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86-649: Paramahamsa is a Sanskrit word translated as 'supreme swan'. The word is compounded of Sanskrit परम parama meaning 'supreme', 'highest', or 'transcendent' (from PIE per meaning 'through', 'across', or 'beyond', cognate with English far ) and Sanskrit हंस hamsa meaning ' swan or wild goose '. The prefix parama is the same element seen in Parameshwara , a title for God . In Hindic tradition, swans are noted for characteristics of discipline, stamina, grace, and beauty. "Hamsa" may be spelled "hansa." As described by Paramahansa Yogananda, author of "Autobiography of

172-546: A French Jesuit who spent most of his life in India, had specifically demonstrated the analogy between Sanskrit and European languages. According to current academic consensus, Jones's famous work of 1786 was less accurate than his predecessors', as he erroneously included Egyptian , Japanese and Chinese in the Indo-European languages, while omitting Hindi . In 1818, Danish linguist Rasmus Christian Rask elaborated

258-677: A PIE homeland, the Kurgan and Anatolian hypotheses are the ones most widely accepted, and also the ones most debated against each other. Following the publication of several studies on ancient DNA in 2015, Colin Renfrew, the original author and proponent of the Anatolian hypothesis, has accepted the reality of migrations of populations speaking one or several Indo-European languages from the Pontic steppe towards Northwestern Europe. The table lists

344-505: A Yogi" in which he states that hansa literally means "swan." "The white swan," he clarifies " is mythologically represented as the vehicle or mount of Brahma the Creator. The sacred hansa , said to have the power of extracting only milk from a mixture of milk and water, is thus a symbol of spiritual discrimination." Yogananda adds " Ahan-sa or ‘hansa (pronounced hong-sau ) is literally “I am He.” These potent SANSKRIT syllables possess

430-549: A conventional mark of reconstructed words, such as * wódr̥ , * ḱwn̥tós , or * tréyes ; these forms are the reconstructed ancestors of the modern English words water , hound , and three , respectively. No direct evidence of PIE exists; scholars have reconstructed PIE from its present-day descendants using the comparative method . For example, compare the pairs of words in Italian and English: piede and foot , padre and father , pesce and fish . Since there

516-453: A detailed, though conservative, overview of the lexical knowledge accumulated by 1959. Jerzy Kuryłowicz's 1956 Apophonie gave a better understanding of Indo-European ablaut . From the 1960s, knowledge of Anatolian became robust enough to establish its relationship to PIE. Scholars have proposed multiple hypotheses about when, where, and by whom PIE was spoken. The Kurgan hypothesis , first put forward in 1956 by Marija Gimbutas , has become

602-477: 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

688-627: A language. From the 1870s, the Neogrammarians proposed that sound laws have no exceptions, as illustrated by Verner's law , published in 1876, which resolved apparent exceptions to Grimm's law by exploring the role of accent (stress) in language change. August Schleicher 's A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European, Sanskrit, Greek and Latin Languages (1874–77) represented an early attempt to reconstruct

774-432: A later period of Hinduism, mantras were recited with a transcendental redemptive goal as intention, such as escape from the cycle of life and rebirth, forgiveness for bad karma, and experiencing a spiritual connection with the god. The function of mantras, in these cases, was to cope with the human condition as a whole. According to Alper, redemptive spiritual mantras opened the door for mantras where every part need not have

860-497: A literal meaning, but together their resonance and musical quality assisted the transcendental spiritual process. Overall, explains Alper, using Śivasūtra mantras as an example, Hindu mantras have philosophical themes and are metaphorical with social dimension and meaning; in other words, they are a spiritual language and instrument of thought. According to Staal, Hindu mantras may be spoken aloud, anirukta (not enunciated), upamsu (inaudible), or manasa (not spoken, but recited in

946-482: 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. On that saman category of Hindu mantras, which Staal described as resembling

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1032-420: A mantra simultaneously with in-breath and out-breath to help develop tranquility and concentration. Mantra meditation is especially popular among lay people. Like other basic concentration exercises, it can be used simply to the mind, or it can be the basis for an insight practice where the mantra becomes the focus of observation of how life unfolds, or an aid in surrendering and letting go." The "Buddho" mantra

1118-477: 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

1204-459: 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. The word mantra is also used in English to refer to something that is said frequently and is deliberately repeated over and over. The earliest mention of mantras

1290-481: A spell or weapon of supernatural power. Zimmer defines mantra as a verbal instrument to produce something in one's mind. 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. Jan Gonda ,

1376-571: A subject of controversy among scholars. Tantra usage is not unique to Hinduism: it is also found in Buddhism both inside and outside India. Other important Hindu mantras include: Apart from Shiva Sutras , which originated from Shiva's tandava dance, the Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta are a collection of seventy-seven aphorisms that form the foundation of the tradition of spiritual mysticism known as Kashmir Shaivism . They are attributed to

1462-613: A thousand years. According to the prevailing Kurgan hypothesis , the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans may have been in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Europe. The linguistic reconstruction of PIE has provided insight into the pastoral culture and patriarchal religion of its speakers. As speakers of Proto-Indo-European became isolated from each other through the Indo-European migrations ,

1548-422: A vibratory connection with the incoming and the outgoing breath. Thus with his every breath man unconsciously asserts the truth of his being." In keeping with the construct of Sanskrit, which often layers multiple meanings upon or within words, Hamsa may also be a religious pun or allegory with a philosophical meaning. One such etymology suggests that the words 'aham' and 'sa' are joined to become 'hamsa'; aham

1634-526: A widely cited scholar on Indian mantras, 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. By comparing the Old Indic Vedic and Old Iranian Avestan traditions, Gonda concludes that in

1720-482: 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

1806-500: Is 'I' or 'me' and sa is 'he', together meaning 'I am he'. Here, 'I' refers to the jivatma or jivatama , the living soul, and 'he' the paramatma or paramatama or supreme soul (the alternative spellings are due to differing Romanisations of the Sanskrit words). This relationship reflects of Advaita philosophy, which advocates the oneness of jivatma and paramatma . The word aham is common to many Eastern religions. From aham

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1892-422: Is a consistent correspondence of the initial consonants ( p and f ) that emerges far too frequently to be coincidental, one can infer that these languages stem from a common parent language . Detailed analysis suggests a system of sound laws to describe the phonetic and phonological changes from the hypothetical ancestral words to the modern ones. These laws have become so detailed and reliable as to support

1978-573: Is a discourse between the Hindu god Brahma and sage Narada . Their conversation is centered on the characteristics of Paramahansa (highest soul) Yogi. The text describes the monk as a Jivanmukta , a liberated soul while alive, and Videhamukta is liberation in afterlife. The Upanishad, in its opening and concluding hymns, emphasizes the primacy of infiniteness of the Brahman and the Universe , with

2064-477: Is a fully realized soul, completely liberated from all bonds with the world, who knows no obligations, no likes or dislikes. He is without any needs because he is completely immersed in God. Paramahamsa , as a religion / theological title, is applied to an adept class of Hindu renunciates, liberated, realized masters who, having attained the supreme yogic state, or nirvikalpa samādhi . The hamsa mantra indicates

2150-425: Is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes , or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan ) believed by practitioners to have religious, magical or spiritual powers. Some mantras have a syntactic structure and a literal meaning, while others do not. ꣽ, ॐ (Aum, Om) serves as an important mantra in various Indian religions . Specifically, it

2236-557: Is also the title of one of the Upanishads . PIE Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Proto-Indo-European ( PIE )

2322-485: Is an example of a seed syllable mantra ( bijamantra ). It is believed to be the first sound in Hinduism and as 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

2408-517: Is believed to have had an elaborate system of morphology that included inflectional suffixes (analogous to English child, child's, children, children's ) as well as ablaut (vowel alterations, as preserved in English sing, sang, sung, song ) and accent . PIE nominals and pronouns had a complex system of declension , and verbs similarly had a complex system of conjugation . The PIE phonology , particles , numerals , and copula are also well-reconstructed. Asterisks are used by linguists as

2494-523: Is claimed to purify the mind and spirit. Kirtan is a more musical form of mantric practice. It is a common method in the bhakti traditions , such as Gaudiya Vaishnavism . Kirtan includes call and response forms of chanting accompanied by various Indian instruments (such as the tabla , mrdanga and harmonium ), and it may also include dancing and theatrical performance. Kirtan is also common in Sikhism . Tantric Tantric Hindu traditions see

2580-621: Is derived ahamkara or ego. The Paramahansa Upanishad is one of the 108 Upanishadic Hindu scriptures , written in Sanskrit and is one of the 31 Upanishads attached to the Atharvaveda . It is classified as one of the Sannyasa Upanishads. According to Ramanujacharya , Paramhansa is one of the forms of Lord Vishnu who imparted vedas to Lord Brahma in the form of Divine Swan as per Vishnu-Sahasranama. The Upanishad

2666-560: 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 . Due to the linguistic and functional similarities, they must go back to the common Indo-Iranian period , commonly dated to around 2000 BCE. Scholars consider

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2752-405: 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. Mantras are structured formulae of thoughts, claims Silburn . Farquhar concludes that mantras are a religious thought, prayer, sacred utterance, but also believed to be

2838-534: Is not possible. Forming an exception, Phrygian is sufficiently well-attested to allow proposals of a particularly close affiliation with Greek, and a Graeco-Phrygian branch of Indo-European is becoming increasingly accepted. Proto-Indo-European phonology has been reconstructed in some detail. Notable features of the most widely accepted (but not uncontroversial) reconstruction include: The vowels in commonly used notation are: Mantra A mantra ( Pali : mantra ) or mantram ( Devanagari : मन्त्रम्)

2924-527: 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

3010-462: Is the display of great spiritual discrimination. It is symbolic for a spiritually advanced being who is capable of controlling the breath energy in such a way that he only absorbs pure vibrations from all the different energies the world contains. To the Paramahamsa (the supreme celestial Swan) on the other hand, the whole of creation is God himself, there is nothing else but God alone. This person

3096-493: Is the premise that before existence and beyond existence is only One reality, Brahman, and the first manifestation of Brahman expressed as Om. For this reason, Om is considered as a foundational idea and reminder, and thus is prefixed and suffixed to all Hindu prayers . While some mantras may invoke individual gods or principles, fundamental mantras such as Shanti Mantra , the Gayatri Mantra and others ultimately focus on

3182-424: Is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family . No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. Far more work has gone into reconstructing PIE than any other proto-language , and it is the best understood of all proto-languages of its age. The majority of linguistic work during

3268-721: Is the tantric phase of Mantrayana . In this tantric phase, mantras are at the very center of the path to Buddhahood, acting as a part of the supreme method of meditation and spiritual practice. One popular bija (seed) mantra in Mahayana Buddhism is the Sanskrit letter A (see A in Buddhism ). This seed mantra was equated with Mahayana doctrines like Prajñaparamita (the Perfection of Wisdom), emptiness and non-arising . This seed mantra remains in use in Shingon , Dzogchen and Rinzai Zen. Mahayana Buddhism also adopted

3354-518: Is to solemnize and ratify rituals. Each mantra, in Vedic rituals, is coupled with an act. According to Apastamba Srauta Sutra , each ritual act is accompanied by one mantra, unless the Sutra explicitly marks that one act corresponds to several mantras. According to Gonda, and others, there is a connection and rationale between a Vedic mantra and each Vedic ritual act that accompanies it. In these cases,

3440-447: 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. Traditional During the early Vedic period , Vedic poets became fascinated by the inspirational power of poems, metered verses, and music. They referred to them with

3526-849: Is widespread in the Thai Forest Tradition and was taught by Ajahn Chah and his students. Another popular mantra in Thai Buddhism is Samma-Araham , referring to the Buddha who has 'perfectly' ( samma ) attained 'perfection in the Buddhist sense' ( araham ), used in Dhammakaya meditation . In the Tantric Theravada tradition of Southeast Asia, mantras are central to their method of meditation. Popular mantras in this tradition include Namo Buddhaya ("Homage to

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3612-695: The Mangala Sutta , Ratana Sutta , and the Metta Sutta . According to the American Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield : The use of mantra or the repetition of certain phrases in Pali is a highly common form of meditation in the Theravada tradition. Simple mantras use repetition of the Buddha's name, "Buddho", [as "Buddho" is actually a title rather than a name] or use the "Dhamma", or

3698-712: The Ratana Sutta for apotropaic reasons. Even at this early stage, there was an idea that these spells were somehow connected with the Dharma in a deep sense. Conze argues that in Mahayana sutras like the White Lotus Sutra , and the Lankavatara Sutra , mantras become more important for spiritual reasons and their power increases. For Conze, the final phase of the development of Buddhist mantras

3784-491: The Buddha's Teaching . It was a popular Buddhist verse and was used as a mantra. This mantra is found inscribed on numerous ancient Buddhist statues, chaityas , and images. The Sanskrit version of this mantra is: ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hyavadat, teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃvādī mahāśramaṇaḥ The phrase can be translated as follows: Of those phenomena which arise from causes: Those causes have been taught by

3870-753: 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 . A common practice

3956-558: The Indian subcontinent became aware of similarities between Indo-Iranian languages and European languages, and as early as 1653, Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn had published a proposal for a proto-language ("Scythian") for the following language families: Germanic , Romance , Greek , Baltic , Slavic , Celtic , and Iranian . In a memoir sent to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1767, Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux ,

4042-591: The Neogrammarian hypothesis : the Indo-European sound laws apply without exception. William Jones , an Anglo-Welsh philologist and puisne judge in Bengal , caused an academic sensation when in 1786 he postulated the common ancestry of Sanskrit , Greek , Latin , Gothic , the Celtic languages , and Old Persian , but he was not the first to state such a hypothesis. In the 16th century, European visitors to

4128-629: The Tathāgata ( Buddha ), and their cessation too - thus proclaims the Great Ascetic. Early Buddhist texts also contain various apotropaic chants which have similar functions to Vedic mantras. These are called parittas in Pali (Sanskrit: paritrana ) and mean "protection, safeguard". They are still chanted in Theravada Buddhism to this day as a way to heal, protect from danger and bless. Some of these are short Buddhist texts, like

4214-448: The "Sangha", the community, as mantra words. Other used mantras are directed toward developing loving kindness. Some mantras direct attention to the process of change by repeating the Pali phrase that means "everything changes", while other mantras are used to develop equanimity with phrases that would be translated, "let go". "In contemporary Theravada practice, mantra practice is often combined with breathing meditation, so that one recites

4300-455: The ' meru ', or ' guru ' bead); the devotee using their fingers to count each bead as they repeat the chosen mantra. Having reached 108 repetitions, if they wish to continue another cycle of mantras, the devotee turns the mala around without crossing the head bead and repeats the cycle. Japa-yajna is claimed to be most effective if the mantra is repeated silently in mind (manasah). According to this school, any shloka from holy Hindu texts like

4386-478: The 19th century was devoted to the reconstruction of PIE and its daughter languages , and many of the modern techniques of linguistic reconstruction (such as the comparative method ) were developed as a result. PIE is hypothesized to have been spoken as a single language from approximately 4500 BCE to 2500 BCE during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age , though estimates vary by more than

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4472-651: The Brahman representing the infinite. The Upanishad's theme is presented in four hymns as an explanation by Lord Brahma to Narada's query on the aspect of the path of the Paramahansa Yogis. The hamsa (swan) is the vahana , the mount or vehicle, of the god Brahma . In the Vedas and the Purânas it is a symbol for the soul/Soul. The hamsa is said to be the only creature that is capable of separating milk from water once they have been mixed; symbolically this

4558-463: The Buddha") and Araham ("Worthy One"). There are Thai Buddhist amulet katha : that is, mantras to be recited while holding an amulet. The use of mantras became very popular with the rise of Mahayana Buddhism . Many Mahayana sutras contain mantras, bijamantras ("seed" mantras), dharanis and other similar phrases which were chanted or used in meditation. According to Edward Conze , Buddhists initially used mantras as protective spells like

4644-569: The North Adriatic region are sometimes classified as Italic. Albanian and Greek are the only surviving Indo-European descendants of a Paleo-Balkan language area, named for their occurrence in or in the vicinity of the Balkan peninsula . Most of the other languages of this area—including Illyrian , Thracian , and Dacian —do not appear to be members of any other subfamilies of PIE, but are so poorly attested that proper classification of them

4730-481: The One reality. Japa Mantra japa is a practice of repetitively uttering the same mantra for an auspicious number of times, the most popular being 108 , and sometimes just 5, 10, 28 or 1008. Japa is found in personal prayer or meditative efforts of some Hindus, as well during formal puja (group prayers). Japa is assisted by malas (bead necklaces) containing 108 beads and a head bead (sometimes referred to as

4816-638: The Pontic–Caspian steppe and into eastern Europe. Other theories include the Anatolian hypothesis , which posits that PIE spread out from Anatolia with agriculture beginning c. 7500–6000 BCE, the Armenian hypothesis , the Paleolithic continuity paradigm , and the indigenous Aryans theory. The last two of these theories are not regarded as credible within academia. Out of all the theories for

4902-526: The Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Kartvelian languages due to early language contact , as well as some morphological similarities—notably the Indo-European ablaut , which is remarkably similar to the root ablaut system reconstructible for Proto-Kartvelian. The Lusitanian language was a marginally attested language spoken in areas near the border between present-day Portugal and Spain . The Venetic and Liburnian languages known from

4988-407: The Tantric school, with numerous functions. From initiating and emancipating a tantric devotee to worshiping manifested forms of the divine. From enabling heightened sexual energy in the male and the female to acquiring supernormal psychological and spiritual power. From preventing evil influences to exorcizing demons, and many others. These claimed functions and other aspects of the tantric mantra are

5074-573: The Vedas, Upanishads , Bhagavad Gita , Yoga Sutra , even the Mahabharata , Ramayana , Durga saptashati or Chandi is a mantra, thus can be part of the japa , repeated to achieve a numinous effect. The Dharmasāstra claims Gāyatri mantra derived from Rig Veda verse 3.62.10, and the Purușasūkta mantra from Rig Veda verse 10.90 are most auspicious mantras for japa at sunrise and sunset; it

5160-406: 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. The saman chant mantras were transmitted from one Hindu generation to next verbally for over 1000 years but never written,

5246-602: The common origin of Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, and German. In 1833, he began publishing the Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend , Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavic, Gothic, and German . In 1822, Jacob Grimm formulated what became known as Grimm's law as a general rule in his Deutsche Grammatik . Grimm showed correlations between the Germanic and other Indo-European languages and demonstrated that sound change systematically transforms all words of

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5332-582: The effects of hypothetical sounds which no longer exist in all languages documented prior to the excavation of cuneiform tablets in Anatolian. This theory was first proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure in 1879 on the basis of internal reconstruction only, and progressively won general acceptance after Jerzy Kuryłowicz 's discovery of consonantal reflexes of these reconstructed sounds in Hittite. Julius Pokorny 's Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch ('Indo-European Etymological Dictionary', 1959) gave

5418-473: 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

5504-462: The form of udana arises in susumna , and then just as flame arises out of kindled fire and gets dissolved in the sky, so also atma (Self) like a flame having burnt down the fuel of the body, gets absorbed in Shiva. One of the most ancient Buddhist mantras is the famous Pratītyasamutpāda-gāthā , also known as the dependent origination dhāraṇī . This phrase is said to encapsulate the meaning of

5590-536: The function of mantras was to be an instrument of ritual efficacy for the priest, and a tool of instruction for a ritual act for others. Over time, as the Puranas and Epics were composed, the concepts of worship, virtues and spirituality evolved in Hinduism and new schools of Hinduism were founded, each continuing to develop and refine its own mantras. In Hinduism, suggests Alper, the function of mantras shifted from

5676-446: The light of Supreme I-consciousness is a mantra. The divine Supreme I-consciousness is the dynamo of all the mantras. Deha or body has been compared to wood, "mantra" has been compared to arani —a piece of wood used for kindling fire by friction; prana has been compared to fire. Sikha or flame has been compared to atma (Self); ambara or sky has been compared to Shiva. When prana is kindled by means of mantra used as arani, fire in

5762-654: The main Indo-European language families, comprising the languages descended from Proto-Indo-European. Slavic: Russian , Ukrainian , Belarusian , Polish , Czech , Slovak , Sorbian , Serbo-Croatian , Bulgarian , Slovenian , Macedonian , Kashubian , Rusyn Iranic: Persian , Pashto , Balochi , Kurdish , Zaza , Ossetian , Luri , Talyshi , Tati , Gilaki , Mazandarani , Semnani , Yaghnobi ; Nuristani Commonly proposed subgroups of Indo-European languages include Italo-Celtic , Graeco-Aryan , Graeco-Armenian , Graeco-Phrygian , Daco-Thracian , and Thraco-Illyrian . There are numerous lexical similarities between

5848-427: The mind). In ritual use, mantras are often silent instruments of meditation. For almost every mantra, there are six limbs called Shadanga . These six limbs are: Seer (Rishi), Deity (Devata), Seed (Beeja), Energy (Shakti), Poetic Meter (chanda), and Lock (Kilaka). The most basic mantra is Om , which in Hinduism is known as the "pranava mantra," the source of all mantras. The Hindu philosophy behind this

5934-573: The most ancient layer of the Vedas, and contain numerous mantras, hymns, prayers, and litanies . The Rigveda Samhita contains about 10552 Mantras, classified into ten books called Mandalas . A Sukta is a group of Mantras. Mantras come in many forms, including ṛc (verses from the Rigveda for example) and sāman (musical chants from the Sāmaveda for example). In Hindu tradition, Vedas are sacred scriptures which were revealed (and not composed) by

6020-534: The most popular. It proposes that the original speakers of PIE were the Yamnaya culture associated with the kurgans (burial mounds) on the Pontic–Caspian steppe north of the Black Sea. According to the theory, they were nomadic pastoralists who domesticated the horse , which allowed them to migrate across Europe and Asia in wagons and chariots. By the early 3rd millennium BCE, they had expanded throughout

6106-541: The name of a deity; for example, Durga yields dum and Ganesha yields gam . Bija mantras are prefixed and appended to other mantras, thereby creating complex mantras. In the tantric school, these mantras are believed to have supernatural powers, and they are transmitted by a preceptor to a disciple in an initiation ritual. Tantric mantras found a significant audience and adaptations in medieval India, Southeast Asia and numerous other Asian countries with Buddhism. Majumdar and other scholars suggest mantras are central to

6192-478: 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 , a specialist in the study of Vedic ritual and mantras, clarifies that mantras are not rituals, they are what

6278-426: The proto-Indo-European language. By the early 1900s, Indo-Europeanists had developed well-defined descriptions of PIE which scholars still accept today. Later, the discovery of the Anatolian and Tocharian languages added to the corpus of descendant languages. A subtle new principle won wide acceptance: the laryngeal theory , which explained irregularities in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European phonology as

6364-428: The quotidian to redemptive. In other words, in Vedic times, mantras were recited a practical, quotidian goal as intention, such as requesting a deity's help in the discovery of lost cattle, cure of illness, succeeding in competitive sport or journey away from home. The literal translation of Vedic mantras suggests that the function of mantra, in these cases, was to cope with the uncertainties and dilemmas of daily life. In

6450-446: 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

6536-428: The regional dialects of Proto-Indo-European spoken by the various groups diverged, as each dialect underwent shifts in pronunciation (the Indo-European sound laws ), morphology, and vocabulary. Over many centuries, these dialects transformed into the known ancient Indo-European languages. From there, further linguistic divergence led to the evolution of their current descendants, the modern Indo-European languages. PIE

6622-401: The root dhi- , which evolved into the dhyana (meditation) of Hinduism , and the language used to start and assist this process manifested as a mantra. By the middle vedic period (1000 BC to 500 BC), mantras were derived from all vedic compositions. They included ṛc (verses from Rigveda for example), sāman (musical chants from the Sāmaveda for example), yajus (a muttered formula from

6708-456: The sage Vasugupta of the 9th century C.E. Sambhavopaya (1-1 to 1–22), Saktopaya (2-1 to 2–10) and Anavopaya (3-1 to 3–45) are the main sub-divisions, three means of achieving God consciousness, of which the main technique of Saktopaya is a mantra. But "mantra" in this context does not mean incantation or muttering of some sacred formula. The word "mantra" is used here in its etymological signification. That which saves one by pondering over

6794-479: The seers ( Rishis ). According to the ancient commentator and linguist, Yaska , these ancient sacred revelations were then passed down through an oral tradition and are considered to be the foundation for the Hindu tradition. Mantras took a center stage in Tantric traditions, which made extensive ritual and meditative use of mantras, and posited that each mantra is a deity in sonic form. One function of mantras

6880-550: 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. There is no generally accepted definition of mantra. As

6966-674: The set of correspondences in his prize essay Undersøgelse om det gamle Nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse ('Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language'), where he argued that Old Norse was related to the Germanic languages, and had even suggested a relation to the Baltic, Slavic, Greek, Latin and Romance languages. In 1816, Franz Bopp published On the System of Conjugation in Sanskrit , in which he investigated

7052-419: The sound made by the inhalation ("ha") and exhalation ("sa") of the breath. And the space between inhalation -exhalation is denote with the sound ("ma"). Hence it's called ("Hamsa"). Some followers believe title cannot be assumed by oneself, but must be conferred by a recognized authority, either another individual swami who is himself esteemed as enlightened, or by a committee of spiritual leaders. Paramahaṃsa

7138-594: The universe as 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. Buhnemann notes that deity mantras are an essential part of Tantric compendia. The tantric mantras vary in their structure and length. Mala mantras are those mantras which have an enormous number of syllables. In contrast, bija mantras are one-syllabled, typically ending in anusvara (a simple nasal sound). These are derived from

7224-602: 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 真言 ; zhenyan ; 'true words', 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

7310-567: The yajurveda for example), and nigada (a loudly spoken yajus). During the Hindu Epics period and after, mantras multiplied in many ways and diversified to meet the needs and passions of various schools of Hinduism. In the Linga Purana , Mantra is listed as one of the 1,008 names of Lord Shiva . Numerous ancient mantras are found in the Saṃhitā portion of the Vedas . The Saṃhitās are

7396-413: Was one of the earliest scholars to note that mantras are meaningless; their function is phonetic and syntactic, not semantic. Harvey Alper and others 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

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