She Who Spreads Brightness in the World

Today, September 22, 2006, marks the beginning of a very sacred time in the year for three different religions.

For Jews, it is the start of the Rosh Hashanah or "the head of the year." Beginning in the 7th month of Tishri in the Hebrew calendar, the holiday commemorates the creation of the world. The Torah refers to Rosh Hashanah as Yom Teruah, day of sounding the shofar or the traditional ram's horn. When the horn is blown, it is meant to awaken the heart to this time of spiritual renewal. The High Holy Days end with the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

For Muslims, today marks the beginning of the month of Ramadan, when the holy Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. It begins with the first sighting of the crescent Moon and is calculated as the 9th month in the Islamic lunar calendar. During the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims from all over the world engage in a daily fast called "siyam" or "saum," which literally means "to be at rest." The most important day of all is the 27th night, the "Night of Destiny," when the Prophet Muhammad was blessed with the vision of the Qur'an.

And for Hindus, today begins the annual Navaratri or "Nine Nights of the Goddess" celebration. This is a time of the year in which a great cleansing and purification takes place throughout the whole of nature. Progressively over 9 days, a different aspect of Mother Divine manifests to eradicate suffering, replacing it with a brilliant light of purity that triumphs over darkness.

Today in the world perhaps the darkest cloud that hangs over our world is the perception of religious difference and the practice of intolerance. It astounds me that people actually kill and die because they think what they believe is the only truth.

The Vedic sages were wise in claiming that "Truth is One; The Wise call it by many names." I think this is beautifully demonstrated this year by the coincidence of these three holidays.

Every year I commemorate the Navaratri holiday with my own offerings. This year, I've given this time a theme -- "She Who Spreads Brightness in the World" -- and I will dedicate my efforts to a different manifestation of light on each of the 9 nights. I'll post my daily worship schedule and photos on this blog. Please feel free to join me or send me any prayers or intentions you would like me include.

More tomorrow on the specifics...Lokah Samasthah Sukhino Bhavantu! (May All Beings Be Happy!)

More on Squirrels and Sanskrit

Here is a picture of Mamasita in her nest (outside our meditation room), just having pulled in a teddy bear for her babies!

(So I have to make a correction from yesterday's post. Actually it was my husband, Jeff, who first made friends with the squirrel!)

There's a confusion running rampant in Yoga circles about what Yoga means exactly. Because the philosophy of non-dualism (or Advaita Vedanta) became very popular in the West, many Yogis think that Yoga means union in the sense that two things don't exist. There is only one reality -- Brahman.

Strictly speaking -- Yoga philosophy is the practice part of the Samkhya school of Vedic philosophy. And in Samkhya there are always two eternal principles -- Purusha (Pure Consciousness) and Prakriti (Pure Materiality) -- and they are always separate.

Enlightenment, according to Samkhya, happens when the intellect (the buddhi) realizes that it is not that (Pure Consciousness).

I know that doesn't sound as sexy as the idea of enlightenment as being the eradication of all difference and separation. And that can be rather crushing to learn that Yoga is part of a dualistic philosophy. Yet in Yoga, two things come together -- but not in the sense that salt merges with water and the water becomes brackish as a result. It's more like when two horses are yoked together to pull a chariot. (In fact, the Sanskrit word "Yoga" and the English "Yoke" are intimately connected...) The horses are separate, yet work together.

When we investigate more into the meaning and feeling of "atha" -- the present moment -- we realize that two things exist together at the same time. A = eternity and Tha = temporality. The moment is at once permanent and fleeting. It is totally free (A) and bound by time and space (Tha). It is the marriage of the Big Mind (A) with the changeable intellect (Tha).

And when the buddhi (the intellect) wakes up sufficiently to the eternal nature of the present moment, it can only realize that it is not that. Yet without the intellect being able to discriminate between what it is from what it isn't -- the reality of Pure Consciousness dawns.

(See -- so much to learn from observing a squirrel! :)

We're getting ready for the Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park next week where we're going to launch "Sanskrit for Yogis," my newly published self-study course to help Yogis learn Sanskrit. And Saturday is the first day of Navaratri -- the nine nights of the Goddess -- which I'll tell you more about next time...

On Squirrels and Sanskrit

One of my best friends is a squirrel named Mamasita ("little mother" in Spanish) who visits me everyday. It started last winter during a cold snap here in Colorado when a shivering and very pregnant squirrel showed up on our back porch. I offered her a nut and that was it. We're lifelong friends now.

Every morning I watch her amazing gymnastic feats, laugh out loud at her antics and gestures, and now that she lets me -- listen up close to her language. Lately, I've been calling to her using the sounds she makes. (I've learned these over the past months as she barks when other animals approach our back yard, chirps along with me as I chant the Lalita Sahasranama (the 1000 names of the Goddess) outside my meditation room window, and eats the nuts I give her.

Each of her sounds, I notice, come from her teeth -- as is the case with all rodents. In the rodent world, it's all about the teeth.

So it makes sense that in Sanskrit, the dental sounds correspond with the rodent kingdom -- and you can learn how exactly to make the dental sounds from these creatures. In English, we pronounce "th" as in "thank you," but in Sanskrit the sound is made differently. You have to make contact between the teeth and the lips and then release them as you exhale. As in the word -- "boaT House."

When we pronounce "tha" correctly according to Sanskrit, we create a tangible effect on our subtle physiology. The contact between the tongue and the teeth stimulates the center of the forehead, the location of the third eye (ajna chakra). This is the gateway of wisdom and the center of mental intelligence in the body.

Interestingly, in Vedic symbolism mental intelligence is depicted as a rodent -- a small rat or mouse, in fact. And who rides on a small mouse?

Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity. (See his picture with my first post on this blog...)

Ganesha is wisdom -- the vast nature of our consciousness symbolized by the largest of animals, the elephant. And he traverses the universe on the back of the smallest creature, the mouse.

What does this mean?

Yoga is the union of the small with the big -- the relative with the Absolute -- the individual with the universal.

It is also the realization of the mind of its higher nature, which happens when the third-eye of knowledge awakens.

In sound form, Ganesha (the Brahman) in connection with the rat (the Atman) is -- "atha" -- Now.

(See for yourself when you pronounce "atha" with this new awareness if you can experience this Yoga. Or perhaps you'll have to make friends with a squirrel and learn this way!)

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.

The Autumnal Clarity of Mind

Every day my husband, Jeff, and I take a morning walk around a lake near our house. I love it because it is both an opportunity for me to observe nature and enjoy a parade of dogs -- and their owners. (Boulder is a haven for dog lovers-- and the variety can be quite astounding! -- BTW, did you know the 4 Vedas are symbolized as 4 dogs?)

Today I felt it -- the chill rolling down the foothills from the snow above. Yes, autumn (which in Boulder can also be winter). The cold air made me move faster, made my lungs work harder, and...my mind open to the blue sky.

Patanjali described "atha" (the Now) as "the autumnal clarity of mind."

Autumnal as in the equinox. 12 hours of day = 12 hours of night. A point of perfect balance. As in the moment you notice the rich golden aspen leaves stark against the blue sky that reminds you of a free and full ocean -- and you sink in.

You only notice after the moment has passed that there was no thought in your mind. You know you weren't thinking anything because the first thing the mind says is -- "Oh, I wasn't thinking anything at all." It felt so sweet and clean.

You want to be back there with the mind expanding out across the prairie and the gravity of the open sky pulling you out even more.

This is when a "mantra" sung repetitively in the mind comes to our aid. Each breath in -- atha. Each breath out -- atha. Now and Now.

Until the mind drops off and one perfect, golden aspen leaf drifts back and forth.

First Word, Best Word

Atha Yoga Anusasanam || "Now is the focus of Yoga." (Patanjali Yoga Sutras 1:1)

Namaste and welcome to Swadhyaya ~ the daily blog of Shruti Institute for Vedic Arts!

My focus for the blog is to provide you with daily nourishment for your own self-inquiry into Yoga's profound knowledge. It is also to serve as a supplement to our "Sanskrit for Yogis" self-study course. (For more info, see www.SanskritforYogis.com) And it's portal into the life and adventures of a Yogini and teacher, Katyayani.

Sanskrit is not an ordinary language, like English or French. It is, rather, a technology for purifying and elevating human consciousness. For example, the "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" are each a technique, which through a highly refined mechanics of sound, convey the practice and wisdom of knowledge on a cellular bodily level.

The most fundamental and important technique of Sanskrit is the first word of any sacred scripture. The first word is the best word because it contains all the power and meaning of the entire body of knowlege. (The first letter even has the most transformative power and the contains the full shakti of the whole.)

Let's look at the first word of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras -- "atha." "Atha" contains two parts: "a" and "tha" (not "tha" as in "thank you" but "tha" as in boaTHouse). "A" means nothing, minus, negation, the void. And "tha" means solid, gravity, the earth. So together, "a-tha" means "not solid," "not gravity," or better "not bound." Free.

Conventionally, translators describe the meaning of "atha" as "now." But when we go into the parts of the word, feel them, and understand the many ways we could describe this word -- it becomes a meditation.

To be really free is to be unbound. And the only suitable way to render this state in English is with the word "now."

"Now is the focus of Yoga."

Each one of Patanjali's Sutras evolves out of the primal experience of "a," which is the Void, and each Sutra returns the Yogi who is bound by "tha" back to the primal, liberated state. Now.

"Atha" can also be used as a Mantra -- or a repetitive thought in the mind to establish that state on the most subtle level. And eventually the body starts to feel the blissful state of Now, as we become what we think.

More later...