Arun Dissertation Power point

Dissertation submitted by
ARUN KALA
(2015)
Under the guidance of
Dr. Kashinath G Metri, BAMS, MD

 The short term effects of many traditional
techniques in the psychological field have
been found very effective by studies. Very
few are from the ancient wisdom like the
concept of mantra chanting.
 We already have many examples of
Maharishi who were lived many years with
less food, got great mental achievements
called Sidhi.

 The Vedic period is the earliest period of Indian
history, which is the base of Hinduism (Hinduism,
1992).
 The Hindu religion is influencing the world because
of having scientific reasons (Raman, 2012).
 Yoga is a psychological, physical, and spiritual
science which aims at the holistic growth of the
human body, mind and soul (Bhobe, 2000).

Psychology is the study of mind including behavior. Psychology is
an academic discipline and an applied science which seeks to
understand individuals and groups by establishing general
principles (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
Major fields:
 Biological Psychology
 Behavioral Psychology
 Cognitive Psychology
 Social Psychology

 Cognition is the set of all mental abilities and processes
related to knowledge, attention, memory and working
memory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning and
problem solving and decision making, comprehension
and production of language, etc (M. Wilson, 2002).
 Memory is the process in which information is encoded,
stored, and retrieved (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995).

 The word "mantra" is derived from Sanskrit man,
"mind," and tra, "to deliver.“
 The mantra is thought to be a manifestation
of shabda, or sacred sound that can be controlled
either to create or destroy. Many mantras are
repeatedly chanted (Radha, 2006).
 Mantras are corresponding to manamaya
(emotional) and anandamaya (bliss) kosha
according to their nature.

 The Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, an advanced yogic
technique comprises almost all the characteristics
of Vedic Mantra chanting.
 Mahamrityunjaya Mantra has not been tested for
that type of purpose.
 If it would be proved to be effective on memory
and cognitive function, then it would be beneficial
for everyone.

AIM
Aim of this ancient literature review is to find the meaning,
characteristics and significance of mantra.
METHODOLOGY OF STUDY
We conducted the ancient literature survey on ancient texts
Rigveda, Atharvaveda, yajurveda, Krishna yajurvada,
tattriya upanisad, Mahanarayanam, Bhairav Tantra, and
Nirukta as those ancient texts reflects the light of mantra.

mnnat! Çayte#it m<Ç>, s<Sk«tm!,
Mananätträyate iti mantraù| Saàskåtam|
manan means bringing only one thought to one’s
mind repeatedly and trayate means to protect. In
other words mantra refers to that which when
thought of repeatedly protects oneself and also
that which protects one from the mind or that
which helps to bring about the dissolution of the
mind.

m<Ça> mnnat!, iné´ 7-12,
Manträù mananät |Nirukta 7-12|
means a mantra is that on which one
contemplates (manan) and from which one
acquires the knowledge about sacrificial fires
(yadnya), God and the soul

mkarae mnn< àahÇkarôa[muCyte,
mnnÇa[s<yu´ae m<Ç #TyiÉxIyte.iné´ 7-14.
makäro mananaà präha trakärasträëamucyate|
mananaträëasaàyukto mantra ityabhidhéyate|| Nirukta 7-14||
In the word mantra ‘ma’ (म) refers to
contemplation (manan) and ‘tra’ (त्र) to
protection (tran). Thus that which consists of
contemplation (manan) and protection is
called a mantra.

m<Ça[a< p‘vae vasae, m<Ça[a< à[v> izr>,
izr> p‘vs<yu´ae, kamxuk Évet. k«:[yjuveRd 35-13.
manträëäà pallavo väso| manträëäà praëavaù çiraù|
çiraùpallava saàyukto| kämadhuka bhaveta|| Kåñëa Yajurveda 35-13||
The letters or words in a mantra constitute its
body and the Om at its beginning, is the
head. If both the head and the body are
present then with that mantra one’s
aspirations are fulfilled.

YOGIC PRACTICES AND GENERAL HEALTH
 Mantras like Om, Gayatri and Mrityunjaya have
benefited humanity quite a lot (Devi, 2004).
 Mindfulness-based stress reduction technique was
found effective for chronic physical and psychosomatic
disorders in Germany (Majumdar, Grossman, Dietz-
Waschkowski, Kersig, & Walach, 2002).
 Meditation promotes positive health (Yang, Su, &
Huang, 2009).

 Mahamantra is effective in stress reduction and
treatment for depression (D B Wolf, 2001).
 Meditation heals the mind of various
psychopathological patients are suggested (Vigne,
1997).
 Yogic practices enhances attention and concentration,
remote memory, mental balance, delayed recall,
immediate recall, verbal retention of dissimilar pairs,
visual retention and recognition; and have better mental
health (Nangia & Malhotra, 2012).

 Improvement in the immediate memory had been
seen at the end of 3 weeks of training in yogic
cultural program many years ago (Kocher, 1976).
 Significant differences were found on DLST net
scores between Cyclic Meditation (CM) and
Supine Rest (SR) sessions for the same group and
between groups for the same sessions (Pradhan
& Nagendra, 2009).
 Meditation training can specifically enhance
working memory (Moss, Monti, & Newberg,
2013).

 Yogic practices are good in improving cognitive
task performance (N. Gothe, Pontifex, Hillman, &
McAuley, 2013).
 One study provided strong evidence for the
positive effects of regular yoga practice on
cognition and (N. P. Gothe, 2013).
 Another study suggested that 4 days of meditation
training can enhance the ability to sustain attention
(Zeidan, Johnson, Diamond, David, & Goolkasian,
2010)

 Yogic practices, including physical postures, yoga
breathing, meditation and guided relaxation
improved delayed recall of spatial information of
children (N. K. Manjunath & Telles, 2004).
 Yoga is also effective for the children for improving
the ability to solve the attention problems (Peck,
Kehle, Bray, & Theodore, 2005).
 Yogic practice improve children's physical and
mental well-being (Hagen & Nayar, 2014).

 Gayatri mantra (GM) and Poem line (PL) both are
effective to improve performance, as assessed by digit-
letter substitution task (DLST) (Pradhan & Derle, 2012).
 In one study, Chanting group showed significant
increased scorings in both the memory tests and
considerable reduction in total error and total time
taken for cancellation tests compared to non-chanting
practitioners (Ghaligi, 2006).

AIM
To find the effect of 15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
chanting on memory and cognitive functions of
school children
OBJECTIVES
 To find the effect of 15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
chanting on memory of school children
 To find the effect of 15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
chanting on cognitive functions of school children

 Does 15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
chanting have any effect on memory of
school children?
 Does 15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
chanting have any effect on cognitive
functions of school children?

Hypothesis
15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting affects memory
of school children.
15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting affects cognitive
functions of school children.
Null Hypothesis
15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting has no any effect
on memory of school children.
15 days Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting has no any effect
on cognitive functions of school children

SUBJECTS
Normal healthy children, both male and female, Age Range
(13-15 years), mean age (Control Group; 14.57±0.728,
Experimental Group; 14.50±0.820)
Sample size
Control Group; 30 (17 Female & 13 Male),
Experimental Group; 30 (17 Female & 13 Male)
Source
Satyeswari Devi Memorial Public School, Dehradun,
Uttarakhanda
Written informed consent was taken from the parents of all
subjects. Approval was taken from Institutional Ethical
Committee.

Group Orientation Class Pre Intervention Post
Mantra
Chanting
Group
Orientation and training
classes about half an
hour per day for 15 days
 Wechsler Digit
Span Test
 Digit Letter
Substitution Test
Mahamrityunjaya
Mantra chanting
about 15 min per day
for 15 days
 Wechsler Digit
Span Test
 Digit Letter
Substitution Test
Poem
chanting
Group
Orientation and training
classes about half an
hour per day for 15 days
 Wechsler Digit
Span Test
 Digit Letter
Substitution Test
Four lines of poem
‘Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star’ 15 min
per day for 15 days
 Wechsler Digit
Span Test
 Digit Letter
Substitution Test

Inclusion criteria
(a) Male and female, (b) Age; 13 years to 15
years
Exclusion criteria
(a) Taking any medicine, (b) Having any
physical or mental disease, (c) Acute injury
within the past 6 months

Experimental group
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra Chanting about 15
min per day for 15 days.
` ÈyMbk< yjamhe sug<ix< puiòvxRnm!,
%vaRékimvbNxnaNm&TyumuRi]y ma=m&tat!.
omtryambakaà yajämahe sugandhià puñöivardhanam|
urvärukamiva bandhanänmåtyurmukñiya mä'måtät||

First four lines of poem ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little
Star’ about 15 min per day for 15 days.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

 a component of the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS)
 First part, the child listens to and repeats a
sequence of numbers said by the interviewer.
 In the second, the child listens to a sequence of
numbers and repeats them in reverse order.
 In both, the length of each sequence of numbers
increases as the child correctly responds.

 There are two parts to the Memory for Digit
Span test: Digits Forward and Digits Backward.
 Digits Forward accesses short-term memory while
Digits Backward accesses temporary storage.
 It is valid and reliable instrument which can be
used to access the short term memory and
temporary storage of children (Young, Sawyer,
Roper, & Baughman, 2012).

 Digit Letter Substitution Test (DLST) consisted of a
worksheet, which has 8 rows and 12 columns and
randomly arranged digits in rows and columns.
 The children are asked to substitute as many target
digits as possible in the specified time of 90 s. The
letter substitution can be undertaken in a
horizontal, vertical, or a randomized manner by
selecting a particular digit.

 The total number of substitutions and wrong
substitutions are measured. The net score
was obtained by deducting wrong
substitutions from the total substitutions.
 Digit Letter Substitution Test (DLST) is stable,
valid, and sensitive which can be used to
access the attention of children (Natu &
Agarwal, 1995).

Wechsler Digit Span Test
The children were instructed to repeat a series of numbers (with increasing
numbers of digits) forward and a different series of digits in reverse
order. Each correct response is worth one point. The forward digit
sequence is completed prior to the backward digit sequence.
Digit Letter Substitution Test
The total number of substitutions and wrong substitutions are measured.
The net score was obtained by deducting wrong substitutions from the
total substitutions.

 All data were entered in Microsoft Excel and
analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS).
 post intervention values of both Wechsler Digit
Span Test and Digit letter substitution test were
compared using paired samples t-tests and
independent samples t-tests.
 All tests were two-tailed. Significance level of 0.05
was set for all tests.

DISTRIBUTION OF DATA
 Data for all the variables was found normally
distributed by Shapiro-wilk test.
 Within group comparison was done by using
paired samples t-test.
 Between groups comparison was done by
using independent samples t-test.

SN Variable Mean±SD
Pre
Mean±SD
Post
95% confidence
interval
P value Percentage
change
Upper Lower
1 DSF 4.23±1.006 4.33±.922 .258 -.458 0.57 2.364%
2 DSB 3.20±.925 3.30±.794 .200 -.400 0.50 3.125%
3 DST 7.43±1.794 7.63±1.377 .304 -.704 0.42 2.692%
4 DLST 43.77±8.928 44.33±8.083 .240 -1.373 0.16 2.314%

Pre
Mean±SD
Post
95% confidence
interval
P value Percentage
change
Upper Lower
1 DSF 4.30±1.022 4.37±1.033 .258 -.391 0.68 1.628%
2 DSB 3.27±1.172 3.40±1.133 .203 -.469 0.42 3.976%
3 DST 7.57±1.995 7.77±1.832 367 -.767 0.48 2.642%
4 DLST 43.97±8.397 44.27±5.483 1.666 -2.266 0.78 0.682%

Poem
Mean±SD
Mantra
95% confidence
interval
P value
Upper Lower
1 Age 14.57±.728 14.50±.820 .467 -.334 0.74
2 DSF 4.30±1.022 4.23±1.006 .591 -.458 0.80
3 DSB 3.27±1.172 3.20±.925 .612 -.479 0.81
4 DST 7.57±1.995 7.43±1.794 1.114 -.847 0.79
5 DLST 43.97±8.397 43.77±8.928 4.679 -4.280 0.93

Poem
Mean±SD
Mantra
95% confidence
interval
P value
Upper Lower
1 DSF 4.37±1.033 4.33±.922 .540 -.473 0.89
2 DSB 3.40±1.133 3.30±.794 .606 -.406 0.69
3 DST 7.77±1.832 7.63±1.377 .971 -.704 0.75
4 DLST 44.27±5.483 44.33±8.083 3.503 -3.647 0.97

There were no any significant changes within
groups after the 15 days of intervention for both
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting group and
poem chanting group in memory and cognitive
functions measured by the scores of Digit Letter
Substitution Test (DLST) (p > 0.05), Digit Span
Forward (DSF) (p > 0.05), Digit Span Backward
(DSB) (p > 0.05), and Digit Span Total (DST) (p >
0.05).

There were no any significant difference after the
15 days of intervention between
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting group and
poem chanting group in memory and cognitive
functions measured by the scores of Digit Letter
Substitution Test (DLST) (p > 0.05), Digit Span
Forward (DSF) (p > 0.05), Digit Span Backward
(DSB) (p > 0.05), and Digit Span Total (DST) (p >
0.05). after the 15 days of intervention.

There were no any significant differences
between Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting
group and poem chanting group in memory
and cognitive functions measured by
Wechsler Digit Span Test (p > 0.05) and Digit
Letter Substitution Test (DLST) (p > 0.05)
after the 15 days of intervention.

 Vedic chanting group had shown significant increased scorings in both
the memory tests and considerable reduction in total error and total
time taken for cancellation tests compared to non chanting practitioners
(Ghaligi, 2006).
 our study did not show any significant difference between
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting group and poem chanting group in
memory and cognition measured by Wechsler Digit Span Test (p > 0.05)
and Digit Letter Substitution Test (DLST) (p > 0.05) after the 15 days of
intervention.

 One previous similar study had seen the immediate effects of 10
min Gayatri mantra chanting on attention as measured by digit-
letter substitution task on students and had shown 21.67%
improvement and the control (Poem line chanting) group has
also shown the improvement (4.85%) (Pradhan & Derle, 2012).
 Our study did not show any significant improvement in Digit
Letter Substitution Task score of both Mahamrityunjaya Mantra
chanting group and poem chanting group. Between groups
comparison also did not show any differences.

 Our results did not show any differences may be because
the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra has the meaning and the
vibration of immortality and liberation not memory and
intelligence.
 The previous study which showed the positive effect of
Gayatri Mantra on Digit Letter Substitution Test (Pradhan &
Derle, 2012) was the immediate effect study, so it maight
have different impact.
 Another study of Vedec chanting (Ghaligi, 2006) was
seeing the effect of very long time practice of chanting
which is not completely comparable with our study.

Mahamrityunjaya Mantra did not appear to be
effective on memory and cognitive functions
of children measured by Wechsler Digit Span
Test and Digit Letter Substitution Test. It may
be effective in other dimensions of cognition.

 This is a preliminary study and pilot attempt
to understand the effects of 15 days
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra chanting on memory
and cognitive functions of children by using
the randomized controlled trial.
 Small sample size and short time of daily
intervention are the limitation of the study.

In future, larger randomized controlled trials
should be conducted with large sample size
to test the efficacy of Mahamrityunjaya
Mantra. Future studies should also give
longer intervention and do longer follow ups.

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