which they pervade with their power. Thus divinized, the officiant must then
perform on himself as a divine being an “inner” mental worship which is carried
out by means of mantras only. During the ritual “outer” (ba ̄hya) worship that
follows, the mantras are deemed to create the body of the deity, and to make up
its throne (a mantra ̄sana, formed by all the levels of the cosmos, the tattvas, from
the lowest to the highest, all represented by their mantras mentally piled on each
other). Mantras, too, accomplish such ritual acts as transforming water into
nectar (amr.ta), infusing ritual implements or substances with divine power, pro-
tecting the ritual area, destroying obstacles, burning impurities, and so forth.
Their utterance is often accompanied by ritual gestures (mudra ̄), usually con-
sidered as merely accompanying them, underlining their power, rather than
as directly operative. The effectiveness of mantras is particularly stressed and
valued in the so-called ka ̄mya, “desiderative,” rites performed so as to obtain
some desired result. In all such practices one finds at work the dual nature of
mantras: as words of power which effect what they say or symbolize, and as
powerful supernatural entities.
Mantras are also used in meditation and/or yogic practices, where they are
mentally perceived and meditated by the adept so that he may assimilate their
power in mind and body, and thus attain either rewards or liberation. This is done
either through meditation – dhya ̄naorbha ̄vana ̄– or as part of a cult, the Tantric
pu ̄ja ̄often including yogic practices designed to foster the process of identifica-
tion with the deity worshipped, a characteristic feature of the Tantric worship.
These mantric practices sometimes consist in the intellectual and mystical
realization of the “meaning,” that is, the symbolic value, of the mantra. Such is
the case, for instance, when the adept is to realize the inner creative movement
of the supreme godhead as symbolized by the three letters of the mantra SAUH..
The movement goes from pure absolute being (sat=S), to the coalescence of the
three basic creative energies of S ́iva (AU, because this syllable is called trikon.abı ̄ja,
triangular seed), energies which are eventually emitted (H. since this letter is
calledvisarga, which means emission) in the absolute divine consciousness.
Thebı ̄jamantra(for such practices do not concern longer formulas) can also
be uttered by associating its utterance (ucca ̄ra, a term connoting an upward
movement) with the ascent of the kun.d.alinı ̄, the human and cosmic form of
divine power. The adept feels the presence of the mantra in himself as an ascend-
ing subtle phonic vibration, the na ̄da, going from the lowest of his bodily cakras
to a subtle center above his head. Being carried upward by this movement which
he imagines but also experiences somehow in his body, he eventually unites with
the Absolute on the ultimate plane ofva ̄cas well as of consciousness. In some
cases the mantra, after having reached this supreme level, is imagined as flowing
down like a fluid substance, pervading the whole body of the yogin, who thus
becomes perfect and immortal. This quasi-physical conception and perception of
the mantra is very typically tantric.
We may add that mantras are abundantly used in any number of magic
practices, often as amulets (kavaca), and so in written form, nowadays at least,
not always in Sanskrit. In some amulets or yantras, they may even be written in
490 andré padoux