Rama Mantra

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 name mantra, and the form most devotees chant daily. No initiation is required — it is open to anyone, including a parent chanting for a child.

More Rama mantras

Rama Gayatri Mantra

The verse in the Gayatri metre, asking for understanding as well as presence.

Source: Rama Gayatri as printed in Gayatri collections. Variant (in some printings): दाशरथाय.

Rama Raksha Stotra Verse (Ramaya Ramabhadraya)

The verse of salutation, recited before or after japa.

Source: Rama Raksha Stotra of Budha Kaushika, verse 27.

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