Sanskrit Mantras as a Medium Between the Human and The Divine
Sanskrit Mantras as a Medium Between the Human and The Divine

Summary/Abstract: In India and Tibet, like in many ancient cultures, literary and religious heritage was usually handed down in oral form. This is one of the main reasons, why sound and word were attached a great importance. The repetition of the sacred phrases – mantras grew to play a crucial role both in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Mantras represent one of the oldest religious meditation forms, and they function as a medium leading the human mind to the divine truth. These sacred phrases, originating from Indian Vedic culture, were later inherited in Tibet Tantric Buddhism, where they were related to definite deities. Aryans who came from the North of India, present-day Iranian regions considered themselves as divine people and justified their superiority on the bases of their euphonic and grammatically complex ritual language – Sanskrit. It was juxtaposed to the common speech – Dravidian dialects of Central India. Aryans excelled their culture, calling local people barbarians who in their opinion had no access to the highest truth, because they could not use the medium of the divine speech. Tibetan Buddhists inherited the ritual reciting practice of definite Sanskrit syllables and also distinguished them from all other words. Mantras were seen as a medium to combine micro-cosmos of humans with the all embracing and divine macro-cosmos, for they did not concern with the conventional reality and did not differentiate between subject and object. They referred to the absolute value of things, transcending relativity and dualism. The author approaches the research subject from two different aspects: firstly, there is a historical overview of the development of Sanskrit alphabet and phonemes and, secondly, an explanation of symbolical and sacred meaning from a philosophical and religious point of view. The article consists of three parts – the first one traces back origins, the second one explains the practice and the third one gives examples of definite phrases.

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