In TM you get one bija mantra to meditate on. So, where does this bija mantra come from? We do not know where or how the bija mantras came to be formed, or how they ones used in TM came to be used - we can only speculate. The origin of the TM bija mantras is not explained by Larry Domash in big blue books.
History of TM: http://tinyurl.com/34bras So, let's review what we know: Swami Brahmananda Saraswati was a dasanami sannyasin whose guru was Swami Krishnananda Saraswati. So, SBS got the Saraswati bija mantra from SKS, who got the same bija from his guru, passed on from a long line of gurus founded by the Adi Shankaracharya in 800 Ad at Sringeri in Karnataka, India - as the Sri Vidya sect. The Sringeri adherents worship the Sri Chakra, a mystic diagram or mandala, used as a symbol for Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, with the TM bija mantras inscribed thereon. The main spiritual scripture of the the Sri Vidya is the Soundaryalahari attributed to Shankara, which enumerates the sixteen bija mantras used for spiritual practice- meditation that is transcendental. All the Upanishad thinkers were transcendentalists of one sort or another. According to the Shankara tradition, Shankara visited Kashmere and brought the Trika to South Asia along with a copy of the Sri Yantra and installed it at all the Shankara maths, dedicated to Tripursundari, the Goddess of Speech. It is a fact that the Sri Yantra is present at all the Shankara maths including the math at Sringeri. Are we agreed so far? According to Bharati, one explanation for the origin of bija mantras is that the mantra shows itself in a process of introspective sensory perception, as a result of deep meditation; or through the grace of the guru or the istadevata; bijas are either seen or heard,they are not the result of discursive composition; bijas are revealed in a flash of insight, as one complete unit; bijas are eternal and only revealed in time; as the result of deep meditation or from performing japa; or as an act of grace through supernatural initiation; or bijas may be drug induced. Or,the bijas were concocted by some early yogins or other esoteric illuminati when they conceived the idea of using verbal sound clusters which are not intelligible to the non-initiate to mark off a circle of adepts. According to Brhaspati, the founder of the Carvaka materialistic school, bija mantras were made up that cunning priests and that the bijas sole purpose was to fool gullible folks for their own aggrandizement and that the tantric gurus were nothing but impostors, rogues and skrimshanks passing off unintelligible nonsense gibberishfor words of wisdom - hocus pocus. Or, that bija mantras are the nick names of the istadevatas who are not fond of being accosted by their actual names. Go figure. Another hypothesis concerns the idea of sound vibration called 'spanda' in Sanskrit: certain sounds are felt to have a special resonance or pitch. This is the explanation given by MMY who stated that the bijas are sounds "whose effects are known" from the experience of countless yogins over many centuries. This may explain why MMY was so attracted to the teachings of Kashmere tantrism and why MMY was so close to Swami Laksmajoo who taught the Spanda vibration theory at the 1968 TTC in India. Lama Govinda wrote that bija mantras are symbol or holy words transmitted in an initiation that makes his personality vibrate in consonance with the guru and the whole line of gurus and opens the initiate to higher states of consciousness. MMY thought that TM and the use of bija mantras provided the ideal opportunity for transcending and the expansion of consciousness. Works cited: 'The Tantric Tradition' by Agehanada Bharati Rider, 1965 p. 112-15 'Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism' by Lama Govinda Rider, 1961 p. 90 On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 9:58 AM, Richard J. Williams <pundits...@gmail.com>wrote: > Before we get started we should provide a definition of mantra. > > While the term mantra is usually taken to mean phrases from the Vedas. > However, bija mantras are not mentioned in the Rig Veda. Vedic mantras are > Sanskrit words while bija mantras are 'seed sounds' with no semantic > meaning. Bija mantras are given by a guru in an initiation and are thus > empowered by the guru. Therefore, bija mantras are esoteric sound > vibrations, not words found in a Sanskrit lexicon. > > 'Mantras' that are listed in books or that you read on the internet are > not true bija mantras - they have no Shakti, and are thus powerless and > ineffectual - they are just nonsense gibberish to the non-intiated. > Woodroffe and Eliade both say unequivocally that the mantras have > absolutely no semantic meaning. > > If you attach meaning to the bija mantra you will find yourself limited to > the conscious thinking level of awareness. In contrast, a non-ideational > mnemonic device, like an abstract bija or seed syllable provides the ideal > opportunity for transcending. Bija mantras cannot be translated into > English - that would be a contradiction in terms. > > According to Swami Bharati, the definition of bija mantra does not include > it's purpose - a definition must be all-inclusive and there can be no > exceptions. A bija mantra is a morpheme or quasi morpheme, or a phoneme, or > quasi phoneme, or a series of mixed morphemes, phoneme, qausi morphemes, or > quasi phoneme, arranged in traditional patterns, which are imparted by one > guru to one chela in the course of diksha, in which a meaningless sound is > taken as a non-ideational mnemonic device. > > But, you may say that these bija mantras can be found listed in books, but > the crux of the matter is that "a syllable or a collection of syllables > constituting a mantra is no mantra at all, because a mantra is something > imparted personally by a guru to a disciple. Hence OM is no mantra at all > and the statement that it is, is one by courtesy only, as it were." > > Works cited: > > 'Introduction to Mantra Shastra' > By Arthur Avalon > p. 81 > > 'Yoga: Immortality and Freedom' > Mircea Eliade > p. 217 > > 'Tantric Tradition' > by Ageananda Bharati > p. 106 >
