What Mantra Should I Chant to My Newborn?

Question 1: At delivery, what mantra should I chant to my child? I was thinking of the Gayathri Mantra but wanted to ask you about it. 

Answer: Chanting a Vedic mantra given in our scriptures in itself is very potent. As to which mantra that you should chant to your newborn, look at the following advice from mahatmas:

"All mantras have equal potency or Power. It is quite incorrect if you say one Mantra is superior to another...," Swami Sivananda (pg. 181, Self-knowledge).

"Sages do NOT say that a particular mantra is superior to another. Any mantra is as efficacious as any other...." (pgs. 476-477, The Supreme Knowledge Swami Brahmananda from Divine Life Society).

Question 2: All our mantras are powerful, and they have equal potency. I am, thus, at a loss as to which mantra to choose to recite to my child when she enters our world. 

Answer: Let me answer you by way of a short analogy: Say, you need $1 to pay someone who has no particular request as to the denominations. 

10 ten-cent coins make $1; 100 one-cent coins, too, make $1. And, 2 fifty-cent coins make $1; similarly, 5 twenty-cent coins make $1. And, for that matter 1 one-dollar coin, too, make $1. Now, if I ask you, is there any reason to choose between any of the denominations, especially when you need but $1?

If, as you agree, all mantras are "powerful" and of "equal potency", why is there confusion as to which to choose?

"Om/Aum" is a mantra (about which Munkudaya Upanishad has spoken at length); so is your guru mantra, and so are all utterances in the Vedas. (Any utterance from a mahatam or rishi is a mantra, so proclaim the scriptures).

Back to the analogy, which of the above denominations that make $1 will you choose? 

Question 3: I understand what you mean now. I am just going to do my best in guiding this child in the spiritual way as much as I can. Hence I am starting with God's name. It will be a struggle but I have made this choice and will have to see through it now. I will do my best. 

Answer: In fact, what really and seriously matters most when it comes to nurturing the child in the womb is the mother's sadhana between conception and delivery.

When the mother regularly, properly, earnestly, especially with bhakti and sraddha, does her sadhana daily, the mantra that she intones, causes the secretion of stress hormones from her pituitary and adrenal glands to be reduced; the activity of her sympathetic nervous system is reduced; her body becomes calm and relaxed. Her regular japa reduces the activity in her amygdala, reinforcing a state of calmness. Her repeated chanting with bhakti strengthens her frontal lobe, the part of the brain that is responsible for personality, emotions, temperament and mood. Scientists have found that regular sadhana done with concentration and sraddha affects hormone production in the hypothalamus, which regulates the immune system. 

All these naturally affect the child in the womb that listens to, feels, imbibes EVERYTHING that the mother does to herself: it continually receives chemical signals of the mother's mind, habits, behaviour through the placenta.

The child's nerve pathways connect with one another quite rapidly during the gestation period. By the time, it is born, its brain cells are fully developed.

Prahlad maharaj became a great bhakta way before He was born. Prakshit became a great soul, warrior and bhakta because of his experience during gestation. Abhimanyu learnt everything when he was in his Subhadra.

Srimad Bhagavatam has a wealth of information on this, too.

So, what matters most isn't the mantra that you chant into child's ears when she enters our world, rather what her mind and brain cells have been fed with throughout the gestation.

By the time, the child is born, everything is set. 

Sources:

1. The Mysterious Brain by Bonnier Publications International

2. DevelopmentalScience

3. ScienceDaily.