Green Tara mantra
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Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā / Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha
Tara (whose name means "star" or "she who ferries across") is a Bodhisattva of compassion who manifests in female form. In Tibetan, Tara is known as "Dölma" (Sgrol-ma), or "She Who Saves." In particular she represents compassion in action, since she’s in the process of stepping from her lotus throne in order to help sentient beings.
Tara’s mantra is a loving play on her name. According to Sangharakshita, a traditional explanation of the mantra is that the variations of her name represent three progressive stages of salvation.
1. Tāre represents salvation from mundane dangers and suffering. Tara is seem as a savioress who can give aid from material threats such as floods, crime, wild animals, and traffic accidents.
2. Tuttāre represents deliverance into the spiritual path conceived in terms of individual salvation. In traditional terms, this is the path of the Arhant, which leads to individual liberation from suffering. This is seen in Mahayana Buddhism as a kind of enlightenment in which compassion does not figure strongly.
3. Lastly, ture represents the culmination of the spiritual path in terms of deliverance into the altruistic path of universal salvation - the Bodhisattva path. In the Bodhisattva path we aspire for personal enlightenment, but we also connect compassionately with the sufferings of others, and strive to liberate them at the same time as we seek enlightenment ourselves.
Svaha, according to Monier Monier-William’s Sanskrit Dictionary, means: "Hail!", "Hail to!" or "May a blessing rest on!" Her mantra can therefore be rendered as something like "OM! Hail to Tara (in her three roles as a savioress)!" although this may one of those occasions when the mantra is best left untranslated.
Click here for the chant in RealAudio.
Or click below to hear an MP3 version:
Pronunciation notes:
- ā is like a in father
- e is ay in lay
- v is pronounced halfway between English v and w. If in doubt, then a w sound will do
- In Tibetan pronunciation “svāhā” becomes “soha.” This is technically incorrect from a Sanskrit point of view, but it also has many centuries of tradition behind it, and in any event few Westerners pronounce Sanskrit correctly either! Still, outside of the Tibetan tradition it’s probably best to revert to the best approximation possible of the Sanskrit, where both a’s are long (as in father), and the v comes close to being an English “w” sound.
Comments
Comment from Surya
Time: August 20, 2007, 3:09 am
I remember my teacher said that a Bodhisattva doesn’t have a sex. It’s not male neither female. So, regarding what you’ve said about “female Bodhisattva” here, I think it’s better to say: a Bodhisattva whose appearance is more in female form
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: August 20, 2007, 11:35 am
Yes, it’s true that these archetypal Bodhisattvas are beyond being classifies as male and female, and it is more accurate to say she’s in a female form. That’s true of the “male” Bodhisattvas as well, who are really just manifesting a male form.
Comment from Cora
Time: December 29, 2007, 1:34 pm
Thanx so much for your prompt reply.
If the the v then sounds like a w, and the a’s sound like father……..??? wouldn’t it sound like swaaaahaaaaa????
Re: Green Tara Mantra ( svaha )
Cora Namaste
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: December 29, 2007, 1:59 pm
Yeah!
PS. And I’ve now posted an MP3 version of the file on this page. As long as you have Flash installed in your browser you should be able to play it OK.
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