In all ancient traditions, words are treated as if they have
special powers. There is a section in Atharva Veda called Abhicȧrakalpa. It is a treatise on
words with magical powers which were recommended to ward off evil and bring
special favors to people etc. Such works are called Thaumaturgy in English. According
to Yatindramatadipika of Yamunacharya, the premise of this section of Atharva Veda
is as follows: “ If it could be demonstrated that certain mantras have powers with reference to the things of the world, it
may convince even an unbeliever to have faith in the efficiency of the mantras in relation to the attainment of
heaven etc…” (page 176)
There is a basic belief in the power of words in all
traditions. Hindus, in general, believe that words and sounds have mystical
powers. There is a section called phalastuti
at the end of all prayers which lists the benefits of reciting the prayer in
general. They also list several sub-benefits depending on how many times you
repeat them.
There are special benefits associated with chanting the
mantra̅s properly and
there are specific bad consequences for chanting the wrong way. If you make
mistakes in pronunciation, there are special procedures to repent and make
amends with.
Special sounds like bhaṭ,
vaśaṭ, astraya bhat,
hoom bhat etc are used during homa ceremonies
and daily chanting to drive off the evil spirits (asura) from taking away the food and offerings made into the fire (agni) meant for the ḍeva̅s.
These special sounds and mantras
with superior powers play a particularly big part in Tantra śa̅stra.
In the Old Testament, there are references to the idea that
God will not reveal his true name because once man can name a thing, he will
have control over it! Then, there is the story of the Tower of Babel, in which
God was concerned that man was getting powerful with the use of words and
decided to separate them and send them to different parts of the world with
different languages.
No comments:
Post a Comment