Developing and Understanding Mantra: A Movement from Veda to Tantra

T his paper examines the use of mantra in two separate but parallel traditions: çaivism and çäktism. “Çaivism” refers to traditions that follow the Hindu god Siva, while “Çaivism” refers to traditions that worship Sakti (lit. power), the goddess consort of the Lord Siva. Both of these systems reside within a metacategory known as Hindu tantrism. Hindu Tantrism itself is a refinement of and a response to the ideas advanced by upaniñadic and yogic philosophy. The upaniñadic philosophy is historically paralleled to Buddhism in what is known as India’s axial age from 600 to 100 B.C.E. Yogic (lit. to yoke or control) philosophy is a tradition which takes the intellectual advances of the upaniñads and layers upon them a series of physical and meditative practices. Çaivite scholar Paul Muller-Ortega once said “The mantra is not an arbitrary set of syllables, and no amount of secondary meaning built onto a set of arbitrary syllables will make it a mantra. The mantra is a powerful vehicle you hop on and ride straight into enlightenment.” This statement is rooted in a discussion of the opposing views of southern çäkta tantrism and the “Kashmiri” çaiva tantrism on the issue of what a mantra is and how it functions. Muller is arguing that the southern çäkta tradition of using mantras with no “intrinsic” meaning and literally “layering” meaning upon arbitrary syllables as a form of mantric practice is distant and perhaps even inexplicable from the “Kashmiri” Çaivite perspective. Rather, the Çaivite mantra is thought to be literally a manifestation of çiva consciousness that functions as a vehicle to ascend into the heart of çiva. This is the very thesis I will test: What exactly is the nature of the çaiva mantra theory and practice? Does çaiva philosophy directly suggest the mantra is a tool itself empowered, or does it actually believe it is the understanding of the mantra that functions to create freedom consciousness? As a matter of clarification, this is not an attempt to understand the “sonic” nature of reality, described by Andre Padoux as “väc”, with its multiple layers of realism. Rather, this is meant to be a detailed study of Mantra and an investigation of mantra as a specific sort of tool for expanding consciousness.