Threading the Sutra

Threading the Sutra

By Manorama

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Yoga Sutra 1:12

abhyasa-vairagyabhyam tan-nirodhah

The mind is made tranquil by practice and non-attachment

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is a mystical text that guides you from a lack of awareness about who you are, to one of profound grounding in who you are.

In sutra 1.2, Patanjali describes the definition of yoga as the

experience where thoughts subside on the field of our minds. Sutra 1.12 gives the aspirant clues

about how to experience the state beyond thoughts. It says, in order to experience quiet in the

 mind you must practice. As you practice, vairagya will naturally rise in you. 

When the mind becomes quiet your true Self is apparent.

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Developing Practice Through Sutra Study

The Sanskrit word Abhyasa translates as both repetition and practice. In chapter one of the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali cites the notion of practice as the cornerstone of his Yoga model. According to Patanjali, practice is the antidote to man’s suffering. It is the panacea that brings healing to the misbelief that we are something that we are not, i.e., the body and mind alone.

Patanjali says, Abhyasa-Vairagyabhyam Tan Nirodhah 1.12

This sutra states that the process of misidentification with what we are not subsides through abhyasa, practice and vairagya, non-attachment. Another way to say this is: To experience what you truly are, begin to study what practice and non-attachment mean because according to Patanjali, these are the elements that lead to freedom.

If practice is the crux upon which freedom hinges, then the next question is: What is practice?

In sutra 1.14 Patanjali answers this question when he states:

Sa Tu Dirgha-Kala-Nairantarya-Satkarasevito-Drdha-Bhumih 1.14

The sutra says, practice becomes firmly established over a long period of time, when without interruption, with constant effort, dedicated focus, and great love, one fixes one’s mind on the higher Self.

In sutra 1.14, Patanjali describes the full nature of a mature yogic mind. He defines practice as evolving naturally over a long time without any rush. By indicating that, time must thread through the teachings. He is saying that you must take your understanding of yoga with you into each new life experience you have, and that each time you return to formal teachings bring all of your life experiences to those teachings as well.  When you do this, you gain great insights and a wider yogic perspective.

Patanjali also describes the nature of both the practice and the practitioner, providing the student with a guide. As the student follows this map, the floor emerges underneath. When this happens, even though you move through your body and mind, you do not feel bound by the body and mind alone, and you experience freedom within.

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Luminous Shabda Sutra Practice:

• Each day for a month write sutras 1.12 & 1.14
• Then each week select a new word or idea from the list below to focus on.
• At the end of the week, write down your insights.

Sutra 1.12

Practice & Non-Attachment.

Sutra 1.14

What builds a firm ground?:

steadiness,

a long time,

not rushed,

continuous,

uninterrupted.

Qualities needed by the student:

constant effort,

dedication,

great love,

ability to fix one’s mind on the higher Self.  

Copyright 2013 Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies, Manorama

The Domino Effect of Witnessing 

by Manorama

Old School Teachings

Early in my training, Guru ji, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, taught me that life is either a play or a drama.  He said it would all depend on how I saw it. What he meant was, see life as a play and you will see clearly, see it as a drama and all that it reveals is that your vision is partial. Living from a partial perspective alone causes suffering. Partial vision means seeing life from the individual perspective alone. When we look at life and the situations we encounter through the lens of individuality, we understand the world according to that individual perspective.

After many evenings listening to Guru ji offer teachings, I started to think: How do I develop seeing so I can experience life as a play? How do I access the universal view he spoke about?

During meditation, Guru ji guided students again and again: “Feel what you are beyond the body and mind.  Remain still. Be like the witness and feel your real form, which is true happiness.”

I caught the phrase…‘Be like the witness and feel your real form….’ Hmmm…so witnessing was a bridge between the individual perspective and the universal perspective…though I didn’t understand it then, I sat with it more. After some time, I noticed questions had arisen in me around the topic of witnessing. These questions created an internal conflict.  

Conflict and Fear Around the Practice of Witnessing

Throughout the world, Yoga students are advised to work with witness consciousness. Other conscious practices, such as Buddhism, and the New Age movement teachers guide students to practice watching in order to calm the mind and experience inner peace.  However, many people that hear these teachings may feel, practically speaking, that engaging witness consciousness is of little value. I wonder if perhaps it seems confusing to them as it did to me.  Here is a list of statements or questions that arose for me regarding the practice of witness consciousness: 

1.     Witnessing is boring and un-dynamic because all I’m doing is watching. 

2.     If I am stationed in the witness, will life somehow pass me by?  

3.     If I watch everything, how will I get anything done in my life? 

4.     How will I relate with the people I care about when all I’ll be doing is sitting around and watching? Will I have to be willing to lose connection with everyone to gain some kind of supposedly great thing called witness consciousness, which will ultimately lead me to union with Self? 

My mind reeled, what a price to pay!

If you find yourself relating to any of these questions regarding witness consciousness, I assure you, you are NOT alone. These questions and others like it are normal and common.

With a view towards understanding them, I believe it is wise to allow such questions the necessary space to exist. And rather than agree with them or reject them, my suggestion is for you to work to explore them. When you become established in witness consciousness, you do not become disconnected from your body and mind.  Instead, you experience a shift in perspective. 

The Value of Witnessing

“Witnessing supports internal softening because it creates space.”
~ Manorama

Through a regular practice of witnessing (and by regular, I mean daily), you develop the capacity to shift from a personal perspective alone, to a universal one. Moreover, seeing beyond your own personal point of view causes compassion to rise in you more and more, because you begin to see not only your own, but also another’s perspective, and eventually the whole of a situation. In this way, witnessing enables you to relate and communicate with all beings with ahimsa, compassion.

You also begin to understand the worldly realm more, which includes your body and mind because you come closer to them in understanding. In other words, if you fear losing the ability to communicate with the world around you, don’t worry because the more you move into witness consciousness the more the opposite actually happens. You come into such contact with your self that you are naturally able to communicate your feelings and thoughts with your self and others. 

When you work with witness consciousness, life does not pass you by as you may fear. Witnessing is not just another way of saying ‘lie around and do nothing’. It is a practice that supports dynamic contact with one’s center, as you watch the periphery of thoughts and ideas play out. In other words, live your life normally and in the process hold to the center.  As you engage each experience, practice seeing as the witness and watch how that opens up a fuller perspective for you.

Note: All references to Guru ji in this article refer to Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati.

© 2012 Manorama, Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies

Jyoti: Light, Spiritual Force

Jyoti means light. We see it used in mantras as far back as the times of the Upanisads. 

Upanisad Verse: 

Asato Ma Sad Gamaya 

Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya 

Mrtyor Ma Amrtam Gamaya 

Lead us from untruth to truth. 

Lead us from darkness to light. 

   Lead us from death to immortality. 

Here, the darkness mentioned in the second stanza reflects a spiritual ignorance and a feeling of suffering; while the usage of jyoti (light), references sacred beingness itself, the light which helps us move beyond darkness. Jyoti is the light of Brahman. Holding to that light, and requesting that the divine guide us, signifies our humility and respect for the holy source. 

Copyright 2012 Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies, Manorama

*****

Taken from the 

New Luminous Shabda Glossary

 of Sanskrit & Yogic Terms 

by Manorama

Hosted by the amazing Breathe Repeat

Visit Breathe Repeat & Learn More:

www.breatherepeat.com

Santosha Meditation

Santosha Meditation tm

By Manorama & Luminous Shabda

Suggested Practice: 2 x's per week for 10 minutes

Grounding:

Begin your practice with this guided meditation

Find a comfortable seat either in a chair or on the floor in a cross-legged position.

Pay attention to the space around you.

Be open and one by one, notice the five gateways of perception.

Notice what you see, hear, smell, taste, the quality of the air on your body, is it hot or cold?

Once you are aware of them, start to pull your attention away from the objects you perceive.

Notice that your attention needs energy to exist.

Being with Energy:

Withdraw the energy that underlies your attention and practice being with it inside.

Feel the quality of this energy.

Don't make any meaning about it, just feel it without letting thoughts flood the experience with mental meaning.

Learn and practice the value of being with energy without thought.

Allow your awareness to gently connect with the breath.

Watch the natural in going and outgoing breath pattern.

Feel the lightness and subtlety of your own essence as energy beyond thought.

Have contact with your Self and gently be with that.

Unify your attention, breath, energy by bringing them all together with your awareness.

This is Santosha contentment, which arises from contact with the internal union.

Mapping Healing:

After a few minutes, begin to re-connect with your body and your mind.

Open your eyes and ground in your physical reality.

Place your hand on your heart for 30 seconds inhale and exhale slowly notice how your heart is calm, you feel refreshed and at ease with simply being.

2012 Copyright Manorama & Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies

Ahimsa, Empathy and the Meaning We Make

Ahimsa, Empathy and the Meaning We Make

by Manorama

Beginning of Service

As a child, I took in many stray animals. Leaving food in dishes and playing with them whenever they came near. I recall having the same feeling for impoverished children. This feeling of empathy was brought forward in me particularly late at night as infomercials from the Save the Children organization tickered on.  The montage of images displaying malnourished, disenfranchised children, pulled on me heavily. The next day, I’d ask my mother how I could help them and though she didn’t have much money, she always comforted me and sought ways to support my concern.  Her kindness regarding my feelings validated me. Being seen by her gave me strength. And from that strength, I was able to extend even more understanding to others.

The Meaning We Make

According to the dictionary:

‘Empathy is the ability to understand and share another’s feelings.’ 

Sometimes Yogis offer us support by going into our confusion with us, into our suffering, but they don’t make the same meaning. It seems people often think that going into another’s suffering could possibly make that specific suffering their own, as though it may stick to them.  They seem to feel that they will be harmed, but actually that’s not the case. By extending authentic ahimsa, kindness and understanding, we not only offer healing to others, we also experience healing ourselves.

When we are willing to see others fully, we reaffirm our desire and readiness to be seen. We also build intimacy between that person and our self.  Being empathetic and understanding towards others is also a practice for being compassionate towards our selves. As we practice, we learn how to go into our own pain and one-day lead ourselves out.

  

The yogi offers healing through understanding, he/she walks alongside us in the darkness, studying the meaning we made and then works to help us see a new meaning. 

New meaning here means seeing from a yogic perspective, one that shows us how to grow through the experience. As Yogis do this, they help us dissipate our sufferings and ultimately dissolve them.

‘I Just Can’t Relate’

Last year a friend said something funny to me.  She said, “Ya know, I just can’t relate.” Though she said it quickly and without much thought, the words themselves struck me as strange. A yogi spends his/her life studying the union. Said another way, a yogi stays close to interconnectivity. So, the idea of ‘I just can’t relate’ would not occur to a yogi because that is their very training, to come into relationship with all.  How can a yogi-in-training remain connected if he/she fears sharing in the feelings of those they contact? From this perspective, empathy is a tool for greater harmony and fluidity. 

  

Exploration of Ahimsa

Ahimsa means being grounded in reality and seeing clearly from that place. It is often translated as non-violence. Violence can only happen when we perceive otherness. 

So ahimsa, as a yogic principle, means being grounded in oneness where there is no sense of other and therefore no possibility of inflicting violence. Ahimsa is not only the recognition that we are all interrelated and interconnected, but it is actually living within that reality and extending out from it.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 2.35 says:

ahimsa-pratishthayam tat-sannidhau vaira-tyagah,

Translation:

“When the yogi is firmly established in physical, mental, vocal and spiritual non-violence, ahimsa, there is abandonment of enmity by those who are in his or her presence.” (PYS 2.35, transl. by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati) 

The sutra teaches that the more we ground in understanding, the more we are a conduit for kindness and compassion.

When we express empathy and kindness to those around us we reveal our depth of yogic understanding, and show through our actions that we stand firmly on the ground of yogic reality.

Ahimsa, non-violence, is the first step of Lord Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga Path. This path is a road that the yogi-in-training follows to experience the freedom, known as union. Placing ahimsa as the first rung on the ladder, is Patanjali’s way of saying that ahimsa is a foundational character element that must be developed within the individual for him/her to be able to fully live in the light of yoga, the unified field.

Copyright 2012 Manorama, Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies

The Qualities of a Complete Person

The Qualities of a Complete Person

With Manorama

I was late to pick up Guru ji. Oddly, it was my usual. I beat to my own drum in those early teenage days. Evening program began at 7:30 pm but I was still getting things together. I looked out my window and saw Guru ji barreling across the main lawn. My pace quickened… “Yikes!”, I thought to myself. And grabbed my bag flying out the door quickly catching up to him. He was breathing heavily and despite his ill health seemed to be soaring to his destination. I grabbed at his bags to alleviate his stress and we had a small scuttle in the exchange. These are moments I recall.  Somehow almost irrelevant yet personal and filled with intimacy and connection and to this day they remain meaningful to me.

Reflecting now, I recall that I felt badly… that I was late and, uh, well… it wasn’t the first time I had run late. Normally, I picked him up and brought him to evening program. That was one of my jobs. Frustrated, Guru ji had set off without me so as to be on time, but due to his ill health it hadn’t been easy for him physically and that was obvious in his wobbly walk, his breathing and in the sweat on his brow. It’s hard to describe, but when people ask me about traditional study with a guru, this story, and others like it, come to mind.  

We were just people together. To me, this means that we shared authentic connection. Sometimes the link was elevated and philosophical or perhaps deeply spiritual focusing on energy and mystical teachings, and at other times, utterly human with its spectrum of life experiences ever unfolding before us.  

As we continued to walk across the lawn, I started to fret a bit over Guru ji. Due to his stroke in 1983, his walking was a bit unstable. So I said, fretting in my voice, “Guru ji, watch out for that rock and don’t forget there is that deep hole by the path over there and…” Out of breath, but never one to miss a cue, he said sharply, cutting me off, “Don’t pay attention to these things. What you attend to, you make manifest. If you do not think on these things (pot holes and such), you will glide above them.” And that’s how he did it. That’s how he offered  his direct students a teaching. You are walking across a lawn aiming at a destination together and you find yourself in the midst of a yogic teaching that will take you years to ponder and eventually integrate into your life. In these moments, there was never anything un-human about the moment. No denial of the form or the walking or the pressures of time and people waiting. Teaching in this manner reminded you that the experience of the divine is not in the denial of the human, but rather in this realm, teaching is best received in conjunction with the participation of our humanness.

Guru ji was not unaware of his purpose in my life or anyone’s for that matter. Not ever. I don’t think any authentic guru would lose contact with that. He knew that  for teachings to land fully there would need to be a place for them to land, a place where they could be supported and take root. As the years went on, I noticed that staying connected with my humanity and not denying it supported the development of grounding. And grounding gave strength and a place where the teachings could evolve from.

Truly my love for Guru ji was a love like no other.  Not better than another, just different. Guru ji was a complete person. And what I mean by that is that he looked to himself for everything. This is not to say that he didn’t ask for support in life or in simple tasks and such, but in the deepest aspects of life, I noticed he stayed close to himself. I understood this in him. The epic Sanskrit poem,  the “Ramayana,” describes the greatest among men, Lord Rama, as he who sought his own counsel in the most important matters. So when I say Guru ji was a complete person I mean that he was someone who cultivated such a genuine and meaningful dialog with his inner Self that he had the capacity to guide him self. Through the link with the inner, he was able to expand and grow his capacity as a human being.  He had true strength and great compassion.  Being in his field was to learn about this kind of inner strength and compassion.

Recently, a close friend asked me if she had any character flaws. She had been suffering emotionally about questions regarding her boyfriend and wanted to see if there was something she had not looked at in herself. I was about to fly to Colorado and was seated on the plane waiting for the airline attendants to signal the shutting down of electronic devices. But I text back, “You really want my answer?” She knew me well enough to know that if asked, I would answer kindly, but truthfully.  “Yes,” she said, “I want to muse with your insights  over breakfast.” I paused, sat with the question and the value of an honest answer in one’s life.  And wrote, “You are wildly intelligent, very funny, you love deeply and it may be useful to expand your capacity for compassion. It seems that others’ weaknesses make you feel uncomfortable. Or it could be that things that are out of their control and yours make you feel strange.  I feel working on compassion could open the field up for you more.” I sent the text.  She replied, “You feel this is a character flaw? Not sure how to develop compassion.”  Knowing that she was struggling with some opposing thoughts that day, I replied that I felt a good place to start was with her self.  

We all have areas to develop, but if you were to ask me about the guru, I would say a guru is a complete person because they have contact with their center and because they have a developed sense of compassion for themselves and others.  I would say if you want to find a guru, look to the simple moments of your life, moments of great connection. They reveal love, harmony and the graceful flow of energy. Ironically, sometimes they are shared with a scuttle and sometimes a hug, but they are always exchanged in the authentically human moments of our lives and in the grounding of that humanity. When we have that true floor underneath us, we then have the capacity to leap into the divine and experience the true taste of union.

Copyright 2012 Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies, Manorama

What Does Real Knowledge Offer?

The Sanskrit word vidya, knowledge, derives from the root vid to know. This is significant as vidya forms the basis of all yogic teachings.  Knowledge is the fountain from which all goodness and light are said to flow. And vidya is the channel for that flow of light here on earth. Access to vidya means access to spiritual light. The way we obtain that access is by cultivating profound inner understanding.  

Sanskrit Oral Tradition

Vidya Verse:

OM

Mateva Rakshati Piteva Hite Niyunkte

Kanteva Cabhiramayatyapaniya Duhkham

Kirtim Ca Dikshu Vitanoti Tanoti Lakshmim

Kim Kim Na Sadhayati Kalpa-Lateva Vidya

Like a mother, it protects you.

Like a father, it directs you towards your welfare in the world.

Like a lover it delights you and removes your pain and suffering.

It expands your name and fame in all directions and increases your prosperity.

What does real knowledge not give you?

Like a wish full-filling vine, it gives fruit to all desires.

~ Translation by Manorama, Luminous Shabda 2012

In this oral tradition Sanskrit verse, knowledge is likened to being both as pivotal as our mother and father.  As a mother, vidya represents the force of protection, and as a father, it directs us in the world and guides our proper direction. The mantra further tells us that vidya is like a lover, and as such acts in a soothing, healing manner removing our suffering… once we feel that soothing and removing of our suffering, vidya morphs again into being a blessing for our greatest expansion and our prosperity.  This mantra reminds us that vidya is the giver of all.

How do I obtain Vidya in my life?

Vidya expands when we support the inner growth of yogic teachings. This is hard work and requires that we be deeply thirsty for that knowledge. We can support this inner growth through:

Energizing on Teachings

When we read yogic teachings, often we move to quickly to what we ‘think’ they mean. Instead we must practice first supporting the growth of the teachings within us, by energizing patiently on them and by practicing ‘sitting with’ their meaning. This is how we support the development of vidya in our lives because yogic knowledge is not realized on a mental level alone, rather it is first felt as a rising awareness in the heart.

Contact with Self in all things

If we value our self and want to know our self in all things then we must make it a priority to practice paying attention to our inner life.   Paying attention to our inner self forms a connection within and signals that the floor is forming underneath us.  Once the foundation is secure then we have the capacity to truly ponder the elevated questions that lead to the realization of vidya in our lives.   With the floor firmly established under our feet, we make our selves ready to reflect on the essential questions from a grounded place. As we contemplate teachings from a grounded place the realization of the answers rises within us and is assured.

Essential questions that lead to realization of vidya?

Who am I? 

What is my purpose in this life/incarnation? 

How may I serve the world?

How to cultivate sincere compassion for all?

What is nobility in yoga?

How do I evolve awareness in my self?

What does “being with” a teaching mean?

Copyright 2012 Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies & Manorama

Happiness, Humanity & The Free Flow of Energy

According to the dictionary, vibration is defined as: ‘of or relating to the act of vibration.’ Hmmm… 'Relating to the act of vibration'... I sat with the definition a bit and chuckled … after reading it I was left contemplating the word vibration, as well as something about relating.

Happiness

Someone recently asked me what I thought happiness was. I replied, that I felt happiness was the free flow of energy, a continuous flow of healing vibration. This free flow of energy is what I call love.  Happiness is any sustained contact with love. Long ago, yogis discovered this energetic well-spring of joy and for thousands of years they came and went from this realm absorbing themselves in this dynamic, field of energy.

Free Flow

Free flow of energy can be studied in a variety of contexts. One of the ways that we study it is through the communication we share as human beings.  Communication can lead us to a deeper study of energy overall. Through our relationships with other humans, animals and our environment, and ultimately with our self, we have the capacity to feel what I am calling ‘the free flow of energy.’  For example, a healthy relationship with someone on an energetic level, leads to joy, harmony, alignment and prosperity, while an unhealthy connection causes pain, sadness, crisis, and eventual breakdown of that union. Communication in connection with another signifies the free flow of energy between you both through thought, word, and attention.  

Communication with self

It is similar with regards to the relationship with our self. The more there is conscious communication within us, the more we are in free flow of happiness with our self.  I think that we make it more complex than it is.  We think realizing true happiness or ‘the Self’ is all about going for the divine, but I say, let us first spend time with our own humanity.  Thich Nhat Hanh shared a Buddhist teaching from The Zen Master Lin Chi that echoes this, 'The miracle is not to walk on water, but to walk on the earth.'

When we are with our self in all of our humanity then we begin to develop the needed grounding in our self, and build a foundation of trust that supports us. As we trust in our self and in our connection with self we start to do as Lin Chi suggests, we ‘walk on the earth.’ When we do this we find the needed strength to be fully with our self.  As we learn to ‘be with’ self, genuine courage and strength wells up in us and we have the needed supports to venture out into the deep and meaningful waters of our own divine nature, to experience what it is like to touch the depth of the mystical teachings and in essence we feel what it is like to ‘walk on water.’

By Manorama

Copyright Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies, Manorama 2012

Keeping The Company of Sound

We live in the universe of continuous vibration, yet how many of us are aware of our own underlying energy or even the value in understanding it. With the rise of the global energy crisis, societies are slowly turning their attention to an awareness of the following questions:  What is energy? What is the value of energy? How do I relate with it?

The rise of continuous natural disasters all over the globe, as well as global warming, makes it clear that our world demands a more conscious conversation with the subject of energy.  Since times immemorial, the yoginis studied prana, energy.  They studied prana means that they followed it to its subtlest wave.  Coming in contact with the essence of energy they come to experience what is supporting that energy, i.e. the true Self beyond form and thought.

Vibration Quiets The Mind:

The Sanskrit language connects us to energy. By nature, mantras themselves are highly resonant. The Sanskrit alphabet is predominantly formed from sounds that are produced by rubbing the vocal chords together. This sound friction from the rubbing of the vocal chords together eventually turns into a kind of sound heat, and this friction and heat produce a lasting echo that follows these sounds. It is precisely this outer continuance or echo, after the sound is expressed, which lends Sanskrit the moniker of being called the language of vibration.  What that means is that Sanskrit makes us aware of vibration. And if we sit with pulsation, we gain access to what underlies that, which is silence and the eternal.

The Company You Keep:

So how does it work? Well, you say a sound and then sit and feel how much energy gets conjured. With mantras the effect is your skin pulsates, there is a deeper connection with what you hear, your mind becomes clearer and quieter and you feel tranquil and refreshed at the same time. 

Since Sanskrit mantras emanate from Source, they can link us with Source.  In effect, they model the process for us, all that we have to do is pay attention and follow along for the ride. When we hang out with the lasting continuance of energy found in the mantras, we get to feel ourselves as lasting and eternal.  Moreover, all mantras evolve and dissolve from or into the OM sound.  So immersion in resonant sounds creates a link between our every day self, our mind, and the sound of OM, nadam and God. 

Lord Patanjali recognizes the importance of chanting OM and connecting with nadam, when he says in Chapter 1, Sutra 27 & 28: Tasya Vacakah Pranavah (1.27), and Taj Japas Tad Artha- Bhavanam (1.28). These sutras say that OM is the name of God as well as nadam or vibration.

These sutras suggest the aspirant first focus attention on the outer expression of OM, as this will lead her eventually to the inner vibrational OM. The inner OM is the inner experience of God. If all mantras emanate from OM then they have the potential, through the chanting of them, to resolve us back to the divine. What happens is that by chanting the manifest sound, the student organically and naturally connects with eternal energy and the divine.

What Is Beyond Thought?:

Yogis advise that you go beyond thought to feel what you are. Many students try this practice and eventually find themselves asking, “What is beyond thought?”  Guru ji, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, would reply, “You, real You, is beyond thought.” He was referring to the limitless Self. We all want access to the real us. But how do we get there?

Through Sanskrit chanting we have the opportunity to cultivate connection with pure vibration and that takes us beyond the level of the thinking mind. It works like this, we focus on the mantra, that sound merges into pulsation, pulsation draws us inward and once we are in eventually we feel inner stillness where the mind in silent. The experience of inner silence is a primary focus for the yogini. In such silent connection, a yogini realizes her Self.  Therefore, Sanskrit chanting is an intentional yogic practice that develops freedom from thoughts. This doesn’t mean we won’t ever go to work, see our family and friends, use language in a common every day sense or think again. No, of course we will. It does however mean that through Sanskrit and the awakening of inner nadam, we have the opportunity to explore what we are beyond thought. And beyond thought is where we are.


By Manorama

Copyright Luminous Shabda/Sanskrit Studies, Manorama 2012