mantra

mantra, in Asian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, a sacred utterance (syllable, word, or verse) that is considered to possess mystical or religious efficacy. Various mantras are spoken aloud, muttered, or merely sounded internally in one’s thoughts, and they are either repeated continuously for some time or sounded just once. Some mantras are without any apparent lexical meaning, but they are thought to have a profound underlying significance and are in effect distillations of spiritual wisdom and power. Many mantras are devotional invocations of or prayers to divine beings such as Hindu gods and Buddhist figures.

Mantras in the Sanskrit language first developed within Vedic religion, the earliest layer of Hinduism, dating to about 1500–1200 bce. As Hinduism developed into its current forms with newer gods and practices, beginning from the first centuries ce and continually evolving into the present, newer mantras were created, even as Vedic rituals and mantras continued to be observed alongside and interwoven with newer devotional modes. Buddhism and Jainism, which first developed in India from the 7th through the 4th century bce in response to Vedic religion and society, adopted and adapted vocabulary and concepts from early Hinduism, including the use of Sanskrit mantras for worship, reverence, and religious efficacy. In modern parlance in English, the word mantra has been transplanted beyond the religious sphere to mean a watchword or slogan in the contexts of business or personal growth.

Hindu mantras

The term mantra comes from the Sanskrit root man, “to think,” and the suffix -tra, which has a sense of instrumentality—hence, it might be translated as an “instrument of thought.” Thus, to utter a mantra for a deity is, in one sense, a tool to bring the deity to mind. Mantras in Vedic chant are what scholar of Vedic religion Frits Staal considers in his book Rules Without Meaning: Ritual, Mantras, and the Human Sciences (1989) to be “recitations and chants that accompany rites and that are derived from sentences or bits and pieces of the Vedas.” Mantras in the Vedic context include different kinds of ritual verses: ṛc (“verse”) from the Rigveda, sāman (“chant”) from the Samaveda, and yajus (“formula”) from the Yajurveda. According to Staal, mantras are essentially “meaningless” utterances. However, other scholars have pushed against this conclusion, such as scholar of religions Laurie Patton, who suggests in her book Bringing the Gods to Mind: Mantra and Ritual in Early Indian Sacrifice (2005) that mantras in Vedic ritual are not meaningless but guided by an “associational or metonymic principle” such that the ritual action, the desired effect from the ritual, and the words of the mantra converge in meaningfulness.

In the Brahmanas and especially in the Upanishads, philosophical texts that add a contemplative dimension to the Vedic texts, the simple syllable oṃ, which begins many mantras, is considered to have sacred meaning and to be the supreme mantra. The texts describe oṃ as the sacred sound, the essence of the Vedas, and absolute reality that is brahman. As Taittiriya Upanishad 1.8 states, “This whole world is oṃ.” The syllable is often written with the Devanagari ligature ॐ that combines the characters for a, u, and the nasalized m (as a chandrabindu, “moon and dot”) and is found frequently in Hindu texts and visual art.

One Vedic mantra that has retained its significance in modern Hindu practice is the Gayatri mantra, taken from the Rigveda (verse 3.62.10). This mantra is given in the ear of initiates who receive upanayana—the ritual investiture of the sacred thread worn by males who have undergone initiation, traditionally indicating their entrance into the stage of students (brahmacharin). In later layers of Hinduism, this mantra was imagined as a goddess called Gayatri or Savitri and considered to be a form of the supreme goddess Devi or of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, art, and speech. In its original form the Gayatri mantra is a hymn to the Sun (surya or savitr):

oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tat savitur vareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi
dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt

“Oṃ, earth, atmosphere, and sky. May we contemplate the desirable radiance of the god Savitṛ; may he impel our thoughts” (translation by Gavin Flood).

As Hinduism grew from its Vedic roots into classical and modern forms from the first centuries of the Common Era, a new collection of mantras were created for the newer deities that came to the fore. The deities whose stories are told in the Hindu epics and the Puranas—such as Vishnu, Shiva, and the various goddesses—and who became the main focus of worship and devotion in Hinduism have since been most popularly propitiated and brought to mind with these new mantras. While aspects of Vedic sacrificial ritual persisted, new temple practices and offerings in the form of pujas (non-sacrificial offerings of flowers and other goods to sacred images, or murtis, of deities) became the most common rituals and were often accompanied by these newer mantras. The rise of bhakti (devotional) movements in Hinduism, and their focus on a personal relationship of human to deity, led to an emphasis on divine reverence in the use of mantras. Meditation with mantras of these deities also became a significant aspect of Hindus’ spiritual practices.

Most Hindu mantras include the sacred syllable oṃ followed by what are known as “seed” (bija) syllables—i.e., syllables with no semantic meaning (such as gaṃ, hrīṃ, and śrīṃ) that are thought to have great power and that are a sonic and verbal encapsulation of the deity. Some of the simplest mantras invoke the deity in the dative (indirect object) case, indicating prayer to the deity. They are often recited 108 times (a numerologically significant number in Hinduism), often with the assistance of prayer beads. A simple recitation would just recite the mantra three times. Many of these mantras include the term namaḥ, “obeisance” or “bowing,” the same verbal root nam found in the popular term namaste, “(I) bow to you.” Examples of Hindu mantras include:

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• To Ganesha: oṃ gaṃ gaṇapataye namaḥ (“Obeisance to Ganesha.”)
• To Shiva: oṃ namaḥ shivāya (“Obeisance to Shiva.”)
• To Vishnu: oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya (“Obeisance to Narayana [a name of Vishnu].”)
• To Saraswati: oṃ aiṃ hrīṃ śrīṃ vāgdevyai sarasvatyai namaḥ (“Obeisance to Saraswati, goddess of speech.”)
• To Lakshmi: oṃ śrīṃ hrīṃ śrīṃ kamale kamalālaye prasīda prasīda; oṃ śrīṃ hrīṃ śrīṃ mahālakṣmayai namaḥ (“O goddess of the lotus [Lakshmi] who resides in a lotus, be gracious, be pleased. Obeisance to the great Lakshmi.”)

Buddhist mantras

Mantras are a part of practice in all branches of Buddhism, but they are particularly important in the Mahayana and Tibetan traditions that emphasize various efficacious and expedited means to nirvana, the liberation from the cycle of rebirth (samsara). A Mahayana text called the Heart Sutra ends with a mantra that is introduced as “the most illuminating mantra, the highest mantra, a mantra beyond compare, the True Wisdom that has the power to put an end to all kinds of suffering” (translation by Thich Nhat Hanh). That mantra is:

gate gate pāragate pāra-saṁgate bodhi svāhā
“Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, enlightenment, hail.”

The term svāhā with which this mantra ends is used in many Vedic mantras when pouring oblations into the fire and carries with it a sense of accomplishment of the ritual act. The mantra here relates to the ability of wisdom to lead one beyond the cycle of samsara and suffering to enlightenment (bodhi).

In Pure Land Buddhism, a popular form of Buddhism throughout East Asia, it is believed that recitation of the name of Amitabha Buddha (Amituofo in Chinese and Amida in Japanese) with sincerity ensures a rebirth in Sukhavati, his western heavenly paradise. This recitation of his name (called nianfo in Chinese or nembutsu in Japanese) is done endlessly by Buddhist devotees and on electronic recordings. The Chinese version of the mantra is namo Amituofo, and the Japanese version is namu Amida Butsu. Chanting of these mantras (or recitation with electronic recordings) is encouraged for those who are nearing the end of life.

Mantras are central to Tibetan Buddhism, so much so that the tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism—the primary form of Indian Buddhism that influenced Tibetan Buddhism—is sometimes called Mantrayana, or “path of mantras.” Mantras in Tibetan Buddhism are thought to have sacred and efficacious significance as a path toward religious cognition but also as in themselves helpful tools for achieving liberation from samsara. The tradition emphasizes performing rituals with mantras as a means of a reaching spiritual states of understanding along with special lineages of knowledge and mantras passed down from teachers (lamas) to students.

The most popular Tibetan Buddhist mantra is oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ. The mantra is an invocation of the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvera (the lord who looks down), who is called Chenrezig in Tibetan. The Dalai Lama is thought to be an incarnation of this being. Western sources have often translated this six-syllable mantra as “Homage to the jewel in the lotus”; however, many scholars suggest translating it as “O jewel-lotus,” the jewel and lotus as a compound entity. The Sanskrit mantra is inscribed in Tibetan script on prayer wheels that can be spun, prayer flags that are thought to recite the prayer as they blow in the wind, and “maṇi stones” that can be found frequently throughout Tibet. At the Gyanak Mani temple in Xinzhai village, Qinghai province, there is a collection of more than two billion maṇi stones inscribed with the mantra. The 14th Dalai Lama emphasized the importance of this mantra for ritual but also for gaining deep spiritual understanding as he summarized its meaning in his book Kindness, Clarity, and Insight (1984):

Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha.

In Nichiren Buddhism, a Japanese movement that began in the 13th century, a central aspect of devotional practice is recitation of a mantra paying homage to the Lotus Sutra, a Mahayana Buddhist text. The mantra namu myōhō renge kyō can be translated as “I devote myself to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law.” This mantra is dedicated not to a deity or savior figure, as are many others, but to a text, thus illustrating another possible extension of the use and meaning of mantra.