Overview
A mantra (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्, mantram) is a sacred utterance, sound, syllable, word, or group of words believed by practitioners to possess religious, magical, or spiritual power. Mantras are most often composed in Indo-Iranian languages such as Sanskrit or Avestan. Some mantras carry a clear syntactic structure and literal meaning, while others are valued primarily for their sonic qualities and are considered musically uplifting and spiritually meaningful even without linguistic content.
The syllable ॐ (Aum or Om) functions as a mantra across several Indian religions and is an example of a bijamantra or seed-syllable mantra. Within Hindu tradition, Om is held to be the first sound and the sonic essence of absolute divine reality. Longer mantras consist of phrases composed of several syllables, names, and words, and may be interpreted as invocations of a deity or as expressions of a longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge, or action. Well-known longer mantras include the Gayatri Mantra, the Hare Krishna mantra, Om Namah Shivaya, the Mani mantra, the Mantra of Light, the Namokar Mantra, and the Mūl Mantar.
The use, structure, function, importance, and classification of mantras vary across the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. A widely shared practice is japa, the meditative repetition of a mantra, often performed with the aid of a mala or string of prayer beads. Mantras hold a central place in the Indian tantric traditions, which have developed elaborate yogic methods making use of them.
The tantric traditions are often described as "mantra paths" (Sanskrit: Mantranāya or Mantramarga), within which mantric methods are regarded as the most effective spiritual approach. In these traditions, ritual initiation (abhiseka) into a particular mantra and its associated deity is frequently a