Wahe Guru Mantra: The Meaning Behind This Powerful Kundalini Mantra

Do you ever feel like you are just surrounded by darkness and struggling to find the light? Everything you see on the news is tales of despair. People are arguing all over the internet. All you see, or maybe feel, is ego. It’s hard to determine what is the truth anymore. You want to escape. To reconnect with your soul, your higher self, and find your truth. 

What if I told you there is a word, a mantra that can give you that light?

That can clear the darkness. Bring in divine light. Connect you to supreme super consciousness. Does that sound too good to be true? It’s not! Keep reading. Enter one of the primary mantras of Kundalini Yoga.

Wahe Guru Mantra: Attain True Spiritual Understanding

Wahe-wh wh what?! Waheguru is a word/phrase often used when chanting mantras in the Kundalini tradition. It is a trikuti mantra, meaning it has three distinct sounds. Although it breaks down to two words, “wahe” and “guru”(and can be used interchangeably as two words, wahe guru, or a single word, waheguru) its three sounds are “Wah” “Hay” and “Guru”.

It’s important when chanting this that all three sounds are made in order to give it full power. Pronunciation matters. Sound it out and give it a try:

• wah
• hay
• gu
• ru

When you hit that last syllable, your tongue should tap the roof of your mouth.

Now say it again….do you notice how your mouth is moving? It’s kind of sensual in the way your lips pucker like a kiss. The way the breath moves. Your tongue taps the hard palate at the roof of your mouth opening the pineal gland (your third eye). The sensual movements are fitting as this is a mantra of ecstasy.

Get comfortable saying it first, then we’ll go over where you should be feeling these distinct sounds in your body. You can make chanting waheguru mantra a workout if you choose.

This powerful primary mantra eliminates spiritual darkness and brings in divine light. It connects you with God, Spirit, The Divine Supreme Being, whatever you call it in your practice. As a trikuti mantra (three part), it cultivates balance. In addition, it cleanses your body and mind through the breath. It eliminates random and unneeded thoughts, which may have taken up residence in your brain.

Yogi Bhajan (the guru the Kundalini community now rejects) explained that this mantra was associated with the mystery of life. It describes that which is not yet manifested, and is attached to your infinite identity. This is why you can use this mantra to connect you with your higher purpose, cleanse your ego and negative frequencies that surround you. Working with wahe guru, as well as other core kundalini mantras like sat nam, help you approach life in your highest expression.

Curious about the origins of this sound? It’s important to understand that most sacred words and chants in Kundalini yoga trace their origins back to the Sikh text the japji sahib. Additional information about Kundalini’s origins and the symbiotic relationship between your brain and mantra in my 30-Hour Home Study Kundalini Demystified course.

Wahe Guru Meaning

Now that you know the meaning of waheguru, how can you bring this four syllable word into your life and daily practice.

Incorporate Wahe Guru Mantra Into Your Life

If you’ve done kundalini yoga for a bit, you might have noticed that Wahe Guru gets used in several chants and meditations. Aaaand if you haven’t done kundalini yoga and want to give it a try I have SO many kundalini yoga classes FREE on my YoutTube Channel and even more kundalini yoga resources in my Uplifted Membership.

Mantra

Wahe guru is a mantra of ecstasy. It brings a feeling of moving from darkness to light. Doesn’t that sound nice?

Okay, let’s back up a little….first things first, what is a mantra? Mantra is a universal code held within repetitive chants that alter the pattern of your mind. I go in depth about mantras in my Kundalini Demystified course but the gist of it is that mantra shakes up the energy within you, changes that energetic frequency and activates whole body intelligence.

You may be thinking, “ooh that sounds so great, but do I have to chant? Brett, I am not a singer. Literally, dogs will bark”. To this I say: CHANTING IS NOT SINGING! You don’t have to be a musician, or sound like Ariana Grande, to start a chanting practice. 

Chanting Tips To Get You Started

1. Release judgment about how you sound: singing is performative and chanting is like taking a tonic for your unique body and you need your unique voice for it.
2. Play around: again don’t worry about how you sound and play with the mantra. Experiment with different tones and pitches and see how it feels in your body. Get goofy with it.
3. Personalize: adapt and adjust your chanting practice according to how your body feels before and after you chant it. Personalize the mantras to make them as potent as you can FOR YOU!! 

Chanting Variables To Play With

Some variables you can work with when figuring out your chanting style/practice include: 

• Volume: Does whispering the words feel better than trying to shout?
• Duration: Maybe a six minute mantra works better for you than a 31 minute.
• Meter: Are you drawn to chants that have a similar meter? Investigate, explore why this might be true.
• Pace: The energetics can totally change depending on how fast you are chanting or how you are using your breath with the chants.

Work with all of these aspects to make chanting work for you!

Add the waheguru mantra to your morning practice. You don’t have to chant for half an hour to receive the benefits. You don’t have to just sit and chant either. You can chant this mantra as you move actively through kundalini yoga kriya. Or as you’re walking around and shopping for groceries. Or anytime you see something that surprises and delights you!

Now that you’ve got some background and are feeling a little more comfortable give this kundalini yoga practice incorporating wahe guru mantra a try:

Embody WaheGuru: Where to Feel the Chant In Your Body

Wahe guru is not just about having a strong devotional system and trying to only connect to your almighty God. It’s also about feeling the divine mantra in your body and bringing that divine light swirling within you. But what does that mean?

Any vibration that happens in your throat is breathed into your lungs and swallowed into your stomach. For example, if you are thinking certain thoughts while eating, like “I never have the time to do the things I want to,” you are swallowing those frequencies and distributing that energy throughout your body. You’ve basically just created a self fulfilling prophecy by bringing that frequency to all of your cells. Counteract this with waheguru. Cleanse those thoughts and invite a sense of devotion using the instrument that is your voice.

On WAH – embody surprise. Widen your eyes as if shocked and open your mouth in a big “O.” You can later close the eyes, but this helps you embody the first aspect of this mantra.

On HAY – sense the mantra in the throat

On GU – pull your navel back. Yes, it can be a core workout!

On RU – activate your tongue and press it into the roof of your mouth to stimulate the pituitary gland.

Waheguru energizes the body, moving you from dark to light. Think of it like this; do you ever think the worst case scenario? Like you are sure you are going to wind up in an argument with someone and you are dreading talking to them, feeling sick to your stomach about it? But, then you talk to them and there was no argument, everything went smoothly, you found a solution and all of a sudden you are energized and ready to tackle the world!

This is similar to the wondrous ecstasy the wahe guru mantra brings. It clears that heavy negative energy that weighs you down, replacing it with a divine lightness providing a physical and energetic feeling of calm and love that you can approach all situations with.

Lastly, when you chant the waheguru mantra, pay attention to how your breath moves. This is an extremely oxygenating chant. It pulls oxygen in through the body on the “wah” and then moves it throughout the cells of the body in the rest of the mantra. Oxygen cleanses the blood, tissues and organs detoxifying your entire system.

Isn’t that amazing how chanting this mantra not only cleanses your thoughts and mind but works to cleanse the physical body as well? The multitude of benefits yoga provides will never cease to amaze me.

Closing Thoughts

I know I defined waheguru for you earlier, but I’d like to breakdown one of my favorite interpretations of wahe guru from my mentor and co-teacher in 200-Hour Kundalini Teacher Training, Guru Singh. I think it makes it more digestible for incorporating into your everyday life:

Wah=wow, the biggest sensation of awe,

Gu=darkness

Ru=light,

Therefore guru = the light that comes from darkness, the same way a teacher brings knowledge to a lack thereof. And YOU are your own best teacher.

And so, Wahguru = “wow light” — life is so beautiful. Wahe can also be “wah” if the rhythm requires silent syllables. When you use this mantra it feeds all the cells of the body “wow” of the knowledge coming through you.

Isn’t that beautiful?

Happiness is your birthright and you deserve it. Even if you don’t believe in a “wondrous Lord” or “Supreme Being” you can still look to this mantra as the bringer of your personal light. Use waheguru mantra and kundalini yoga to clear any darkness that may be plaguing you, set your ego aside to cleanse you and bring in free flowing energy to help you discover your specific purpose. I would love to go deeper with you.