To Nanda on memorizing

[Guest guest]

Nanda wrote:

One of the things I like to do to jazz up my practice is to memorize

shlokas - for example the 32 names of Durga or Siddha Kunjika Stotram

etc....Anyways, ....Something I always have trouble with , is trying

to memorize the mantras of the 9 planets. I was wondering if people

could share a way to memorize them.

Dear Nanda ~ thank you for the tip on jazzing up one's practice. I

really like even thinking of it that way: jazzing up. : ) I don't

have the mantras for the 9 planets, so perhaps I could be more

helpful if I knew this text. But one thing that is extremely helpful

for me in memorizing it to create a visual image to go with whatever

it is I am memorizing. So in this case a visual image that would go

with each planet. The obvious choice would be an image of the planet,

but sometimes the most obvious is not the most helpful. You might pick

an image where the first letter of the word that describes the image

is also the first letter of the word that begins the mantra for an

individual planet.

 

Another strategy I have used to memorize is to create tests for

myself. I will make up a question about the subject, and then when I

am able to answer it, I have memorized whatever it is, a passage of

text, a date, a name, etc.

 

Now I have a question, since I am unfamiliar with this. What is the

purpose of chanting the mantras of the 9 planets? Blessings ~ Linda