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From The Garland of Letters

BIJA-MANTRA

Action necessarily implies movement. Whenever therefore, there is action, there is Spanda or movement and therefore what to the perceiving subject (when heard) is called Sound. This may or may not be heard. One person may have a sharpened natural faculty of hearing; so that he may hear what escapes the ear of another. There is Sound, though the latter may not hear it. Similarly, there is Sound which is not heard by any natural ear until assisted by the extension of the faculty procured by a material scientific instrument. Similarly again, there is Sound which cannot be heard by any material instrument, but which is apprehended by the Yogic Mind as part of its experience. In the beginning of things the natural Principle (Prakrti) was in a state of equilibrium (Samyavastha). Then there was no Sound, for there was no movement of the objective world. The first Vibration which took place at the commencement of creation, that is, on the disturbance of equilibrium (Vaisamyavastha) was a general movement (Samanya-Spanda) in the whole mass of Prakrti. This was the Pranava-Dhvani of Om Sound. It is not that the Sound is represented as it is by the Sound of the letters Om. Om is only the approximate representation or gross utterance to gross ear of the Subtle Sound which is heard in Yoga experience of the first movement which is continuously taking place, for at each moment the creative movement is present. From out of this general movement and Sound special movements (Visesa-Spanda) and Sounds arise. The following apt illustration has been given (see " World's Eternal Religion"). If a vessel of water is shaken, there is first a general movement of the whole water in the vessel. Next, there are particular movements in every part of the water, now this way, now that. So the evenly balanced Gunas or factors of Prakrti equally vibrate throughout their whole mass, and as the movement continues, the equilibrium is disturbed and the Gunas act and re-act on one another as in the second state of the water in the illustration. Diverse vibratory conditions being set up, diverse Sounds are given forth. The first equally distributed motion throughout the mass is Om, which is the great seed-mantra (Mahabija), for it is the source of all others and of all compounded Sounds. Just as Om is the general Sound, the other Bija-Mantras are the particular Sounds which are the letters of tbe alphabet. These are evolved out of the general Sound which underlies all particular Sounds. Both the Omkara or Pranava and the Bija-Mantras as pronounced by the mouth are thus the articulate equivalents of the inarticulate primal Dhvani. They become articulate at the last stage called Vaikhari or Spastatara-Spanda of the four stages, known as Para (Rest passing into movement), Pasyanti (general movement), Madhyama or special movement of subtle character heard by the subtle ear, and Vaikhari or special movement which as speech is the fully articulated Sound heard by the gross ear. The Pranava-Mantra is thus the Sound Equivalent of Brahman and the Bija-Mantras are the various forms with attribute (Sagunarapa) of the Devas and Devis. It is true that the approximate Sound Om is said to be constituted of the letters a, u, m. This is not to say that the primordial Dhvani was these letters or their combination. For these letters are the product of the primordial Dhvani which precedes them. What is meant is that Om as a gross Sound heard by the gross ear is the Samdhi or combination of these letters. A European Sanskritist told a friend of mine that Om said before a Mantra is simply the "clearing of the throat" before utlerance; and I suppose he would have said -- the clearing of the throat after utterance; for Om both precedes and follows a Mantra. Why however should one clear the throat then? Om has nothing to do with hawking sounds, or the throat. Om is, according to Indian belief, a sound actually heard by Yogis as above described. If moreover, the learned man had ever heard the Mantra Om recited he would have felt that it could not be explained in so shallow and materialistic a way. For Om is sounded as from the navel with a deep rolling and continuous Sound ending at the upper part of the nostrils where the Candra-bindu is sounded. Moreover, how are we to account for the other Bija Sounds on this hypothesis, such as <B>Am, Am, Em<B> and so forth, except by supposing that the unpleasant and unmannerly act of clearing the throat had undergone an unaccountably varied development? Be the doctrine true or false, it is more profound than that.

Mantras are given various names according to the number of their syllables. A Bija or Seed-mantra,is strictly speaking, a Mantra of a single letter such as Kam, which is composed of the letter K (Ka) together with Candrabindu which terminates all Mantras. Even here there is in a sense another letter. The reason is that the vowel cannot be interminably pronounced and is therefore terminated by a consonant. In fact, as Panini says, the function of a consonant is to interrupt a vowel sound. The consonant cannot be pronounced without a vowel, which is hence known as the S'akti of a consonant. Here the termination is in the form of the nasal breathing called Candrabindu which is Nada and Bindu. The M which ends the Bija is sounded nasally, high up in the bridge of the nose, and never reaches the lips. In all the other letters one or other of the five Bhutas or forms of sensible matter (Akasa, Vayu, Agni, Ap, Prthivi) predominates. <B>For this reason, in the selection by the Guru of the Mantra for his disciple the letters are chosen according as an examination shows that there is an excess or deficiency of any particular Bhuta.</B> Where there is excess of a Bhuta, the letter in which it is predominant is said with the outbreathing. Where there is deficiency it is said with the inbreathing. M is chosen to end the Bija because here Bhutas are said to be in equipoise. Though strictly the Bija is of one letter as the seed from which the Mantra springs, popularly other short unetymological vocables such as Hrim, Srim, Krim, Ham, Aim, Phat are called Bijas. In these there are two or more letters, such as in the first H, R, I, and Candra-bindu. Thus a Mantra may or may not, convey on its face its meaning. Bijas have no meaning according to the ordinary use of language and for this reason they have formed the subject of ridicule to those ignorant of the Mantra-sastra. <B>The initiated however know that their meaning is the own form (Svarupa) of the particular Devatas whose mantra they are, and that they are a form of the Subtle Power as creative Dhvani which makes all letters sound and which exists in all that we say or hear.</B> Each Devata has His or Her Bija. Thus the Devatas of Krim, Hrim and Ram are Kali, Maya, and Agni respectively. The primary mantra in the worship of any Deva or Devi is known as the Root Mantra (Malamantra). Every letter, syllable and mantra is then a form (Rupa) of the Brahman, and so is the image and all the lines of the Yantra and all objects in the universe. And so the Sastra says that they go to Hell who think that the image is merely a stone and that the Mantra is merely a letter of the alphabet. All letters are forms of S'akti as sound-powers. The S'akti, of which they are a manifestation, is the living Energy which projects itself into the form of the universe. The Mantra of a Devata is the Devata. The rhythmical vibrations of its sounds not merely regulate the unsteady vibrations of the sheaths of the worshipper, thus transforming him, but through the power of striving (Sadhana-s'akti) of the worshipper, there arises the form of the Devata which it is. And thus the Brhad-gandharva-Tantra (Ch. V) says:

Srnu devi pravaksyami bijanam deva-rupatam. Mantroccaranamatrena deva-rupam prajayate.

The Bijas thus have a menaing. They indicate the Artha or Devata which they are. What that Devata is, is taught to the Sadhaka, just as the child learns that rose means a particular flower, and rice and milk are the names for particular forms of food and drink which he takes.

The Bijas of the five Bhutas, that is, of the Devatas of the four forms of sensible matter, are Ha, Ya, Ra, La, Va, with Candra-bindu. Where there is more than one letter, each has its meaning. As examples I here select twelve Bija-mantras (in their popular sense), the meanings of which are given in the 6th Chapter of the Varada-Tantra as quoted in the well-known Bengali compendium known as the Pranatosini. I may here observe that the meaning of individual letters is given in the Bijakosas, such as the Tantrabhidhana.

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