ॐ शरवणभवाय नमः

Word by Word

Sa-Ra-Va-Na-Bha-Va, the Six Syllables and the Six Faces

Kartikeya is depicted with six faces (Ṣaṇmukha) and is held to have been born from six sparks of Shiva's tejas, nurtured by the six Krittika mothers (the Pleiades), from whom he takes the name Kārttikeya. The six syllables of the core Shadakshari mantra, Sa-Ra-Va-Na-Bha-Va, correspond directly to these six faces and the six sparks. To chant the mantra is to invoke all six faces of the god simultaneously: the face that looks forward into battle, the face that turns back in mercy, the faces that watch the four directions, and the central face that gazes inward into one's own self. The six-syllable structure is what gives the mantra its name, Ṣaḍakṣarī, of six syllables, and is the reason the mantra is uniquely associated with the number six throughout Skanda's iconography and worship.

How to Chant

About This Mantra

If one travels through Tamil Nadu, the first thing that becomes clear is that Murugan is not a minor deity in the south as he is sometimes treated in the north. He is the chief deity. From the great temple at Palani in the western Tamil hills to the seaside shrine at Tiruchendur, from the towering Murugan at Swamimalai near Kumbakonam to the hill temple at Palamudircholai near Madurai, from Tiruparankundram in Madurai to Pazhamudircholai, the six Aru Padai Veedu, the six battlefield-camps of Murugan, are among the most visited pilgrimage sites in all of India.

The Tamil Sangam-era poetry from the first to third centuries of the common era already names Murugan as Tamil land's god, older even than the Sanskrit Kartikeya tradition in some respects. The mantra Oṃ Śaravaṇabhavāya Namaḥ is the heart of this entire tradition. The six core syllables, Sa-Ra-Va-Na-Bha-Va, are the structural anchor of the mantra.

They correspond to the six faces of Kartikeya (Ṣaṇmukha, six-faced), to the six sparks of Shiva's tejas from which Kartikeya was born, and to the six Krittika mothers (the Pleiades constellation) who nurtured the six sparks in the lake of reeds and from whom he took the name Kārttikeya. The number six is woven into every aspect of his worship, the six-day Skanda Sashthi vrat, the six Aru Padai Veedu temples in Tamil Nadu, the six-mukhi rudraksha that is his bead. The story of his birth is among the most striking in the Hindu canon.

The demon Tarakasura had received a boon that he could be killed only by a son of Shiva, and Shiva at that time had withdrawn into the Himalayas in deep meditation after the death of Sati, with no inclination to take a consort. Parvati's many years of tapasya, the help of Kama whose ashes fell when Shiva opened his third eye, and finally the union of Shiva and Parvati produced the six sparks that the Krittikas nurtured. The Mahabharata's Aranyaka Parva and Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava ('The Birth of the Kumara') tell the story in different idioms.

Kartikeya was born already a warrior, already a commander. He led the divine armies, met Tarakasura in battle, and slew the demon, restoring the cosmic order. The mantra invokes that warrior energy.

The deity it addresses is Śaravaṇabhava, the one born in the reed forest. To chant the mantra is to call on the energy that confronts inner demons just as Kartikeya confronted Tarakasura. The classical reading identifies six inner asuras that parallel his six faces and the six syllables, anger, lust, greed, delusion, pride, and envy.

To chant Sa-Ra-Va-Na-Bha-Va is, in this reading, to invoke the warrior who slays these six within. Adi Shankaracharya, the 8th-century philosopher who composed hymns to nearly every major deity, gave Murugan one of his most beautiful, the Subramanya Bhujangam, written in the difficult bhujanga meter that imitates the movement of a serpent. The Tamil saint Arunagirinathar in the 15th century composed the Kandar Anubhuti and the vast Thiruppugazh corpus, thousands of Tamil hymns to Murugan, that remain at the centre of Tamil Murugan bhakti to this day.

The lived practice has its own deep texture. Skanda Sashthi, the six-day vrat falling on the bright fortnight of Aippasi month (October–November), is the most important annual observance. Devotees fast strictly through the six days, chanting this mantra from morning until the temple aarti at night.

On the sixth day, Sashthi, the temple festivals in Tamil Nadu reach extraordinary intensity, particularly at Tiruchendur where the Soorasamharam (the slaying of the demon Soorapadman) is enacted. Thai Pusam, falling on the full moon of Tamil month Thai (January–February), commemorates Murugan receiving the vel (lance) from Parvati. The Krittika nakshatra each month, when the moon enters the Pleiades, is observed as a Kartikeya day.

Vaikasi Visakam in May–June is his birth-star celebration. For a personal year-round practice, the rhythm is simple. A 6-mukhi rudraksha mala.

One round of one hundred and eight in the morning, particularly on Tuesdays and on Krittika nakshatra days. Vibhuti applied to the forehead. The Vel as a focal symbol.

The mantra carries what Murugan himself embodies, the warrior energy that is also forever young, the clarity that confronts inner demons without being scarred by them, and the steady commitment to the battle that one's own life requires.

This Mantra in Everyday India

In any Tamil household, on the morning of Skanda Sashthi, this mantra is being chanted. A family wakes at four in the morning to begin the fast. A grandmother lights the diya before the family Murugan image. A father reads the Soorasamharam narrative aloud while the children listen. On the sixth day the entire family travels to one of the Aru Padai Veedu temples, Palani is the most popular for the Soorasamharam darshan. The temple festivals at Tiruchendur, Palani, and Swamimalai during Skanda Sashthi draw lakhs of pilgrims. On Thai Pusam in January-February, the devotees of Palani perform the famous kavadi processions, carrying decorated arched yokes on their shoulders for kilometres, in fulfillment of vows. For Tamil professionals across India and the world the mantra carries home, Murugan temples in Singapore (the great Sri Thandayuthapani temple), in Penang (Batu Caves Thaipusam in Malaysia is one of the largest Hindu festivals on earth), in Mauritius, in Sri Lanka, and in every city of the Tamil diaspora carry the same mantra and the same observances. In Karnataka and Andhra the same deity is worshipped under the name Subramanya, with the famous Kukke Subramanya temple in coastal Karnataka drawing pilgrims for Sarpa Samskara rites particularly when astrological afflictions of the snakes (Sarpa Dosha or Kala Sarpa Dosha) need to be remedied. The mantra travels with Tamil migration and Tamil identity, carrying the warrior-clarity that Murugan embodies into the global Tamil diaspora.

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