive point that everything is felt in that heart. Some don't believe, and ask, "How is God sitting in the heart?" If you go to the cardiologist or the surgeon who is performing operations and ask, "Have you seen God in the heart? Or is there something, a special vibration inside?" No, it has the same vibration like other parts of the body. It is a gentle organ—very gentle, very valuable. It is 300 grams, and it's a pump, and when it stops, everything stops. Some say God is in the brain, but that also cannot be said. Therefore, God, or the Self, or the ātmā, or the soul, or the prāṇa, or life cannot be pointed to or centered because it is everywhere. That's why there is a problem for many people with Self-realization. People think, "When I get Self-realization, then I will see in the heart, 'Oh yes, this is me. Now I see.'" It is not like this. It is very hard to explain what Self-realization means. What do you realize? How do you realize the Self? Because the Self is not like this body. I can say, "Yes, oh yes, this is my picture," and everybody looks and says, "How beautiful is my picture." But how are you going to show the Self? The Self is not like that. You cannot make a picture of it, or you cannot close in on something, or have self-realization and then close in on something and say all the time, "Please don't come near, your energy is a little bit not good for myself." These are the few things. The Self, the prāṇa, and the mantra—these three, and life—this you cannot describe. You can talk and talk and talk, and still there is something different: the onion. You see, you take one layer, second layer, third layer, fourth layer; it's a layer of the onion, it's a piece of onion, a layer of the onion. Therefore, the mantra is very closely connected to the Self, and the prāṇa is that radiance of being the Self.