copied from wikipedia
A mantra (Devanāgarī
मन्त्र) is a religious or mystical syllable or poem, typically from
the Sanskrit language.
Their use varies according to the school and philosophy associated
with the mantra. They are primarily used as spiritual conduits,
words or vibrations that instill one-pointed concentration in the
devotee. Other purposes have included religious ceremonies to
accumulate wealth, avoid danger, or eliminate enemies. Mantras
originated in the Vedic
religion of India, later becoming an
essential part of the Hindu tradition and a
customary practice within Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. The use of
mantras is now widespread throughout various spiritual movements
which are based on, or off-shoots of, the practices in the earlier
Eastern religions.
Mantras are interpreted to be effective as sound
(vibration), to the
effect that great emphasis is put on correct pronunciation
(resulting in an early development of a science of phonetics in India).
They are intended to deliver the mind from illusion and material
inclinations. Chanting is the process of
repeating a mantra.
Khanna (2003: p.21) links mantras and yantras to
thoughtforms:
Mantras, the Sanskrit syllables inscribed on yantras, are
essentially 'thought forms' representing divinities or cosmic
powers, which exert their influence by means of
sound-vibrations.
The Sanskrit word
mantra- (m. मन्त्रः, also n. मन्त्रं) consists
of the root man- "to
think" (also in manas
"mind") and the suffix -tra meaning, tool, hence a literal
translation would be "instrument of thought".
Another explanation is that the suffix -tra means
"protection".[1]
The Chinese translation is zhenyan 眞言, 真言,
literally "true words", the Japanese on'yomi
reading of the Chinese being shingon.
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In the context of the Vedas, the term "mantra"
refers to the entire portion which contains the texts called
Rig, Yajus or Saman, that is, the
metrical part as
opposed to the prose Brahmana commentary.
With the transition from ritualistic Vedic religion to mystical and
egalitarian Hindu schools of Yoga, Vedanta, Tantra and Bhakti, the orthodox
attitude of the elite nature of mantra knowledge gave way to
spiritual interpretations of mantras as a translation of the human
will or desire into a form of action, with some features in common
with spells in
general.[2] For the
authors of the Hindu scriptures of the Upanishads, the
syllable Aum, itself constituting a
mantra, represents Brahman, the godhead, as well as the
whole of creation. Kūkai suggests that
all sounds are the voice of the Dharmakaya Buddha — i.e. as in Hindu
Upanishadic and Yogic thought, these sounds are manifestations of
ultimate reality, in the sense of sound symbolism
postulating that the vocal sounds of the mantra have inherent
meaning independent of the understanding of the person uttering
them. Nevertheless, such understanding of what a mantra may
symbolise or how it may function differs throughout the various
traditions and also depends on the context in which it is written
or sounded. In some instances there are multiple layers of
symbolism associated with each sound, many of which are specific to
particular schools of thought. For an example of such see the
syllable: Aum which is central to
both Hindu and Buddhist
traditions.
While Hindu tantra eventually came to
see the letters as well as the sounds as representatives of the
divine, it was when Buddhism travelled to China that a
major shift in emphasis towards writing came about. China lacked a
unifying, ecclesiastic language like Sanskrit, and achieved
its cultural unity by having a written language that was flexible
in pronunciation but more precise in terms of the concepts that
each character represented. The Chinese prized written language
much more highly than did the Indian Buddhist missionaries, and the
writing of mantras became a spiritual practice in its own right. So
that whereas Brahmins had been very strict on correct
pronunciation, the Chinese, and indeed other Far-Eastern Buddhists
were less concerned with this than correctly writing something
down. The practice of writing mantras, and copying texts as a
spiritual practice, became very refined in Japan, and the writing
in the Siddham script in which
the Sanskrit of many Buddhist Sutras were written is only really
seen in Japan nowadays. However, written mantra-repetition in Hindu
practices, with Sanskrit in any number of scripts, is well-known to
many sects in India as well.
Mantras were originally conceived in the great Hindu scriptures
known as the Vedas. Within practically
all Hindu scriptures, the writing is formed in painstakingly
crafted two line "shlokas" and most
mantras follow this pattern, although mantras are often found in
single line or even single word combinations.
The most basic mantra is Aum, which in Hinduism
is known as the "pranava mantra," the source of all mantras. The
philosophy behind this is the Hindu idea of nama-rupa (name-form),
which supposes that all things, ideas or entities in existence,
within the phenomenological cosmos, have name and form of some
sort. The most basic name and form is the primordial vibration of
Aum, as it is the first
manifested nama-rupa of Brahman, the unmanifest
reality/unreality. Essentially, before existence and beyond
existence is only One reality, Brahman, and the first manifestation
of Brahman in existence is Aum. For this reason, Aum is considered
to be the most fundamental and powerful mantra, and thus is
prefixed and suffixed to all Hindu prayers. While some mantras may
invoke individual Gods or principles, the most fundamental mantras,
like 'Aum,' the 'Shanti Mantra,' the 'Gayatri
Mantra' and others all ultimately focus on the One reality.
In the Hindu tantra the universe
is sound. The supreme (para) brings forth existence through the
Word (Shabda). Creation consists of vibrations at various
frequencies and amplitudes giving rise to the phenomena of the
world. The purest vibrations are the var.na, the imperishable
letters which are revealed to us, imperfectly as the audible sounds
and visible forms.
Var.nas are the atoms of sound. A complex symbolic association
was built up between letters and the elements, gods, signs of the
zodiac, parts of the body
-- letters became rich in these associations. For example in the
Aitrareya-aranya-Upanishad we find:
In effect each letter became a mantra and the language of the
Vedas, Sanskrit, corresponds
profoundly to the nature of things. Thus the Vedas come to
represent reality itself. The seed syllable Aum represents the
underlying unity of reality, which is Brahman.
Mantra japa was a concept of the
Vedic sages that incorporates mantras as one of the main forms of
puja, or worship, whose
ultimate end is seen as moksha/liberation.
Essentially, Mantra Japa means repetition of mantra, and has become
an established practice of all Hindu streams, from the various
Yoga to Tantra. It involves
repetition of a mantra over and over again, usually in cycles of
auspicious numbers (in multiples of three), the most popular being
108. For this
reason, Hindu malas (bead necklaces)
developed, containing 108 beads and a head bead (sometimes referred
to as the 'meru',
or 'guru' bead). The devotee
performing japa using his/her fingers counts each bead as he/she
repeats the chosen mantra. Having reached 108 repetitions, if
he/she wishes to continue another cycle of mantras, the devotee
must turn the mala around without crossing the head bead and
repeat.
It is said that through japa the devotee attains
one-pointedness, or extreme focus, on the chosen deity or principal
idea of the mantra. The vibrations and sounds of the mantra are
considered extremely important, and thus reverberations of the
sound are supposed to awaken the prana or spiritual
life force and even stimulate chakras according to
many Hindu schools of thought.
Any shloka from holy Hindu texts like the Vedas,
Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita,
Yoga Sutra, even the
Mahabharata ,
Ramayana, Durga
saptashati or Chandi are considered
powerful enough to be repeated to great effect, and have therefore
the status of a mantra.
A very common mantra is formed by taking a deity's name, called
Nama japa, and saluting it in such a manner: "Aum namah ------" or
"Aum Jai (Hail!) ------" or several such permutations. Common
examples are "Aum namah
Shivaya" (Aum I bow to Lord Shiva), "Aum Namo Narayanaya"; or "Aum
Namo Bhagavate Vasudevãya," (Salutations to the Universal God
Vishnu), "Aum Shri Ganeshaya Namah" (Aum to Shri Ganesha) and "Aum
Kalikayai Namah" and "Aum Hrim Chandikãyai Namah." (i.e., mantras
to Devi.)
Repeating an entire mantric text, such as the Durga
Saptashati, in its entirety is called patha.
Arguably the most representative mantra of all the Hindu mantras
is the famed Gayatri
Mantra:
It is considered one of the most universal of all Hindu mantras,
invoking the universal Brahman as the principle of knowledge and
the illumination of the primordial, Sun.
(Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad I.iii.28)
"From ignorance, lead me to truth; From darkness, lead me to
light; From death, lead me into immortality"
A mantra comprising of the names Hare,
Krishna and
Rama. It appears
originally in the
Kali-Saṇṭāraṇa Upaniṣad (Kali Santarana
Upanisad):
In the 16th century, Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu, along with his followers, spread this mantra across
India through public
congregational chanting (sankirtan). Chaitanya
and his followers traveled from town to town singing this mantra,
claiming that it would awaken love of Krishna (bhakti) in whoever
happened to hear it. It is often referred to as the 'Maha Mantra' by
practitioners.
In 1966, A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada established ISKCON (the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness), a branch of the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya
Vaishnava sampradaya, and
introduced the Hare Krishna mantra to the West, describing
it as: "an easy yet sublime way of liberation in the Age of Kali."
(May good befall all, May there be peace for all, May all be fit
for perfection, and May all experience that which is
auspicious.)
(Om, May all be happy. May all be healthy. May we all experience
what is good and let no one suffer. Om, Peace, Peace, Peace!)
The usage of Mantras is described in various texts which
constitute Mantra
Shastra.
Indo-Iranian
*mantra is preserved in Avestan
manthra, effectively meaning "word" but with far-reaching
implications: Manthras are inherently "true" (aša), and the proper
recitation of them brings about (realizes) what is inherently true
in them. It may then be said that manthras are both an
expression of being and "right working" and the recitation of them
is crucial to the maintenance of order and being. (See also:
Avestan aša- and Vedic
ṛtá-)
Indo-Iranian *sātyas mantras (Yasna 31.6:
haiθīm mathrem) thus "does not simply mean 'true Word' but
formulated thought which is in conformity with the reality' or
'poetic (religious) formula with inherent fulfillment
(realization).'"[3]
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While similar to practices of Vedic
society, some traditions of Buddhism have developed their own
distinctive understandings and practices of mantra. For example,
the use of mantra in Tibetan
Buddhism has evolved in dialogue with Bön
and other Himalayan shamanic practice.
Kūkai (774-835), a
noted Buddhist monk, advanced a general theory of language based on his
analysis of two forms of Buddhist ritual language:
dharani (dhāra.nī)
and mantra. Mantra is restricted to esoteric Buddhist
practice whereas dharani is found in both esoteric and exoteric ritual. Dharanis for
instance are found in the Heart Sutra.
The term "shingon" (lit true word)
is a Japanese translation of the Chinese term for mantra, chen
yen.
The word dharani derives from
