Hamsa Mantra

The Hamsa mantra is said to be the ajapa-gayatri of breath and to be coined together by the sound of incoming and outgoing breath. Some say it is to be recited as "so'ham", others as "hamsa", the meaning becoming either "That I am" or "I am That".

Shri Vamadev Shastri say that the so'ham mantra is the energizing and natural sound of breath, and that the hamsa mantra is the pacifying sound of reversed breath.

Shyam Sundar Goswami and others says that the hamsa mantra is to be preferred, and uttered "hung-sauh".

This latter argument is very interesting when one knows that the central mantras of Trika Shaivism and the Kashmiri Kaulas are "aham" and "sauh". It can seem that the hamsa mantra ties together these two central mantras into one. That is if you consider how the mantra is sounding and not as it is written.

We are told that the "ham" part of the hamsa mantra is aham (meaning "I") and representing Lord Shiva, and "sa" (or "sauh") representing Lady Shakti.

Another interesting interpretation, turning everything upside down, is that "ha" is also considered to be representing the manifested universe and "sa" to be representing Shiva.

Anyway, if one is to be diving deep into the mysteries of this mantra one will certainly have some realizations of the oposite aspects of nature and existence.

(From Visarganath's notebooks 2006)