|
From my understanding, the word mantra is described by the Sanskrit phrase 'Mananaat trayate iti mantra'. This literally means the constant repetition of a spiritual concept due to a natural force of attraction.
For instance, in the worldly sphere, a person may have just won a trophy. Because this person is so moved by this incident, he constantly recalls the details of his victory over and over again long after the trophy has been won. This repetition, in turn, leads to subconscious reinforcement of a certain tendency. We can extend the same logic to a mantra.
When a spiritual seeker of a certain level, after a certain incident, learns—through either a living spiritual master or an authentic scripture—some teachings that completely destroy his/her delusional pattern of thinking and bring about divine bliss, he/she becomes naturally fixated with those spiritual concepts. This leads to natural repetition of the concepts he/she is attracted to, resulting in subconscious reinforcement of a sacred samskara (subconscious thought/feeling pattern). Eventually, after a certain period of reinforcement, this sacred samskara will go on to replace the other delusional samskaras that are responsible for the misconceived behaviour of the soul and lead to complete transformation.
In this sense, true spiritual knowledge is the answer to all miseries. This is also the reason why Lord Krishna preached that real knowledge burns away all sins (jnaanagni karmaani...Gita) and why Adi Shankara Himself gave prime importance to knowledge (jnaanadeva tu kaivalyam). Keeping this in mind, I'd say that a real mantra calls for two parameters:
1) It should describe a spiritual concept that is of utmost benefit to the soul. The person repeating a certain mantra should, first and foremost, know the meaning of the verses he/she is repeating.
2) The mantra should be repeated over and again due to immense natural attraction to the spiritual concept it describes and not due to the aspiration for any fruit resulting from such repetition (such as siddhis). A student interested passionately in learning the truth of quantum physics will definitely go much ahead than someone who simply aims to score marks in the exam and get done with it. Similarly, a mantra should ideally be repeated due to a natural attraction to the spiritual concept it represents and not due to any kind of benefit that one may hope to get from such repetition.
|