Essay name: Diksha (initiation) in Pancharatra
Author:
Shanta Srinivasan
Affiliation: University of Madras / Department of Sanskrit
This English essay studies Diksha in Pancharatra with reference to important texts. Diksha refers to initiation ceremonies into a particular esoteric tradition which is given, for example, by the teacher (Guru) to the student (Shishya). Pancharatra refers to an ancient school of Vaishnavism based on ancient Tantra-like texts called Agamas which were commonly written in Sanskrit verse.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
51 (of 57)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
words, namas and pra峁嘺va(eg Om 帽amo vi峁ａ箛ave). These are recited with respect to the four states, i.e. the transcendental state, deep sleep, dream and waking." Each one among these four parts could be there without the other three. However, all the four together could be effective when the mantra is addressed to God. The first letter of the sentence with anusv膩ra could be the b墨ja mantra of it, if it does not have one. It is indicated that the fourth class and women are eligible to use these mantras. The mantras are divided into three groups vaidika, t膩ntrika and vaidika t膩ntrika. The fourth class and women, who could not have upanayana cannot use the vaidika mantra and require to have a person for using these mantras. The tantrikamantra is formed inserting tantrika syllables in vaidikamantra, e.g hri峁� om. 艣r墨m and others are t膩ntrika syllables. There are t膩ntrika letters which, when used in the end of the mantras, convey the purpose to be served by the mantra, e.g nama岣� sv膩h膩, h奴峁� pha峁� vau峁峁� etc. 1. r奴pa峁� me bhagavamantr膩 vijney膩 m奴rtayo 'mat膩h\ J膩gratsvapnau su峁pti艣 ca turya峁� ceti catu峁ayam|| :LT XXII.22 51
