Special: Sound & Mantra

1. Qualities of Sound and Space

With complete trust, start listening to these various conscious sounds that form the basis of the whole mantra practice.

I think we can just start the session with a minute silence, sit straight and just observe the silence of your mind. My first question to you this afternoon is, how silent was your silence? How many of you had moments of absolute silence? I think what I'm trying to highlight through this is that we live in a state of constant sound, constant noise, there's some kind of noise or the other that is constantly moving or occupying our mind space, our being space and therefore understanding the world of sounds is a very important step in trying to understand who we are and how we can use sounds in a manner that can help to change us and help us probably become what we want to become. So in a sense arriving at a state of silence using sound.

So what we'll do next is we'll start it again, but this time we'll do it with the om. And we'll do it with the om with this particular gesture which is a very physiologically beneficial gesture as well because the right palm has nerve endings connected to the left brain lobe and the left palm has nerve endings connected to the right brain lobe. So normally there's a very small bridge that connects these two brain lobes. When we put our palms together we had to complete a lot of nervous circuits within ourselves and in a sense physiologically we become a whole and then when we chant it or we chant a sound like the om then we help to dynamise that entire system. So we'll do this and we'll chant the om three times.

So take a deep breath and chant the om. Om. Om. Om. Did you observe any difference in the quality of the silence following the om?

Was it somewhere easier to do that? So this afternoon's session is going to be an adventure into the world of sounds. And it's going to be an adventure through which the main focus is going to be on really trying to understand one's inner spaces. But the guide that we will use to understand this inner spaces is going to be sound again. And probably it's useful to clarify right at the start that what I mean by sound is not necessarily only the audible sounds that we make.

By referring to sound I mean any kind of vibration. And I will ask you questions and you please feel free to ask me questions in return because then it becomes more interesting since it's a collective journey into this world. What we will be doing is using these sounds to try and see what is happening within us, to try and listen to our own sounds, to try and feel what the sounds do to us. And therefore the invitation to each one of you here is to allow yourselves to be as receptive to the different sounds that we'll be engaging with. And allow yourselves to be as soft as possible so that any sound you make can create its ripples to its maximum benefit.

If you're very tight and a sound falls in there it will not make the same kind of effect or it will not have the same kind of effect as if you are completely relaxed as water. And as we go down today's journey we will also try and see or allow ourselves to become as quiet as possible, allow our inner beings to settle as quietly as possible so that it is like a placid lake on which if you drop a drop of water it will make bigger circles. The reach of that drop will be much further, whereas if the inner atmosphere is turbulent then the effect of the sound gets lost by the winds that are moving inside our system. So what we will do is to try and use these sounds, not so much us trying to make sounds. Normally when we engage in mantra chanting or whatever we try very hard to make these sounds, but my invitation to you in today's session would be to allow these sounds to sound you if you get what I mean.

So try and become as receptive as you can and I can assure you that these sounds are very powerful guides that if you trust yourself completely too they will show you amazing worlds and allow you to have amazing experiences. So just with that complete trust start listening to these various conscious sounds that form the basis of the whole mantra practice. Before we proceed it would be important to also understand why sounds play such an important role in our lives. So if I open that question up to you, why are sounds so important to us? Communication sure.

Even in the communication what happens, okay, I will also push you maybe if you tell me something I will not just accept it at its face value, I will probably push it a little further so that we can arrive at certain essences which we can concretely implement or understand. So when we speak of communication there are a few things we are saying in that one word. Emotion. Yeah, emotion. So a communication is the expression or is the audible expression of thoughts within us.

So the sound vibration starts not just at the audible sound that I have produced but it starts from the very vibration of our thoughts, our feelings, etc. So the vibration has started at that level and manifest itself in words, in language. So there are two things that start becoming important in that. One is the words themselves because then you start paying attention to the quality of the words. The quality of the words start reflecting the quality of the thoughts.

You can make sounds or words that are of an expansive nature or the words and sounds you use can be of a contractive nature. They are reflecting the kind of space that is there within us. So therefore one is that we start listening to the quality of words but second which is very important is that we start paying attention to the quality of the sound of those words. So now I have made a lot of sounds because of language. But again we don't pause to think of the impact of each of those sounds within our system because we are used to clubbing the sounds together in language.

So what we will do today, we will spend quite a lot of time is on slowing down on each of these sounds, particularly the sounds from the Sanskrit alphabet and just allowing us to observe what these sounds do to us. Another important aspect of the quality of sound is that the voice quality is also often very reflective of the quality of the space within us. If one has a sound which is like very hard like that, it reflects a certain kind of a space within the individual through which that sound is manifesting. And if you have a sound like that, it again reflects a very different quality of space that that sound is travelling through. So when we talk of sounds we have to, we can start becoming sensitive to these different dimensions of sound.

One is at the thought level, thought and emotional level, then we are at the level of the quality of the sound itself and the impact of individual sounds. Another reason why sounds play a very, very important role, if there's anybody else who would like to share then probably I'll share what I want to share. Yes. So I'm sure many of us, all of us have experienced this at some stage that music can make us feel differently. If we try and again boil it down to the real essence of what is this creation all about, we can arrive at the fact that at underlying everything there's energy.

Everything is different forms of energy. If it is different forms of energy then it is different vibrations. So at that level one can reduce the entire creation to different forms of sounds and therefore the individual becomes like a composite of the sounds of the body, so your structure has a certain sound structure pattern, the sounds of your emotions, the sounds of your thoughts and the sounds of something deeper within. So all these sounds play in together and are constantly interacting with each other to make a sound structure that is you. And what is fascinating is that in this being of sounds that we are, any single sound starts impacting this whole volatile structure.

We tend to believe that I'm the solid body but the reality is that we are energy form condensed in a sense into this form. So any new sound within that starts changing it in some way. Any new thought within that system starts changing the composition. Depending on how powerful that sound is will determine how strong or how lasting that impact is within the person.

2. Experience AUM in Your Being

There is an intimate relationship between the sounds we are making and the effects that we are producing.

So what we'll do is we'll again chant the om and I will invite you to try and become as relaxed as you can and observe what the sound is doing at the different levels of your being.

What is it doing to your breath? What is it doing to your emotions, to your mind, to your body? Observe if there are any tensions, if it is relaxed and just allow the sound to start reflecting your being. So come, we'll do the sound, om again three times. Take a deep breath, let yourselves sound the om freely.

Don't hold back. The more you let go, the better will be the image. So take a deep breath and do the om. Om. Om.

Om. So we're all also familiar with the fact that the sound om is composed of three sounds. Of course we've all heard this that it's the universal sound and it's the king of all sounds, it's the sound of creation. But probably when we go into it a little further we'll try and experiment with it to understand why is it considered as such a powerful sound. So the sound om is composed of these three letters, ah, ooh and mm.

We'll start with the sound ah and what I'll ask you to do again is just take a deep breath and make the sound ah. And as you make the sound ah, try and become as soft as you can physically and see what kind of gesture you would like to do to represent the sound ah. How does the ah manifest itself in your body? What action would you do to make the sound, to represent the sound ah? So just close your eyes, take a deep breath and make the sound ah.

Ah, ah. What is the action that you would like to do to represent the sound? What is fabulous is that irrespective of which culture or where one asks a person to do the sound or to show the action, it's always represented by that. Which brings out a certain universal nature of the sound. That this sound you see that in this physical world at least every sound corresponds to a certain direct experience.

So if I make a certain sound I can break glass. If I change that sound I no longer break glass. So there is a very intimate relationship between the sounds we are making and the effects we are producing. As you had also mentioned that this effect of a sound is not only on the physical plane but is also experienced at an emotional level and deeper spiritual levels as well. So this sound can go through various levels at the same time.

Depending where we are more sensitive it will have its stronger impact. So the very quality of the sound ah is existence itself. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says of all the letters, I am the sound, I am the letter ah. And it's interesting because it's also the very first sound that the human vocal instrument can produce. And therefore the sound ah is like our, in a sense our identity card in sounds.

The way we sound our ah is very reflective of the quality of our existential space. Am I making sense? So I'll give you an example. If you hear an ah which is ah, it will give you a certain image of the inner space of the individual. Whereas if you hear a sound which is ah which is more of ah, it gives you another image of the existential space of that individual.

So we'll do it once more now. And this time I will also ask you to do it with this gesture of allow yourself, yeah so it'll be good to space out, take a little space there. So as you do the sound ah, just allow your body to in a sense melt beyond its limited form, limited structure. And just imagine yourself to be this, becoming this energy form that extends as far as you can imagine it to go. And listen to your ah, listen to the sound of your ah and see if something happens to it.

So take a deep breath and then do the sound ah. Did anybody observe the emotion that you experienced when you did that? What was it? Joy. Joy.

Yeah. So what is very beautiful in this ah, just small experiment that we did is that our our existence or our, as per the Indian tradition, the very foundation or the very substance, the basic substance that makes our existence is truth, existence and truth, consciousness and bliss. So the more we are able to allow our being to be free, to open up, because the sound ah was significantly different from the first time we all did it, because suddenly you had ah, suddenly there was a lot more of freedom in that, but you would also notice that the more you allow your existence to be big and vast and free, the more spontaneously it corresponds to an experience of joy. The Indian, the yoga tradition tells us that essentially we are bliss. So the big question is then what happens?

Why don't we experience it if that is our essential stuff? And the answer is that because we are, if we could allow this inner space to be completely free, we would be in a blissful state all the time. But because we have so many conditionings that start closing in our inner space, our life space starts getting determined by our experiences, what we think the others will think of us, what da da da da da da. There are just so many stories that we accumulate over our lifetimes that end up closing in our spaces, that end up literally suffocating our life breath within us. And therefore the sound ah can be diagnostic because it can tell us how open is the space of our being.

But more importantly it is therapeutic because the more you allow the sound ah to sound itself in you, the more you will see this, you will suddenly start breathing, your being will start breathing. So it's a very powerful single sound but it's a sound that can completely open up yourself. And these sounds also correspond in terms of vibrations to the different parts of our body. So the sound ah corresponds, the ah corresponds to this chakra really here. Okay, but the ah, the longer ones correspond to these two points which are open to the universe for all its energies.

So we'll do it once more and this time we'll do it with a visualization. So imagine that you're standing on top of a mountain and that there is nobody around you. Okay, I only hope nobody is afraid of heights because that would defeat the purpose. If you're afraid of heights imagine yourself on a free plane somewhere, okay, or in the open ocean anywhere. Basically, that you're in this open space where there is absolutely nobody around you and that you're there standing with your arms outspread to express the joy of your existence.

And more importantly, you're not adults, you're little children. No responsibilities, no worries, nothing. So just get into that mode of complete freedom, simple, happy freedom. Feel that quality of being and then see yourself on that mountain top, it's a beautiful day. You have your arms outspread and you are expressing the sound ah.

So take a deep breath and sound the ah. Did you hear the change?

3. Experiments in Sound

As we sound, Anuradha invites us to create a corresponding gesture and engage our imaginations.

We'll next move on to the sound ooh. And again I'll invite you to become conscious of the kind of gesture you would like to do to represent the sound ooh. So become again very soft, very quiet.

Take a deep breath and make the sound ooh and observe yourself. Observe also the quality of your sound. Take a deep breath and do the ooh. What kind of action would you like to do to represent the sound? Again fascinating that most people could do something like this or like that or a kind of a, yeah.

But is it a, like that or is it a soft? Now that's interesting because the sound ooh again represents all embracingness. It's also the way it is formulated in your mouth. The way it just brings everything together so it's as if it's taking everything into itself. So we'll do the sound ooh this time and imagine that you are extending yourself to the furthest of galaxies and then coming into the smallest of atoms.

Everything is being contained inside you. So just imagine that you are embracing as far and wide as possible and as intimate and as close as possible with the sound ooh. And constantly in today's session the invitation throughout would be for you to observe your own sound, observe your sound, observe your spaces, observe your breath, observe all these and see how they're played with as we journey through these different sounds. Thank you. Okay, so now take a deep breath and do the sound ooh and do it with this gesture.

Take a deep breath and do it. And now we'll do it with a small visualization. So now think of all the people you don't like, the people that you really don't like. And as you do the sound ooh, give them all a hug. The ones that you don't like, keep them closest to yourself.

In fact, as I said, I hope you don't have too many because then you go, okay, so just think of these people and then just give them a really tight hug because you see the truth is that at the end of the day any degree of like or dislike that we get caught up in is all our fabrication and it really doesn't have any basis in reality. Absolutely none whatsoever. That's the fascinating part of it. Because ultimately we all end up sharing much more with each other than we can ever imagine. We are far more one than divided and conditioned with likes and dislikes.

That is the reality. Any other constriction or limitation is a result of our inability to perceive that underlying one energy that is identical in all of us. That's the beauty. This underlying energy is really identical in all of us. It's a very, very beautiful verse in the Isho Upanishad.

It's one of the Upanishads, one of the most powerful of the Upanishads. It's a very short one. In that one they say that one who sees oneself in everything and everything in oneself, for such a person there is no disgust, there is no moving away, there is nothing that is hidden because ultimately there is this awareness that there is no other. We can convince ourselves or we can, yeah, we spend our lifetimes convincing ourselves of our absolute unique difference from the others, which is true. The beauty is that there is a truth in that because every individual is a unique expression of that energy but that doesn't change the energy, that doesn't change.

Just because light is different from sound is different from matter doesn't mean that they are not all energy and if we had the art of breaking through, breaking through, of going deeper into the reality, it's like physics, you just go deeper and deeper into matter and touch the atom, touch the energy. So the more we are able to let go, let go and just try and allow ourselves to touch something deeper within, that's what we'll find. That's what anybody in all cultures has always found. So we'll do this experiment of visualising yourself with these people that you don't like, you think you don't like and the ones that you really, really don't like, keep them closest to yourself and then just give them a nice hug with the oo. So take a deep breath and then do the sound, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo.

This is an interesting experiment. Next time you see these people that you could think of, just silently sound the ooh within your head before you start reacting into anything else and see whether what it changes. Like I said, they are so closely connected, our thoughts and our sounds and all of that because they are, I mean, if you look at the inner structure, if you look at your inner structure as space structures, those spaces are being constantly redefined by our thoughts and these emotions, no? So if you can put in these conscious sounds, just observe whether they become rigid walls or whether they are allowed to open up. Just observe what it does to yourself.

And if that can happen, if a sound can help you breathe more freely, I mean, fantastic. So there was another, this verse that I quoted in English wanted to be quoted in Sanskrit. So I will do it for you because I think it's just the power of it is so beautiful. And it goes like this, yastu sarvani bhutani atman eva nupashiti sarvabhute shuchat manam tato na viju kup sathe. Would you like to say that?

I'll maybe break it up and say it because it's a nice, yastu sarvani bhutani atman eva nupashiti sarvabhute shuchat manam tato na viju kup sathe. One who sees oneself in everything and in everything oneself, for such a person there is no disgust. There is nothing that is hidden. Are there others who would like to write it down, otherwise I could give it to you later on? Or maybe make you all say it again and you write it down, yastu sarvani bhutani atman eva nupashiti sarvabhute shuchat manam tato na viju kup sathe.

4. What is Mantra?

The whole process of yoga is to rediscover the space, infinity, and eternity within ourselves.

I think it's valuable at this point to mention what a mantra is. The very word mantra in Sanskrit comes from a definition which is mananaat triyate iti mantra. Manana means when you keep thinking about it, triyate is that you are protected. You're protected by a constant thinking on these sounds. You want to take the Sanskrit definition?

Okay, so it says basically mananaat triyate iti, so by constant thinking it changes you. And how does it protect you? Because again if you look at yourself in terms of these vibrations, thoughts are vibrations, emotions are vibrations, in that we are introducing these conscious sounds because when we did the sound a, it is not a human sound, it is a cosmic sound reproduced by the human instrument. That is what is important to understand. All these sounds are conscious universal sounds that are reproduced through us.

So the more we allow ourselves to become receptive to them, the more they are able to give out their full potential. So if it is a universal sound and you become receptive to it, then it is able to recreate the universe in you, the spirit of the universe, that vastness, that the more we keep thinking about it, the more we keep allowing that particular vibration to continue within our system, the more it starts becoming the vibratory nature of our being. So when we did it now, to answer your question of whether we have gone beyond it or whether it is suppressing, I think the fact that we have just done it once or twice now means that for the time being it takes over our being. But because we don't stay with those sounds, we allow the other sounds to take over. Our habitual sounds are what dominate our lives, our habitual thinking patterns, thinking sound patterns, our habitual emotional sound patterns, they govern our lives.

So a very useful exercise that emerges from this work on mantras is to start listening to what are the sounds my system is producing. What are the sounds that I am constantly engaged with? And in order to be able to analyze them meaningfully for ourselves, one can start recognizing because since all of you are in the yoga world, the intention or the very purpose of yoga is somewhere to, because the word yoga comes from the root yuj, which means to unite, so the question is what are you uniting with what? There can be many answers, uniting the body, mind, soul is one answer. But another simple answer from a larger cosmic perspective is that an individual is a limited form in every sense.

We have limited ourselves with, we are a limited form, limited manifestation of an energy which is essentially infinite, which is essentially eternal. And the whole process of yoga is to rediscover that space, that infinity and that eternity within ourselves, within this structure. And yoga believes it is possible, it is possible to stay in this body and to live in infinity. So when we do these sounds and you start observing your inner sound patterns, what is useful is to see whether the sounds are making you smaller, in which case we are choosing to play the mortal game. And if one wants to participate consciously in immortality, in what yoga aims to be taking us towards, then one has to let go.

So the movement is really either we are that, Kira very beautifully was saying, either we choose to be our shrinky dinky, either we choose to be shrinky dinky or we choose to become big. So it really is that. And the more one opens up, the more one uses these conscious sounds, the more these conscious sounds have the capacity of tuning us to infinity. So in a sense, these sounds, mantras can be also considered as conscious sound patterns that will necessarily create the desired effect within an individual, within the person as well as without. So they can act as suppressants for that moment.

But if you continue doing them, continue doing them, then they actually start breaking through the barriers. So if you hold on to them, at these sounds as guides, then they can show us those gates. They can actually take us there. Okay, that's the beauty, I mean, that's yeah, it's a powerful prescription. These mantras, okay, we are doing like really simple sounds and normally we expect mantras to be very complicated than you know, many Sanskrit words.

But ultimately, it really is about truth and sound. Yeah, we'll talk about it, we'll talk about it some more. So we saw the sound a, which was the sound of existence. So in that sense, it gives us the sense of opening up. And the sound u is again existence because it unifies everything in a conscious mode of bringing together.

One important thing to tell you is, if you feel like yawning in the session, please feel free to do so openly. Because when you're doing these long sounds, then your body starts, you will experience more air, the body wants more oxygen because suddenly there is more space that is being created within you. And when the space is being created, then you also ask for more air. So I normally don't take it personally. If you want to yawn, please do so freely because your body is asking for it.

It's a stretch, it's an inward stretch through sound. So yeah, just feel free. This is about trying to be, trying to become more ourselves. It's really this whole work with sounds, mantras is all about seeing how we can effectively try and go back home, try and become more, yeah, more ourselves. That's what it's all about, long and short.

So we did the sound a, which is the first sound that the vocal instrument can make. And we did the sound u, which is the last vowel that the vocal instrument can formulate. And now if you try to go from ah to u, so if you do aaaa, what sound comes in the middle? Oh, so you would notice that the sound oh comes in between this range, so it helps to vibrate everything between the A and the O and the O and the O. So in a sense the entire range is made to when you do the sound O. One way of understanding the relationship of our vocal instrument with the universe is that this is the only part in the human body that can recreate or reproduce all the sounds of creation. So all the sounds of creation will fall within this range of A and O. And therefore when you do the sound O, in a sense the whole universe starts becoming duh duh duh duh. Everything is ready now. And whatever you do after that will take off because the whole universe has started at a personal level as well as at a cosmic level. And then when you do the sound mmm, which we will do right now before going into the Aum. So we will just do the sound mmm and you tell me what you feel, what is the action you would like to do to represent it. So sit straight again. Take deep breath and do the sound mmm.

What kind of action would you like to do to represent the sound mmm? Interesting. So basically the sound mmm corresponds to an establishment or a centering, an alignment. So we will do the sound mmm in two manners. The first one we will just try and gather everything in one point. And then the second time when we do it we will try and gather everything into a central alignment. I normally recommend that we do these sounds with actions because I feel that somewhere the very fact of involving our body with it helps that particular sound to also resonate at a physical level. So do the actions, let it go, just observe what more gets added when you are doing the actions along with these sounds. So we will do the sound mmm first time that way and second time gather everything together. Take a deep breath and we do it. One second, the other one. One second. We'll now just try and combine the three sounds, aum, when you do the sound aum, try

5. Full Body AUM

Imagine that you’re channeling all the energies of the universe.

and roll the sound out of your system, it's not three independent sounds, four independent sounds, just like aum, and try and divide your breath in a manner that you give equal distance, equal length to each of these sounds, so just try and do that once and then we'll accompany it with some actions, so just take a deep breath and feel the sound roll into your system. Once more.

Aum, aum, aum, aum, aum. We'll now accompany the sound with actions and what we'll do is, maybe sit at the edge of your chairs a little bit, it's a good one to do standing also, but what we'll do is that as you do the sound aum, just imagine that you're gathering all the energies of the universe, so you do aum and then with aum you make yourself a channel of that energy, so you put that sound into your body, become a perfect channel of that, put it through your body and you put it into the earth, because the earth needs this healing energy that we can contribute consciously to it, so just imagine that you're taking all that energy with the aum and you put it into the earth and from there you gather it with the aum, so from there you do aum and you release it into the universe, and the second time you gather it all on the horizontal plane, so you do aum, so as you gather that whole energy just put it into the core of your being, which is that spark of light that is common at the source of all and then from there you go with the aum and you give that energy out, so we'll do it like this, we'll do three cycles of them, so the first one is standing I mean the vertical one, aum and then aum and the cycle finishes with the horizontal one and the aum, so we'll do three of them and then put our hands and feet together and just turn the aum three times, I'll guide you through so it'll be easier, what is also important is as you're doing this imagine that you are this form of energy, this body of energy that is not just yeah that is of a quality that is full of light and brilliance and healing and all of the good things because you're going to put it inside you, so the better the things you can think of the better it'll be, okay so just take a deep breath and then give the best you can. Horizontally. Aum. Aum.

Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum.

Aum. Last particularly. Aum. Aum. Bring your hands and feet together, turn the aum three times.

Aum. Aum. Aum. We'll just close the session by chanting Aum, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Aum.

Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Aum. Aum. Aum. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

6. Playing with Sound

Experiment! Invite a sense of wonder and a quality of curiosity into your practice.

One of the words they say that if one can chant the Aum correctly, then it's the key to all the secrets of the universe. So it's an important sound worth spending time on. But the sound Aum is also supposed to represent the absolute in its unmanifest form. do now is we'll start by doing the om again, just three times. But what I will invite you to do is to play a little with the sound. Play with it in the way you are formulating it. Normally when we do the sound om, we do it in a particular manner. So we do om and we stay with it and we always do it in that way. So now I'll invite you to like, literally play around with your tongue, just open up your jaws, open, just experiment with the sound and see if there is a point which clicks for you, because it would click differently for different people, different positions are more, more potent for different people. So just experiment a little with it and see what, if there is one sound where you can hear it much louder, if it resonates deeper in your being. So we'll do it thrice again and play with it. The best thing about all these serious things is that they're actually quite fun. Very often we tend to get very serious about them and we think that, and then you know it limits the scope of what it has, because the objective of all these practices is to free us up. It's not about creating the boundaries, it's about recognizing the boundaries but being flexible enough to move those boundaries. So it's really about play, it's really about fun. But not fun in a light hearted, you know, it's not fun in a childish sense. It's more fun in the childlike sense, where it requires us to have a degree of simplicity, a degree of openness, just like a child is. A child, yeah, a child is always there, happy to experiment. As Kira had also mentioned in the morning, the sense of wonder like, okay, that's what the sound does, okay, you know. So be open with that and then engage with these sounds. Then they do quite a lot. So play with your own.

Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. There's another sound that I'd like to touch upon from the Sanskrit alphabet which is another of the primal sounds, which is the sound ee. So we'll do the sound ee and again try and see what kind of action you would like to do to represent it, okay. So take a deep breath and do the sound ee.

Aum. So what did the sound ee do to you? Interesting. I had a bit of a science fiction thing that you can ee like that in the sun at the end of it, you know. When a spacecraft, they show coming up the horizon, no? You see everything like that and then you see the sun there, it was a bit like that. No, but the quality of the sound ee is that it is this kind of a relative existence they say, but it's a kind of a focused, it's that focused kind of a thing ee and it has the qualities of the will and they say if one does these, we'll combine it with the aim next, but it has the ability of increasing in us the will, the concentration, the space, the knowledge to plunge into things. So in terms, it's in a sense the equivalent in manifestation of the aum. Aum is the unmanifest absolute sound they say and aim that we'll do next, aim represents the shakti or the creative force and it is this implementation ee. So we'll do the aim, we'll do the aim three times and just try and allow the sound to do what it does to you. Observe the difference of qualities of these sounds in you that is what is useful. Take a deep breath and do the aim three times. Assalamu alaikum. Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm So, what we saw with the sound om followed by aom and then aim is almost like a white

7. Sounding the Sanskrit Alphabet

We are stimulating different parts of our bodies with the vibrations.

light. If you have to convert these sounds into light shades, it is like a white light that fragments itself into the three colors of r, o, e, m, four shades and then from there it fragments itself further into all the different sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet.

The Sanskrit alphabet is very special because it is a very conscious and a very systematic organization of sound reflecting the way the sounds are formed within the vocal system, how they are expressed. So, it is a very systematic arrangement. This is my version of the vocal system and there are normally five places of pronunciation. We have the throat, we have the palate, we have something called the cerebral, then the teeth behind the teeth and the lips. So, in the Sanskrit alphabet we divide the vocal system into these five parts, the throat, the guttereals, the palatals, the cerebrals which is the center of your roof of your mouth and the teeth and then the lips.

So, we have vowels corresponding to each of them and then consonants that correspond to each of them. So, the first one is the a, the first sound that we saw. But in Sanskrit you also have the short and the long which gives you the music of the language. So, the first one is the a and then a, it is twice the length, so a, a, again a, a, then we have here ee, ee, ee, so I will also request invite you to sort of exaggerate the sounds initially. So, when you do a, like open your jaws nice and big, so you get the maximum sound possible.

So, a, a, like really open your mouth wide, exaggerated. Of course, when we speak Sanskrit we do not go like that, but it is just, it is a nice way to unblock the jaws, which often accumulates our tensions, the jaws accumulate a lot of our tensions. So, these are occasions when you can sort of open them up, so a, a, ee, ee, again spread it ee, ee, oo, oo, so oo is from here the lips, oo, oo, okay now you have to listen to me. The tongue goes under your, I mean just at the tip of your, on top there, so it is lovely. And then we have behind the teeth there, okay.

The good news is in Sanskrit we do not use too much of those two sounds, but it is there for the completeness of the system. We do use the rrr in many places, but yeah, not too many, these sounds do not occur too often. So, we have a, a, ee, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo. We will do it on our fingers. I request you to do it, a, a, together, a, a, ee, ee, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, oo, behind.

No, the first one is inside, rrr, rrr, rrr, rrr, okay. Now we had a and ee, a, no, a, ee, a, a and ee. So, in between the a and the ee, if you try to go aaaaa, which is the sound you get in the middle, a, a, a, okay. So, the next sound is the a, so a, ay, aye, aye, then we have ah and the oo, which sound you get in the middle, oh. So, we have oh, oh, oh, um, uh, uh.

Do these, do the actions because then why I am explaining it to you very systematically so that the logic is such you can reproduce it by yourself if you understand it. So if you use your hands it becomes easy to learn up all the vowels and then when we do the consonants you can also learn it up easily. So a, a, together. So here it is a because it is in between a and e. So the sound is a followed by ai, then you have o followed by a and u, ao and then am.

Then we have, so these were the vowels. Then we have consonants, we have five consonants per place of pronunciation. So in the first case there is a certain logic in the organization of these consonants. So the first one is k, k, so that, or rather combine it like that, k, u, so that, k, u, so it is sound, sorry touch sound, so k, k, u, with a vowel u, okay so k, u, now we will do it more naturally, it is k, k, no breath, k, and then the second is with breath, listen, k, k, k, then it is sound, touch, g, then breath, g, g, it is not g, there is a vowel u is at the end of it, so it is g, g, and then the nasal, g, g, lovely, lovely, very good, okay so it is k, k, g, g, lovely, so the logic is touch sound, see that, breath, sound touch, breath, nasal, touch sound, breath, sound touch, breath, nasal, that order will be respected as you come up the vocal system, so we will just do this once, g, g, g, lovely, and then we have the pallets, so you have ch, ch, ch, j, j, j, n, the tongue stays exactly in the same place as the sounds are produced, the combinations, so ch, ch, j, j, j, n, then it comes up, so these two groups do not really exist in the English language, in the English language when you say a t, it is a sound from behind there, t, no the English t, t, tomorrow, tomorrow, t, it is somewhere here right, the tongue is touching somewhere here, tomorrow, so this is a sound which just goes a little further back, so if you want you can touch the centre of your pallet with your finger and now put your tongue there every time, so listen to me, t, t, d, d, n, lovely, t, no breath, t, t, d, d, n, lovely, now the next group of sounds also does not exist in the English language, it is there in the French and those Italian Latino languages, but it is not there in English, so you have to pay attention because it requires a certain breaking of your habitual sound patterns, so it is a soft sound, it is a t, t, t, d, d, n, lovely, t, t, d, d, n, lovely, okay, that sound is important because normally Sanskrit has a lot of them, so you have the word shanti, normally in the English speaking world they would pronounce it as shanti, shanti, but the actual sound is shanti, see it, you will feel the difference, when you say shanti and you say shanti, you will feel the difference because you are stimulating a different part of your brain and that is why Sanskrit pronunciation is so important because it is not about random sounds that have no particular significance, all the sounds in the Sanskrit language are conscious sounds that have very definite impact in your system, that impact your body in a very conscious manner, that impact the environmental structure in very, very specific manners, so you change the sound, you change the impact, it is as scientific as that, there is nothing mythological traditional about the requirement of correct pronunciation, it is a very, very scientific requirement and physiological, okay, so we will just do these two groups once, so this one is t, d, d, d, n, lovely, next the teeth, d, d, d, n, lovely, the challenge is of course when you write it in normal English, if you write shanti you would not know what the pronunciation is, there would be no way to really figure it out, so that is the difficulty in a regular Roman, you know, writing but if you have it in the transliteration form, it would be represented like that and all the sounds in this category would have a dot under it to imply that it is, you know, there and this point is a very useful point in terms of physiology because if for those who are familiar with qigong, they talk of the different meridians in the body, you have two meridians in the body and that is the meeting point of those two, so when you do t, t, what you are doing is you are actually stimulating that point, so you energize those, so the pronunciation of or the, yeah, the saying of the Sanskrit alphabet has many benefits I will tell you and then we have the lip, the labial ones which are p, p, b, b, m, p, p, b, p, m, lovely, then we have four semi vowels which are, we had done, yeah, four, so we had, when we did from a to e, it went, it became a, now you go the reverse, go from e to a, what will happen, yeah, lovely, so that is yeah, so we go first from here to there, so yeah, r, l, v, so what is fascinating is with the vowel, with the consonants you have slowly come up the whole vocal system and then you go, yeah, r, l, no sorry, yeah, r, l, v, yeah, correct, okay, so you are again going back the system in terms of touch and then we have four sibilants, they are the shh sounds, so the first one is from this place, so shh, so that is the shanti, shh, and then you have the tongue going up here, shh, so shh, shh, and then the teeth, s, s, it's like a regular serpent snake, s, s, and h, h, lovely, okay, yes please, and then we have another, we have three combined consonants which are, one is a ksh, ksh, so the ksh is of there, so ksh, trh, jh, jh, jh, it's a jh and jh very fast, so jh, jh, in India and the north they might pronounce it as jh or things like that but the original would be more of a jh, jh, yeah, yeah, so we have, now what we have done apparently is just recited the Sanskrit alphabet, just pronounced the Sanskrit alphabet but simultaneously we've done many, many things, okay, by doing the systematic touch of the different parts of our body we have also stimulated all those parts of the brain in a very, very systematic manner using the breath, so it's like a natural pranayama, it's like a brain massage and like I like to joke and say if you do a good brain massage then you can get good hair as well, those want to try it out, okay, so you can, so you do this, so it's like a brain massage, it's like a good pranayama, then each of these letters also corresponds to the different chakras, so all the vowels are there and then slowly you go down the chakra system with the consonants and it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like spiraling down, so when you come down at it just by reciting the Sanskrit alphabet you are literally charging up your own whole energy system and yeah, so that was also there and then the different letters correspond to different organs or different parts of your body, so you are also stimulating those, they say that there is something like a mantra purusha or the form of the mantra, we'll do that, it'll be interesting just to do it once, so we are stimulating those different parts of our body plus at a cosmic level in Vedic astrology different planets correspond to different letters, so you also have the planets that start going d-d-d-d like that, it's quite fascinating what the sound can do but in terms of understanding it's not magical, while the effect is magical the origin is very scientific, you have a certain frequency it will amplify everything of that same nature and if everything is different forms of sound condensed into single sounds, if one knows how to make that sound you actually start moving everything just by making one sound, it's quite, so you have to use, moral of the story is very simple, we have to use these sounds very carefully and with a lot of purity, you know you can use these sounds to yeah, you can abuse the sounds but recognizing the fact that one is within that system, so if one abuses the sound it will bounce back because one is not outside the system okay, so there's a lot of responsibility one can do a lot of good by putting oneself aligning oneself with the spirit of these sounds, what's quite powerful what this stuff can do, so we'll just recite it, once I'll say it and you repeat after me, we'll just say it simply once, in the system of the chakras, we just normally have 50, all in all there would be 50 with the ksha, these two are not included, so the vowels plus the 25 consonants here, the four semi vowels and then the sibilants four sibilants plus the ksha okay, so I'll say it and you repeat after me, then we'll do it as a mantra. Now again just observe, observe what the sounds do to you, ah, ah, ee, ee, oo, oo, ee, ee, leh, leh, ee, igh, ooh, ow, oom, ah, ah, consonants, kh, khh, kh, khh, kh, and Ga, Ga, Ga, Ga, Na, Na, the palatas, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch, Nya, Nya, Nya, the cerebrals, D, D, D, D, Nya, the dentals, D, D, D, D, Nya, labels, P, P, B, B, B, M, the semibowls, P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P.

We'll repeat this. And this time we'll add an N at the end of every sound. Aam. Aam. Iam. Eam. Eam. Umm. Umm. Jyim. Umm. Umm. Umm. Ein. Aim. Aam. aum. Iam. Aah. kam, kam, gom, gaam, gaam, nam, cham, chaam, cham, jam, jam, jam, Nam, dam, dam, dam,Nam, dham, dham, nam, dham, dham, dham, nam, bham, bham, bham, bham, mam, yam, ram, lam, vam, sham, sham, sham, sham, sham, sham. We can just next try and look at the different parts

8. Sanskrit in the Body

Together we explore sound and vibration in the physical and subtle body.

of the body that these sounds are associated with. So maybe you just keep your eyes open and just copy me and ask me if you have anything, okay? So am corresponds to the crown of your head. So am, and we can also touch it and then that way, am, am, the pineal glanda, then am is the right eye corner, am, am, am, am, am, am, am, am, am, am, am. Om is the back of your teeth, the top teeth, om, am, the lower one, am again is the back of your palate on top, am, am is more in the lower palate, yeah, am. Then it's the right shoulders, so the points are right shoulder, right elbow, right wrist, right bottom of your fingers and the top of your fingers, left same thing, all the joints, five points, then the same with your legs, the next set, okay? So you go from your legs, the bottom of your fingers and the top, that way, okay? So we'll do the set. So kam, kam, gum, gum, lam, cham, cham, yam, dam, tam, dam, dam, nam, tam, tam, dam, tam, nam. Then the stomach, so it's first to the right of the stomach, pam, pam, pam, pam is the lower back, bam, then the navel, bam, mam, mam, okay? So right side, left side, back, navel, lower navel, okay? So pam, pam, bam, bam, mam, then the semi-vowels now. So it corresponds to the center of the heart, yam, ram, lam, vam, so the three parts, vam. And then cham is from the heart to the right side. So cham, cham, cham, all the way to the right side, cham, and then cham, from the heart up to the head, okay, from inside. So now we have physically touched all these parts but you can also psychologically touch them. Again, the morning as Kia was saying, is really about paying attention. You just pay attention and you open that, that becomes receptive to whatever energy you are sending there. And it is a psychological process, okay? So probably we will do this once more altogether, I mean not maybe repeat after this. So, am, am, im, im, umm, umm, nn, nn, nn, nn, im, im, aum, umm, sorry, umm, aum, um, aum, come, come, come, come, chum, chum, chum, chum, chum, yum, dum, tum, dum, dum, num, dum, dum, dum, num, bum, bum, bum, bum, mum, yum, rum, lum, vum, shum, chum, some, hum, and then chum, okay? Or in another sense yum is the whole plasma of the body. So what we did yum, rum, lum, another way of understanding is yum represents the plasma, rum is the whole blood system, yum, rum, lum, lum is the entire muscle system, vum is the fat part of the body, and then you have, yum, rum, rum, rum, shum is the bones, shum is the nervous tissue, some is the reproductive tissue, hum is the mind, and crumb is the prana, okay? So this is a nice book actually by David Frawley that gives you these ideas, Mantra Yoga and Primal Sounds. It is a well-written book by David Frawley, he is quite extensive in his understanding and simple language and all. But there is also a Buddhist practice where they just recite the Sanskrit alphabet and they say it is a way of maintaining good health. Since ultimately at the end of everything there is energy, it is the same energy, it can have representations. So when we did the ah, it was a representation of the deeper truth which is all sounds in one and the silence and you know all of that.

So if you follow each of these sounds to the logical end you will arrive at the same point. But the different starting points depending on what maybe one needs or what one needs to move or whatever. But each of these sounds can lead you to the same. I mean that is one of, that is the basic, part of the basic philosophy of the whole Indian tradition of the whole Vedic Yogic tradition which says that there is one truth which has many names and therefore there are many paths. So it can have various representations and therefore every individual has the freedom to arrive at it through their own paths. It does not matter what the name is, even in religious terms you call it Krishna or you call it Christ or you call it Allah or you call it anybody for that matter, anything. And it does not really matter because if you genuinely follow these paths to their end you will arrive at that same truth because there is nowhere else to go basically. That is the good news in a sense that there is really nowhere else to go but back home. So if ever you are feeling lost anywhere just hold on, hold on because if you just allow, you see when we feel lost it is often because we are putting in a lot of effort to be somewhere and we are not being where we would like to be. The, what do you say, the solace in that is that often we are not where we are because we do not really know. So at points when you are feeling really tight and lost that is the time when you just start floating. You just start floating and saying trust that if I just keep floating at this way something, because there is the pushes towards getting back home. The pushes always, every lifetime is another journey towards home. We can choose to take the highway or you can choose to take the detour. Sooner or later I mean there is only one direction. That is what the yoga tradition tells us. There is really one direction and we are on that way in any case. What yoga can help us do is very consciously step back on the highway to say how long do I want to take on this journey. The reason why stepping back is a helpful exercise is because the longer you take the more you have to struggle. It is like I can choose to be on the highway with my eyes closed. Yeah fine then I will go wherever. But I can also choose to do it with my eyes open and all of the yoga process is opportunities to open one's eyes, to do it with awareness, to do it with understanding. There is no right or wrong about this. It is about whatever one does even if one has apparently done the wrong thing. It is another opportunity to understand that yeah what did it teach me. So that is why I said if one has the attitude or one has the trick it really is a key. If one has the key one can turn any experience into fun, any experience into a discovery and then life starts becoming very different. The way one lives life is very different because it is not what is happening that is you know the important but how one is allowing whatever happened to teach us. That is quite fantastic.

9. Touching Truth

Anuradha guides us in a call-and-response, chanting Hari Om Tat Sat.

So we will do another, we will do a small mantra. We do not have too much time but so now we basically what I try to do with this whole gradual development is to introduce you to all the different sounds. Now we will start combining these sounds and then doing small mantras and then larger ones as time permits. So the first one that we will do is very simple. It is Harihi Om. Harihi Om.

Tat Sat. So Harihi comes from the root Hruh. And the sound Hruh or the verb Hruh corresponds to that which removes. So it is a remover of obstacles. Whatever one considers small and obstacle or darkness whatever. So Hruh is anything or any force any it can be the Lord it can be a word it can be a Guru anything that helps to remove obstacles. So Harihi Om. Harihi is the noun from that and Om Tat Sat. Tat means that. Sat is truth. So again to the English speaking world I will caution you. It is not Tat Sat. It is Tat Sat. Yes. Do it. Tat Sat. Lovely. Very good. So Tat means that and Sat is truth. So it is remembrance of that truth somewhere which is a remover of all obstacles. So I will chant it in a particular manner you repeat after me then we will do it with actions. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi Om Tat Sat. Harihi together Hariyom Tat Sat Hariyom Tat Sat Hariyom Tat Sat Hariyom And you can do the Tat Sat silently in your head Hariyom Tat Sat Hariyom Tat Sat Hariyom Tat Sat Hariyom And we can do this with actions now. So we broadly classify the universe in three. So there is the perceptible world, the gross physical world that you can perceive with your senses. So the physical world, the subtle world that you can't perceive with your senses but which you are experiencing and all those that world and the spiritual, the truth world in a sense. So we have, we will indicate it like this. We will do Hariyom Tat Sat. Tat Sat is that deeper truth within us.

Because that truth is there at all levels. So we will do Tat Sat. So remind yourself, the intention of your, the intention behind the sounds you make is to give depth to the sound that travels. So if I make a sound which is, I will give you an example. If I say something, if I say peace, but I don't really mean it in any sense, then the depth of the sound is just as far as the sound lasts in a sense. But then if I understand what peace is and I say peace, already that sound acquires a deeper penetration in a sense. And then when I have the intention behind it and I say peace, the same word goes a little further. Then when I live peace and I say peace, then that word will create peace. Then sound becomes creative, not only communicative. So the beauty of Sanskrit sounds is that they are often creative. They are not just in the communication realm.

So we will do it like that. So when we do Hariyom Tat Sat, that truth behind everything. Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom. And then in your head you can say the Tat Sat. And then you can do it with both hands. But what my request to you, my earnest request is that allow yourself to experience the truth of this. So when you say Hariyom Tat Sat, try to connect these sounds, give us the power to reconnect. They act as very strong channels of reconnection.

So allow yourself to be guided. Allow yourself to be taken to that truth. Come. Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom. Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom. Hariyom Tat Sat, Hariyom Tat Sat, Okay, now just open your eyes and look at each other because that truth which is within you is also within each and every heart here. So that tatsat while you show it to your own heart is also the same identical truth in every other heart here, okay.

So try and do that. Try to communicate that truth as you do it, come. Okay, close your eyes. Carry everyone in your heart. Okay, now we will again change the way we are doing it, we will start very softly and very gently, very slowly and then gradually increase volume and momentum speed and then come to a crescendo with the speed and the sound and then again go back go back go back and the final one you can continue doing the action but do a whole at least one or two silent cycles within your system, okay. So very slowly and softly first.

Carry all that sats, have your own heart. Carry all that sats, have your own heart. Arjuna sadh, arjuna sadh, arjuna sadh, arjuna sadh, arjuna sadh, arjuna sadh, arjuna sadh, arjuna sadh, This sadh is a very beautiful self reminder actually

10. Sat Chit Ananda

We are truth, consciousness, and bliss.

because the deepest core of ourself is, like I mentioned also in the beginning, is qualified. The qualities of that truth, that truth within or that source of energy at the basis of everything is in Sanskrit we call it Sath, Chit, Ananda. Just write it here. Sath, Chit, Ananda. Sath means truth or existence. Chit is awareness, self-awareness and Ananda is that bliss.

So what is at the basis of everything is actually has all these properties. And this particular mantra can be quite, it's very simple but like we discussed about when you are lost, if you are feeling lost, then it's a very powerful mantra to help us to just remind ourselves that truth, that truth. And the more you allow yourself to trust that truth, it will give you light to show you again the direction to go. So it's very, very, personally I found it also very helpful in moments of let's say darkness or doubt and all. Just fall back on this one and say, show me. And the good news is that it's there at all the levels.

So if you are stuck at any level it has the power to show you the road again, this one. Harihi om, to that remover of obstacles, om, tath, sat, that truth. I could just write it for you if you would like to. I have heard it with the H and without the H also. Can you see the red? Is it okay? So Harihi om, tath, sat. Since we have spoken about it, if there is no dot below it, it means that it is the soft sounds. So sat, this is a chit. So you can also write it if you want for pronunciation with the CH and that's ananda.

Would you like to say it once? Sat, chit, ananda. Listen to the length of the vowels because that is what gives the rhythm of the language. So it's ananda. I think in America you would say it differently. How would you say it normally? Ananda. It's not the same thing. You are talking of something completely different. It's interesting because if you say ananda, it actually negates it. Because er is an absence of. So if you want to actually have the bliss, then it's preferable. We all have the logic now. So really it's preferable to say ananda. Because the prefix aa means towards oneself. It's not the negation.

It's like ananda. You feel different. When you say it differently, you feel different also. And then it's harihi om. Tat sat. Yeah, no, no, none of them have the dot under. It's tat sat. Yeah, both. So it's the same place. Tat sat. Lovely. Lovely. It's a good question. It's a very good question. A very relevant question also. I think that ultimately, fortunately, the universe listens to the heart sound more than the sound sound. So if your heart sound is really true, then you say abra kadabra, you'll still get, you'll still experience the universe. So at bottom line, that is what that sound matters most. So for example, if somebody is getting all the sounds perfectly and has, it's like nothing there.

They'll get somewhere, of course, because the sounds have their own truth. So they will get it, but we don't know how far. Having said that, I would think that if one is a genuine seeker of truth, the whole of the yoga tradition is really about truth, trying to express truth or trying to understand what truth is. What is true living? What is being true in all aspects of one's life? To become more and more who we really are, to be more and more free. So if that is the quest of the individual, then I think the individual would also take the effort to make the right sounds. Because for the simple reason that it has its own physics. It has its own physics.

So if I want to experience the fullness of what I am feeling in terms of intention and I make the right sounds, I will get there faster. There's no distraction in terms of the vibratory effect. And that's the poetry of it. Yeah, and that's the poetry of it, yeah. The truth. I mean, it's like really on a violin. If you've heard somebody play a violin and they are like a fraction away from the correct note, you will still get a beautiful sound.

But when they hit the right note, this whole space that opens up and that would be the experience. That if you have the intention and the thing, suddenly it will be a new space. As an example, it's almost like as if you have sounds as a wall and there is a door. So if you have the right intention and you get the pronunciation right, it's like you get out of the door straight. Otherwise, it will be a little hitting on the wall a little bit and scraping and going.

A little like that. So why bang your head when there is a door to the other side, literally? And in a sense, that's what mantras can do because the origin of the mantras is experience and the sound of the mantra is an expression of that experience in sound without any kind of modification in the middle. So how they benefit us is that when we are making these sounds normally, there is an experience there and we are making a certain sound. If the sounds are true, then they have the capacity to clear up this whole mess in the middle and direct us back to the experience. So if we know how to trust that sound and not try and impose our things, so the more receptive one is when one does these sounds, then it's like a guide who will find its way through the dark and take us to the experience again.

But it's really about allowing. But to allow, one has to soften up, one has to soften up one's thinking, one has to soften up one's emotions. Thank you very much. Thank you.