Bījamantra
Monosyllabic mantras in Hinduism and Tantra / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bījamantra (Sanskrit: बीजमन्त्र, romanized: bījamantra, lit. 'seed-mantra', in modern schwa-deleted Indo-Aryan languages: beej mantra),[1] or a bījākṣara ("seed-syllable"), is a monosyllabic mantra believed to contain the essence of a given deity. They are found in Tantric Hinduism and in Esoteric Buddhism.[2][3]
A bījamantra is ritually uttered for the invocation of a deity. It is considered the true name of the deity as well as a manifestation of the deity in sonic form.[4] It is also found in religious art, often standing for a specific deity. A bījamantra can be regarded to be a mystic sound made of the first few characters of a given deity's name, the chanting of which is regarded to allow an adherent to achieve a state of spiritual sanctity.[5] These mantras are also associated with the chakras of the body.[6]
The Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade stated that an adherent who chants the semantically meaningless bījamantra "appropriates its ontological essence, concretely and directly assimilates with the god".[7]