Vag is no Sanskrit reader. This is where he gets this stuff ... http://www.arcane-archive.org/religion/hinduism/mantrarthabhidhanam-of-t\ he-varada-tantra-1.php
We've all had this discussion before. The Tantra-s assign meanings to the various phonemes of a mantra. Of course it depends upon who is writing the Tantra and which lineage (sampradaya) he belongs too. The Vairagi Muni, Baba Hari Dass (of Ram Dass fame), has discussed this question on the meaning and non-meaning of mantras upon his chackboard. He says that in essence it boils down to whether it is a Nama-mantra (name of a deity/devataa) used for devotional attunement with meaning or a yogic mantra-sound used for meditation (dhyana) without any meaning - only the sound value. As usual, Vag cannot be objective so he employees subterfuge by using a different standard (ie, Tantic literature). The guy owns shares in Unipack, makers of Vaseline, so why expect anything else. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@...> wrote: > > And meaning is vitally important, the idea of "meaningless sounds" is > quite simply, a lie. > > One of my favorite mantra dictionaries is the Mantrarthabhidanam from > the Varada Tantra. It's first verse quotes Shiva, directly > communicating to his counterpart, Parameshsvari: > > "Sri Shiva said: Listen Oh Parameshsvari! Now I shall describe to you > the meaning of Mantras. In the absence of any knowledge of which no > one can get siddhi, even with a million sadhanas." > > Pretty clear, huh! What makes it so special is the clarity with which > it describes the TM mantras. > > For example, another level of the TM mantra "Shreeng" is "Sa (the > first letter) indicates Mahalakshmi, Repha (the guttural whirring of > the "R-sound") indicates "dAna" (giving, imparting, "paying back"); > "ee" (I) indicates "Tushti", satisfaction and contentment, the Nada > indicates "Para", the transcendent--that which is "beyond"; and the > Bindu indicates the destroyer of discomforts and uneasiness. Thus > shreeng is the Bija or Seed for the worship of Lakshmi." -The > mantrarthabhidanam >
