Significance of mantras (in my view)

The fundamental view of Hinduism is that the entire universe is made of exactly the same substance vibrating at different levels. Since vibration of a substance makes a sound (whether audible or not) the hindu view is that the universe can be seen as ‘sound’ itself. This is something that I have touched upon in an earlier post. It then followed that it is possible to do some friendly manipulation of the universe with certain sounds that acted as short cuts or key words or passwords to different dimensions. Hence the predominance of mantra’s and their the stress on their correct pronunciation in India and its vedic culture.

No other culture has worked so hard and so intelligently at these discovering these sounds and in some cases even creating specific sequences towards achieving certain goals. The stress on perfection in Indian classical music is another window to this view of the hindus. Sadly, this view is lost on Indians today. Surprisingly, this is perhaps increasingly becoming the view of modern physicists who are now working on a ‘string theory’ that echoes the ‘everything made of the same thing’ belief. It is not surprise that CERN agreed to install an idol of the Natraja, a form of Shiva that is moving in the unpredictable dance of creation and destruction of the existence, outside of their head-office in Geneva. It is notable that CERN that is possibly filled with atheists and agnostics have acknowledged the spiritual tradition that first visualised this form of Shiva.

I am not an expert on mantras, I am not even in the first grade in that department. But since this is my blog and I can write anything on it, I will! My only hope that the people who do read this become more aware of their ancestor’s traditions and are encouraged to explore various mantras for themselves. In fact most hindu religious texts (such as the Srimad Bhagwat) which discussed the original ‘string’ knowledge never asked for ‘faith’, they challenged the reader to test what was being told and accept only if it worked.

The most powerful mantras are called ‘beej’ mantras or seed mantras, these are the sounds on whose foundations more elaborate incantations were formed. But these by themselves are extremely powerful and for that reason dangerous given the possibility of mispronunciation. The most famous one of course if the sound of ‘AUM’, three distinct sounds (aaa, uuu, mmm) to be uttered for equal duration. Our religious/ spiritual tradition also considers AUM to be the first sound that was created with the very first vibration of creation. While I can perhaps append several studies to prove that chanting ‘AUM’ centres us, just one funded by the Government of India should be enough, given that the government that appears to project a image of wanting to discredit spiritual traditions of India (or replace them?) was unable to find fault with AUM. The study basically says that chanting AUM mimics the effect of medicines given to counter depression and epilepsy. There are several other beej mantras as just like AUM they do not have a meaning in Sanskrit, they are simply sounds like Hreem, Klim, Aiyem, Shreem, Dum, Hara, Hari…each for a specific purpose.

Anyway, several self-realised yogis devised their own mantras fashioned in the form of prayer to allow the busy householder to take advantage of these ‘keywords’ without the risk associated with mispronunciation. Some of these mantras are known as siddha mantras that have been infused by the life energy of its creator. Perhaps the most famous one is the Gayatri Mantra created by Rishi Vishwamitra. There are several others such as Ram Raksha stotra by Budha Kaushik Rishi and one of my favourites, the Maruti Stotra by Sant Ramdas. These are extremely powerful incantations whose benefits can be perceived by anyone who chants them correctly and regularly. In fact, one chant the Ram Raksha stotra is supposed to be equivalent to a thousand chants of the Vishnu Sahasranaam, another powerful prayer in its own right. The primary aim of the latter two mantras I mentioned is to protect the chanter from evil energies, bad thoughts and remove fear, each of which is much required today. It is also interesting to note that the Maruti Stotra was created by Ramdas when India was ruled by Mughals and young Shivaji was raising a small band of soldiers to fight them off. India finds itself in a similar situation today and regular chanting of Maruti Stotra should be compulsory for all Indian children in my view. In fact several of Shivaji's soldiers were trained by Sant Ramdas himself and no doubt his teaching of the Maruti stotra played a big part in the bravery that the Chhatrapati and his soldiers displayed in establishing a just, welfare kingdom.

This is only an introductory blog and I shall try to create related posts that explain the meaning of the stotras so that those interested can read and chant them perfectly with their meaning known.