CHAPTER 106 — मन्त्राः | Mantras

महामार्गिणे मन्त्रः वाक्यं, ध्वनिः, शब्दो वा यः धारणा-साधनत्वेन ध्यान-सहायकत्वेन च उपयुज्यते॥१॥

mahāmārgiṇe mantraḥ vākyaṃ, dhvaniḥ, śabdo vā yaḥ dhāraṇā-sādhanattvena dhyāna-sahāyakattvena ca upayujyate॥1॥

For the Wayist, a mantra is a phrase, sound, or word employed as a mnemonic device and an aid to meditation.

मन्त्राः अस्मान् दिव्य-उपस्थितेः स्मारयन्ति मनश्च महामार्गानुकूलाय संस्कर्तुं साहाय्यं कुर्वन्ति॥२॥

mantrāḥ asmān divya-upasthiteḥ smārayanti manaśca mahāmārgānukūlāya saṃskartum sāhāyyaṃ kurvanti॥2॥

Mantras remind us of the Divine Presence and help condition the mind to attune to theWAY.

महामार्गिणः मन्त्रान् अमनस्कतया न जपन्ति; मनो जीवश्च सक्रियतया संनद्धौ भवेताम्॥३॥

mahāmārgiṇaḥ mantrān amanaskatayā na japanti; mano jīvaśca sakriyatayā saṃnaddhau bhavetām॥3॥

Wayists do not recite mantras mindlessly; both mind and soul must be actively engaged.

मन्त्राः अलौकिक-शक्तियुक्ता न दृश्यन्ते, अपितु मनसः पुनः-नियोजन-रूपान्तरणयोः साधनानि॥४॥

mantrāḥ alaukika-śaktiyuktā na dṛśyante, apitu manasaḥ punaḥ-niyojana-rūpāntaraṇayoḥ sādhanāni॥4॥

Mantras are not understood to possess supernatural powers, but are instruments for the reprogramming and transformation of the mind.

एतानि साधनानि देह-धारिणं जीवं माया-जनित-भ्रान्तिषु पूर्ण-यथार्थतायां केन्द्रितुं साहाय्यं कुर्वन्ति॥५॥

etāni sādhanāni deha-dhāriṇaṃ jīvaṃ māyā-janita-bhrāntiṣu pūrṇa-yathārthatāyāṃ kendrituṃ sāhāyyaṃ kurvanti॥5॥

These instruments help the embodied soul focus upon full Reality amidst the illusions arising from Māyā.

प्रभोः मन्त्रः “ओं मणि पद्मे हूं” — पद्म-संकेतस्य महामार्गे ध्यानम्॥६॥

prabhoḥ mantraḥ “Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ” — padma-saṅketasya mahāmārge dhyānam॥6॥

The Lord’s mantra is “Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ” — a meditation on the symbolism of the lotus within theWAY.

मन्त्रस्य अर्थस्य मननम् अमनस्क-जपाद् अधिक-हितकरम्॥७॥

mantrasya arthasya mananam amanaska-japād adhika-hitakaram॥7॥

Contemplation of the mantra’s meaning is more beneficial than mindless recitation.

अन्यः महत्त्वपूर्णो महामार्गीय-मन्त्रः अस्ति — “गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा”॥८॥

anyaḥ mahattva-pūrṇo mahāmārgīya-mantraḥ asti — “gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā”॥8॥

Another important Wayist mantra is — “gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā” — Go, go, go beyond, go thoroughly beyond, and establish yourself in enlightenment.

अयं मन्त्रः महामार्गे यात्रां संक्षिपति — काय-मानस-जीव-परिमितीः अतिक्रामन्॥९॥

ayaṃ mantraḥ mahāmārge yātrāṃ saṃkṣipati — kāya-mānasa-jīva-parimitīḥ atikrāman॥9॥

This mantra summarizes the journey on theWAY, transcending the limitations of body, mind, and soul.

परम्परायां अन्ये मन्त्राः विद्यन्ते, प्रत्येकं महामार्गीय-तत्त्वानाम् अवबोधनं अभ्यासं च गाढयितुं सेवमानाः॥१०॥

paramparāyāṃ anye mantrāḥ vidyante, pratyekaṃ mahāmārgīya-tattvānām avabodhanaṃ abhyāsaṃ ca gāḍhayituṃ sevamānāḥ॥10॥

Other mantras exist in the tradition, each serving to deepen understanding and practice of Wayist principles.

व्याकरण टिप्पणियां | Grammatical Notes

Chapter Title and the Highest Absorption-Vector:

• मन्त्राः (mantrāḥ) — the Sanskrit term used directly; mantra (from man to think + tra instrument/protection — literally “instrument of thought” or “mind-protector”) is the correct term and is already used in the Wayist tradition worldwide; however, the absorption-vector here is the most powerful of the three chapters in the sacred-instruments triad: in the Vedic tradition the mantra is śruti (divinely heard/revealed sound), carrying authority not because it means something but because it is something — the śabda-brahman (sound-as-Absolute) tradition holds that the Vedic mantra is a direct vibrational manifestation of ultimate reality, effective independently of the reciter’s understanding; in the Tantric tradition this intensifies further — the mantra IS the deity in sound-form, received only through dīkṣā (initiation), alive with the guru’s transmitting power, transformative through correct repetition regardless of semantic comprehension; japa (mantra-repetition practice) in these traditions is precisely the practice of mindless repetition — the transformation is in the sound’s action on the practitioner’s subtle body, not in the practitioner’s reflective engagement with meaning
• Chapter 106’s counter-position is the most direct of the three chapters: verse 1 defines the mantra as a mnemonic device and meditation-aid rather than as deity-sound or divine vibration; verse 3 explicitly denies mindless repetition as valid practice; verse 4 denies supernatural powers as it did in Chapter 105; verses 6 and 7 teach that contemplation of meaning is more beneficial than repetition of sound; the Wayist mantra tradition uses the inherited vocabulary (mantra, japa) while systematically replacing its Vedantic/Tantric content with a practitioner-centred, meaning-oriented understanding

Verse 1 — Redefining the Mantra from the Ground Up:

• धारणा-साधनत्वेन (dhāraṇā-sādhanattvena) — “in the capacity of being a mnemonic device” — dhāraṇā (holding, retention, mnemonic capacity, the act of holding-in-mind — from dhṛ to hold) + sādhanatva (the property/nature of being an instrument) + instrumental case; dhāraṇā is a technical term in yogic psychology for the sixth limb of Aṣṭāṅga Yoga (dhāraṇā = concentration/retention, preceding dhyāna = meditation and samādhi = absorption); used here in its general sense as “mnemonic” it names what the mantra does — it retains and recalls the teaching for the practitioner’s mind; this is a deliberate de-escalation from śabda-brahman (sound-as-Absolute) to dhāraṇā-sādhana (memory-and-attention instrument); the mantra holds teachings in portable, repeatable form, which is a function of meaning not of vibration
• ध्यान-सहायकत्वेन (dhyāna-sahāyakattvena) — “in the capacity of being an aid to meditation” — dhyāna (meditative attention, the sustained-focus state) + sahāyaka (helper, auxiliary, companion-aid) + tva (property/nature of) + instrumental; the mantra is a sahāyaka (helper-companion) to dhyāna, not a generator of it; the practitioner brings dhyāna, the mantra assists it; again the locus of efficacy is in the practitioner’s developing capacity, the mantra’s role is instrumental and secondary

Verse 2 — Divine Presence and Mind-Conditioning:

• दिव्य-उपस्थितेः स्मारयन्ति (divya-upasthiteḥ smārayanti) — “they cause us to remember the Divine Presence” — divya-upasthiti (divine presence, the fact-of-divine-being-present, from divya divine/heavenly + upa-sthiti standing-near, presence) + smārayanti (they cause-to-remember, causative of smṛ to remember); the mantra’s function is reminiscence — it calls back to the practitioner’s awareness a Divine Presence that is real and present but easily forgotten under māyā’s conditions; divya-upasthiti is deliberately not brahman (impersonal Absolute), not ātman (individual spirit-nature), but the presence of the divine — in Wayist theology specifically the presence of the divine family (Amitābha, Pāṇḍarajñānī, Avalokiteśvara, Prajñāpāramitā) and the practitioner’s own Tara (assigned-soul-companion); the mantra reconnects the practitioner to these specific presences, not to an abstract absolute
• महामार्गानुकूलाय संस्कर्तुम् (mahāmārgānukūlāya saṃskartum) — “to condition/refine [the mind] toward congruence with theWAY” — mahāmārga-anukūla (congruent-with-theWAY, in-accord-with-theWAY) + saṃskartum (infinitive of saṃ-kṛ, to make-well, to refine, to condition — the same root as saṃskāra); the mind-conditioning function of the mantra is named with saṃskṛ, which carries the full weight of the Indian understanding of saṃskāra — the impressions that shape the mind’s default orientations; the mantra re-patterns those impressions toward mahāmārgānukūlatā (WAY-congruence); this is conditioning through meaning-engagement, not through vibrational imprinting

Verse 3 — The Counter-Japa Position:

• अमनस्कतया न जपन्ति (amanaskatayā na japanti) — “they do not recite mindlessly” — a-manas-ka (mind-absent, without-mind-engagement, mindless — a privative + manas mind + ka adjectival suffix) + tayā (instrumental of abstract) = “in the manner of being mind-absent”; japanti (they recite, they repeat — from jap, the specific verb for mantra-repetition in the Indian tradition); the verse uses jap deliberately — it is the exact word for the Tantric and Vedic practice being counter-positioned; amanaskatayā na japanti does not say “Wayists do not practice japa” but “Wayists do not practice japa in the mindless manner”; the verb is retained, the manner of use is corrected; this is precise — the Wayist tradition has its own mantra-recitation practice, it simply insists that recitation without engagement of manas and jīva is not the Wayist form of it
• मनो जीवश्च सक्रियतया संनद्धौ भवेताम् (mano jīvaśca sakriyatayā saṃnaddhau bhavetām) — “both mind and soul must be actively engaged” — manaḥ (mind — body-domain mind, manas) + jīvaḥ (soul) + sakriyatayā (actively, with-activity, from sa-kriya having-action) + saṃnaddhau (dual perfect passive participle of saṃ-nah, to bind together, to harness, to make-ready — in dual case because it refers to both mind and soul) + bhavetām (optative dual of bhū, let-them-be, should-be); the dual saṃnaddhau bhavetām (let the two be harnessed) grammatically insists on BOTH domains — manas (body-domain mind-apparatus) AND jīva (soul-entity); this is the three-domain anthropology deployed in the mantra-recitation instruction: the body’s mind-apparatus must be engaged (not drifting) and the soul must be actively participating (not passive recipient of vibrational effects)

Verse 4 — Completing the Triad’s Denial:

• अलौकिक-शक्तियुक्ता न दृश्यन्ते (alaukika-śaktiyuktā na dṛśyante) — “not understood to possess supernatural powers” — the same alaukika-śakti denial deployed in Chapter 105 verse 3, now applied to mantras; dṛśyante (passive — they are seen/understood as) makes the denial epistemological: it is not merely that mantras happen not to have supernatural powers, but that the Wayist does not see them / does not understand them as having such powers; the denial is in the practitioner’s framework of understanding, which shapes how they use the mantra; a practitioner who understands the mantra as a dhāraṇā-sādhana uses it differently from one who understands it as śabda-brahman — the usage itself is different
• पुनः-नियोजन-रूपान्तरणयोः साधनानि (punaḥ-niyojana-rūpāntaraṇayoḥ sādhanāni) — “instruments for reprogramming and transformation” — punaḥ-niyojana (re-directing, re-deploying, re-assigning — punaḥ again + niyojana directing/assigning, from ni-yuj to yoke/deploy) names the reprogramming function: the mantra repeatedly re-orients the practitioner’s attention and habitual mind-patterns; rūpāntaraṇa (transformation, form-change — from rūpa form + antara inner/between + ṇa verbal noun, literally changing-of-form) is the same term used for ego-transformation in Chapter 98 verse 2 (rūpāntaritavyo jīva-balam) — the mantra participates in the same transformation-work as the whole spiritual path, operating specifically through manas-reconditioning

Verse 5 — Māyā Protocol and Full Reality:

• माया-जनित-भ्रान्तिषु (māyā-janita-bhrāntiṣu) — “amidst the illusions arising from Māyā” — the māyā protocol from the corpus (established at Chapter 92, verse 5): māyā is used only when the English source invokes it, and its scope is immediately bounded; here māyā is specified as the source (janita — generated-by, born-from) of the bhrānti (errors of subjective perception); māyā itself is not allowed to float free as a general term for illusion — it is the generator of specific bhrāntis, and its scope is the Earth-existence conditions in which the embodied soul (deha-dhāriṇaṃ jīvam) operates; the full cosmology is present in the phrase: Māyā’s conditions → specific perceptual bhrāntis → the embodied soul’s difficulty in maintaining focus on what is Real
• पूर्ण-यथार्थतायां (pūrṇa-yathārthatāyāṃ) — “upon full Reality” — the pūrṇa-yathārthatā (full-reality, complete-actuality) established in the corpus at Chapter 87 verse 11 as the counter-term to Vedantic two-truths (pāramārthika-satya / vyāvahārika-satya); in the Wayist framework there is not a higher truth and a conventional truth — there is reality as it fully is, and there are bhrāntis (misperceptions) that distort it; the mantra helps the practitioner maintain orientation toward pūrṇa-yathārthatā — the complete picture that includes body, soul, spirit, the divine family, Sukhāvatī, the multiple realms, the Butterfly Path — rather than the truncated māyā-conditioned view that sees only material surface

Verse 6 — The Lord’s Mantra in Wayist Reading:

• प्रभोः मन्त्रः “ओं मणि पद्मे हूं” (prabhoḥ mantraḥ “Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ”) — “The Lord’s mantra: Oṃ Maṇi Padme Hūṃ” — prabhū (lord, one of great power, master — used in Wayist tradition for Avalokiteśvara, the Prince of the divine family, the intercessor-figure who sends the Taras to guide embodied souls on the Butterfly Path); the mantra is rendered in its received Sanskrit form, as it exists in the living Wayist mantra tradition; in Tibetan Buddhist usage this mantra is Avalokiteśvara’s seed-mantra, containing six syllables corresponding to the six realms of existence and carrying the compassion of the bodhisattva; in the Wayist reading the meaning “Behold the Jewel in the lotus” points specifically to the teaching that the soul (maṇi — jewel, precious one) exists within the conditions of māyā-existence (padma — the lotus growing in muddy water) and is guided toward the light by the Lord’s compassionate presence
• पद्म-संकेतस्य महामार्गे ध्यानम् (padma-saṅketasya mahāmārge dhyānam) — “a meditation on the symbolism of the lotus in theWAY” — padma-saṅketa (the lotus’s symbolic-indication, what the lotus points-to-by-convention in Wayist teaching); the saṅketa vocabulary from Chapter 104 appears here: the lotus is a saṅketa — a conventional symbol whose pointing-function is established in Wayist teaching — and Om Mani Padme Hum is a dhyāna (meditative contemplation) of what that saṅketa indicates; the mantra works not through its sound-vibration but through the contemplative attention it focuses on the lotus-teaching; a practitioner who understands what the lotus symbolizes in Wayist theology — soul in the conditions of embodied existence, growing toward the light, supported by the Lord’s compassionate guidance — will engage with the mantra differently from one who merely repeats it as sound

Verse 7 — Manana Over Ammanaska-Japa:

• मन्त्रस्य अर्थस्य मननम् (mantrasya arthasya mananam) — “contemplation of the mantra’s meaning” — artha (meaning, purpose, what-is-intended) + manana (reflective pondering); the compound of artha and manana names the Wayist mantra-practice precisely: it is meaning-contemplation, the active reflective engagement with what the mantra points to; manana appears in all three chapters of the sacred-instruments triad (Chapter 104 verse 2, Chapter 105 verse 10, here) as the practitioner’s essential mode of engagement with any sacred instrument — the maṇḍala, the yantra, and the mantra are all manana-instruments
• अमनस्क-जपाद् अधिक-हितकरम् (amanaska-japād adhika-hitakaram) — “more beneficial than mindless recitation” — amanaska-japa (mindless-recitation, japa-without-mind — a-manas-ka mindless + japa mantra-repetition) + ablative japāt (than recitation) + adhika-hitakara (more-beneficial, of-greater-benefit); the comparative construction is measured: more beneficial, not instead of, not to the exclusion of; recitation has its place in the Wayist tradition — the mantra corpus the project has developed (Om Mani Padme Hum variations, gate gate Dharani, Om Yesu Dharani, Amitābha Dharani) all involve repeated sound; the chapter does not eliminate repetition but insists that meaning-engaged repetition is more beneficial than sound-only repetition; the manana and the japa are not opponents but the manana governs what the japa is for

Verse 8 and 9 — The Gate Gate Mantra and Three-Domain Reading:

• “गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा” (gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā) — the closing mantra of the Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya (Heart Sutra), here rendered in its received Sanskrit form; in Madhyamaka Buddhist usage this mantra summarizes the teaching of śūnyatā (emptiness): gate (gone, past participle of gam) × 2, pāragate (gone-to-the-other-shore), pārasaṃgate (gone-thoroughly-to-the-other-shore), bodhi (awakening/enlightenment), svāhā (auspicious affirmation, similar to amen); the Madhyamaka reading understands “going beyond” as the progressive realization of emptiness through the bodhisattva’s ten stages (bhūmis)
• काय-मानस-जीव-परिमितीः अतिक्रामन् (kāya-mānasa-jīva-parimitīḥ atikrāman) — “transcending the limitations of body, mind, and soul” — kāya (body) + mānasa (mind, the mental apparatus) + jīva (soul) + parimitīḥ (plural — limitations, finite boundaries, from pari-mā to measure-around) + atikrāman (present active participle — transcending, going-beyond, from ati-kram); the Wayist reading of the gate gate mantra gives it a three-domain structure corresponding directly to the corpus’s body-soul-spirit anthropology: the “going beyond” is sequential transcendence of the three levels of limitation — first kāya (bodily limitations: birth, aging, death, physical suffering), then mānasa (mind-limitations: the body-mind’s perceptual conditioning under māyā), then jīva (soul-limitations: the mortal soul’s current stage of development on the Butterfly Path); bodhi in the Wayist reading is the attainment of ātma-janma (spirit-birth, the soul’s graduation to immortal spiritual being) — not the Madhyamaka śūnyatā-realization, not the Vedantic merger with Brahman, but the Butterfly Path’s culmination: the caterpillar’s transformation into the butterfly, the soul’s completion of its karma-pāṭhyakrama and birth as spirit-being
• The atikrāman (transcending) here continues the atikrāman + antarbhāvayan construction first deployed at Chapter 95 — the Wayist “transcend-and-include” principle; the gate gate mantra is read as describing transcendence of each level’s limitations while the practitioner’s development includes all three domains in its maturation; one does not escape the body or deny the soul but transcends the parimitī (finite-limitation) that each domain imposes at its current stage of development

The Three-Chapter Triad — Completion:

Chapter 106 completes the sacred-instruments triad that Chapters 104 and 105 opened. The triad has maintained four consistent positions across all three chapters:

First — all three instruments (maṇḍala, yantra, mantra) are classified as dhyāna-sādhanāni (meditative instruments), not as autonomous power-conveyors.

Second — none possesses alaukika-śakti (supernatural power); efficacy resides in the practitioner’s engaged attention, not in the object or sound.

Third — the practitioner’s manana (reflective contemplation of meaning) is the practice that makes any of the three instruments work; the saṅketa (symbolic indication) of each instrument requires the practitioner’s understanding of what it points to in order to function.

Fourth — all three are culturally adaptable; no single form of maṇḍala, yantra, or mantra is the authoritative one; the Wayist tradition worldwide has and will continue to develop locally appropriate instruments within the shared framework.

In Tantric tradition these three — yantra, mantra, maṇḍala — are precisely the three pillars of Tantric sādhana, forming a unified system in which the mantra IS the deity as sound, the yantra IS the deity as geometric body, and the maṇḍala IS the deity’s sacred palace: a complete ontological apparatus in which the divine is present in the instruments. The Wayist triad inhabits the same terminology and honours the same traditional forms while replacing their ontological claims with an epistemological and psychological account — the instruments are pointing-devices, the reality they point to is elsewhere (in the teaching, in the practitioner’s developing understanding, in theWAY itself), and the practitioner’s own contemplative engagement is the engine of transformation.

Colophon: This translation represents the collaborative restoration work of the Wayist collective Salvar Dàosenglu, based on the ancient mahāmārga teaching tradition, rendered into contemporary English and restored to classical Sanskrit for posterity.