Mantra Artha -Initiative

Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Vol. 2), 2010

In: Thompson G., Payne R. (red.) On Meaning and Mantras: Essays in honor of the life and work of Frits Staal, Berkeley, California: Institute of Buddhist Studies and BDK America 2016, 307–332

The Mul Mantra of the Khalsa - The first ever English translation. Written in the Court of the Tenth Guru about the first Khalsa initiation.

International Research Mirror, 2023

“The legitimacy of Artha in Hinduism and its contemporary relevance” is to affirm the attitude of Indian Philosophy towards life through the earning of legitimate Artha in this contemporary world. It is also an attempt to comprehend the significance and legitimacy of Artha in Hindu spirituality. The word Artha means “goal, aim, or purpose” in Sanskrit. Hinduism recognizes the significance of material riches in an individual’s total pleasure and well-being. The pursuit of Artha is reflected in the normative structure of Varnasramadharma and Purusarthas in terms of occupation, acquisition, and distribution of property, which appears to have been based on social conceptualizing. According to Kautiliya’s Arthashastra, Artha is the foundation for two goals: Dharma and Kama. Moral life and sensuality become difficult without prosperity and security in society or at the individual level. Poverty fosters vice and hatred, whereas prosperity nurtures virtue and love. Hinduism acknowledges the role of material wealth in an individual’s happiness and well-being. A householder requires wealth because he must perform numerous duties in order to uphold dharma and meet the needs of his family and society.

FID4SA Repository, 2022

The hybrid workshop “Mantras: Sound, Materiality, and the Body” was held on May 12–14, 2022 at the University of Vienna (Austria)’s Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (ISTB). Its aim was to further the growth of Mantra Studies as a field by fostering synergy among scholars working on mantra utilizing different materials, approaches, and frameworks. This report is intended to make the contents and results of the workshop accessible to the wider public by summarizing the individual contributions and addressing avenues for future research on mantras. Its purpose, however, is not limited to providing a snapshot of the workshop, but to serve as a tool for inspiring, developing, and situating new research approaches in Mantra Studies.

Mantras: Sound, Materiality, and the Body (Workshop Programme), 2022

Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 2020

Modern notions of scientific inquiry have limits when they seek to explain what mantras are and how they are used. Scientific inquiry systems emphasize rigorous, rational, deductive and inductive logic. By contrast, in the inquiry systems used by mantra exponents like Eknath Easwaran and Aurobindo Ghose, mantras can be truly understood only after their repetitive practice has brought about a profound change in consciousness. For these mantra exponents, their inquiry system is the actual experiential practice of spiritual disciplines as described through the centuries and refined for the present. Although these two inquiry systems and their respective guarantors of validity appear incommensurable, Charles S. Peirce’s theories regarding signs, scientific logic and religion indicate academia ought to recognize the legitimacy of the mantra exponents’ approach.

While the Tibetan lotsawas of old translated even Sanskrit names in their renowned translations of the Buddhist canonical texts, they left Sanskrit mantras untranslated. This is because the power of mantras is believed to derive from their sounds, sounds that could not be altered if this power was to remain intact. Thus we find that the mantras in the Kålacakra sådhana, like in all sådhanas, are in Sanskrit, not in Tibetan. Yet it is just here that, because of how foreign these sounds are, errors are most likely to creep in. Indeed we find that, over the centuries, the pronunciation of these sounds has altered, and, due to unfamiliarity with the words, even the spellings have been subject to scribal errors. One of the clearest examples of altered pronunciation may be seen in the case of the famous Vajrasattva mantra, widely used on its own for purification, and found as an integral part of many sådhanas, including most of the fuller versions of the Kålacakra sådhana. The 100-syllable Vajrasattva mantra as now pronounced may be seen in recent books on Tibetan Buddhism where it is given phonetically. From these, we see that the word Vajrasattva has become Benzar sato, 1 Benzar satto, 2 or Bedzra sato. 3 These transformations of its pronunciation are largely due to it being pronounced as in modern Tibetan. We see the same thing in English, where Vajrasattva is pronounced as if it is an English word. But it is a Sanskrit word, and as such, the first syllable of Vajra should rhyme with " judge, " and the first syllable of sattva should rhyme with " hut. " If the early Tibetan translators gave such importance to preserving the Sanskrit sounds, we should make an attempt to pronounce them correctly. 4 Then there is the question of meaning. The great majority of Sanskrit mantras have clear meanings that were meant to be