For thousands of years, so much of mantras have been chanted in this land. There is so much of energy here. That's why in India, people don't feel so much like going to the beach.

Did the deities come first or the mantras?

The thing is the mantra is the deity. It is the energy.

You begin to open yourself up to mantras like Omnama Saiya.

And you won't believe, just people who have never done anything with any of this, you make them chant Omnama Saiya 108 times with the eyes closed. People come up and share such profound experiences.

Internally, when mantras become a part of your breath, say you start looking like the deity, but what they're truly trying to say is that you're gradually becoming the deity, very gradually. How do you explain this?

Each mantra has its own specific quality. We spoke about, the devata is the mantra. Like you said, those qualities will start manifesting more and more in you. For example, I think there was a saint at some point, he was such a devote of the mother. At some point, he got breasts. So if that is possible, then for the mind and the emotions, definitely.