What is the difference between Mantra and Śloka?

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What is the difference between Mantra and Śloka?

Ślokas are also similar to mantras which makes the situation confusing for all those not aware of Hindu rituals and traditions. Mantra is a voice or a small or long verse that is to recite peculiarly, to pacify the deity, or to reach inner harmony and peace. Mantras appear from ancient scriptures of Hindus known as Vedas and Āgama. They are in Sanskrit language and translation or mispronunciations as their spiritual consequence gone or not attained by the person who recites them. Chanting or mantra ‘Japa’ is one of the primary forms of doing ‘Puja’ or worship in Hinduism. Repetition of a mantra in fixed numbers is considered to be auspicious for the worshipper, and different people recommended 21, 51, or 108 repetitions of a mantra to obtain intended results or benefits. (Lochtefeld 2002)

OM 108 Times Mantra for Yoga and Meditation: https://youtu.be/ijfLsKg8jFY

Credits information for the only education to Spiritual India (Youtube)

Śloka is the word that comes from a Sanskrit root that means a song. The origin of Ślokas credited to ancient poet Vālmīki who is credited to be the author of the Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa. Ślokas are not as ancient as mantras, and they come from secondary scriptures such as Viṣṇu Purāṇa by Adi Shankaracharya. A Śloka has to be composed in a specific meter (छन्द-Chanda: Sanskrit prosody), having a specific number of lines with the specific number of words per line, each word could be a mantra. (Macdonell 1927)

Conclusion

Mantras are a sound, a small text, or an extended composition, whereas Ślokas are versed merely. The tiniest mantra is OM while there are very long mantras such as ‘Gayatri’ mantra and ‘Mahamritunjaya’ mantra.

Mantras are the Sanskrit originating from ancient Hindu scriptures such as Vedas, whereas Ślokas came later in the form of verses and can be in languages other than Sanskrit.

Chanting of both mantras and Ślokas bring inner calm and peace, though Śloka chanting requires an understanding of their meaning while even those not knowing Sanskrit can have intended benefits through mantra chanting. Finally, both mantras and Ślokas used for prayers and meditation.

What is the Shaloka in Sanskit?

Śloka (श्लोक) is ‘song’, from the root śru, ‘hear’ which is poetic Sanskrit. It consists of four pādas or four quarter-verses, of eight syllables each, or two half-verses of 16 syllables each. The meter relates to the Vedic anuṣṭubh meter, but with stricter rules. (Macdonell 1927)

The Śloka is the verse-form mainly used in the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Purāṇa, Smṛtis, and scientific treatizes of Hinduism such as Suśruta-saṃhitā and caraka-saṃhitā. One of the Vedic metres is called Anuṣṭubh. It has 32 syllables with particular accents. It is the literary ancestor of the Śloka which also has 32 syllables but no particular rhyme or accent. (Müller 1860)

A reason for the name Śloka is that Mahaṛṣi Vālmīki who wrote the Rāmāyaṇa once observed a pair of birds (Müller 1860) harmonizing to each other in a tree. A hunter obtained and shot the male. On visual the sorrow (shoka) of the widowed bird, he reminded of the sorrow Sitā felt on being separated from Śri Rama and began composing the Rāmāyaṇa in Ślokas, for this first poet called the Adikavi.

In a broader sense, a Śloka, according to Monier-Williams, can be “any verse or stanza; a proverb, saying”. Śloka removes ‘Shoka’ (sorrow) by giving the person an understanding or knowledge, of the ‘Loka’ (universe). Ślokas also explain the working principles of the Cosmos. (Monier-Williams 1923) The principal ancient metres in Sanskrit prosody (Elizarenkova 1995)

The major ancient metres in Sanskrit prosody (Elizarenkova 1995)

Each sixteen-syllable hemistich (half a poetic line of verse), composed of two eight syllable (पादस्-pādas: lines), can take either a (पथ्या-pathyā: normal) form or one of several (विपुला-vipulā: extended”) forms.

chandas (Meter)

pāda (Lines)

akṣara (Syllables)

Gāyatrī

3

8, 8, 8

uṣṇik

3

8, 8, 12

anuṣṭubh

4

8, 8, 8, 8

bṛhatī

4

9, 9, 9, 9

Pañkti

4

10, 10, 10, 10

triṣṭubh

4

11, 11, 11, 11

Jagatī

4

12, 12, 12, 12

Several of these meters are found with other variations. For example, bṛhatī could also be 8, 8, 8, 12 or 8, 8, 12, 8; and pañkti could also be 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

The example below shows the form of the Śloka in the bhagavad gītā: When a Śloka is recited, performers sometimes leave a pause after each pāda, at other times only after the second pāda. 


Credits the photo to https://images.app.goo.gl/nFYmY35jBc3JveT7A


Location: India

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