Rama Mantra
श्री राम जय राम जय जय रामIn Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.
Who Rama is
Rama is the seventh avatar of Vishnu, born as the eldest son of King Dasharatha of Ayodhya and queen Kausalya. He is the figure whom tradition names Maryada Purushottama, the supreme person of bounds and right conduct, whose life as told in Valmiki’s Ramayana supplies the measure of dharma in exile, in friendship, in war and in kingship. Unlike other avatars he lives an entire human lifespan under the constraints of a royal house, a forest hermitage and a final reign, never shedding the human frame until the waters of the Sarayu receive him. The Taraka mantra associated with his name is held in Smarta and Vaishnava lineages to be the name that carries the soul across the ocean of existence at the hour of departure. Temples from Ayodhya to the far south preserve his form with bow and arrow, Sita to his left, Lakshmana and Hanuman in attendance.
The Name That Ferries Across
Valmiki’s Ramayana narrates that Rama, rightful heir to the Kosala throne, accepted fourteen years of forest exile so that his father’s word to Kaikeyi might stand unbroken. Accompanied by Sita and Lakshmana he moved through Dandaka, formed alliances with the vanaras, and after Sita’s abduction by Ravana crossed to Lanka upon the bridge of stones. The war that followed ended with Ravana’s fall beneath Rama’s Brahmastra. Yet the episode that seals his identity as the Taraka is less the battle than the quiet insistence on dharma at every turn: the refusal to seize the throne by force, the protection of the sages, the grief and recovery of Sita, and the final departure into the river. Later tradition, recorded in the Padma Purana and in the Adhyatma Ramayana, holds that the utterance of his name at the threshold of death serves as the ferry across samsara, which is why the mantra itself is called Taraka.
The mantra, in six scripts
The seed mantra, and the form most devotees chant daily. No initiation is required — it is open to anyone, including a parent chanting for a child.
- श्री
- śrī — glorious
- राम
- rāma — Rama
- जय
- jaya — victory
- राम
- rāma — Rama
- जय
- jaya — victory
- जय
- jaya — victory
- राम
- rāma — Rama
The syllable people get wrong
The palatal ś of śrī is the snare particular to this mantra. Speakers habitually replace it with a dental s, yielding “sri rama” and losing the hushed, blade-like quality of the Sanskrit sibilant that begins the Taraka formula. The error flattens the opening into an ordinary consonant and strips the name of the precise articulation tradition requires.
When Rama is chanted
Weekday. Thursday
Festival. Rama Navami
Questions
Have your chart read before you decide
Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.
- Over 30 years in the Guru–Sishya Parampara, from the age of five
- He reads every chart himself — 60 minutes, one to one, never delegated
- Charts are read only between sunrise and sunset, following tradition
Related
Chanting is yours to do. Some things are performed for you.
Where a matter carries real weight — an examination that decides a course, a performance, a child whose studies have stalled — devotees sponsor the homa alongside their own practice. Performed for you and any family members you name, at our Yagna Ashram, in your name and gotra, on a muhurta calculated from your chart, and telecast live so you can watch it done for you.