Mantra Shastra — How Mantras Work

Mantra Shastra (Continuation)

Aksharas — Vowels as Life Force

Akshara means imperishable. A vowel is the prana of an Akshara. A consonant without a vowel cannot be pronounced by itself; it exists only by hanging on to the letter before it.

Rule: When counting the letters of a mantra, do not count half-letters (consonants without a vowel, without prana).

Example from the Gayatri Mantra: The last word is "prachodayāt". Yāt is one Akshara: the consonant ya, the vowel ā which is its prana, and a final t that hangs on to it. Many people say "prachodayāttu", adding a vowel so the t can be heard. Teachers did this on purpose so that students could tell which word was being said, and in the flow of time it became the common way to say it. It is not the correct form, and the t is not a letter.

Om in front of a mantra: Om counts as one letter.

Pure vowels vs. consonant + vowel: People mix these up.

• "i" / "ī" is a pure vowel; "yi" has the yakāra in it
• "e" is not "ye"
• "o" is not "wo"; "u" is not "wu". Say "Om", never "Wom" — there is no vakāra there
• Panchadashi: "Ka E Ī La Hrīṃ" — not "Kayayi…"
• Mantra Pushpam: "ya evam veda" — not "ya yevam veda", which has no meaning

"In Sanskrit, if two things are pronounced the same way, there are no two different symbols for them. If they look different, they sound different."

Adding a consonant changes the energy, the rhythm and the vibration of the sound.

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Sandhi and Samasam — One Word or Two?

A student asked before the recording started: Namah Shivaya is made of two words, namah and shivaya — is it counted as two words or one?

When two words combine by Sandhi or Samasam, the result is one word.

Key rule: If you remove the sandhi and take a breath between the words ("Namah… Shivaya"), it becomes a two-word mantra and its impact is totally different — source 2H, destination 5H.

A blank printed between the words in a book is only for convenience. It does not make two words. Sandhi must be said together without a break: the visarga becomes 'o' only when 'ra' comes immediately after it.

Recap of the formula (from Lesson 5):

• Source house = number of words in the mantra
• Destination house = number of letters in the mantra
• Devata Sthana = the house where the deity of the mantra sits and blesses you. Count from source to destination, and count the same distance again from the destination: Destination + (Destination − Source)
• Above 12, keep removing 12 until the number is between 1 and 12

Namah Shivaya: 1 word, 5 letters → source 1H, destination 5H, Devata Sthana 5 + (5 − 1) = 9H. Shiva sits in the house of dharma, guru and religion. Many mantras given in the scriptures have the Devata Sthana in the 9th house.

A student asked whether this is like numerology. Yes — it rests on the same basic principles. Repeating one sound pattern many times sets off a certain activity within you, spiritually and neurologically, and these formulas try to capture how that works.

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Mantra Analysis: Namo Ramaya

Namo Ramaya

Same numbers as Namah Shivaya (1-5-9). Both mantras increase the 5th house — abilities. But the deity sitting in the 9H is different:

What you ask of Rama is not so much knowledge and ability as initiative, determination, the ability to win over enemies, and Ātma Bala — strength of will.

"Even though the mantras look very similar, they are not exactly the same, because the devata sitting in the Devata Sthana is a different devata."

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Mantra Analysis: Brihaspati (Dharma) Gayatri

Vrishabham charshaninam vishvarupamadabhyam brihaspatim varenyam

(Chandas: Gayatri; Maharshi: Vishwamitra; Deity: Brihaspati, the teacher of the gods — the intelligence of the universe)

This is the mantra PVNR reads after the Ganesha mantra at the start of each class.

Letter count:

vṛ-ṣa-bhaṃ – ca-rṣa-ṇī-nāṃ – vi-śva-rū-pa-ma-dā-bhyaṃ – bṛ-ha-spa-tiṃ – va-re-ṇyaṃ 1–2–3 – 4–5–6–7 – 8–9–10–11–12–13–14 – 15–16–17–18 – 19–20–21

This is a "5-9-1" mantra:

• Cancels any negative energies in the 5H, so weaknesses in your abilities do not affect you
• Takes the positive energies of the 5H and uses them to enrich the 9H — dharma, guru, religiousness, righteousness
• Brihaspati sits in the 1H and does this

"It basically shapes your abilities and creates your dharma from it."

Why the 1H suits Brihaspati: The 1st house is you — your essence of being. For Dharma, the 1st house is the base. The two planets of Dharma, Mercury and Jupiter, get full Digbala in the 1st house. So the 1st house is very auspicious for Guru to sit in. The mantra taps your inherent intelligence and makes you very dharmic.

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Brihaspati Artha (Karma) Gayatri

In Satyanarayana puja, or any puja where the Navagrahas are worshipped, scholars read a different mantra for Brihaspati — the verse beginning "Brihaspate ati yad aryo…" and ending "…tad asmāsu draviṇam dhehi chitram".

• That mantra asks for draviṇam — money. It is the Artha Gayatri or Karma Gayatri of Brihaspati.
• The mantra analysed above is the Dharma Gayatri of Brihaspati.

"If you want to pray to Jupiter, the teacher of gods, to make you more dharmic, then this is the mantra."

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Mantra Analysis: Maha Mrityunjaya

Tryambakam yajamahe sugandhim pushtivardhanam urvarukamiva bandhanan mrityor mukshiya mamritat

(Chandas: Anushtup; Deity: Mrityunjaya — a form of Shiva)

Letter count:

trya-mba-kaṃ – ya-jā-ma-he – su-ga-ndhiṃ – pu-ṣṭi-va-rdha-naṃ – u-rvā-ru-ka-mi-va – ba-ndha-nā-nmṛ-tyo-rmu-kṣī-ya – mā-mṛ-tāt 1–3 – 4–7 – 8–10 – 11–15 – 16–21 – 22–29 – 30–32

Tāt is one letter. The final t is not a letter.

Word count:

1. Tryambakam
2. Yajamahe
3. Sugandhim
4. Pushtivardhanam
5. Urvarukamiva (urvarukam + iva → one word)
6. Bandhanan-mrityor-mukshiya (bandhanāt becomes bandhanān by sandhi; the three words become one)
7. Mamritat

To get the intended impact, say word 6 in one breath. Pause after bandhanān and it becomes two words.

This is a "7-8-9" mantra:

• 8H is the Āyu Sthana — longevity, length of life
• 7H is the Māraka Sthana — it is the 12th from the 8th, the loss of longevity
• Mrityunjaya suppresses any malefics afflicting the Māraka Sthana, takes those energies and enriches the Āyu Sthana. The mantra gives long life.
• 9H — Shiva again sits in the house of guru, dharma and protection

"Whenever you do a mantra for Shiva, it is very auspicious to have him in the 9th house."

Mantras given by the rishis, when pronounced the way they are meant to be, fall into these patterns by themselves. The Devata Sthana comes out auspicious even if you never calculate it.

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Mantra Siddhi — How Many Times to Chant

There are different opinions; some people do 108. The general principle: if a mantra has N letters, chant it N lakh times — over your lifetime, not in one sitting — to get the perfect results of that mantra. That is Mantra Siddhi.

How many mantras? As many as you want. Some people keep to one mantra; some chant tens or hundreds every day. It is a personal choice. There may be one deity for moksha, another for dharmic work, another for career, each decided from the horoscope.

Aloud or silent? A student had heard that listening to a recording works as well as reciting. PVNR: a mantra can be read with sound or without sound, and reading it silently in the mind is said to be more auspicious. If you listen to a cassette and your mind is repeating the mantra, that is equally powerful.

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Prescribing Mantras from the Horoscope

First decide which deity to worship — that too is linked to the horoscope and is covered later. Then decide the number of letters.

To strengthen a weak house:

1. Find the weak house. A man unhappy and unsuccessful in his job: the 10H of career.
2. Look for a mantra with 10, 22 or 34 letters
3. See which deity will give him success in career
4. Give a mantra of that deity with that many letters

To divert energy from a strong house:

• A strong 3H — burning desire, initiative, motivation — but no results, and the man is frustrated
• Give a mantra with 3 words and 10 letters → diverts the 3H into the 10H

"Any mantra will give you results. It's not that one mantra is bad for you, because every house needs strengthening in our charts. So every mantra is good, but certain mantras will give certain results very fast."

A mantra in harmony with your own horoscope works faster.

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Shakti / Devi — The 3rd House as Devata Sthana

A student asked whether each of the 12 houses has its own deity, the way the 9th suits Shiva. It is not one-to-one; it is one-to-many. The 9th house is auspicious for many deities, not only Shiva. Taking just the planets:

• Mercury and Jupiter → the 1st house
• Sun and Mars → the 10th house
• The rest is left for a later class

Rule to remember: For any form of Shakti, the Divine Mother, the 3rd house is extremely auspicious as Devata Sthana. The 3H is the house of desire and initiative, and only Shakti can give that.

"If you read a mantra of Jupiter or Mercury putting the Devata Sthana in the 3rd house, it's not so auspicious. But when you are praying to Shakti, when she is in your 3rd house — your house of desire, your house of initiative — she will give you so much energy to do things. You can do anything."

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Why Rahu/Ketu Are Excluded from Vara (Weekday Order)

A student asked: why were Rahu and Ketu left out, and only seven planets taken?

• The weekday order comes from the horas, and for the horas the planets were taken in the order of their rotation around the Earth. This was limited to planets that have a body. Rahu and Ketu have none.
• The five limbs of the Panchanga — Vara, Tithi, Nakshatra, Yoga, Karana — are mapped to the Pancha Bhutas. Vara is of Agni tattva. Tithi is of Jala tattva. (The class does not give the other three here; the Panchanga is covered later.)
• Agni tattva rules physical vitality, physical existence. That is why the strength of the Vārādhipati matters in a muhurta: act on Sunday and the Sun is the lord of the day; on Wednesday, Mercury.
• Rahu and Ketu are the exceptions to physical existence. They are only shadows. So they get no place in Vara. In some other Panchanga elements they are given representation.

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Cross-Religion Mantra Analysis

Is this limited to Sanskrit mantras, to Hindu mantras? No. If a Muslim repeats a prayer many, many times, that is a mantra in its own right: he is praying to a deity he holds in his mind, with a goal, and that creates certain energies within him. Take the holy prayers of any religion, count words and letters, find the Devata Sthana, and you get the impact of chanting it continuously.

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Parsi (Zoroastrian) Sacred Thread Mantra

A mantra read in the Kushti, the Parsi sacred thread ceremony. PVNR believes it is from the Avesta, the Zoroastrian equivalent of the Vedas. He apologises that his pronunciation and writing of it may not be perfect; the recording gives roughly:

Shnaothra ahurahe mazda ashem vohu … kemna mazda … ashem vohu

A "9-9-9" mantra — source, destination and Devata Sthana are all the 9th house. It is a mantra for dharma, religion, guru, righteousness. The deity is placed in the dharma sthana; weaknesses there are cancelled and the dharma sthana gets a boost. It fits a sacred-thread mantra.

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Islam — Allahu Akbar

Allahu Akbar

• One word, 5 letters → the same as Namah Shivaya (1-5-9). The Almighty sits in the 9H of dharma.
• Some people now say it as two words with a break. Then the deity goes from the 9th house to the 8th: 5 + (5 − 2) = 8.

"It's not bad, but it's not the same impact. The impact of the mantra changes based on how you pronounce it."

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Islam — Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Said at the beginning of anything, the way we pray to Ganesha. PVNR calls it a prayer rather than a mantra.

• Letters: "rah" is said as one letter — rahmanir, not ra-ha-manir. That gives 9 letters.
• Words: 3.

A "3-9-3" prayer: the energies of the 3H of initiative are taken and diverted to the 9H of dharma, and the deity sits in the house of initiative doing it.

"So this is basically about creating initiative relating to dharma."

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Buddhism — Tara Devi

Om Tare Dushtare Turye Swaha

In Buddhism Tara Devi is worshipped along with the Buddha. In Hinduism she is the wife of Jupiter and rules intelligence; Saraswati is another form of her. Some read the third word differently; PVNR takes Dushtare as most likely correct — dushtara means unsurmountable, unmatched.

A "5-10-3" mantra: takes your intelligence, scholarship and abilities (5H) and converts them into activities in society (10H — career, karma, profession). A form of Shakti sits in the 3H of initiative — the house just named as the best Devata Sthana for a Devi mantra.

"If you have a lot of knowledge, this mantra will enable you to express that knowledge in society."

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Panchadashi Mantra (Tripurasundari)

Ka E Ī La Hrīṃ · Ha Sa Ka Ha La Hrīṃ · Sa Ka La Hrīṃ

(The simple form — the one fit for ordinary people to pronounce)

A "3-3-3" mantra: it takes your initiative, curbs the negative impulses there and enriches the positive ones. Devi sits in the 3H doing all of this.

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Panchadashi — Kuta Bija Form

There is a very secret Kuta Bija form of the same mantra. PVNR does not give it. In that form the mantra has only 3 letters, each a complicated kuta bija:

1. Vāg-bija — the bija of Saraswati Devi, Vāg Devata
2. Śrī-bija
3. Shakti-bija — the easiest of the three, and still very hard to say correctly

• Only great sadhakas can pronounce this form. Teach it to everyone and they will make mistakes, and the impact of the mantra will change. So only the simple form is taught.
• In the Kuta Bija form it is still a 3-3-3 mantra: 3 words, 3 letters, Devata Sthana in the 3rd house.

The two forms are not exactly the same, but they have very similar impact.

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Each Akshara Impacts a Specific House

The three numbers are not the whole of a mantra. Each letter impacts a house of the horoscope.

Example — Tryambakam:

• trya → 1st house
• mba → 2nd house
• kaṃ → 3rd house; it has Martian energy

Switch or change two words and you change a great deal about the mantra. These mantras were not designed by mortals. They existed forever and were revealed to the seers.

Do blessings work the same way? A student asked whether a blessing such as "live long" can be calculated like this. PVNR: he is not sure. The theory is for a prayer you yourself repeat many times, which activates certain energies within you. A blessing repeated a lakh times will still have an impact, but he does not know how it works.

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7H as Devata Sthana — Lord Krishna

A student asked which deity suits the 7th house as Devata Sthana. The 7th is the house of desire.

"So maybe Krishna will be very appropriate."

Choosing mantras from the horoscope is taken up again in a later class.

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