The Power of Chanting – Harold Klemp

 

   Some time ago there was a Benedictine monastery in France. The Benedictines are known for their very rigorous schedule of prayer, work and chanting. They chant from 6 to 8 hours a day, work very hard, and only sleep a little. 

 

   This particular monastery got a new abbot. While trying to bring in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he made a study of the chanting the monks did.

 

   Eventually the abbot told the monks, "We're chanting for six to eight hours a day. This time could be better spent for something else." And he asked them to stop chanting.

 

   In just a few weeks, the abbot noticed that the monks looked very fatigued. Everyone was so tired that they could barely continue with their daily schedule. Some thought that maybe the fatigue was from working such long hours and getting so little sleep. So the abbot gave them eight hours instead of four hours of sleep, and reduced their workload.

 

   When the fatigue persisted, a medical specialist and a dietician were called in. They prescribed more meat and potatoes instead of the monks' centuries old diet of fish and vegetables. Now they not only felt more fatigued, but many of the monks fell ill. 

 

   Seeing that none of this was working the abbot finally called in a man who studied sound.

 

   Since this man knew that certain sounds were very beneficial, he told the monks," Go back to chanting six to eight hous a day. Chanting is what heals you and gives you the strength to keep up your schedule." 

 

    The monks began chanting again. They resumed their simple diet and got only four hours of sleep. Within six months, most of them were back on their rigorous schedule, fit as ever.

 

   Most of us don't have the time or inclination to live in a monastery and chant six to eight hours a day. The chant of HU is a higher chant, and it gets the same job done in just twenty minutes. Chanting HU is what gives Soul vitality and strength.

 

 

   A seeker I'll call Peter attended an Eckankar workshop in Switzerland. He told the story of how, within a year, his wife left him and his son committed suicide. He had totally given up, and went into the woods to do the same thing as his son. He said,"What have i got to live for? My wife's gone, my son is gone. Everything i loved, all gone. "

   Then he thought, Well God I'll give you one more chance. He said,"God, if you exist, I need a sign right now." Then he made some kind of a deal with God that he didn't talk about.

 

   Well, the veil opened up between the world of the living and the world of those living beyond this world. You notice i didn't say the dead, but those living beyond. Because everything is life. This world is seperated from the others by a veil, and Peter was able to see through it. Mercifully, he was able to see what would be his lot as a suicide. It wasn't a happy one. 

 

   Ten minutes later a voice spoke to him, "Are you making your decision in favor of God or against yourself?" That took him quite by surprise.

 

   Peter had studied all different kinds of religions. He'd done chants of all sorts. He'd chanted om and gotten no help. One day he was passing by a little church, and a voice said to him, "Stay a little." So he went inside. When service was done, he went outside and sat on the grass. And Jesus appeared to him. 

 

   As Peter told all this to the people at the Eckankar workshop, he asked, "Why Jesus? He wasn't exactly my favorite master." But it was Jesus. Jesus took him by the hand, and this great love passed between them.

 

 

   When he finished the story, he just sat there, and the room was quiet. Finally someone said,"We can't help you with a solution to your problem, but we can tell you about the HU song, the love song to God. It's a mantra above all others.

 

   So Peter learned about the HU song. The HU song, this beautiful HU song, you can sing individually or in a group. When you do, you're lifting yourself spiritually. It's not to change another's state of consciousness, because that's black magic.

 

   I know that's cutting the definition of black magic very fine, but whenever you try to change another to your way of thinking, or your state of consciousness, through prayer or in some other way, that's black magic. And in this respect, black magic and white magic are the same. Some people try to seperate the two, but it comes down to changing somebody else's life without his permission. That is black magic and it is a violation of spiritual law for which the violator must someday pay. 

 

 

   So "Ann," one of the ECK facillitators, had this very strong urge to help Peter, but the Inner Master's voice came to her and said, "Let it be."

 

   Ann was driving home after that session, when the Beatles song "Let It Be" came on the car radio. The first words go like this: 

 

    When I find myself in times of trouble

    Mother Mary comes to me

    Speaking words of wisdom,  Let it be 

    And in my hour of darkness

    She is standing right in front of me

    Speaking words of wisdom, Let it be

    Let it be, Let it be.

    Whisper words of wisdom, Let it be.

 

                                          

   Then Ann understood. Peter was a sheep from another fold. He belonged with Jesus because that was his state of consciousness. He had to complete a few more courses before he'd be ready for the college of ECK. And now she understood.

 

   That night, Ann's heart was filled with gladness. Her job had simply been to set up the workshop, to give the presentation so this man could make contact with the ECK teachings. Someday when Peter is ready to take another spiritual step, he would know about ECK. Meanwhile, he had received the gift of the HU song, which brings spiritual upliftment.

 

    Katie is an acupuncturist. Patients who feel  their coindition isn't improving will sometimes ask her,"Isn't there something else, something more that I can do?" So Katie will check with the Mahanta, her inner guide, to find out if she should spean about the HU song. 

 

   One of her patients was Jessica. And Katie had the nudge to share the HU song with her. Now Jessica is in her sixties. She had polio as a child, and most of her life she was under heavy medication. She'd often sleep twenty hours a day.

 

   Jessica's doctor and Katie were both trying to get her free from her medication. And when Jessica began to sing HU along with the treatments she was getting, her condition suddenly improved vastly.

 

   Jessica said,"It's like a miracle." And Katie observed,"That's how Divine Spirit changes lives." 

 

Jessica has a housemate by the name of Linda. "She's always going a mile a minute," Jessica said about Linda. Katie, just wondering, said, "Do you suppose Linda might be helped with meditation?"

 

   Jessica said,"Oh, we sing HU together. In fact, Linda likes it so much, she's inviting friends over so they all can sing HU together on Sunday." 

   What's interesting is that Katie has seen such a correlation between the openness of Soul — especially one who embraces and uses the HU — and the patient's correspondant healing and upliftment in consciousness.

   And it is so, because HU opens the heart to healing.

 

 

   Singing HU draws one closer to God. It's easy to do this simple spiritual exercise.

   With eyes open or closed, take a few deep breaths to relax, then begin to sing HU(pronounced hue) in a long, drawn out sound. HU-U-U-U. Take another breath, and sing HU again. You can continue for up to twenty minutes. 

 

   If you sing HU with a feeling of love, it wil gradually open your heart to God.

 

 

From the book, The Call of Soul © 2012 Eckankar – Sri Harold Klemp