4/9/2021 Sanskrit Sounds

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Nicolai was a presenter at our

studio. He explained the Yoga
Sutras in the way that our entire
YTT class could understand. The
concepts were illustrated with
modern scenarios. Very
About Sanskrit inspirational, very exceptional!
~ Suzanne

The Root Language of India

Sanskrit Sounds
Sanskrit is an exquisite language from ancient India whose beauty and design set it apart from
ordinary language. The word Sanskrit, in Sanskrit, is spelled Saṁskṛta, and means "refined" or "well
4.6
made." Over 3500 years old, Sanskrit arose among people who valued inner peace over outer Follow

possessions. Sanskrit was designed to express the ideas and concepts of this ancient yet highly
advanced culture. The sciences of yoga, medicine (Ayurveda), astronomy/astrology (Jyotisha), sound
(Mantra), mathematics, and many others, developed over thousands of years, and the accumulated
knowledge was recorded in Sanskrit, both aurally (via chanting) and in writing. FREE DOWNLOADS
 
MY JOURNEY: After studying and practicing yoga asana, meditation, and Ayurveda, I realized how Gayatri to the Sun
deeply I resonated with every form of knowledge coming from India. They all made so much sense, Tryambakum
and wove together seamlessly. Once I became exposed to Sanskrit, my interest was piqued. I knew
Sahanavavatu
that in order to fully understand the sciences and world-view of India, I needed to learn Sanskrit, So
as impractical as it was, I sought the best teachers I could find and pursued the study of Sanskrit Purnamadah
wholeheartedly for many years. This developed into teaching workshops, writing books, recording Shakti Mantras
audio, and continuing to study on my own and with other teachers.
  and more...
SOUND: Sound is the highest priority in Sanskrit. In the beginning, the sacred texts called Veda-s
were not written down, only chanted. Having a language that is 100% phonetic makes it much easier
to preserve these sacred sounds. Because most people automatically blend words together when
speaking fast, sound blending rules were created, ensuring the spoken and the written always match.
Pronunciation has always been extremely important, since all sound has an energetic effect. The
science of Mantra developed from this idea, and Sanskrit sounds are made in specific mouth
positions long the human palate, each causing vibration to travel in a different direction.

Pronunciation

Here is a pronunciation chart for the Sanskrit alphabet:

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Some of the words I used do not exist in English (like "shdum"), but I needed to create them to cause
the correct sound to happen in the mouth. Sanskrit is 100% phonetic: each written character is
always pronounced the same way. This makes Sanskrit very easy to learn and pronounce. A spelling
bee in Sanskrit would be impossible. Rhythm is built into the language, each syllable being either
short (one beat) or long (2 or more beats). For example, "guru" is made of "gu" and "ru", each a short
syllable, so it gets 2 beats total. The word "āsana" is made of a long "ā", short "sa" and short "na", so
it is pronounced more like "aasana" and gets 2+1+1=4 beats total. It is important to have the correct
diacritical marks above or below certain letters, otherwise there is no way to know how to pronounce
them. Sanskrit was designed for the human vocal apparatus. Each sound in the alphabet is made in a
specific place within the mouth or throat. There are 5 mouth positions, including gutteral (back of the
throat as in "k" or "g"), palatal (top of the palate as in "ch" or "j"), cerebral (smooth, round area of hard
palate behind and above the teeth), dental (touching the back of the teeth, as in "t" or "d" or "n"), and
labial (lips, as in "p" or "b" or "m").

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When words meet, as in a sentence or phrase, any incompatibilities of sound will be resolved. The
written is always an exact reflection of the spoken. For example, in English we pronounce "I passed
the test" more like "I past the test". In Sanskrit, it would be pronounced exactly as written. Sanskrit is
a natural language, meaning its sounds are said to truly represent what they mean. For example, the
sound "ga" expresses motion, as in the English "go" or the Sanskrit root "gam."

Why is pronunciation so important in Sanskrit?

Sanskrit is highly respected in India as their sacred, divine, mother language. To honor this
tradition it is important to spend a little time to learn at least the basics of pronunciation.
reading Sanskrit words rendered in English letters with no diacritical marks, and pronouncing
them as an English word, almost always results in poor pronunciation, and often the
expression of a completely different energy. Here are some blatant examples: mala means
"impurity" and in Ayurveda translates to "feces, urine or sweat" mālā means "necklace of
beads, garland, rosary" OR ananda means "unhappiness" while ānanda means "enhanced
happiness, bliss"
chanting a mantra, especially a single-seed "bija" mantra (click here for examples), releases
specific energy into the world. The more the sound ̥(śabda), intention, meaning (artha) and
visualization (yantra) align, the more powerful the desired effect will be. Even if the mantra is
recited mentally, it is still based on the audible sound.
chanting divine names of gods and goddesses invokes the energies they represent. If these
are mispronounced, then the resulting vibration may shift into something that is not intended.

How can you use Sanskrit in your practice?

japa: chanting mantra correctly aligns it with your intention

learn key terms from the yoga sutras, instead of their incomplete English approximations
learn to pronounce the asana names correctly, including their proper rhythm

History and Linguistics

Sanskrit is the mother tongue of Indo-European languages, including Latin, English, Spanish, French,
German and Italian. Sanskrit is also the basis of most languages spoken in India, especially in the
north. Hindi, the most common Indian language, shares the same written script as Sanskrit, although
the sentence structure and grammar are quite different. Pure Hindi, called "shuddh Hindi," is directly

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from Sanskrit and thus shares many words with it. Hindustani is the version of Hindi that is half Urdu,
which is from Persian. Hindustani is the most common form of Hindi spoken in India today. It is
important to distinguish between a written script and a language. A language is a way of
communicating, and has a grammar which defines its word and sentence formation. For example, "I
eat soup" is a simple sentence in the English language. To write a language on paper, you need a
script. In English, we use what is called Roman script, which consists of the written letters a through
z. Other Indo-European languages use the Roman script as well, sometimes with little marks added
above or below certain letters, called "diacritical" marks. For example, the French ague or the
German umlaut. 99.9% of the time, one particular language will be written in one particular script.
Many Indic languages share the same alphabetic sound structure. Each uses a different written glyph
for the same actual sound. Because the sounds are the same, you can write many different
languages using the same script. For example, T. Krishnamacarya, the teacher of BKS Iyengar,
Pattabhi Jois and TKV Desikachar, wrote Sanskrit verses using his native Telegu script. The Sanskrit
language is usually written in a script called Devanagari. Indic scripts have no capitalization. The
Sanskrit alphabet in Devanagari is shown below.

When a foreign script is rendered into a more familiar script, it is called transliteration. This allows the
reader to pronounce the foreign word properly without needing to learn the foreign script. For
example, when a Sanskrit word in Devanagari script is transliterated into Roman script, it is much
easier to pronounce.

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The Sanskrit alphabet in transliteration is shown below:

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