A mantra ( ; Pali: mantra) or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्)"mantra" . Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language such as Sanskrit or Avestan) that practitioners believe to have religious, magical or spiritual powers.Feuerstein, Georg (2003), The Deeper Dimension of Yoga. Shambala Publications, Boston, MA Etymologically derived from Sanskrit, the word "mantra" combines the roots "man-" (referring to the mind) and "-tra" (signifying a tool or instrument); consequently, a mantra can be understood as a mental tool designed to focus and control thought. Some mantras have a syntactic structure and literal meaning, while others do not.James Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 2, , pages 422–423
ꣽ, ॐ (Aum, Om) serves as a mantra in various Indian religions. It is an example of a seed syllable mantra (bijamantra). According to Hinduism Om is believed to be the first sound and the sonic essence of the absolute divine reality. Longer mantras are phrases with several syllables, names and words. These phrases may have spiritual interpretations such as a name of a deity, a longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge, and action. Examples of longer mantras include the Gayatri Mantra, the Hare Krishna mantra, Om Namah Shivaya, the Mani mantra, the Mantra of Light, the Namokar Mantra, and the Mūl Mantar. Mantras without any actual linguistic meaning are still considered to be musically uplifting and spiritually meaningful.
The use, structure, function, importance, and types of mantras vary according to the school and philosophy of Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Sikhism.Nesbitt, Eleanor M. (2005), Sikhism: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, A common practice is japa, the meditative repetition of a mantra, usually with the aid of a mala (prayer beads). Mantras serve a central role in the Indian tantric traditions, which developed elaborate yogic methods which make use of mantras. In tantric religions (often called "mantra paths", Sanskrit: Mantranāya or Mantramarga), mantric methods are considered to be the most effective path. Ritual initiation (abhiseka) into a specific mantra and its associated deity is often a requirement for reciting certain mantras in these traditions. However, in some religious traditions, initiation is not always required for certain mantras, which are open to all.Boyce, M. (2001), Zoroastrians: their religious beliefs and practices, Psychology Press
The word mantra is also used in English to refer to something that is said frequently and is deliberately repeated over and over.
Etymology and origins The earliest mention of mantras is found in the Vedas of ancient India and the Avesta of ancient Iran. Both Sanskrit mántra and the equivalent Avestan mąθra go back to the common Proto-Indo-Iranian *mantram, consisting of the Indo-European *men "to think" and the instrumental suffix *trom.Macdonell, Arthur A., A Sanskrit Grammar for Students § 182.1.b, p. 162 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927).Whitney, W. D., Sanskrit Grammar § 1185.c, p. 449(New York, 2003, ). According to scholars, due to linguistic and functional similarities, mantras likely date to the common Indo-Iranian period, commonly dated to around 2000 BCE.
Scholars consider the use of mantras to have begun in India before 1000 BC. By the middle Vedic period (1000 BC to 500 BC) – claims Frits Staal – mantras in Hinduism had developed into a blend of art and science.
The Chinese translation is , the Japanese on'yomi reading of the Chinese being shingon (which is also used as the proper name for the Shingon sect). According to Alex Wayman and Ryujun Tajima, "Zhenyan" (or "Shingon") means "true speech", has the sense of "an exact mantra which reveals the truth of the dharmas", and is the path of mantras.
According to Bernfried Schlerath, the concept of sātyas mantras is found in Indo-Iranian Yasna 31.6 and the Rigveda, where it is considered structured thought in conformity with the reality or poetic (religious) formulas associated with inherent fulfillment.
Definition
There is no generally accepted definition of mantra.Harvey Alper (1989), Understanding Mantras, , State University of New York, pages 3–7 As a result, there is a long history of scholarly disagreement on the meaning of mantras and whether they are instruments of mind, as implied by the etymological origin of the word mantra. One school suggests mantras are mostly meaningless sound constructs, while the other holds them to be mostly meaningful linguistic instruments of mind. Both schools agree that mantras have melody and a well designed mathematical precision in their construction and that their influence on the reciter and listener is similar to that is observed in people around the world listening to their beloved music that is devoid of words.
In Oxford Living Dictionary mantra is defined as a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation. Cambridge Dictionary provides two different definitions. The first refers to Hinduism and Buddhism: a word or sound that is believed to have a special spiritual power. The second definition is more general: a word or phrase that is often repeated and expresses a particularly strong belief. For instance, a football team can choose individual words as their own "mantra."
Louis Renou has defined mantra as a thought.T Renou (1946), Littérature Sanskrite, Paris, page 74 Mantras are structured formulae of thoughts, claims Silburn.L. Silburn (1955), Instant et cause, Paris, page 25 Farquhar concludes that mantras are a religious thought, prayer, sacred utterance, but also believed to be a spell or weapon of supernatural power.J. Farquhar (1920), An outline of the religious literature of India, Oxford, page 25 Zimmer defines mantra as a verbal instrument to produce something in one's mind.Heinrich Robert Zimmer (1946), Myths and symbols in Indian art and civilization, , Washington DC, page 72 Agehananda Bharati defines mantra, in the context of the Tantric school of Hinduism, to be a combination of mixed genuine and quasi-morphemes arranged in conventional patterns, based on codified esoteric traditions, passed on from a guru to a disciple through prescribed initiation.Agehananda Bharati (1965), The Tantric Tradition, London: Rider and Co.,
Jan Gonda, a widely cited scholar on Indian mantras,Harvey Alper (1989), Understanding Mantras, , State University of New York, page 9 defines mantra as general name for the verses, formulas or sequence of words in prose which contain praise, are believed to have religious, magical or spiritual efficiency, which are meditated upon, recited, muttered or sung in a ritual, and which are collected in the methodically arranged ancient texts of Hinduism.Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic Literature (Samhitäs and Brähmanas), (HIL I.I) Wiesbaden: OH; also Selected Studies, (4 volumes), Leiden: E. J. Brill By comparing the Old Indic Vedic and Old Iranian Avestan traditions, Gonda concludes that in the oldest texts, mantras were "means of creating, conveying, concentrating and realizing intentional and efficient thought, and of coming into touch or identifying oneself with the essence of the divinity". In some later schools of Hinduism, Gonda suggests a mantra is sakti (power) to the devotee in the form of formulated and expressed thought.
Frits Staal clarifies that mantras are not rituals, they are what is recited or chanted during a ritual. Staal presents a non-linguistic view of mantras. He suggests that verse mantras are metered and harmonized to mathematical precision (for example, in the viharanam technique), which resonate, but a lot of them are a hodgepodge of meaningless constructs such as are found in folk music around the world. Staal cautions that there are many mantras that can be translated and do have spiritual meaning and philosophical themes central to Hinduism, but that does not mean all mantras have a literal meaning. He further notes that even when mantras do not have a literal meaning, they do set a tone and ambiance in the ritual as they are recited, and thus have a straightforward and uncontroversial ritualistic meaning. The sounds may lack literal meaning, but they can have an effect. He compares mantras to bird songs, that have the power to communicate, yet do not have a literal meaning.Frits Staal (1985), Mantras and Bird Songs, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 105, No. 3, Indological Studies, pages 549–558 On that saman category of Hindu mantras, which Staal described as resembling the arias of Bach's oratorios and other European classics, he notes that these mantras have musical structure, but they almost always are completely different from anything in the syntax of natural languages. Mantras are literally meaningless, yet musically meaningful to Staal.Harvey Alper (1989), Understanding Mantras, , State University of New York, pages 10–11 The saman chant mantras were transmitted from one Hindu generation to next verbally for over 1000 years but never written, a feat, suggests Staal, that was made possible by the strict mathematical principles used in constructing the mantras. These saman chant mantras are also mostly meaningless, cannot be literally translated as Sanskrit or any Indian language, but nevertheless are beautiful in their resonant themes, variations, inversions, and distribution. They draw the devotee in. Staal is not the first person to view Hindu mantras in this manner. The ancient Hindu Vedic ritualist Kautsa was one of the earliest scholars to note that mantras are meaningless; their function is phonetic and syntactic, not semantic.Frits Staal (1996), Rituals and Mantras, Rules without meaning, , Motilal Banarsidass, pages 112–113
Harvey AlperHarvey Alper (1989), Understanding Mantras, , State University of New York, pages 10–14 and othersAndre Padoux, in Understanding Mantras, , State University of New York, pages 295–317; see also Chapter 3 by Wade Wheelock present mantras from the linguistic point view. They admit Staal's observation that many mantras do contain bits and pieces of meaningless jargon, but they question what language or text doesn't. The presence of an abracadabra bit does not necessarily imply the entire work is meaningless. Alper lists numerous mantras that have philosophical themes, moral principles, a call to virtuous life, and even mundane petitions. He suggests that from a set of millions of mantras, the devotee chooses some mantras voluntarily, thus expressing that speaker's intention, and the audience for that mantra is that speaker's chosen spiritual entity. Mantras deploy the language of spiritual expression, they are religious instruments, and that is what matters to the devotee. A mantra creates a feeling in the practicing person. It has an emotive numinous effect, it mesmerizes, it defies expression, and it creates sensations that are by definition private and at the heart of all religions and spiritual phenomena.Harvey Alper (1989), Understanding Mantras, , State University of New York, pages 11–13
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