Authfriend: Today at 8:16 AM So what would the problem be if "OM" wasn't included in a maha-mantra but rather along with, say, a bija mantra like what TM uses? Did Sri Sri give out bija mantras, or just the maha-mantras?
SSRS does indeed give out bija-mantras for meditation. However, I was never taught his sahaj-meditation technique so I did not receive one of his chosen meditation bija-mantras. What I asked him for (asked four times over a 7 year period) was "guru-mantra". When he finally gave it to me it was a maha-mantra that "named" the source of our teaching lineage. If you consider the guru-puja which is performed at initiation then you can guess which mantra. I received it along with another one of SSRS's teachers who often stayed at my house. According to that teacher, he also received the same maha-mantra (it includes om). I couldn't have asked for a better mantra. I use it after my tm-mantra and before I perform sanyama on a few select sutras that work especially well for me. SSRS did tell me and that all the different bija-mantras naturally merge into the om sound at the finest level. BTW - the sankhya-yoga scholar said the same ... no problem with using om if sheltered in a longer mantra.
