Sacred Sanskrit Words For Yoga, Chant, and Meditation

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 CONTENTS

7 Introduction

29 The Entries: Abhyāsa through Yoni

219 Chants

233 Bibliography
 INTRODUCTION

A Brief History of Sanskrit

The Sanskrit language was introduced into the
highly evolved and urbanized Indus Valley civiliza-
tion with the Aryan migration of 2500–1500 B.C.E. The
Aryans, who were mostly Sanskrit-speaking, tall,
fair-skinned, nomadic warriors, migrated to North-
west India from Central Asia (present-day Iran and
southern Russia). The fusion of the Aryans with the
well-developed native Dravidian culture gave rise to
the rich Hindu tradition.
The earliest form of recorded Sanskrit is the Rig
Veda, which dates back to about 1500 B.C.E. Vedic cul-
ture flourished from 1500–500 B.C.E.; the insights and
wisdom revealed in the text provided not only the
foundation of Hinduism and yoga philosophy but a
legacy of literary skill.
As the culture in North India evolved, the San-
skrit language underwent changes. When the lan-
guage began to diverge from that of the sacred texts,
priests and holy men of the Brahmin class became

• 7 •
concerned that the hymns might not be preserved
and transmitted without corruption. Consequently,
they pursued studies of Sanskrit as a language, espe-
cially its phonetics. It was the work of the Indian
grammarians, in fact, codifying and cataloguing
Sanskrit’s rules of usage, that led to the development
of the field of linguistics. Around 500–350 B.C.E., one
of these grammarians, Pāṇini, composed a text on
Sanskrit grammar, the Ashtadhyayi (“Eight Chapter
Grammar”), marking a shift from Vedic to Classical
Sanskrit.
Sanskrit houses an enormous pantheon of Hin-
du gods as reflected in its script, whose name, “Deva-
nāgarī,” literally means “language of the gods.”
Though Sanskrit is written in many scripts, includ-
ing Telegu, Bengali, and Brahmi, Devanāgarī script
is the one most commonly used. In fact, many people
believe that Divine Light took the form of the several
dozen sacred letters of the Sanskrit language, through
which the Divine speaks and resonates even today.
The way in which the development of the San-
skrit language reflects the development of the Hindu
religious and philosophical tradition gives it one of
the richest spiritual histories of any extant language.
Unlike most ancient languages, however, Sanskrit is
not dead. It is very much alive. Amazingly, the very
• 8 •
words holy men used to record sacred texts twenty-
five millennia ago in the form of mantra are still used
by their spiritual descendents for the same purposes
today. Since Sanskrit is not commonly used for every-
day communication, it tends to show less change than
languages that are put to more practical use.
One of the most significant uses of Sanskrit was
for the recitation of ritual texts. Rituals were per-
formed largely to create a meditative atmosphere
for looking inward as well as for connecting with the
surrounding nature—all leading to an understanding
of the self and the cosmic order. Sanskrit was thus
used to explore and describe the subtle and com-
plex realms of metaphysics, cosmology, theology, the
workings of the mind and soul, forms of thought, and
states of consciousness—areas that were of the high-
est importance to its creators. And to what end? Ulti-
mately, for the discovery of our own divine nature
and an understanding of how to live in harmony with
the cosmic order for ultimate well-being and libera-
tion. In the East, Sanskrit continues to exert a power-
ful influence. Though there are now over a hundred
languages and scripts in India, including Tamil, Ben-
gali, Gujarat, Urdu, Pali, and others, Sanskrit contin-
ues to be used in the pursuit of the spiritual.
Sanskrit has many words for the Divine and

• 9 •
many terms for defining different levels of conscious-
ness. It is this rich spiritual and mental background
that draws contemporary students to Sanskrit today,
even in the West. We can gain access to this heritage
through the same words the masters used, and by so
doing we can touch and be touched by the “spirit of
the letter” that touched these sages. And while one
can’t help but be aware of Sanskrit’s longevity, along
with this awareness comes the knowledge of our
own impermanence, a fact that is in itself a source
of liberation from the present moment and its con-
cerns. Though the lessons we learn about ourselves
might be contemporary, through Sanskrit we have
the opportunity to come into the realm of a sacred
language that is timeless, immutable, and eternal.
Introduction to the Sanskrit language provides
a key to the philosophical teachings of ancient Hindu
literature, from which the ever-popular practice of
yoga and the holistic science of Āyurveda evolved.
Some of the earliest scriptures on yoga—the practice
of which was passed down through oral tradition for
thousands of years—were written in Sanskrit about
2,000 to 2,500 years ago.
The keen interest that yoga students show in
Sanskrit has surprised us since we began teaching
yoga in the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago.
• 10 •
Some students are mesmerized by the beauty of the
sound of the Sanskrit language, others by the artistic
look of the Devanāgarī scipt, and many by the world
of thought that “karma,” “dharma,” “ahimsa,” “Om,”
and many other Sanskrit words embody. Musicians,
health practitioners, scientists, philosophers, histo-
rians, and everyday people have all been profoundly
moved by this remarkably scientific language, in
which lie all the tools to understand the self and
nature and ultimately to connect with the Divine or
cosmic source that links us all.

The Sanskrit Alphabet: Pronunciation Guide

The charts below indicate where sounds are articu-
lated in the mouth:

• Guttural: throat
• Palatals: middle of the mouth (at the palate)
• Cerebrals: roof of the mouth (with the tongue
bent)
• Dentals: teeth
• Labials: lips

• 11 •
Vowels
Vowels can be short or long. Long vowels are pro-
nounced (or held) twice as long as short vowels and
are indicated by a macron written over the letter.

VOWELS: SHORT AND LONG

Guttural A a (like the first “a” in America)

Aa ā (like “a” in father)

Palatal # i (like “i” in it)

$ ī (like “ee” in sheet)

Labial % u (like “u” in put)

^ ū (like “oo” in food)

Cerebral \ ṛi (like “ri” in river)

§ ṛī (like “ri” in river, held twice as long)

Dental ¤ ḷi (like “lry” in cavalry)

Diphthongs @ e (like “a” in ate)

@e ai (like “ai” in aisle)

Aae o (like “o” in snow)

AaE au (like “ou” in loud)

Nasal A< aṃ (nasalized “a” followed by the sound m)

Aspirate A> aḥ (echoed “a” with light aspiration)

Consonants
The consonants followed by an “h” are aspirated. “C”
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is pronounced “ch” as in chase. “J” is pronounced “ j”
as in jungle. Consonants marked with a dot below are
retroflex, pronounced by rolling the tongue back so
that the tip is pointing to the back of the palate. There
is a subtle difference between “Ś” as in Śakti and “s”
as in ṛiṣi. Both are pronounced “sh,” the former as in
dish, the latter as in harsh, the tongue retroflexed.
“S” is like the s in sour. “M” is pronounced by nasal-
izing the vowel it precedes and following it with the
sound “m.” “H” is pronounced by making an echo of
the vowel preceding it with a slight aspiration.

Gutturals Ka k Kha o Ga g Gha " Ṅa '

Palatals Ca c Cha D Ja j Jha H Ña |
Cerebrals Ta q Tha Q Da f Dha F Ṇa [
Dentals Ta t Tha w Da d Dha x Na n
Labials Pa p Pha ) Ba b Bha É Ma m

SEMI-VOWELS

Palatal Cerebral Dental Labial

Ya y Ra r La l Va v

SIBILANTS

Palatal Cerebral Dental Labial

Śa z Ṣa ; Sa s Ha h

• 13 •
 Sanskrit is written from left to right. For each
word, all the letters making up the word are written
first, and then a horizontal line is added on top of the
letters last, showing that the letters under the line
make up that word. For example, for the word āsana
(Aasn), first the vowel “a” (A) is written by making
the number “3” and then adding a small horizontal
line to connect to the vertical line. To show that the
vowel “ā” is long, another vertical line is added (Aa).
For the “s” sound, the number “2” is written, fol-
lowed by a small horizontal line connected to a verti-
cal line (s); for the “n” sound, we draw a small circle
and, from it, a horizontal line that leads to another
vertical line (n). After the three letters are written, a
horizontal line is added on top, again made from left
to right (Aasn). Once written, the phonetic nature of
the Sanskrit language makes it very easy to read in
the Devanāgarī script.

Sacred Sound
Those who become familiar with the language may
find that Sanskrit words are powerful in ways that
words from other languages are not.
The sound of each one of the Sanskrit letters is
actually considered sacred, with its own vibration
• 14 •
and deeply resonating tone. Legend has it that these
sacred sounds were born from Lord Śiva’s drum itself
(although, as if to deliberately confuse the issue, some
historical theories have it that Sanskrit sounds and
language came much before the mythology of Śiva!).
In fact, many people come to Sanskrit these days
through sound. If you’ve ever been in a room full of
people chanting the sacred sound Om, you know what
a transcendent and powerful experience it can be to
enter the current of this ancient sound and have it
resonate within your own being. The different tones
mingle and soar, moving in and out of harmony.
The scientific basis for the Sanskrit language is
the idea that sound, made up of vibrations, is energy.
According to legend, holy men, or ṛiṣis, composed
mantras (sacred hymns found in Sanskrit texts) by
arranging Sanskrit words in such a way that the
sounds not only convey meaning but have the poten-
tial to calm, purify, and energize the mind as it
vibrates in the different chakras (energy centers) of
the subtle body.
The rhythmic repetition of sound—a discipline
known as Mantra Yoga—is based on the principle
that sound has the power to build consciousness
and manifest energy to the point where one can
awaken kuṇḍalinī śakti, dormant energy lying at the

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base of the spine. Upon awakening kuṇḍalinī, one
can achieve samādhi, or supreme consciousness.
Many schools of Hindu thought, particularly Tantra,
believe that sonic consciousness ultimately leads to
supreme consciousness.
The Vedas state that sound is the easiest, most
direct way to connect with the Divine. We have seen
in our own practice and teaching that once a prac-
titioner connects with the sound and energy of his/
her breath, the heightened consciousness makes it
possible then to connect with the sound/energy of a
mantra, the sound/energy of a room, and the sound/
energy of the surrounding people, plants, and spirits.
This then leads toward the realization, ultimately,
that it is all one energy, one vibration, originating
from the one primordial sound Om, from which all
of existence begins and dissolves. It does seem that
sonic consciousness is the most direct way to real-
ize the state of yoga, the ultimate unity in all things.
More and more yoga practitioners are enthusiasti-
cally taking to Mantra Yoga, expanding and deepen-
ing their experience of yoga.
The word “Sanskrit” means “polished,” “refined,”
or “perfectly composed.” Its highly refined nature
can be appreciated by understanding the scientific
pattern of the sounds and the regulated pronun-
• 16 •
ciation. Sanskrit is devised according to where in
the mouth the sounds are made, a direct influence
on how much energy one uses to create the sound.
Ancient Indians have been called pioneers of the sci-
ence of phonetics due to the highly refined arrange-
ment of the alphabet.
For every sound in the Sanskrit language there
is just one letter, and for every letter, just one sound.
It is a phonetic language, the structure of which
enables one to write all the phonemes accurately,
either as separate consonants and vowels, or syllable
to syllable. Sanskrit consists of over two dozen conso-
nants and over a dozen vowels, each of which resides
in the different chakras. Every word or sound (śabda)
has energy and power (śakti).
As the ancients knew, sound affects conscious-
ness. The mantra So Hum is one example of how
sound can affect one’s state of mind. When the mind
quiets, a practitioner of yoga/meditation can hear
that the natural sound of the breath is So Hum. The
sound vibration of the inhalation is So, while that of
the exhalation is Hum. If one focuses on this sound-
vibration, every inhalation can become inspiring and
every exhalation a release, resulting in a lightness of
mind that allows one to move more freely toward the
spirit, truth, and higher consciousness.

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 Sacred sound awakens the life force that is alive
within us, sending it through us and out into the
world. The sound simply takes over the body, and
before long you can’t tell where your voice ends and
another begins, where your body ends and another
begins.
When we chant together without regard to how
we “sound,” we’re cracking open the most frozen of
hearts, and it’s impossible not to be moved by the
vibrations of these primal, unadorned sounds. That
power and aliveness moves us instinctively inward,
and we move away from our uncluttered, noisy minds
into our pure, essential, joyful essence. And we’re not
just chanting in the here and now. Chanting San-
skrit, we go back centuries, dipping into the stream
of those who have made similar inquiries, leading to
rich discoveries and profound revelations along the
way. Chanting is an act of devotion, and an act of unit-
ing with oneself as well as with others. It’s a powerful
practice of joy and surrender. Much like yoga or med-
itation, it’s a way of liberating the spirit, of becoming
free. When we hear the echoes of our own souls in
these sounds, it’s like hearing a thousand-year-old
temple bell ringing in an old Zen temple. What we
hear is the deepest silence. And within that silence is
the music of the heart that beats within us all.
• 18 •