The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 145
In general, the translation into English of such an injunctive mantra
used in Tibetan ritual is quite sufficient to show how it is being used,
though its stereotyped formulation in sonorous Sanskrit is psychologically
more effective. Sometimes, of course, the injunction is
not quite clear on the surface, as in the following mantra:
OM NAMO BHAGAVATE PUSPA-KETU RAJAYA TATHA-
GATAYA ARHATE SAMYAKSAMBUDDHAYA TADYATHA
PUSPE PUSPE MAHAPUSPE PUSPODBHAVE PUSPA-SAM-
BHAVE PUSPAVAKlRNE SVAHX !
"OM Homage to the Blessed One, King of the Flowery Banner,
Tathagata, Worthy One, fully enlightened! That is: Flowers,
flowers, great flowers! Growing of flowers, birth of flowers,
strewing of flowers SVAHA !"
By the power of this mantra, the texts tell us, "as many flowers as
there may be, their offering counts for ten million times as many";
the implied injunction is thus made explicit.
But even the untranslatable portions of the mantras—what are
here called mantra particles—fill well-defined ritual slots and thus
function morphemically in the magical utterance: OM AH HUM
represent body, speech, and mind, and are used to empower visualized
objects and deities; PHAT is used as an element of power in
fierce mantras; TRI is used to embody or manifest something
immaterial into a material object, such as an effigy or torma; JAH
is used to summon, and MUH to dismiss.
Some of these mantra particles serve as seeds for the contemplative
generation of an object or deity: BHRUM is the seed visualized
in the creation of a divine mansion or any dwelling for the god;
the four semivowels YAM RAM LAM VAM are the seeds of wind,
fire, earth, and water; OM HUM TRAM HRlH AH collectively
represent the five families of Buddha. Sometimes the derivation of
these seeds is relatively transparent: PAM is the seed that is visualized
as transforming into a lotus (a PAdma), just as TAM is the
seed of TAra or GAM of GAnapati.
One further functional category of mantra must be distinguished
from both injunction and particle: these are stereotyped doctrinal
or other formulas (even hymns of praise, or the Sanskrit alphabet)
used for particular purposes in the ritual and sometimes totally
disassociated from their meaning. Included are Tara's basic mantra,
her praises used for protection, the vowels and consonants recited