Shabdabrahman (“Brahman-as-sound”) - The concept that the
Supreme Reality (Brahman) existing in its most delicate form, not as matter but
as sound, is referred to as this word.
This concept is especially prevalent in tantra, a hidden,
ritual-based system of religious practice, and helps to explain the tantric
emphasis on mantra, or holy sound, as the primary way of accessing this
reality.
The primary mantra (mula mantra) of one's particular deity,
in this understanding, would be the clearest articulation of shabdabrahman,
with other mantras conceived as derivative forms of that primary mantra; these
latter mantras were the source for everyday speech and the mundane sounds of
ordinary experience.
