Mantra
Mantra (IAST)Translation: "sacred word / hymn"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: मन्त्र
Transliteration: Mantra
Translation: "a sacred word or phrase of spiritual significance and power; hymns; “that which saves the one who reflects” (from the verb root man – “to think”); form of sound"
Definition:- Along with the Brāhmaṇa, as hymns they constitute the ritual section of the Veda (Karma-Kāṇḍa).
- They are classified according to their metres: Gāyatrī has twenty-four syllables with nine subdivisions; Uṣṇik has twenty-eight syllables with seven subdivisions; Prakṛti has forty syllables with eight subdivisions; Bṛhatī has thirty-six syllables with nine subdivisions; Triṣṭup has forty-four syllables with ten subdivisions; Jagatī has forty-eight syllables with three subdivisions; Ajagatī has fifty-two syllables; Śakvarī has fifty-six syllables; Atiśakvarī has sixty syllables; Aṣṭi has sixty-four syllables; Dhṛti has seventy-two syllables; and Atidhṛti has seventy-six syllables.
- The Mantras are preserved chiefly in the Ṛk- and Atharva-Saṃhitās.
- According to Śākta philosophy, a Mantra is so called because it saves one who meditates on its significance. Each Mantra has a deity (Devatā). For instance, the Mantra of Kālī is Krīṃ; of Māyā is Hrīṃ, etc.
- Mantras are of two classes: Kaṇṭhika, or those given expression to by the voice, and Ajapa, or those non-uttered Mantras which are not spoken but repeated internally.
Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo)
Mantra – a mystic formula, “a word of power born out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a deeper consciousness that the mental,” which can not only “reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess,” but in some cases “produce vibrations in the mental and vital atmosphere which result in effects... on the physical plane.”
The Serpent Power (Arthur Avalon)
"It is said that the letters (Varna) of the alphabet are distributed throughout the bodily centers on the petals of the lotuses. In each of the lotuses, there is also a Seed-Mantra (Bīja) of the Tattva of the center. Kuṇḍalinī is both Light (Jyotiṣmatī) and Mantra (Mantramayī), and Mantra is used in the process of rousing Her.
Mantra is a power (Mantra Śakti) which lends itself impartially to any use. A man may be injured or killed by Mantra; by Mantra, a kind of union with the physical Śakti is by some said to be effected; by Mantra, in the initiation called Vedhadīgshā, there is such a transference of power from the Guru to the disciple that the latter swoons under the impulse of it; by Mantra, the Homa fire may and, according to ideal conditions, should be lighted; by Mantra, man is saved, and so forth. Mantra, in short, is a power (Śakti); power in the form of Sound. The root “man” means “to think”.
The creative power of thought is now receiving increasing acceptance in the West. Thought-reading, thought-transference, hypnotic suggestion, magical projections (Mokśana), and shields (Grahaṇa), are becoming known and practiced, not always with good results. The doctrine is ancient in India, and underlies the practices to be found in the Tantras, some of which are kept in general concealed to prevent misuse. What, however, is not understood in the West is the particular form of Thought-science which is Mantra-Vidyā. Those familiar with Western presentment of similar subjects will more readily understand when I say that, according to the Indian doctrine here described, thought (like mind, of which it is the operation) is a Power or Śakti. It is, therefore, as real, as the outer material objects. Both are projections of the creative thought of the World-thinker. The root “man”, which means “to think”, is also the root of the Sanskrit word for “Man,” who alone of all creation is properly a thinker. Mantra is the manifested Śabda Brahman."
"[...]On the physical plane, Prāṇa manifests in the animal body as breath through inspiration (Sa), or Śakti, and expiration (Ha), or Śiva. Breathing is itself a Mantra, known as the Mantra which is not recited (Ajapa-Mantra), for it is said without volition.
The divine current is the motion of Ha and Sa. This motion, which exists on all the planes of life, is for the earth plane (Bhurloka) created and sustained by the Sun, the solar breath of which is the cause of human breath with its centrifugal and centripetal movements, the counterpart in man of the cosmic movement of the Hamsah or Śiva Śakti Tattva, which are the soul of the Universe. The Sun is not only the center and upholder of the solar system, but the source of all available energy and of all physical life on Earth. Accompanying the sunshine, there proceeds from the orb a vast invisible radiation, the prerequisite of all vegetable and animal life. It is these invisible rays which, according to science, sustain the mystery of all physical life. The Sun as the great luminary is the body of the Solar God, a great manifestation of the Inner Spiritual Sun."
References:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Hartz, Richard. Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo). Retrieved from http://wiki.auroville.org.in/wiki/Glossary_to_the_Record_of_Yoga
- Avalon, Arthur (1950). The Serpent Power: Being the Shat-Chakra-Nirūpana and Pādukā-Panchakā. Adyar, Madras: Ganesh & Co. (Madras) Ltd.
