Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā

If you have a diacritic font installed this mantra is transliterated like this: Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā. Without diacritics, it’s Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

This mantra represents a class of Mahayana scriptures known as the Prajñaparamita (perfection of Wisdom) Sutras. These include such famous teachings as the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra. These texts were the subject of worship in Mahayana Buddhism, in much the same way that devotional figures were.

Prajñaparamita eventually became personified as a goddess, but this is not her mantra. This one is associated with the Perfection of Wisdom texts themselves.

The words here do have a literal meaning:

“Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond, Enlightenment, hail!”

Incidentally, the Diamond Sutra (shown above) is the world’s earliest complete survival of a dated printed book, made in AD 868.

Recordings of the Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha mantra

Click below to listen to an audio recording of the mantra being chanted by Bodhipaksa:

How to pronounce the “Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā” mantra:

Here’s a pronunciation guide to the mantra.

  • a is short, pronounced as u in cut
  • e is pronounced like the ey in English hey
  • ā is long, like the a in father
  • ṃ in parasaṃgate is pronounced like ng in long
  • o is pronounced like o in ore
  • i (in normal speech) is pronounced like i in mill, but in chanted speech it is often pronounced like ee in bee when it comes at the end of a word
  • v in “svāhā” is roughly pronounced like an English w

The Heart Sutra

The Prajñaparamita Mantra famously concludes the shorter version of the Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamita Hridaya).

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
when pursuing the deep prajñaparamita,
recognized the five skandhas as completely empty
and passed beyond all vexations and distress.

Shariputra, appearances are not different from emptiness,
emptiness is not different to appearances.
Appearances are emptiness,
emptiness is an appearance.

Impressions, thoughts, associations
and knowing too, are also like this.
Shariputra, all dharmas are empty of appearances,
are not created, are not extinguished,
are not defiled, are not pure;
do not increase, do not decrease.

For this reason, amidst emptiness there are no appearances,
nor are there any impressions, thoughts, associations and knowing,
There is no eye, ear, nose, tongue, touch, ideas.
There are no colors, sounds, smells,
tastes and touch dharmas.
There is no eye-element up to no imagining nor knowledge element.
Neither is any non-understanding,
nor is there any end to non-understanding up to no old-age and death.
Neither is there any end to old-age and death.
There is no suffering, cause, extinction or path.
There is no knowledge nor anything to find.

Because there isn’t anything to find,
the bodhisattva is free because of relying upon prajñaparamita:
a heart without any obstruction.

Because there are no obstructions, there is no fear.
Abandoning, overturning dreams and concepts,
finally reaches nirvana.

Because all the Buddhas of the three times have relied upon prajñaparamita, they have found anuttarasamyaksambodhi.

For this reason, know prajñaparamita is the great spiritual mantra.
The great understanding mantra.
The supreme mantra.
The unequaled mantra, able to cut through all vexation
because in reality there is no emptiness.

Speak the prajñaparamita mantra, speak the mantra’s words:

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā.

(Chinese to English translation, by Willam J. Giddings, 2003)

View Comments

  • Say Bodhipaksa...The first time this time around when I picked up The Perfection of Wisdom was back in undergraduate school about 1971. It was the yellow Edward Conze volumne. At first glance it just went over my head. So I looked into it enough to find The Heart Sutra and read that one. Years later I read The Heart Sutra many times and also got through The Diamond Sutra too. A few years ago now long in the tooth I finally got into reading many sutras and read Conze's work on The Perfection of
    Wisdom in 6000 Lines and in 700 Lines and The Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 20,000 Lines. Yes, the feeling that all I wanted to hear about, read, and even make copies of was The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. What a fulfilling time!!! Indeed his Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in 700 Lines I've re-read maybe a dozen times. What with all of Manjusri's emphasis on Unthinkability the sutra finishes up with The Tathagata explaining a concentration which focuses on Stillness...so again can I please wrestle out of you your deep understanding about The Akshobya Mantra?

    • I'm afraid not, but I'd be happy to email you the file as long as it's just for personal use.

  • hello!
    Even though i have heard this mantra many times i have never heard such a beautiful version, it transmits peace, calmness.
    Have you already created a material i can buy that includes this mantra in the version you have in your page? please let me know.
    Thanks
    Diana

  • Hi

    This mantra helped me to get rid of arrhythmia. Also insomnia was gone. Many thanks for this wonderful site!!!

  • Hi could you please email me the MP3 Prajnaparamita Mantra its for personal use.
    Many thanks for this wonderful site.

  • This translation is eternally beautiful - a perfect poetic form. There are, however other translations. One of them belongs to Ven. Dharma Master Lok To. The second passage is presented as follows:
    "O, Sariputra, form does not differ from voidness, and voidness does not differ from form. Form is voidness and the void is form; the same is true for feeling, conception, volition and consciousness."
    I have a feeling that there are somewhat different aspects in both translations but cannot explain for myself. Could You please kindly clarify what translation or interpretation is considered as "canonical" and closest to the tibetian original?
    Best regards
    Dmitriy

    • Hi, Dmitry.

      Both translations are actually fine. Lok To has translated "rupa" as form, which is accurate, but then so is Giddings' "appearances" since rupa refers to the appearance, or form, of physical objects. Lok To translates shunyata as voidness, which is also fine, although I prefer Giddings' "empty," since "voidness" seems to reify what is in fact an absence, suggesting that there is some "thing" called voidness from which form appears. "Empty" makes it clear that forms/appearances are "empty" of self-nature -- that is they don't exist in themselves, but arise in dependence upon other things and are impermanent. But Lok To's translation, while potentially misleading, is more literal, since shunyata is an abstract noun derived from the adjective "shunya," meaning "empty" -- hence "empty-ness."

      There are no translations that can be accepted in any absolute sense as being "the best." It comes down to individual (but hopefully informed) preference. I hope this helps.

  • Hi Bodhipaksa,

    Thank You for your concise explanation. You showed a bridge between "Form" and "appearances" as "forms". This is just wonderful and understanding for me now. So do I prefer "Empty" - "Emptiness" verbal derivation. Also Giddings makes "empty" a verb. For me "Form" is way too philosophical, too explanatory. Giddings managed to "show" by the very form of his translation as opposite to "say" explicitely - oh, when I try to explain myself I feel that meanings are lost.

    Best regards

    Dmitriy

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