Saturday 6 October 2012

Dear Friends,
Click Here  to see one of my writings that appeared in the January issue of Life Positive.

A Language of Consciousness



Sanskrit
A Language of Consciousness
2

In the previous article I had discussed about the vastness, versatility, elaborateness and creativity of Sanskrit. There I have mentioned that this Language is a perfect tool for an integral spiritual growth. Indeed, it is true that Sanskrit has a tremendous power to uplift and enlighten and illumine. The Divineness of Sanskrit is self-evident. Sanskrit is a language which is intuitively metaphysical and revealingly poetic, subtle and suggestive, symbolic and figurative. This language has been evolved and perfected in the Vedas and Upanishads. It is a language of Mantra, ‘a word of power, of illumination, of light’. It is the language which has come in the form of Mantra “…out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a deeper consciousness than the mental, framed in the heart and not constructed by the intellect, held in the mind, again concentrated on by the waking mental consciousness and thrown out silently or vocally – the silent word is perhaps held to be more potent than the spoken – precisely for the work of creation. The mantra can not only create new subjective states in ourselves, alter our psychical being, reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess, can not only produce similar results in other minds than that of the user, but can produce vibrations in the mental and vital atmosphere which result in effects, in actions and even in the production of material forms on the physical plane.” (Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, Page: 125) Thus Sanskrit is a living and conscious Force, an entity that has directly come from the highest source, and is capable of conveying infinitely more than what the surface sense of language seems to indicate. It is not any man-made invention or mere tool for communication, but a revelation. It is much more than merely a meaning or a sound or a sound devoid of deeper sense other than that attributed by convention. It is a living and creative mode of power.  

The resonating power and vibrational purity of Sanskrit make it a perfect instrument for an integral spiritual growth. Its very name Samskritam means ‘polished’, ‘refined’, ‘sculpted to perfection’. The physical structure of the language is flawless. Its construction follows an organic and logical development. In Sanskrit all the sounds are articulated through five distinct places of articulation located in the mouth: throat, palate, cerebrum, root of the upper teeth, and lips. On the basis of this the sounds are either guttural or palatal or cerebral or dental or labial. Though the letters of one group are pronounced from one position yet each sound of that group differs from the other because of its internal efforts. For example: ka, kha, ga, gha and nga belong to the guttural group. Here ka is a hard unvoiced consonant with minimum breath, kha is also hard and unvoiced but it is pronounced with maximum breath; ga is soft and voiced with minimum breath but gha is soft and voiced with maximum breath; nga is the last sound in the group which is soft and voiced but nasal. For this sound the breath gets released through nostrils and the mouth. The arrangement of the rest of the consonants in the Sanskrit alphabet follows the same order. The importance of this scientific organization lies in the degree of resonance created by each sound. Thus, the sounds of Sanskrit are amazingly capable of bringing clarity of articulation.

The mere speaking of or listening to the sounds of Sanskrit generates joy, clarity and inspiration. It has a refining influence on one’s consciousness. By a conscious use of this language one gets the result of doing Pranayama. Thus, Sanskrit, with its power of great resonance is highly powerful and potent for creating a happy and peaceful atmosphere in and around the one who uses it consciously.

Dr. Sampadananda Mishra

Monday 1 October 2012

A Language of Consciousness

Sanskrit
A Language of Consciousness
1

Sanskrit, as a language, is extremely elaborate and sophisticated.  It embraces variety and richness of experiences covering the entire gamut of human sensitivity and potentiality. It unfolds multiple levels of consciousness. It has maximum number of words for the Divine and more precise terms for defining consciousness and meditative experiences. It has a great power to elevate human consciousness to sublime heights. The thought contents expressed through this language are capable of taking to greater heights, widening and heightening the consciousness of the one who uses it consciously. Thus, it is a language that is ideally suited to describe and govern the nature of phenomena from the spiritual level to the physical. Therefore, it is a living and conscious Force, a revelation; a living and creative mode of power, by itself formative and creative and not merely a conventional symbol for lifeless ideas.
The vastness, versatility, and power of expression of Sanskrit are incommensurable. It is extremely rich and efflorescent. The most noteworthy fact about Sanskrit is that it keeps adding to its richness, becoming fuller and more elaborate, but never removing itself too far from its original roots. Each and every word in Sanskrit is conscious of its origin and always refers back to the root from which it is derived. Therefore, there is a perfect relationship between the word and the sense. It is theoretically possible to explain the meaning of the words in Sanskrit according to the combined sense of the relative letters, syllables and roots. Therefore the meaning of any word in this language is not derived by chance or from any convention but from its own depth, the system of root-sounds, sound-ideas. It is because of this transparency of the system of root-sounds and clear semantics that Sanskrit has the ability to discover its own history. A proper investigation of many Sanskrit words shows that in Sanskrit a word is not a conventional symbol for an idea, but itself the parent and the creator of ideas. This transparent system of formation of words from the root-sounds follows a natural process and is one of the important factors that makes Sanskrit an ever creative language. It also provides enough clues to rediscover the lost heritage of Sanskrit.
The Rishis of ancient time were minutely discerning in their observations, and were highly conscious in the matter of using the language. They did not use the language just for the purpose of communication, they used it as a tool for discovering the true nature of themselves and all that they saw in and around them. Herein lies the sacredness of Sanskrit – it helps to discover the nature of everything; it helps to discover the sacredness of life. It is a Force functioning in many levels of consciousness, ever purifying, ever formative and creative. It has tremendous potentiality to make the Divine Life possible upon the earth. Indeed, it's another name is Devabhasha, the Divine Language. The rediscovery of Sanskrit means to grow conscious  the hidden forces in the sounds of Sanskrit and moreover its Divineness.
Dr. Sampadananda Mishra