What is a Mantra and How Does It Work ? Mantras are powerful sounds. Mantras are the ones that have when chanted produce great effects. These These are c hanted repeatedly and th t hat is called Japa. Japa is a key part of Hindu praye pra yer. r. Mantras Mantras are very very r ic h in their meaning. While doing japa one o ne can meditate on o n the mantra and its meaning. As the the mind dwell d well mo mo re and more into that, the man ma ntra conditi co nditio o ns the mind and takes up to the higher states and forms the path to the great liberation - eternal bliss ! What makes mantras so special as compared to the normal words ? Mantras are not human com co mposed. One may wo nder ho ho w can that that be pos sible. Especially give n that there are sages associated with the mantras ! The point to be noted is that these sages are not composers of these mantra mantra s, as we normaly norma ly compose the se ntences; t he y are not the inve ntors, but b ut they are the discoverers of the mantra. They get to know the mantras in a state in which these words do not emanate from their thoughts, but they are just passive audience to it. Those who go deep in meditatio meditatio n and realize God may be ab le to get a fee l o f this situation situatio n. To be such a discoverer, even though they are just passive hearers, needs great amount of qualification. Only the perfect one can unchangedly reproduce the mantra heard. The only one that is absolutely perfect is God. All other discoverers reproduce that mantra only as pure as their closeness to perfection. veda veda sa mhitAs mhitAs are full of mantras and a nd he he nce have been preserved for ages in their their pure fo rm by utilizing the various techniques like patha, krama, jaTa, gaNa pATas, that ensure that the chanter clearly gets the correct letters and even the correct level of sound for each letter (svara). The chanters are advised to chant the mantras only after getting the right pronunciation of it, so that the mantras are presered against deterioration with time. There would be gurus who initiate the disciple in a mantra. guru ensures that the disciple got the mantra right, so that the person can chant independently as well as initiate others in that mantra. Ensuring this preservation vedas were passed only through the tradition of guru and disciples and was never written down till very recent past. (It is really amazing to note that without being written down the vedas have been preserved in pure form across the land by these techniques. Though the texts are freely available now for anybody to read, it would be important to ensure that these mantras are properly learnt and then chanted. This way the treasure that as been preserved so carefully over multiple milleniums do not deteriorate due to indifference.) It is to be noted that many of the hymns of thirumuRai are known to have great powers of mantras that are practi pract iced even toda y. While there are plenty of mantras available, there are a few that are chanted with high esteem by the shaivas. Definitely those are highly powerful ones o nes that can ca n lead the chant c hanter er o n the the great path pa th to muk muk ti (liberati (liberat io n). n). praNava, paNJchAkashra, paN JchAkashra, gAyatri to name a few. For shaivites the t he Holy Fiv F ivee Syllable Syllable s (paNJchAksh (paNJchAks hara) with or without w ithout combined with the praNava praNa va is is the t he ultimate ultimate mantra. ma ntra.
Defin De finition ition # 1: 1 : Man M antras tras a re energy-base energy-based d sounds. sounds. Saying any word produces an actual physical vibration. Over time, if we know what the effect of that vib vib ration is, then the word may come to ha ve mea ning associated with wit h the effect o f saying that t hat
vibration or word. This is one level of energy basis for words. Another level is inten intent. t. If the actual ac tual p hysical vibrat io n is coupled with a mental mental intention, the vibration then contains an additional mental component which influences the result of saying it. The so so und is the carrier wav wa ve and the inte inte nt is o verlaid verlaid upon po n the wav wavee form, just as a colored gel influe influen nc es the appearan appeara nce and e ffect ffect o f a white w hite light. In either eit her instance, th t he word is based upon po n e nergy. Nowhere No where is this ide ideaa more true than tha n fo fo r Sanskrit mantra. mantra. For a lthough there is a general meaning ean ing which comes to be associate assoc iated d with mantras, the only lasting definition is the result or effect of sa ying the man mantra. tra.
Defin De finition ition #2: #2: M antras antras cr c reate thou thought ght-energ -energy y waves. The human consciousness is really a collection of states of consciousness which distributively exist throughout the physical and subtle bodies. Each organ has a primitive consciousness of its own. That p rimitive consciousn conscio usness ess a llows it it to perfor m functions specific to it. Then come the var io us systems. The cardio-vascular system, the reproductive system and other systems have various organs or body parts working at slightly different stages of a single process. Like the organs, there is a primitive consciousness also associated with each system. And these are just within the physical body. Similar functions and states of consciousness exist within the subtle body as well. So individual organ consciousness is overlaid by system consciousness, overlaid again by subtle body counterparts and consciousness, and so ad infinitum. The ego with its self-defined "I" ness assumes a pre-eminent state among the subtle din of random, semi-conscious thoughts which pulse through our organism. And of course, our organism can "pick up" the vibration of other organisms nearby. The result is that there are myriad vibrations riding in and and through the subcons subco nscc ious mind at any give n time. time. Mantras start a powerful vibration which corresponds to both a specific spiritual energy frequency and a state of consciousness in seed form. Over time, the mantra process begins to override all of the other smaller vibrations, which eventually become absorbed by the mantra. After a length of time time which w hich varies from individual to ind ividual, ividual, t he great wave o f the man ma ntra stills s tills all oth ot her vibrations. Ultimately, the mantra produces a state where the organism vibrates at the rate completely in tune with the energy and spiritual state represented by and contained within the mantra. At this point, po int, a c ha nge o f state occurs in the organism. The organis m becomes beco mes subtly different differe nt.. Just as a laser laser is light which w hich is cohe co herent rent in a new wa y, the person perso n who who becomes be comes one o ne with the state produced by b y the mant ma ntra ra is also coh co he rent in a way which d id not e xist xist pri pr io r to the conscio us undertaking of repet itio itio n o f the mantra. mantra.
Defin De finition ition #3: Mantr M antras as a re tools of po po we r a nd tools for fo r po po we r. They are formidable. They are ancient. They work. The word "mantra" is derived from two Sanskrit words. The first is "manas" or "mind," which provides the "man" syllable. The second syllab syllab le is d rawn from the Sanskr it wo wo rd "trai" meaning mean ing to "protect" or to "free from." Therefore, the word mantra in its most literal sense means "to free from the mind." Mantra is, at its core, a tool used used by b y the mind which event ually frees frees o ne fro fro m the vagaries of the mind.
But the journey from mantra to freedom is a wondrous one. The mind expands, deepens and widens and and eventually e ventually di d ips into the essen esse nce of cos mic existe existence. nce. O n its jour ney, the mind comes to understand much about the t he esse nce o f the vibrat vibration ion of things. And A nd knowledge, as we all know, know, is power. In the case o f mantra, thi t hiss power po wer is tangible and a nd wieldab wieldab le.
Statements About Mantra Mantras Mantras have close, appr approximate oximate one one -to-one -to-one direct direct language-base language-based d translation. translation. If we warn a young child that it should not touch a hot stove, we try to explain that it will burn the child. However, language is insufficient to convey the experience. Only the act of touching the stove and being burned will adequately define the words "hot" and "burn" in the context of "stove." Essentially, there is no real direct translation of the experience of being burned. Similarly, there is no word which is the exact equivalent of the experience of sticking one's finger into an electrical socket. When we stick our hand into the socket, only then do we have a context fo r the word "shock." But shock is rea rea lly a definition of the result res ult of the act io n o f sticking our hand into the socket. It is the same with mantras. The only true definition is the experience which it ultimately creates in the sayer. Over thousands of years, many sayers have had common experiences and passed them on to the next generation. Through this tradition, a context of experiential definition has been created.
Definitions of mantras are oriented toward either the results of repeating the mantra or of the the intentions of th t he origi origina nall framers and tes ters of the mantra. In Sanskrit, sounds which have no direct translation but which contain great power which can be "grown" from it are called "seed mantras an tras.. " Seed in Sanskrit is called ca lled "Bijam" in the singular and "Bija" in the plural form. Let's Let's take an a n example. The mantra "Shrim" "Shr im" or S hreem is the seed sound for the principle p rinciple of abundance (Lakshmi, in the t he Hindu Hind u Pantheo Pantheon.) n.) If one says "shrim" "s hrim" a hundred times, a certain increase in the potentiality potentia lity o f the saye sa yerr to accumulat acc umulatee abun abu nd a nce nce is achi ac hiee ved. ved. If one says "shr im" a tho tho usand times or a millio millio n, the result is correspon correspo nd ingly greater. But abundance ab undance can take many fo rms. There is prosperity, to be su s ure, b ut there is also also peace as abundance, health healt h as wealth, wea lth, frie friends nds as wealth, wea lth, enough food to eat as wealth, and a host of o f other kinds and types of abundance which may vary from individual to individual and culture to culture. It is at this point that the intention of the sayer begins to influence the degree of the kind of capacity fo r accumulating wealth wea lth which may may accr ue.
M antras antras have bee bee n teste d and/or verifie ve rified d by their o riginal frame rs or users. Each mantra is associated with an actual sage or historical person who once lived. Although the oral tradition predates written speech by centuries, those earliest oral records annotated on palm leaves discussed earlier clearly designate a specific sage as the "seer" of the mantra. This means that the mantra was probably arr ived ived at th t hrough roug h some form of meditati meditat io n o r intuition and subsequently tested by the person who first encountered it.
Sanskrit mantras are composed of letters which correspond to certain petals or spokes of chakras in the subtle body. As discussed earlier, there is a direct relationship between the mantra sound, either vocalized or subvocalized, and the chakras located throughout the body.
Mantras are energy which can be likened to fire. You can use fire either to cook your lunch lunch or to b urn down dow n the forest. It is the same fire. Similarly, mantra can bring a positive and beneficial result, or it can produce an energy meltdown when misused misused or o r practiced without wit hout some guidance. There are certain certa in mantra formulas which are so exact e xact,, so specific and so powerful that they must be learned and practiced under careful supervision by a qualified guru. Fortunately, most of the mantras widely used in our portal and certainly those contained in this chapter are perfectly saf sa fe to use use on a daily basis, ba sis, even with some inten inte nsity. sit y.
M antra antra ene e nerrgizes prana. prana. "Pra na" is a Sanskrit San skrit term for a for m o f life energy which ca n be transf tra nsfee rred from indivi ind ivid d ual ua l to individual. Prana may or may not produce an instant dramatic effect upon transfer. There can be heat or coo lness as a result of the transfer. tra nsfer. Some healers operate through transfer of prana. A massage therapist can transfer prana with beneficial effect. Even self-healing can be accomplished by concentrating prana in certain organs, the result of which can be a clearing of the difficulty or condition. For instance, by saying a certain mantra mantra while vis ua lizing lizing an inter nal o rgan bathed in light, the specific powe r of the the mantra ma ntra can become concentrated there with great beneficial effect.
Mantras eventually quiet the mind. At a deep level, subconscious mind is a collective consciousness of all the forms of primitive consciousnesses which exist throughout the physical and subtle bodies. The dedicated use of mantra can dig into subconscious crystallized thoughts stored in the organs and glands and transform these bodily parts into repositories of peace. Some of you may be interested or even fascinated by the discipline of mantra, but feel somewhat overw overwh he lmed lmed by b y the array of o f mantra mantrass and disciplines, astotaras and a nd pujas you find in here. here. If I f so, then this chapter will be of use to you. It contains some simple mantras and their common application. They have been compiled from vedas and upanishads, drawn from the various head head ings of the deiti deit ie s or principles invo lved. lved. These These mantras ma ntras address various life issues which w hich we we all face from time to time
