Om Jayanti Maṅgalā Kālī

From Citizendium
Revision as of 09:28, 14 April 2023 by Pat Palmer (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

Om Jayanti Maṅgalā Kālī is a mantra that may be chanted as part of a yoga practice and also is used in celebration of some Hindu religious festivals. It is from the the Markandeya Purana's 700 Verses and is the first verse of its "Hymn to Goddess to Remove Impediments".

For mantras, the Hindu religious tradition provides the words and syllables to be chanted and also a recommended intonation pattern. The intonation has been passed down by oral tradition from swami to swami, and in some cases it may also have been recorded in the ancient literature.

This mantra uses a central tone, a lower tone about one musical step down (shown in bold), and a higher tone a half or whole step up (show in capitals). The underlined syllables fall on the beats, and there are four beats per line.

The text of the mantra is:

 Om Jayanti Maṅgalā Kālī
 Bhadrakālī Kapālinī
 Durgā Kṣamā Śivā Dhātrī
 Svāhā Svadhā namo’stu te.

The mantra is a hymn celebrating the power of a human being to remove impediments and conquer evil temptations. It has three parts:

  1. the opening sacred syllable "Om", pronounced AUM.[1]
  2. a list of names of eleven concepts that are addressed in Hinduism; each concept is often personified as a god or goddess
  3. the phrase "namo’stu te" whose meaning is "praise be to your name"

The eleven concepts are:

  • Jayanti - "the victorious"
  • Maṅgalā - ?
  • Kālī - "she who is death" or "she who is black" - time, doomsday, death
  • Bhadrakālī - "the good, fortunate, auspicious" form of Kālī
  • Kapālinī - "the skull bearer" - who has battled and defeated evil enemies
  • Durgā - "the inaccessible" - suggests a secret, hard-to-reach, inner strength
  • Kṣamā - extreme patience, and the capacity to forgive and forget
  • Śivā - "destroyer of darkness" - self control, embracing inner darkness and changing it into light
  • Dhātrī - ?
  • Svāhā - ?
  • Svadhā - ?
No. Name Intonation (Vedic) Meaning
1 Om Jayanti Maṅgalā Kālī om jah-yan-tee maṅ-gah-lah kāh-LEE ?
2 Bhadrakālī Kapālinī bah-drah-kāh-lee kah-PĀH-lee-nee ?
3 Durgā Kṣamā Śivā Dhātrī ? ?
4 Svāhā Svadhā namo’stu te ? ?


Notes

  1. "Om" is the bij, or seed, mantra for the third eye.