Mantra Shastra — Science of Sound and Devata

Mantra Shastra — Basic Principles

The last ten or fifteen minutes of the class: "just a few basics of mantra shastra".

Shlokas vs Mantras

• Even "O Vishnu, you are great, I pray to you", said many times, is auspicious.
• Mantras were given by Maharshis. The God within them was in touch with the God of the whole universe — "the micro God is in touch with the macro God".
• Both the pronunciation and the choice of mantra matter.

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Mantra Science: Words, Letters, and Devata Sthana

Mantras are named by their letter count: Panchakshari, Ashtakshari, Dashakshari, Dwadashakshari. The count is given that importance for a reason.

"Based on how many words are there in a mantra and how many letters are there in a mantra, the mantra will give its results relating to various houses in your own horoscope."

This holds above all for a powerful mantra repeated many times.

The Core Formula

What counts as a letter

• A syllable must have prana. The consonant is the body; the vowel is the life force.
• A consonant with no vowel is an extension of the body of the syllable before it. It is not a letter.

Calculating Devata Sthana

1. Count the houses from source to destination, both included.
2. Count the same number from the destination, the destination included.

Example (Mesha lagna): source = 1st (Mesha), destination = 5th (Simha).

• Mesha to Simha = 5 houses.
• 5 houses from Simha = Dhanus, the 9th.
• Devata Sthana = 9th house.

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Namah Shivaya — Detailed Analysis

The Panchakshari: one word, five letters

• Written apart it is two words, Namah and Shivaya. Said together, sandhi removes the visarga and it becomes one word: Namashshivaya.
• PVNR: the true Panchakshari is the one-word, five-letter mantra, and that is the most powerful one.
• Words: 1 → source = 1st house. Your own existence: who you are, your personality, your traits.
• Letters: na-ma-shi-va-ya = 5 → destination = 5th house, the house of abilities.
• 1-5-9 is the Dharma trikona. The 1st is its seed, the 5th its focus of activity, the 9th its culmination: your abilities go a long way in deciding your dharma.
• Effect: the energies of the lagna are converted into abilities. Abilities promised in the chart but not fully developed are given by Shiva's blessing.
• Devata Sthana = 9th house — Dharma sthana and Guru sthana.

"Shiva is the Paramaguru. So that guru is sitting in your Guru sthana and giving you abilities."

Shiva is the ultimate guru of the universe. He is manifested as Brihaspati, as Dakshinamurti, and as Jupiter within you — your intellect.

Two mispronunciations

• Visarga said as an explicit "ha". Some say the visarga not as a letting-go of air but as a consonant with a vowel. That adds a letter: six letters, and the result goes to the 6th house.
• "Namah Shivay". Under Arabic influence the final a is dropped — Ram for Rama, Narayan for Narayana. The y has no vowel, so it is not a letter. The mantra has four letters: Chaturakshari, not Panchakshari. Say the ya explicitly.
  • The published class notes work this form out as source = 1st house, destination = 4th house. They give the Devata Sthana as the 8th; the counting rule of section 15 gives the 7th (1st to 4th = 4 houses; 4 from the 4th).

These are not faults of one region. "It is not that only South Indians have all the faults." Each part of India has its own mistakes, and comparing the traditions shows what is correct.

Adding Om

A student asks whether adding Om changes it. Technically it does.

Om Namashshivaya (Om + the one-word mantra)

• Words: 2 → source = 2nd house, your resources.
• Letters: 5 + 1 = 6 → destination = 6th house, working to overcome obstacles.
• Devata Sthana: 2nd to 6th = 5 houses; 5 from the 6th = 10th house, Karma sthana.
• Effect: Shiva sits in the Karma sthana and enables you to use all your resources to overcome your obstacles.
• "If Artha trikona is more important for you than Dharma trikona, it is not bad at all."
• Take care not to sound the "ha".

Om Namah Shivaya (said with a break)

• 3 words, 6 letters. Source = 3rd house — initiative, the seed of the Kama trikona.
• Fits a person whose 2nd house is weak and 3rd house very strong: few resources, much initiative, to be used to overcome obstacles.

"There is nothing like this mantra is the only right one."

A weak source house does no harm here

If the 2nd house is weak and you say Om Namashshivaya, you do not get a negative result. Bad results from a mismatch with the chart belong to tamasic worship (section 19).

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The Sun Mantra Example

Om Hreem Ghrini Surya Aditya Om

• PVNR counts exactly 10 letters → destination = 10th house, the house of karma.
• Sun is the giver of position.
• Praying to Sun with this mantra diverts the results of the source house into the 10th, which raises status in society.

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How to Choose the Right Mantra for Your Chart

• With Shiva, Vishnu, Indra and such gods, never worry about bad results. You can only maximize and customize the good ones — by breaking the mantra differently, or by putting certain bijaksharas before it.
• For the standard mantras given in the literature the letters and words are already taken care of. "By default, those work well for most people."
• To choose for your own chart, do the calculation of section 15.

A student asks whether the right mantra strengthens a weak part of the chart or one already strong.

"You are taking the strong part of your horoscope as the source and taking an important but weak part of your horoscope as the destination and strengthening it with the blessings of a particular Devata who is appropriate for that kind of activity. If you can do that, that will be the perfect mantra."

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Lal Kitab — Tamasic Remedies Warning

• There are tamasic mantras too, for example in Ravana Samhita, a book written by Ravana. Parts of it are popular as Lal Kitab (the red book) in North India, especially Punjab.
• Its remedies "work amazingly well".
• But they are tamasic: you solve the problem and create a bigger one.

"You have a loan of $100,000. You took a loan of $500,000 from somebody, paid off this loan, and you enjoyed the remaining $400,000. That's what these remedies are. So you have a bigger loan to take care of later, maybe in this life or maybe in the next life."

• Not everything in it is so. Ravana was a great scholar; there are good remedies in the book and terrible ones.

Kshudra Devata upasana

• This is worship not of Shiva, Vishnu and the higher gods but of lowly spirits, highly tamasic forms, for specific powers. There are mantras that work for it.
• Here the chart matters in the other direction: depending on the houses used and how the mantra relates to your horoscope, the results can be terrible. People have gone mad from it.
• PVNR's advice: do not do these pujas at all. If you do, calculate how they relate to your chart first.

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Tantra, Mantra, Yantra — Definitions

Vamachara is not the same thing

A student asks whether Kshudra Devata upasana is the same as Vamachara. No.

• Vamachara is left-handed worship. Left and right are both good hands; the idea that the left is the bad hand has been drilled into us.
• Kshudra Devata upasana is a subset of Vamachara. Not all left-handed worship is kshudra.
• Many pujas given by greatly learned people use the left hand. Vamakeshvara Tantra is one, and it is not Kshudra Devata upasana at all.

The three words

• "Tantric" means only that a puja has a tantra. Satyanarayana Vratam is highly sattvic, and it is a tantric procedure.
• The word is used in a negative sense today because some tantras are done to satisfy kshudra devatas.

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