Guest guest Report post Posted February 10, 2002 our chumki has asked us what does *bija mantra mean? The word bîja literally means "seed". In the context of mantras, a bîja is a syllable. All mantras, and in fact all words, are built up from bîjas. Usually, a bîjamantra is a mantra composed of only a single syllable. There are many such mantras, a few of which are given below with a brief note to their significance. Ha, Ya, Ra, La and Va These are the five seed-mantras of the elemental tattvas, also called the five bhûtas. They respectively represent âkâsha, air, fire, water and earth. Haum A bîja associated with Shiva Dum A bîja associated with Durgâ Krîm A bîja associated with Kâlî Hrîm A bîja associated with Bhuvaneshvarî Shrîm Associated with Devî, especially Laksmî Aim Associated with Sarasvatî Klîm Associated with Kâma Hûm Called the armor-bîja, it is uttered for protection and as part of a rite used for installing divine forces in various parts of the body. Gam Associated with Ganesha Glaum Another bîja associated with Ganesha Ksraum Associated with Narasimha, the lion-man incarnation of Vishnu Every letter of the Sanskrit alphabet is effectively a bîja-mantra with connections to various forces, deities, etc. chumki, generally the "bija mantra" is given to a disciple during the 'initiation' ceremony by the guru and it is generally a good idea to recite a bija mantra only after receiving initiation from a guru. meanwhilre, one can always recite saguna manrtras such as OM NAMAHA SHIVAYA! HARI OM! OM DURGAYAII NAMAHA! ETC for which no initiation is necessary. hope this helps. love p.s. sorry it took so long to respond to your query. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
