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Meaning & Translation
Transliteration
Om Ben-za Sat-to Hung (Om Vaj-ra-satt-va Hum)
Deity / Quality Invoked
Vajrasattva
Pronunciation
ohm BEN-zah SAHT-toh hoong
Full Translation
Om Benza Satto Hung is the short, six-syllable form of the Vajrasattva mantra — the Tibetan pronunciation of the Sanskrit "Om Vajrasattva Hum." Vajrasattva is the Buddha of primordial purity, and his hundred-syllable mantra, of which this is the essence, is Tibetan Buddhism's foremost practice for purifying negative karma.
Spiritual Significance
In Vajrayana practice, Vajrasattva recitation is one of the four foundational practices (ngondro): the practitioner visualizes purifying light washing away the residue of harmful actions, regret transforming into clarity. The mantra carries the confidence that no negativity is permanent — everything can be purified.
Cultural Context & History
The hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra appears in Vajrayana liturgies transmitted from India to Tibet over a millennium ago and is recited in all four Tibetan schools. Deva Premal and the Gyuto Monks of Tibet recorded it as "Purification" on "Tibetan Mantras for Turbulent Times" (2010), with the monks intoning the full hundred syllables beneath 108 repetitions of the short form.
Terms in the Glossary
Words from this page, explained in our A–Z reference.