Mantras and Their Significance

in Hinduism
There is a saying in Sanskrit, Amantram Aksharam nasti, nasti moolam
anoushadam. There is not one Akshara, in this case a syllable (in this
case the syllables used in Sanskrit) which is not a mantra. Now what is a
mantra, this needs a little explanation.
Let us take the example of a small data chip that contains enormous
amount of information, would we be able to actually see this data
without being connected to the appropriate computer equipment?
Obviously not.
Similarly, the potential power of the mantra can only be unlocked by the
practitioner who has done a lot of Sadhana and repeating the mantra. In
the Shiva Purana, Lord Shiva is shown to be the source of all Aksharas,
hence mantras can also be used to invoke Ishwara who is the source of
the cosmos.
Now let me explain the next part of the saying nasti moolam
anoushadam, which means there is not one plant root which cannot be
used as a medicine. Hence the meaning of the saying is very clear, there
is not one Akshara which is not a mantra and there is not one plant
root that is not a medicine.
One must understand that although all of the plant roots can be used as
medicine, not every Tom, Dick and Harry will know how to use these
plant roots as medicine. It is only an Ayurvedic doctor who will actually
know how to combine, concentrate and use these plant roots for

medicinal purposes, he will also recommend the appropriate doses for

different patients and also give them personalised medicine.

Similarly it is only a Mantra-Vedi or knowers of mantras or Rishis who

will actually know how to combine these Aksharams and form different
type of mantras. These mantras again have to be given to appropriate
individuals as per their requirements; hence the tradition is that certain
mantras will have to be taken from traditional Gurus. One cannot simply
take a mantra and start repeating it without getting a MantraUpadesam (telling of a mantra) from a traditional Guru.

Mantras are actually told in utter secrecy to people. The practitioner of a

mantra will keep repeating the mantra and this repetition of a mantra is
what we call Japa.
The mantras that are available to everyone are the names of Ishwara.
Let us take an example of the Rama naam, the very name Rama is
actually a mantra. There is a saying that about 7 crore maha mantras
are packed into this one name Rama. Repetition of the name Rama
thrice is equivalent to saying the whole Vishnu Sahasranaam once.
Let us have a closer look at the name Rama. It has 2 parts Ra and
ma. In the astaakshari mantra Om namo Narayanaya if we take out
Ra , the whole mantra changes to Om Namo Na ayanaaya which
gives the meaning there is no way or goal, similarly in the panchakshari
Om nama Shivaya if we were to take out Ma we get the mantra as
Om na Shivaya which will mean there is no Shiva.
Hence the 2 Aksharas Ra and Ma form the basis of the Ashtaakshari
and Panchaaskshari respectively; taking out their 2 Aksharas will make
both the mantras meaningless. Therefore these 2 Aksharas can be taken
as the very essence which gives life of meaning to both the Ashtaakshari
and the Panchakshari. In other words, repeating the name Rama will
give the practitioner the benefit of actually repeating the Ashtakshari
and Panchakshari at the same time, the very name Rama has packed
within it the power of both Lord Vishnu and Shiva.
There is also a certain mathematics associated with mantras, let me
take the example of the name Rama.
If we were to take the varna mala in devanagari, we have ya ra la
va and so on, one must notice that ya is the 1st Akshara and the

ra comes 2nd in the varnamala, so we assign the number 2 to ra, in

the varna mala we have it as follows pa, pha, ba, bha, ma.
Notice that ma comes 5th in this part of the varna mala. Hence we
assign the number 5 to ma, now when we say Rama it is combining
the 2nd akshara and the 5th akshara viz 2*5=10.
If we repeat Rama thrice, it is equivalent to 10*10*10=1000. It is for
this reason the repetition of the name Rama thrice is equivalent to
repeating the whole Vishnu Sahasranama.
This is in short about mantras and their significance.