Kamala Stotram

"Mantra" means a sacred utterance, numinous sound, or a syllable, word, phonemes, or group of words believed by some to have psychological and spiritual power. A mantra may or may not have syntactic structure or literal meaning; the spiritual value of a mantra comes when it is audible, visible, or present in thought.[3][5]

The earliest mantras were composed in Vedic times by Hindus in India, and those are at least 3000 years old.[6] Mantras are now found in various schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.[4][7] Similar hymns, chants, compositions and concepts are found in Zoroastrianism,[8] Taoism, Christianity and elsewhere.[3]

The use, structure, function, importance and types of mantras vary according to the school and philosophy of Hinduism and of Buddhism. Mantras serve a central role in the tantric school of Hinduism.[6][9] In this school, mantras are considered equivalent to deities, a sacred formula and deeply personal ritual, and considered to be effective only after initiation. However, in other schools of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism, this is not so.[8][10]

Mantras come in many forms, including ṛc (verses from Rigveda for example) and sāman (musical chants from the Sāmaveda for example).[3][6] They are typically melodic, mathematically structured meters, thought to be resonant with numinous qualities. At its simplest, the word ॐ (Aum, Om) serves as a mantra. In more sophisticated forms, they are melodic phrases with spiritual interpretations such as human longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge and action.[3][10] Yet other mantras are literally meaningless, yet musically uplifting and spiritually meaningful.[6]