Mantra: the vibration that elevates and recovers
Mantra, which use is largely spread in Indian
tradition, is a powerful instrument through which we obtain the
mind’s control or we induce into the mind contents different
from the usual ones.
The Sanskrit word Mantra, that in origin referred to a Vedic
hymn, from the etymological point of view, as I already stated
in other occasions, results from the union of the suffix “tra”,
normally used to form instruments’ names, and from the verbal
root “man” that refers to the act of thinking. Literally, we can
interpret it: “instrument to think” or, as many people like to
say, “instrument for the mind”.
But a different interpretation, surely more connected to
tantrism, affirms that the word would come from two other terms,
manana (always referred to the mental) and trana, liberation. No
attempt of definition, anyway, can adequately express the
meaning that this name assumes in the Hindu culture. In other
words, Mantra is for the Indian culture a verbal instrument to
which are attributed extraordinary powers. “A word or a formula…
(that) represents a presence or a mental energy; through it
something into the mind is produced, into a crystallized form”
(Zimmer-Myths).
It seems to exist about 70 million of formulas: the ones useful
to come through a discomfort, to have success, to live longer,
to protect from dangers and troubles, to infuse love into not
much sensitive lovers, etc.
Some Mantra of Atharva Veda had the function of expulse off the
body the devils of the fever and other illnesses.
In lots of authoritative texts we read that with the use of an
appropriated Mantra everything becomes possible and no Indians
have doubts in linking Mantra to the Shabda Brahman or divine
sound.
Correctly recited and sang, they became in the past a part of
the liturgy, being even the instrument of communication with the
chosen divinity.
Currently, the efficacy of Mantra is not only connected with the
meaning of the words that compose it, but mainly to the mental
discipline that it represents, made of the induction, in the
same mind, of impulses for the elevation and the self-recovery.
Surely, to keep the mind busy with contents that are “better”
than the usual ones, induces the bloom of a different nature in
the performer. In the modern psychology is declared that even a
lie, repeated more than sixty times, becomes a truth for who’s
telling it. For the same reason, to express with oneself mind,
thousands of times, an “intention”, if we can say so, can bring
to a concrete realization.
Anyway, don’t forget that, always according to the Indian
culture, the higher purpose of these formulas is to realize a
direct connection with the divine.
There are generic Mantra (Maha Mantra), for everyone, and
personal Mantra, in relation with, for example, oneself Ishta
Deva (the divinity a disciple has been initiated with) which
continue repetition (Japa), according to the tradition,
clarifies and purifies the thought.
In Purana, Japa is considered an easy way to reach Brahmavidya
or knowledge of Brahman (the Absolute or “Eternal fundament of
every being).
Lots of these formulas are famous, for example Gayatri, a Mantra
composed of 24 syllables (a triplet of 8 syllables per each
verse) that is the tenth Mantra in the XVI sutra of the III
mandala. The term Gayatri, someone says, comes from GAYAntam
TRIyate iti, that could literally mean: “the one who aids (or
protects) who is reciting it is him”. About the meaning of these
verses, we can read, into the Yoga encyclopedia written by
Stefano Piano, that “No translation does justice to its
multiple meanings and to the deep echoes that it arouses into
the heart of a Hindu, but a literally translation could be the
following one: “Let’s meditate that desirable glory of Savitr,
let him stimulate our minds”.
Lots of hymns of Rik Veda have anyway been composed with the
same meter of the most famous one, dedicated to the god Gayatri,
wife of Brahma and mother of the four Veda.
In conclusion, Mantra is considered an easy but serious
instrument, which we can resort to stabilize the mind on an idea
and mono-directing it toward an objective. But…as we read in the
Vision of Divine by Eruch B. Fanibunda – “many people, falling
into a mistake, don’t understand the divine nature of Mantra and
try to buy them from other people who made a “business” of the
spirituality.
After that, they state they reached a particular
state of meditation. These states are only a variety of
different tonalities of self-hypnosis, induced through
suggestions, and they produce a temporary state of euphoria or
physical wellness. Let the reader be able to recognize what they
really are…”
by Amadio Bianchi