There are several forms of meditation, one type that I grew up with is called mantra meditation in the West, i.e. you recite the same text over and over again either a certain number of times or a certain number of minutes/hours.

All mantras in Hinduism start with AUM , you may have heard that in yoga training? It is said to be the sound of the universe, there is a lot of interesting things to discuss here. In fact, the theories in ancient Vedic scriptures have been researched in recent times and have been confirmed by NASA and scientists!

One of the strongest universal mantras that exists is the Gayatri mantra:

AUM BHOR BHUA SWAHA TATSA VITUR VARE NIYAM BHARGO DE VASYA DHI MAHI DHIO YO NAHA PRACHO DEYAT

The normal time is 45 minutes once a month, but three times I have arranged 24 hours of meditation at our home. Then it is an open house and we invite friends, acquaintances and neighbors to come together and meditate. The largest turnout was last year when about 250 people came in 24 hours! The front door is unlocked and those who come do not need to ring the bell, there is plenty of food, drink and fruit and for all meals so that people can just come and go as they see fit. One person leads the gathering and it changes about every hour, we make a list of who has which "watch".

The night is naturally the heaviest, but that's no problem, then you switch after 30 minutes instead. The ending is quite solemn. When many people restate the same mantra, it gives a spiritual energy, which is a bit difficult to explain.

When the vocal cords pronounce the different sounds, the chakras (energy points) in the body are activated. The mantras stimulate the energy in these glands. There are 24 words in the mantra that release spiritual energy, activate the nerves in the oral cavity, remove negativity in the body and thought patterns and prove to be one of the most important verses in Hinduism.

Painted by my 15 year old daughter