I love to trawl through the internet sometimes just to look up a Sanskrit word or to follow up something I am teaching in my classes . I have just found a website that has two major works by Arthur Avalon the first western scholar to demystify Tantra. Arthur Avalon's real name was Sir John Woodruff and he was an English lawyer who served as chief justice on the high court in Calcutta . He also led a double life as a Sanskrit scholar and Hindu philosopher specifically exploring the mysteries of Tantra. Even though Sir John Woodruff interpreted tantric texts it is believed that his knowledge of Sanskrit was limited and he relied heavily on friends to support him in his work. In his first book Shakta and Shakti he admits that his pen name Arthur Avalon is really a collaboration between himself and the friends that supported him.
In spite of the fact that the works may be flawed or contradictory there are some incredible gems in his books. To read them you need patience and a highlighter but in my opinion if you are fascinated with Tantra and know a little bit about Yoga philosophy it can show you worlds within worlds.
So as not to totally overwhelm myself I picked the chapter in Shakta and Shakti on "Shakti as Mantra". This is a subject very dear to me at the moment as my husband and I have just produced an award winning CD of devotional chants and songs " Sita Ram" which are based on the mantras taught to me by my teacher Alan Finger. Not only have the mantras I learned helped to open my heart and heal me they have also inspired a deep inner transformation, which is still unfolding within me.
What follows are a few of my understandings based on what I read:
According to Arthur Avalon, the word Mantra comes from two words , man from "manana" which means thinking and tra from the root "trana" which means freedom from the world of samsara. In earlier chapters he shares that " tra" means to save... In other words Mantra employs the thinking mind and directs the thoughts in a way that both saves and liberates the soul.
Imagine if you were given an object and you had no idea what it was or how it worked. Mantra is like that, when you don't know how it works or what it's for it has no meaning. The yogis however understood the structure and evolution of our universe as a map of sacred vibration and so handed down age old instructions which are still used today to transform and expand our consciousness.
There were many different scriptures deseminated in ancient times and all these scriptures were said to work together like the parts of a body. One was not more highly regarded then another. It is interesting to note that the scriptures on Mantra represent the crown chakra and the connection to universal consciousness (Paramatman) whereas the Vedas related more to the individualised self (Jiva atman) which resides in the heart chakra, the Darshanas related to the 5 senses, the Puranas to the body and the Smritis to the limbs. This suggests that mantra is the thing that draws us back to the source of who we are whereas study of scripture and codes of behaviour give us tools for living in the world. Maybe this is just a fancy way of saying " Mantra Works" if you can read the instructions in the manual.
In Tantra sound is called Shabda, but Shabda isn't audible sound, it's the sound we can't hear. In order to hear sound in physical reality two things must strike together. When we talk, air strikes our vocal chords, a violin is played when the bow vibrates against the string. and the sound of water in a stream flows in around rocks and against itself. To hear sound we need a receiver, a giver and the space between the two. Its amazing now how two people can talk over huge distances without any wires.
In yoga audible sound, is said to be part of our physical body, as we internalise the sound it moves to our subtle body and then as we begin to merge with the sound it takes us back to the causal body , the place from which all existence emerges and returns ( the field of our karma sometimes referred to as the akashic records)
Sound creates every thing and sound takes us back to that source of creation. Sound though is really vibration and that vibration needs a start and an end point in order for it to be active. In Tantra these two reference points are Shiva and Shakti. Shiva hangs at home on the mountain top being still, while Shakti cartwheels about creating, creating, creating. It is only when she merges back into Shiva that vibration stops. Her vibration is so glorious so bright that she burns herself into everything including us and she is manifested as the desire to think and speak, ( iccha shakti), the longing for freedom ( kriya shakti) and the need to know who we are ( jnana shakti).
Mantra works when we combine words, longing and knowledge together. A sincere seeker will always discover the truth.
Mantra then is sound combined in certain ways to merge our minds with the divine. There are many sounds for the different manifestations of the divine... think of the image of shakti being in everything and everyone. In Tantra mantras are associated with a variety of deities. Deities being the personified forms of the diversity of energy in everything. In other words, Ganesh as the remover of obstacles is the energy in us that breaks through limitation. When we chant to Ganesh we literally become Ganesh.
The arrangement of the letters are important in a Mantra as each letter represents an aspect of the chosen deity, like when you say the name of a friend and it invokes a specific feeling and image. Mantras have been handed down from Guru to disciple over thousands of years. The Guru lights the flame of the mantra by his or her own understanding of the power of the mantra and its effect on his or her life.
Each mantra also carries a seed sound or Bija mantra. The most basic Bija mantra is OM... this is said to be the sound of all creation.... Om is the seed of all other mantras.
Whats common in all Bija mantras then is that they end with the letter " M". This represents the two points of dynamic tension ( Shiva and Shakti) The point before sound manifests where the two are also one. The other letters in the bija mantra represent the movement of Shakti or energy as she takes on form.
Here is an example for the seed sound of Laxmi which is Shrim;
SH= Laksmi
R= wealth
I = satisfaction
M carries the sound back to its source
How then does it all work. Well first a mantra must be given to you or be imbued with Shakti for it to have an effect. Mantras learned from books will not have the same vibration as a mantras taught to you by a teacher who has experienced its profound effects. Mantras sung in Kirtan and Bhajan produce a different feeling to a mantra given to you by an Ayurvedic practioner for healing. Perhaps a deeper understanding of how sound moves from its inception in the causal to its actualisation in the physical can help to demystify this.
In order to hear a sound, two things must strike against eachother. There is however another type of sound, which is " unstruck " the unstruck sound starts as a unified field of consciousness and then splits and splits until it becomes name and form ( sound and vibration). It is in this state of name and form that the physical body reveals the hidden power of the "unstruck sound" and brings it to the " struck sound". The unstruck sound is held in the causal realm at the base of the spine, in this state it is called " para". It is neither physical nor subtle rather the cause of sound itself, sound in its seed state. From there it begins to move to the subtle body and travels from the 1st to the 3rd chakra . Here it is called "Pashyanti". A subtle movement of sound with no specific direction which also relates to the mind... (our mind moves without focus if we let it). From the 3rd chakra it moves to the 4th chakra whose name Anahata means "unstruck sound". This unstruck sound is directed towards truth and understanding and is callled "Madhyama". That truth is then spoken in the physical realm of the throat and mouth as "Vaikhari" .
Its is said that first we chant the mantra out loud catching the vibration in the net of our throat, from there we internalise the mantra and it travels to our hearts. It is in this space that the heart begins to open. Once we chant the mantra internally for long enough it journeys to our solar plexus and begins to burn away at our ego and our sense of self. When the sound as a seed is ripened by the heat of the inner sun it plants itself at the base of our spine, in the causal garden of our soul. Here the seed has been purified and as such it is a rare flower that perfumes every layer of our being with eternal truth.
In my own understanding:
Mantras sung in Kirtan and Bhajan rest in the heart
Mantras used for healing live in the solar plexus and help to purify us
Mantras handed down through a specific lineage or from a teacher with shakti serve to transform our consciousness
and finally in the words of Arthur Avalon himself:
"Mantra is a power ( shakti) in the form of idea clothed with sound"
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