Copyright Sharman Okan - 2005

Interview with Sharman Okan and Amara
Australia, April 2005

Amara:
I have with me today, Sharman Okan, who is widely acknowledged as a Master Chanter. She has been chanting for over 30 years and intimately understands the resonance of the chant through which she creates and empowers transformation and ecstasy.

Sharman, I have heard you talk about consciousness, ecstasy and chanting all in the one sentence. Will you please tell us about this?

Sharman: Imagine what living in a state of pure ecstasy would be like; experiencing everything that is, as a naturally arising expression of pure, blissful consciousness! This is our innate potential and our true destiny. This is our soul's purpose for being here and doing this "thing" we call living, life.

Imagine in every single arising moment, if we saw all that occurred, as a direct reflection of our enlightenment. Could you do that in the face of bombings, terrorism and despair? This is what every actualised Master that has walked this earth has embodied - the ability to reject nothing and see all that is, as a manifestation of the creative life force. Everywhere is movement, is life. All energy, all life, is a "happening" born out of yearning for something. What do you yearn for? For some it is love, for others it is peace or justice and for someone else it may be the yearning for release of pain. The Masters see it all as life force and where there is life force there can also be creative life force. By allowing our consciousness to lay siege to all our inhibiting preferences and aversions, we can have a glimpse of what it is like to experience the life force as always reflecting its creative potential. Preferences or obsessions and aversions give us an excuse to chop up our experience of our world, of our life, into smaller, more manageable pieces. This ultimately inhibits the creativity of the life force. It is not that we must like everything that comes our way, no; it is the masterful ability to see all as the creative life force.

Chanting the Divine Name of God/Goddess/All That Is, is recognised by Masters through the ages, as being one of the quickest and most graceful ways to experience this play of ecstatic consciousness. Whilst chanting, it is apparent that there is nothing separate from the self to attain. Chanting easily imbibes this experience of this moment as being the ecstatic totality. While chanting, the usual separation of self and divinity naturally falls away. There is a freeing of the perception of what you think you are, to what you already are; naturally ecstatic. You can relax; you can easily surrender into this spontaneously arising experience, because this is the naturally enlightened moment. Chanting is a beautiful way of acknowledging that the soul is here for its own joy. We are told all through our lives that we are here for all sorts of reasons, but essentially we are here to be joyful and that is such an important contribution to the planet, never to be underestimated.

Amara:
So, in a way, are you saying that chanting is a precipitator for enlightenment?

Sharman:
That's an interesting way to put it. In the space of the chant, there is an extraordinary co-creative dynamic that occurs between the chant leader, the responding chanters, the musicians and the chant or mantra itself. It is as if there is no separation between the universe breathing in and out and you breathing in and out. The chant becomes a fully co-creative experience - to put that in another way - Thy Will and My Will become the one and the same expression of the creative life force. At that time, there is a profound realisation of, This Is All There Is and there is no desire to be anywhere else or experience anything else. This moment is the experience and it is at once fully and totally actualised or complete, and at once fully potentialised - is there any such word? Well it works here - by potentialised I mean always on the brink, always able to expand, and always existing in the power and possibility of the "more". The ultimate truth or reality that the Masters speak of, is not static, it can never be static, which is why I say that this moment, which is experienced in chanting, is complete and yet ever expanding into a multi-dimensional reality - further universes if you like. Ever seen the Mandelbrot set? It is an extraordinary look at how energy is ever expanding into infinite possibility!

So to say that chanting is a precipitator for enlightenment would be correct if we lived in a linear reality. As we don't, then it would only appear that one movement of energy precipitates or precedes another energy experience. In actuality, each moment contains the potential of all of them and this is one of the reasons why chanting is so exceptional, because it so often gives the experience of ecstatic totality.

Amara:
I have heard you talk about the state of Bhav Samadhi in chanting. What is that?

Sharman:
Bhav Samadhi is essentially a type of devotional ecstasy. My first experience of this state of consciousness was as an observer. I lived in an ashram for many years, from a young age and there was a swami who also lived there, who was the most incredible drummer. Indian. He would get into these totally ecstatic states when he was drumming in chanting. Everyone would be up dancing, singing and expressing their devotion and it was as if he were completely at one with the natural, ecstatic rhythm of the universe. Then at times he would just fall on the ground and be in an obvious state of bliss. He would always say afterwards that he felt, at those times, that he was still drumming, when in fact he had stopped. The experience was one of true devotional ecstasy. It doesn't have to be that dramatic; it can be more of an internal experience, but always it is ecstatic. I have experienced this type of Bhav Samadhi many times through the power of chanting.

Amara:
I am interested in your understanding of the play of the masculine and feminine energies in chanting. Will you please elaborate?

Sharman:
The Supreme Self, or whatever you may like to call it - words are so inadequate for these topics - can be expressed as having The Divine Masculine Principle, or Siva, and also The Divine Feminine Principle, or Shakti. Siva is supreme consciousness and thus is the centre of the vortex of creation. Shakti is the creative life force, the dynamic energy that is that vortex, in which Siva is absolute. She is Siva's empowerment. Shakti, because she knows herself, is also the mirror in which Siva experiences himself and sees his own "I AM" presence reflected.

The attributes of The Supreme Self are also a description of all of us. Siva and Shakti are the essence of our own being. In some scriptures it is described in this way: "I exist because I am Siva; I am aware of myself and my creation because I am Shakti."

So in chanting the names of The Divine Masculine - God, and The Divine Feminine - Goddess, we are invoking the essential nature of the highest part of our being, our Supreme Self. Then a beautiful thing happens - Siva and Shakti begin to dance and this is when the ecstasy in a chant really can go through the roof! At that time, the whole being imbibes the frequency of the mantra, which is chanted, and a state of being called "Pratyabhijna" can occur. This is the spontaneous recognition of The Face of the Divine, in all its vast diversity, within creation. Chanting can certainly open the portal into that experience and be the daily practice through which that realisation is sustained into a constant reality. Chanting, in my experience, is not a narrow, dogged and twisting path to perhaps feeling a bit better, but rather a 12-lane highway, a freeway to ecstasy!

Amara:
That sounds so enticing…I am now thinking about the so-called beginners to chanting; what can you say to them that would encourage them to experience a chant?

Sharman:
OK - well from a really useful, day to day viewing point, chanting is one of the most graceful methods to encourage the simple discipline of happiness. Every word we utter has an effect - it is the sound body of the object the word is describing, so you can have a mundane mantra like "apple" - if I was to go into a grocery store and say, "please give me a green apple", I will get one. So a mantra is like a formula for the desired result. Then, if I am invoking love, happiness, or serenity that is what I am going to get, by the use of that word, the repetition of that sound body. Some people call it a type of self-hypnosis, but that, to me, denotes some kind of lack of awareness in the moment. Chanting can absolutely invoke a pristine state of relaxation, which can have a similar wave to hypnosis, but in chanting it is fully cognizant, fully aware.

Amara:
Do the words, the mantras have a biological and psychological effect?

Sharman:
Of course and science acknowledges that there is a wave of sound that permeates the entire universe; so if we are tapping into that sound wave or frequency, then, in truth, we are aligning ourselves with the source of our own being - the source of our existence. So it follows that if we are keying into the sound body of a word that has a high frequency sound wave, or a very purposeful meaning for us, then the chanting of these words will naturally induce that alignment. This will be reflected in every cell of our body and being, as the vibration is experienced.

Amara:
So it's a bit like the idea that wherever you put your attention, that is what will ultimately grow in its impact on you and your life?

Sharman:
Exactly. You may know the work of the Japanese fellow, Emoto? In his book called "The Hidden Message of Water", he shows the photographs of water crystals that are taken from frozen bowls of water that have had words like "I hate you", or "I love you", spoken to them. It is so revealing to see the different crystalline formations the water takes on, in response to such words. Of course, harsh words have a much more undermining vibration than loving words. Any word could be called a mantra, but some are mundane mantras, as I have already said, and some are profound mantras that gracefully inspire ecstasy and healing. The water which had profound mantras spoken to it, revealed frozen crystals of incredible beauty and harmony. The water crystals from the harsh words, were fragmented, unformed and distinctly disturbed looking.

Amara:
So for anyone hearing or reading this interview that wanted to begin right away with summoning some of this uplifting energy, what is a simple profound mantra they could use?

Sharman:
One of the easiest mantras that can be used at any time is OM SHANTI, which means, "I invoke supreme peace". Now you could repeat that in English if you wanted to, although the translation can sometimes be a little cumbersome. The language is simply what fits in with your own personal choice. Chanting and mantra are in every culture, every tribe on the planet. There are some languages, though, which are very ancient and very pure, like Sanskrit, for instance, which is the ancient language of India. Some of the words I have used in this interview have been Sanskrit. So in these languages, when we chant a mantra, we are using the very pure form of the syllable, as in Gregorian chanting. But you can certainly use whatever language you like, whatever you have a natural affinity with. Chanting is for everybody, young and old, from all walks of life. There is no pre-requisite to chant and I have all sorts of people coming to my chants. You can sing a mantra out loud or you can repeat it silently to yourself; it is your choice.

Amara:
What would these people be likely to experience at one of your chants?

Sharman:
I would say essentially peace, but also, as I was talking about earlier, there is a type of ecstasy that can arise in chanting. There are many ways to chant. There is the very relaxed, peaceful and meditative style and there is another that I also like to do, which is very ecstatic and energising and people might depart from a chant like that feeling quite awakened and blissful, joyful. Chanting is one of the easiest and quickest ways to connect people to their own source, their own inner being.

Amara:
To finish off, I have heard that you advocate chanting for pregnant women and mothers of babies and older children. Why is that?

Sharman:
Pregnant and birthing women, for millennium, have used chanting. When a woman is pregnant the sounds she makes are directly influencing her baby in utero. There is a very particular style of humming, which is used like a mantra, that women have used forever, to connect with and soothe their babies, before and after birth. Women, who have used these sacred sounds for birthing, find they are deeply connected to the spiritual nature of their experience. I personally know of babies, after hearing this humming all through their incumbency in the womb, humming themselves to sleep within the first weeks of their lives on the planet! My three children have been chanting since before they were born and naturally use mantra for their deeper connection to themselves. I have a new CD coming out in a few weeks which is a recording of this specific style of humming, which I hope will inspire men and women to share with their babies in this way, before and after birth.

Amara:
One final question; chanting is steeped in historical and scriptural references. How did you personally come into contact with it?

Sharman:
I was blessed with the gift of a singing voice and the gift of music from a very young age. I cannot ever remember not singing. I remember travelling on long journeys with my family, as a child and repeating my name, silently, over and over like a mantra, until I would lose my sense of small self in some vast and all pervading awareness. I would do this for hours.

So to find chanting and mantra in my external life was such a joy. I lived in ashrams, in Australia and India, for many years, during which time I chanted with many different people, sometimes for days at a time. What the great Indian sage, Tukuram, said about chanting, has always inspired me: "With the sweetness of my chanting I will make the knowers of truth drool. I will bring great yogis out of samadhi. I will make pilgrims desert the holy places. As I chant, I will make my own body the embodiment of love. Through the glory of my chanting, my entire being will become the Absolute."

Amara:
Sharman thank you very much for talking with me today. It has been most enlightening.

Sharman:
It has been a pleasure.

The first 10 readers who email sharman@sharmanokan.com and state having read this article, will receive a gift copy of Sharman's CD, "Chidananda Rupa Sivoham Sivoham" a beautiful song, widely sought after for sacred, healing and ceremonial spaces.

From C.J.L a Sydney lawyer:
"I finished a very long and complex conference with lawyers and expert witnesses, and put on your "Sivoham" CD for them to hear. No one moved for the entire recitation. The feeling in the room was one of blissful exhilaration with misty eyes all round….the chant is quite magical."