Anahata chakra, beej mantra

The image is from this site, on Anahata chakra) 

The beej mantra for anahata chakra is Yam.
When we did ATTC, we do samanu, which is actually the anulom vilom, with beej mantras. If Prahlada, the Sivananda asana guru,  feels it is appropriate, he may suggest the color to be visualised at this center. I recall that was made when I did the ATTC, but when I assisted him, the connection was not called for. I guess, it depends on the group.

The interesting thing about the beej mantra and samanu is that though you have some comfort level with anulom per se, it becomes very very tough once the beej mantras are used. Adding visualisation to this ups the ante. Why is this so tough? That is because the mind resists being controlled and saying the beej is the first way in controlling the auditory voice we hear inside us. This is a premeditative practice and can be exhilarating once it falls in place. In the anterior cingulate is a part of the nervous system where we hear this `inner voice". Long time meditators are intensely aware of this inner voice. And those whose practice is regulated by discipline of yoga, they can actually talk back to this inner voice. The anterior cingulate is involved with autonomic functions of the body. Can u imagine how great that is, once u learn to talk back to this? And it is also involved with very `biological' emotions, like being decisive, feeling good, empathasising, etc. Think of the power of the practice then!

So, when u do samanu with the beej mantras, it is so very tough. I recall one swamiji warning me against trying this on my own, after I completed my sadhana intensive. But I have been practising this since I did my pranayama intensive years ago at Uttarkashi, and feel this is the most centering of all my sadhana and most healing. I believe that it powers my classes, I really do. The day I miss it, that also happens, I am bereft and feel weaker for having not practised it.

While at the Vipassana camp, u will hear Goenkaji warning against using mantras for meditation. The very reason he offers makes a case for mantras, in a roundabout manner of speaking. It creates an aura and in Vipassana, such an aura can also be an distraction. So, yes, I do not use a mantra for meditation any more, but use it in pranayma, which disciplines my high-vata, helter-skelter mind, for sure:)