What Is the Difference Between a Prayer and a Mantra?

What is the difference between a mantra and a prayer?
Are they the same?
No, they are not.

A prayer is just an expression of a wish that you have to divinity.
Oh Lord, please get me good marks in this exam.
The same you can also say,
Oh Lord, bless me with success in this exam.
Oh Lord, make me the topper in today’s exam.

Intention in all these is the same.
You choose the words. Today you may use one combination of words, tomorrow you use another combination.
You will pray in your mother tongue.
These are all prayers. You can pray for health, wealth, peace, whatever your wishes are.

There is no particular format.
You can pray with stotras or shlokas.
What are they? Someone, the author of the stotra or shloka, has expressed a certain wish with a certain combination of words.
The same prayer can be expressed with a different combination also.
If you want to say 'protect me', you can say 'pahi mam', 'avatu mam', 'raksha mam'.
Different poets use different words; they follow principles of kavya shastra when they compose these stotras.
In prayers, the intention or the meaning is what is important.
You do not chant 'daridrya dukkha dahanaya namashivaya' stotra to get success in exam. For that, you chant Dakshinamurthy stotra or Saraswathy stotra.

Mantras are completely different. They do not work on these lines.

Mantra shastra says the power of the universe, the shakti which runs the universe, this power exists in the human body in a seed form at the muladhara chakra, which is called the kundalini shakti.
It is a vibration and is represented as a coiled serpent.
This is for us to visualize. It is essentially a vibration.

We know it is from a vibration called shabda brahma that the universe came into existence.
The universe exists as long as it vibrates.
When the vibration stops, the universe goes.
When the vibration starts, the universe comes into existence.
It is like a movie projector.
When the projector switches on, the movie starts.
When the projector switches off, the movie ends.

This vibration is there in every human body, irrespective of caste, creed, race or religion, at the root of the spinal cord called the muladhara.
When you speak, it is this vibration that comes out of your mouth.
Anything that you speak, not necessarily mantras, anything that you speak, the source is muladhara.

How does a flute produce sound? It does not play on its own.
You have to blow into it.
So, every time you want to speak, this vibration has to rise up from the base of the spinal cord.
It rises up in three stages – para, pashyanti, madhyama.
When it comes to the chest, up to this level, it is just plain vibration.
Like the flat sound that a flute produces when you just blow into it.
But when you close certain holes in the flute, then it acquires different tones or frequencies or notes.
In the same way, the vibrations when they reach the level of the chest, then you start packaging it.
Like how you close and open the holes in the flute, you start putting this vibration into different kinds of packages called alphabets or letters.
When you put this plain vibration into a packet that has the shape 'kakaara', then it will sound as 'ka'.
If the packet has the shape of 'chakara', like how you write 'cha', the packet will look like that sign 'cha', then it will sound like 'cha'.
You are the one who is deciding what it should sound like.
It is your choice; you can decide whether it should sound like 'ka', 'pa' or 'cha' depending on the package that you choose to put the vibration into.
At this stage, you can decide whether to speak out or not.
If you decide not to speak out, you can still hear the sounds, the words within your mind.
You can mentally say any word you want, make any sound you want.
Now after this, if you decide to speak out, then your speech organs work as the amplifier.
With the help of pranaya vayu, your breathing, this internal sound is amplified and it comes out so that others can also hear it.
The packaged sound that you have already created inside you will make your throat, tongue, palate, lips vibrate, curve, twist, in such a way that the intended sound comes out in the open.
What sound you want to produce is decided by you.
So whether it is a prayer or a mantra, it works in the same way.

But mantras are different in that –
They make use of a fixed set and sequence of letters, always.
This cannot change.
Every alphabet or a letter has an inherent nature or kind of power associated with it.

Like salt has saltiness. Chilly is hot. Sugar is sweet.
When you add all of them together, not the way you want, in certain quantities, in a certain sequence, then only the desired taste that you want comes in a dish.
If one item is missing, then it will spoil the dish.
If one ingredient is in excess, it will spoil the dish.

Mantras have been assembled in such a way that a certain combination of alphabets together produces a certain effect.
These vibrations can manifest into effect at the physical, mental or spiritual level depending on what it is intended for, or on all three planes.
Depends on the intention with which the mantra is created.
That means – vibration called shabda brahma is just pure power, pure energy.
When you package this energy inside alphabets or letters, they produce certain effects.
'Ga' is a mantra – not even 'gam'.
'Ga' is one mantra, 'gam' is another mantra.
They produce different effects.

In bigger mantras, a combination of alphabets are brought together in a certain sequence.
Sequence is important.
You know in certain dishes, salt is added first, in some it is added later.
If you are adding curd to a dish and then keep on heating, it will get split.
In some you add curry leaves, the seasoning at the beginning, in some after the cooking is done.
Each one produces a different taste.
So the sequence is important.

So mantra is a combination of a specific set of packaged vibrations in a certain sequence.
In a prayer, you can say, 'please give me health' or 'give me health please' – it does not matter.
But a mantra, 'Gam ganapathaye namaha', you cannot say 'ganapathaye gam namaha'.
It will not work, or it will produce some other result.

This is the difference between a prayer and a mantra.

You chant Mrityunjaya mantra.
You write down the meaning of Mrityunjaya mantra in English or Hindi or Tamil and chant that.
It will not work.
You can use the meaning as a prayer, but not as a mantra.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi