What Is a Mantra? (and What Baba Nam Kevalam Means)

A mantra is a short sound, a word or a few words, that you repeat in meditation to help your mind grow calm and free. It gives the mind one simple, kind thing to rest on. A good mantra has two parts that work together: a sound with a pleasant rhythm, and a meaning that lifts you.

This guide goes with Week 4, Day 3 of 4 Weeks of Easy Bliss, the program in the Bliss app. Below you’ll find what the word means, why a mantra helps, what the program’s mantra means, and how to use it when you sit.

What the word means

Mantra is a Sanskrit word, usually explained in two parts: man, the mind, and tra, that which frees. So a mantra is a sound that helps free the mind.

In everyday terms, it gives your attention a steady, pleasant place to rest, so you’re less caught up in the usual stream of worries and plans. Sarkar, the teacher whose system this program draws on, defined it this way:

Mantra means “that collection of sounds meditation on which leads to liberation”

Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, “Mantra Caetanya”, Discourses on Tantra Volume One

Why a mantra helps

Most beginners find that resting on a word is easier than resting on nothing. A word is something you can come back to. A mantra adds two more things that help.

A steady sound. Repeating a short phrase at an even pace gives the mind a rhythm to settle into, the way slow waves on a beach or a quiet lullaby can make you breathe more slowly. You don’t need to understand why. You only need to notice that it works.

A meaning that points somewhere good. Words carry feelings. In this tradition, repeating a word with a warm, wide meaning is meant to turn the mind toward that meaning, a little more each time. That’s why the meaning matters as much as the sound.

What Baba Nam Kevalam means

The mantra in this program is Baba Nam Kevalam (say it BAH-bah NAHM KAY-vah-lahm). Anyone can use it, whether you sing it aloud with music or repeat it silently when you sit.

Taken word by word: Baba means “beloved”, the one closest to your heart. Nam means “name”. Kevalam means “only”. So a literal reading is “only the name of the beloved”.

In this tradition, the beloved isn’t a distant figure. It’s the loving awareness at the heart of everything, including you. That’s why the mantra is often put in four plain words: love is all there is.

You don’t have to accept any of this as belief for the mantra to help. Many people simply keep a warm feeling in mind as they repeat it, such as the way they feel about someone they love.

How to use the mantra in meditation

The method is simple. Sit as you have been sitting, breathe naturally through your nose, and repeat the mantra silently while you hold its feeling.

Some days the feeling will be strong. Other days the words will feel flat. Both are fine. Keep an easy pace, and let the feeling come and go on its own.

Singing the mantra: kiirtan

The same mantra can be sung out loud, to many different tunes. This is called kiirtan (KEER-tahn), which means singing or chanting the mantra, alone or with others, often with simple instruments. Many people find it the easiest way into meditation: a few minutes of kiirtan, and the mind is already quieter when you sit.

In Bliss, the Listen tab has sentient music, including albums by Sojha built on Baba Nam Kevalam. Play one before you sit, while you cook, or on a walk. There is also sleep music that turns itself off, if you’d like to drift off with the mantra at night.

What comes next

Using a mantra raises a fair question: what about all the other thoughts that keep showing up? The next guide covers what to do with them, and how to keep your practice going after the four weeks.