Nama-Rupa (Name and Form)

Sometimes students ask me why it's important to chant in Sanskrit. Isn't it one of those old, dead languages like Latin that even the Catholic Church realized was antiquated and irrelevant in the modern age?

Or does chanting in Sanskrit make us Hindu wannabes?

Students ask these questions because they are confused about the real nature of Sanskrit -- and almost no one offers the correct explanation of what Sanskrit is.

Sanskrit is called the "perfected language" because its 50 distinct sounds perfectly replicate all the sounds inherent in nature. For example, when we make the guttural sound "ka" it vibrates in the back of our throat, stimulating the opening of the higher energetic centers. In nature, amphibians make the guttural sounds. Have you ever seen a bull frog singing on a hot summer night? His throat swells up as he keeps us awake!

Similarly, when we make the "ka" sound we align ourselves with the amphibian kingdom and its qualities. By intoning "ka" we establish ourselves in harmony with that aspect of nature.

In this way, the sound of something is intimately connected to its form. We know from physics that on the most subtle level, all matter is nothing but waves of sound. And the ancient Yogis knew that by replicating those sounds we can establish a profound state of unity -- which, as we know, is the goal of Yoga.

Through their meditation, the ancient rishis (sages) cognized the underlying sounds of creation and recorded them in their speech. The basic units of creation in its sound form, they discovered, were the 50 letters of Sanskrit.

When we say a word in Sanskrit -- "atha" for example -- we are actually recreating what that thing is in its sonic form. "Atha" is not a symbol for what in English we call "Now." It is "Now" as a pulse of vibration that establishes itself when we speak it. The sounds, "a-tha," are in perfect alignment with the reality of the present moment.

So it's to experience the identity of name and form that Yogis chant in Sanskrit.