A 60-Day Mantra Practice
When Your Practice Becomes Fragmented
There comes a point on every spiritual path when another teaching, another book, another mantra, or another meditation technique no longer satisfies us in the way it once did.
This isn't a sign that something is wrong.
It is often a sign that something deeper is trying to emerge.
When we first begin our spiritual journey, everything feels new. We are delighted by each discovery, inspired by every practice, and nourished by every glimpse of something greater than ourselves. We collect experiences much as children collect treasures, each one opening another door.
Over time, however, something changes.
Our library grows.
Our courses accumulate.
Our understanding expands.
Yet our daily practice often becomes smaller.
Many sincere practitioners find themselves surrounded by extraordinary spiritual resources—not to mention the vast amount of spiritual material now freely available on the internet—while struggling to maintain a consistent relationship with even one of them. We begin to confuse collecting teachings with living them.
The answer is rarely to acquire something new.
More often, it is to return to fundamentals.
The Forgotten Power of a Core Practice
Over the years, our Yogic Mystery School has grown into an extensive body of work. Students now have access to Vedic mantras, Tantric mantras, Bhakti, bija mantras, the Upanishads, mantra master classes, Sri Vidya, Nada Yoga, meditation, and much more.
This richness is a blessing.
Yet abundance can also become overwhelming.
Without a center, even the most beautiful collection of teachings can feel scattered.
That is why I have been encouraging my close students to return to what I call a core mantra practice.
A core mantra is not merely another mantra among many. It is the living center from which every other practice draws its meaning. Like the roots of a great tree, it quietly nourishes everything else.
But our spiritual lives do not stop there.
As we mature, our interests naturally expand. We may be drawn toward Shiva, the Divine Mother, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, healing, chanting, Sanskrit, contemplative silence, or one of the many streams of mantra practice.
The question is not whether these interests are valuable.
The question is whether they are integrated.
From Collection to Coherence
Imagine if, instead of trying to learn something new every week, you devoted the next sixty days to bringing your spiritual life into harmony.
Begin with your core mantra.
Then choose a larger spiritual theme that genuinely inspires you. It might be Brahman, the Divine Mother, Shiva, Vishnu, or another expression of Ultimate Reality.
Your core mantra remains your spiritual foundation, but around that foundation you develop something new that naturally belongs within your chosen theme.
For example, if the Divine Mother is your overarching theme, perhaps you feel drawn to deepen your relationship with Lakshmi through the Sri Suktam, or to Durga through the Durga Suktam, or to the Supreme Shakti through the Lalita Sahasranama.
In this way, your practice is no longer a collection of unrelated activities.
It becomes a living organism.
Each part supports the others.
Your daily repetition deepens your chanting.
Your chanting illuminates your study.
Your study enriches your meditation.
Everything begins pointing toward the same reality.
This is where spiritual practice becomes transformative.
Integration Is a Spiritual Discipline
Modern life encourages constant consumption.
More information.
More techniques.
More content.
The spiritual life often asks for the opposite.
Less accumulation.
More assimilation.
Wisdom is not measured by how much we know.
It is revealed by what has become part of our being.
Sometimes the greatest step forward is not learning another mantra.
It is allowing a core mantra—and the practices surrounding it—to penetrate more deeply into our lives while allowing new areas of growth to emerge naturally around it.
An Invitation
If any part of this resonates with you, perhaps your spiritual life is asking not for more information, but for a season of integration.
That is precisely why I am inviting our online student community into a 60-Day Mantra Practice.
This is not another course to complete.
It is an opportunity to integrate what we already know.
I am challenging my students to return to their core mantra practice and ask some honest questions.
What challenges you about your core mantra today?
What continues to nourish you?
How has your relationship with it changed?
What new dimensions of spiritual life are asking to be integrated around it?
Built around this core, I am encouraging each participant to develop a mantra-related text or practice toward which they already feel drawn.
Some are exploring sections of the Maha Narayana Upanishad.
Others are developing the Durga Suktam.
Some are immersing themselves in the Lalita Sahasranama.
Others are returning to our bija mantra training to deepen their relationship with the chakras.
Each person follows a different path.
Yet all of these paths remain connected through a common foundation: a living core mantra practice and an overarching spiritual theme.
To support this process further, I am also inviting those who wish to do so to record parts of their practice using the simple recording techniques we are sharing through our Creative Collective.
Recording is entirely optional.
For some practitioners, listening back to their own chanting becomes another form of contemplation. It allows them to refine pronunciation, observe their progress, and cultivate a deeper relationship with their own voice.
Others will simply chant.
Some will study.
Some will journal.
Others will enter a more contemplative process of mantra upasana.
The methods may differ.
The purpose remains the same.
To cultivate a daily relationship with mantra that is coherent, transformative, and alive.
At the heart of this process is rediscovering mantra as a living tool of transformation—one that contributes not only to the quality of our spiritual practice, but to the quality of our lives and the quality of our consciousness.
If this speaks to where you are on your own journey, I warmly invite you to join us.
Not simply to learn more.
Not even merely to learn in new ways.
But, most importantly, to live more deeply what you already know.
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Asha Paul is an educator, author, coach, and passionate cook who is deeply committed to promoting health and well-being. Passionate about helping others feel their best and age gracefully, she shares her knowledge through online teaching. Asha resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Russill.
Author-Educator and Musician-Producer
Russill Paul
Russill Paul is the author of The Yoga of Sound: Tapping The Hidden Power of Music and Chant and co-founder of Yogic Mystery School with his wife, Asha, an integrative health coach. He teaches internationally and online. They live in Austin, Texas.