Mantras - 6

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6. Glorious mantras of Lord Siva

 

Mantra means " powerful word " . Mantras are the ones that have when

chanted produce great effects. These are chanted repeatedly and that is

called " Japa " . Japa is a key part of Hindu prayer.

 

Mantras are very rich in their meaning. While doing japa one can

meditate on the mantra - its meaning. As the mind dwells more and more

into that, the mantra conditions the mind and takes up to the higher

states and forms the path to the great liberation - eternal bliss!

 

What makes mantras so special as compared to the normal words? Mantras

are not human composed. One may wonder how that can be possible.

Especially given that there are sages associated with the mantras! The

point to be noted is that these sages are not composers of these

mantras, as we normally compose the sentences; they are not the

inventors, but they are the discoverers of the mantra. They get to know

the mantras in a state in which these words do not emanate from their

thoughts, but they are just passive audience to it. Those who go deep in

meditation and realize God may be able to get a feel of this situation.

 

To be such a discoverer, even though they are just passive hearers,

needs great amount of qualification. Only the perfect one can unchanged

reproduce the mantra heard. The only one that is absolutely perfect is

God. All other discoverers reproduce that mantra only as pure as their

closeness to perfection.

 

Veda samhit are full of mantras and hence have been preserved for ages

in their pure form by utilizing the various techniques like patha,

krama, jaTa, gaNa paaTas, that ensure that the chanter clearly gets the

correct letters and even the correct level of sound for each letter

(svara). The chanters are advised to chant the mantras only after

getting the right pronunciation of it, so that the mantras are preserved

against deterioration with time. There would be gurus who initiate the

disciple in a mantra. Guru ensures that the disciple got the mantra

right, so that the person can chant independently as well as initiate

others in that mantra. Ensuring this preservation Vedas were passed only

through the tradition of guru and disciples and was never written down

till very recent past. (It is really amazing to note that without being

written down the Vedas have been preserved in pure form across the land

by these techniques. Though the texts are freely available now for

anybody to read, it would be important to ensure that these mantras are

properly learnt and then chanted. This way the treasure that as been

preserved so carefully over multiple milleniums does not deteriorate due

to indifference.)

 

It is to be noted that many of the hymns of thirumuRai (The Saiva

canonical poems composed by 63 leading saints scanning approximately 600

years were classified into 12 books, ThirumuRaikaL) are known to have

great powers of mantras that are practiced even today.

 

While there are plenty of mantras available, there are a few that are

chanted with high esteem by the Saivas. Definitely those are highly

powerful ones that can lead the chanter on the great path to mukti

(liberation), PraNava, paNjchaakshara, gaayatri to name a few. For

Saivites the Holy Five Syllables (paNjchaakshara) with or without

combined with the praNava is the ultimate mantra