मंत्र
I am not a religious person. Although I love paying visits to Shintō shrines (and also Buddhist temples but less often), my interest probably comes from a different perspective looking at them as structures. I love churches, synagogues and gopurams. As long as the followers of these religions do not justify killing the followers of other religions, I respect their beliefs. The one which is not only dubious but also utterly filthy containing "Unification" in its name and started in a peninsula in the east of Eurasian continent, is out of question. It is nothing but a disgrace that majority of diet members of the party in power have been dependent on this unholy pseudo-religious organization, but let me not waste my time on such an abominable matter.
Until November 2022, I did not have any thought to listen to mantras. For some reason, I picked up Mahamrityunjaya Mantra (महामृत्युंजय मंत्र ) in YouTube, which has triggered my interest in mantras. (Incidentally, one of my subordinates I hired in Singapore from India back in 1995 had a middle name Mrityunjaya...)
This note is merely a layman's compilation of mantras at a very superficial level with no intention of shedding light from a spiritual perspective.
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra (महामृत्युंजय मंत्र ) is an unforgettable mantra with various versions.
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम्
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात्
I regularly listen to the following renderings (the 3rd one sometime):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV9LXGOXjgs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vq6Ot2RiEc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSTC-eox9hM
The following is the same mantra, but the music is quite different and not necessarily my favorite as music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcCDib0ppSo
Shiv Gayatri Mantra (शिव गायत्री मंत्र) is probably the 2nd mantra I listened to after Mahamrityunjaya Mantra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf-M3ZHTcl8
ॐ महादेवाय विद्महे रुद्रमूर्तये धीमहि
तन्नः शिवः प्रचोदयात्
The following 2 renderings are the same mantras (Shiv Gayatri Mantra), but they sound very different. I prefer the above owing to its profound sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VzjQjvSlRE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqkbXDfF-2g
Ganpati Bappa Morya appears to be an important one for Hindus. (Note that spelling slightly varies).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgvEXmZBimo
Ganesh devotees chant in chorus Ganpati Bappa Morya (गणपति बाप्पा मोरया) during Ganesh Puja. (Ganesha is also known as Ganpati.)
MAGICAL HEALING MANTRA ❯ Prana Apana Sushumna Hari Meditation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU8wzllYdz4
प्राणा अपाना शुष्मणा हरी
हरी हर हरी हर हरी हर हरी
While sounding a bit sad, this is one of my favorite mantras.
The following link is one of many Aparājitā Stotram अपराजिता स्तोत्रं, which I found very nice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMML0TgWNIU
Aparājitā अपराजिता is known as 無能勝明王 Munōshō-Myōō, one of the Eight Wisdom Kings (八大明王), is not necessarily popular in Japanese Buddhism.
Just recently, I learned the following "Top 19 Hindu Mantras". They are really entertaining with stark difference from mantras of Tantric Buddhism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfi_VunJ0Sk
Buddhism mantras
Let me share four Buddhism mantras I love so much:
①Akasagarbha Mantra: Namo Akasagarbhaya Om Arya Kalmali Mauli Svaha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uPivoEBTuA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esX6Id-WxEc
This is a very energetic mantra, which I love so much!
Ākāśagarbha (आकाशगर्भ) is 虚空蔵菩薩 Kokūzō Bosatsu in Japanese.
②Maha Mayuri Heart Mantra: Om Mayura Krante Soha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwTfzcN_IZA
This is a very peaceful mantra...Mahamayuri is 孔雀明王 Kujaku Myōō in Japanese.
③Kurukulla Mantra: Om Kurukulle Hrih Soha | Red Tara Bodhisattva Mantra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQbxzf_OTbo
The bass singing is very nice. According to Wikipedia, Kurukullā (Sanskrit: कुरुकुल्ला, Tibetan: ཀུ་རུ་ཀུ་ལླཱ) is a female, peaceful to semi-wrathful Yidam in Tibetan Buddhism…
④Vajrabhairava The Destroyer Of Death | The Yamantaka Manjhusrhi Mantra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk_PwNkNrRI
This mantra sounds very strange with conspicuously monosyllabic words in contrast with other mantras in Sanskrit. It's very much different from Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, but has a strong impact.
Yamāntaka (Sanskrit: यमान्तक) or Vajrabhairava (Tibetan: གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་, རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད།) is 大威徳明王 Daiitoku-myōō in Japanese, and is very popular in Japan.
Here is an image of Daiitoku-myōō from Nara National Museum.
https://www.narahaku.go.jp/collection/1306-0.html
Back to Hindu mantras, I like the following mantra "Vakratunda Mahakaya":
श्री वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्य कोटी समप्रभा
निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्व-कार्येशु सर्वदा
Interestingly, the following 3 renderings show different mood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0yPwkXmI1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjeMuiee_o8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn1vSywY7Rg
Needless to say, there are so many mantras. I only cover very small number of mantras.
On the other hand, I learned the following from an Indian photographer I follow in X (Twitter):
हे हंसवाहिनी ज्ञान दायिनी | He hans vahini gyan dayini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXSpCYGXFGY
This is सरस्वती वंदना मंत्र (Saraswati Vandana Mantra).
Let me refer to "Adi Shakti Bhakti Mantra", an extremely beautiful rendering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t0YKCcs5es
आदि शक्ति, आदि शक्ति, आदि शक्ति, नमो नमो
सरब शक्ति, सरब शक्ति, सरब शक्ति, नमो नमो
प्रीतम भगवती, प्रीतम भगवती, प्रीतम भगवती, नमो नमो
कुण्डलिनी माता शक्ति, माता शक्ति, नमो नमो
Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Namo Namo.
Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Namo Namo.
Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Namo Namo.
Kundalini Mata Shakti, Mata Shakti, Namo Namo.
Closing
I’m not a serious practitioner of मंत्र (mantra), which is translated into Japanese as shingon (真言) of Shingon school (真言宗) through transliteration from Chinese, but I enjoy them as music in order to fend off noise and evil thoughts.
Through listening to mantras, I've learned some words of Sanskrit origin, for example svāhā स्वाहा, which is pronounced in Japanese as sowaka and transliterated as 薩婆訶. Also 南無 namu comes from नम.
While I learned Hindi a little when I worked with people in the Indian subcontinent from 2011 to 2015, naturally I found Japanese words of Sanskrit origin, at that time however, mantras were not my interest.
Incidentally I learned the following three words 50+ years ago:
恒河沙 gōgasha (coined from Sanskrit word गङ्ग which means the Ganges),
那由他 nayuta (borrowed from Sanskrit नयुत), and
阿僧祇 asōgi (transliterated from Sanskrit असंख्येय)
These are all Buddhist terms intended to express large numbers. Interestingly these words are followed in mathematical sense by 不可思議 fukashigi and 無量大数 muryō-taisū both of which do not contain a Sanskrit morpheme. This is a very interesting topic, which I wish to visit in future by another article. □
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