Stotra is a form of autosuggestion; reciting it daily helps restore confidence and raises your self-esteem,

writes SAMRUDDHI R KOKARE

To have a positive self-image and a stable personality, it is necessary that you hear and feel how strong,
reliable, capable and dynamic you are, because what you hear about yourself, you begin to believe and
what you believe about yourself, you manifest. Hence, you should make sure you hear the right things,
the things you want yourself to be. Most of our days are spent with people at work and home,hearing
about the stress and strain, what you did not do, rather than all the good things you did.Now,if nobody is
showing you the positive version of yourself, it is your responsibility to make sure you see and hear a
positive version of yourself and a stotra is one way to do it. Stotra is a form of autosuggestion. It brings to
your conscious mind, reminders of your true potential and abilities. It invokes that part of your
personality, which is truly you but lying dormant under the hustle and bustle of everyday life.It contains
verses that praise the capabilities and achievements of a deity.

By regular chanting or singing of the stotra, these words appeal to the higher,diviner,subtler parts of your
subconscious personality and are slowly invoked and brought up to your conscious attention and
reinforced in the mind.

The conscious mind then finds ways and means to nurture more intently those qualities and become like
that. Most stotras call upon a deity as ‘auspicious and benefactor’— you too want to be an employee who
brings positive returns and benefits to his work place.You want to be one who is a benefactor to your
family and relatives and not one who brings loss and sadness — inauspiciousness. The verses also praise
the deity as ‘powerful destroyer of enemies and demons’ — you too want to destroy your enemies, such
as procrastination, self-defeatist habits, laziness, criticism, staying in comfort zone.You want to defeat
your problems with creative solutions. You want to beat competition and competitors to bag that contract
or position. The deity is called upon as a ‘dispeller of darkness’ — you want to be well informed and not
be ignorant about the advances or business opportunities in your field of work.You want to dispel doubts
and unknown variables while decision-making, you want to dispel sadness, depression, low performance
due to a setback; you’d like to dispel hurdles in your promotion. The deity is addressed as ‘peaceful and
dynamic’— you too want to create peace and calm in your working environment and at home; you do not
want to be the reason of conflict or stagnation in the family or work place. These themes are common to
all the stotras and are like daily nutritional requirement.

But if there is a certain condition in your system like deficiency of Vitamin A that affects your eyes, you
need to supplement it additionally, specifically with Vitamin A alone. Just eating more nutritious food or
any other general vitamins will not help. So also, mental temperaments, life problems and needs of a
person differ from person to person, hence, the deity to be invoked with the stotra — the qualities to be
addressed in yourself — should also be specific to your requirements. The Aditya Hridayam Stotra —
lifts the spirit of a person who has been struggling in life for a long period of time.The Dakshinamurthy
Stotra, the guru stotra,is for people who feel stuck in life, or are in a state of mental confusions. It makes
your thinking process clear, so that you can make right decisions. Such stotras open up new ways of
perception and bring out solutions to your problems.
Anybody who wants wisdom must sing this stotra. Those who are actively planning things mentally but
find it difficult to execute their plans will greatly benefit by chanting the Maruti Stotra.It reminds you of
all those seemingly impossible things you are capable of,especially the line Vaadhata vaadhata
vaadhe,grasile surya mandala, bhedile shunya mandala — as you grow,grow to span the entire universe,
and reach beyond that… so there is no stopping you and there is only growth to reach the skies. The
Raamaraksha Stotra is specifically meant for protection of the individual from any untoward happenings.
For best results, the stotras must be sung or chanted with devotion and faith, preferably after bath in the
morning at sunrise and after a wash at sunset in the evenings. Unlike meditation or other intense practices,
a stotra is simple and as easy as singing a song, hence, children are taught stotras early on. It is important
to start the day with a boost of positivity and confidence, self-assured of one’s abilities to take on the
world. Hear yourself recite the stotra, because what you hear you tend to become.