Mastery of Mantra Online & In Sweden

The curriculum is comprised of 10 modules. The first modules establish you in the correct sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet. The other modules teach specific mantras, mostly from the Vedas. Most of these mantras are chanted in ashrams and yoga studios so we focus on these “classic” mantras. For example: the Gayatri mantra. The strength of the program are the custom-designed modules coupled with extraordinary training and profound levels of understanding.

PHASE A: BEGINNER (Empowerment of Shakti)
Module 1: Movements of Shakti (Learn Energy Flow)
Module 2: Yoga of the Tongue (Learn Placements)
Module 3: Prayers of the Heart (Learn Simple Mantras)
Module 4: The Spirit of Community (Learn Classic Mantra)

PHASE B: INTERMEDIATE (Study Obstacle Removal)
Module 5: Bringing Light to Dark Places
Module 6: Meditating on the Faceless Face
Module 7: Blasting through Obstacles

PHASE C: ADVANCED (Focus on Enlightenment)
Module 8: Pushing towards Enlightenment
Module 9: Liberation from Death
Module 10: Embracing the Fullness

With almost 30 years of teaching experience at every level of education, from yoga studios to the doctoral level, Russill Paul offers you the credibility of teaching at accredited academic institutions in the USA together with extensive teaching at most of the leading-edge alternative educational institutions in North America, such as, The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, The Omega Institute of Holistic Studies, Esalen Institute, Hollyhock, etcetera. These are centers that have hosted the well known spiritual luminaries of our time. In addition, Russill has presented at many of the most prestigious spiritual conferences in North America and internationally.

Your instructor has not only been at the forefront of spiritual education and consciousness shaping for 30 years, but also a professional in the music industry for even longer than that. He brings a high level of technical expertise and musicianship to the quality of the online tutorials created for this program.

This training is part of Yogic Mystery School that began offering online education along with the first universities that began doing so in the mid 2000s. Russill Paul has had long-standing professional experience in audio and book publishing, having worked with the New World Library, a press that publishes Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra, among others. He has also produced and published music for well known music publishers, such as, The Relaxation Company, Ellipses Arts, and Sounds True. You are in good hands!

But what if I know these mantras already?
Even if you “know” these mantras, this program trains you in the traditional “Vedic” way of chanting them and the proper way to enunciate them. You are connecting to a living current that is at least 5000 years old. Beautiful though they may be, contemporary musical and artistic expressions of mantras often change the meaning of the words which are preserved in the Vedic form of chanting. You should know the difference through your own practice and be able to engage both forms for yourself and others.

But can’t I learn the meaning off the internet?
This program offers a level of meaning and understanding of these mantras that you simply will not find elsewhere. Many of our students are yoga teachers and quite a few have been chanting mantras for decades. This program is one of the highest levels of mantra education you can come by as a westerner. The numerous testimonials we have attest to this.

But I can listen to these mantras on YouTube?
There is a huge difference when you learn to chant them using your own voice. When you listen and learn by yourself, without expert correction, you can actually be entrenching incorrect pronunciation even deeper. We have powerful methods to help you identify and "unlearn" bad pronunciation while empowering yourself with good pronunciation when it comes to mantra chanting. When you learn to chant mantras this way, you tap direct perception into the nature of spiritual reality. In Yoga, we call this “pramana”.

But I can go and study these mantras in India?
It is unlikely that you will receive the same shaping of your chanting proficiency. To the greater extent, teachers in India do not know the nuances of how westerners use their mouth to pronounce sounds in language. You will have to find a teacher who is knowledgeable about the proper way to chant mantras, who is scholarly, and can communicate effectively in English. And help you "unlearn" the incorrect pronunciation that is entrenched in you. Not easy. We specialize in it.

Why does it take one year? Can’t I do it sooner?
You can, but for most people, it takes time. You cannot force this process to happen overnight, nor should you. This is why we spread out this process over a year, so that you can, with a modest amount of time and application, systematically gain a really strong foundation in mantra pronunciation, perspective and practice. If you want to complete this program in a shorter period of time, we recommend one-on-one coaching.

Is it all group stuff online?

Yes, all content is online, streaming, and accessible 24/7. And yes, the trainings are also online, via audio and video conferencing. Training in pronunciation is accomplished through a very effective processes that has proved more and more effective over many years. In fact, it is even more effective than physically present training in groups because it is individual, transparent, and a student can repeat the training many times through replay, as well as compare the process with other students, side-by-side. In other words, there is both a group as well as an individual process that happens online and  because it is documented, that is recorded, and made available for replay, the learning process is superior to a physically live training.

Is material emailed and each student is checked on their progress periodically?

Every time there is an update, you receive alerts via email. For instance, for a live training coming up, or the posting of a recording of completed training for review. No materials, per say, at emailed. Reference sheets for the mantra trainings, far more involved than what we used for the physical live trainings in India, can be downloaded and printed from the side bar. Mark up sheets are created for each student for each mantra in a training that is then provided to the student for continued refinement of the mantra until the next training. So yes, in this way, each student is checked on their progress periodically. Over the years, we’ve seen 100% of students  who attend the live trainings using this method improve their pronunciation and chanting ability.

How does it work when folks have particular difficulty with one portion or aspect of the course, if it’s primarily group work?

The main objective of the program is to provide high quality training in mantra pronunciation as well as offer a deeper understanding of the meaning of each mantra. The basis for this are the excellent tutorials we have designed. Through the online trainings, students are provided a foundation in Sanskrit pronunciation as well as a foundation in the proper chanting of Vedic mantras which are different from chanting devotional mantras. Traditional pronunciation, meter, and tones are taught in this training. These are the main elements and the online group trainings focus on this. Once a student has a grasp on prounciation, they are invited into other aspects such as cadence and consciousness. Cadence is also learned within a group dynamic. Consciousness is the only aspect that you discover by yourself or through private one-on-one coaching with me. Consciousness depends on the spiritual advancement of the individual student. It cannot be moderated within a group dynamic. We have other programs, such as our Sri Vidya Master Class series that attend to the deeper aspects of spiritual practice. You could, if you like, chose to join our senior students at some point. You have met some of them in India on our 2020 pilgrimage, others at our annual Yogic Mystery School retreat in Austin last year (2019).

I saw how you handled that in real time in India (pretty skillfully, I might add) but am wondering how that looks online.

You will need to actually join the online program to get a sense of how I handle the process online. You trusted us sufficiently to undertake a pilgrimage with us to India. In the same way, you have to trust that I will care for your process through online learning as well. You have experienced, first hand, how much we care about our students and their process in India. 30 years of teaching at the world’s most reputable centers for spiritual learning have certainly given me skills to teach effectively. That, combined with the online tutorials I have created for this training, make the process what it is. Additionally, we are constantly upgrading the content and adding new and powerful lessons. At a certain point, it becomes about trust. If you trust us, then sign on for the program and we will work hard to help you pronounce mantras better than you do now through a group training process. On the other hand, if you are unsure about how you will fare within the group training process, you can always go the route of one-on-one private coaching with me, which ensure personal attention to you every step of the way.

Yes, we do have a discounted version of this program that we offer on another study platform that we host. Please use the contact button below to share your passion for this training and we will point you to another way and platform by which you can study this training.