How to Learn Sanskrit from Basics to Mastery - Workshop Recording - Feb2026, Mysuru

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]Namaskarum.

[00:00:03]My name is Ud.

[00:00:06]I love Sanskrit as a language. And uh in the next 90 minutes, how many of you have heard of Sanskrit?

[00:00:18]Uh I don't know much French, but compra uh japur. Okay. But yes, if most of the session, the next 90 minutes is about what Sanskrit is, what it has to offer.

[00:00:37]Most of you I know have come to Mysuru for yoga.

[00:00:41]Yoga which is a discipline which is a which is which is a state of being finds its theory aspect largely in Sanskrit as a language. Sanskrit is one of the classical languages of this country of Bharat.

[00:01:02]Generally, those of you who have studied it before might feel or might have found that Sanskrit sounds difficult, complex or it might sound a little intimidating.

[00:01:16]But as some of you might have noticed the title of this session is Sanskrit natural, logical and simple.

[00:01:26]I have not deceived you. It is simple.

[00:01:28]There is complexity to it. It is almost like chess. The rules of it are very very simple. Just eight squares, 8 by8 grid. But the strategy, the complexity keeps growing. Sanskrit is similar. It is very rhythmic. It is very logical. It is very natural. And the rules of it are much more consistent than many other languages you'll find.

[00:01:53]So in the next 90 minutes you'll not master Sanskrit as a language but hopefully by the end of the next 90 minutes you will get much more comfortable and you will appreciate Sanskrit for its simplicity and its structure. That is the objective of this course and I have been studying this language for the past around 12 13 years. Um it is that language. Sanskrit is where all the other languages of this country originate from. And in the language we have texts that uh cover a vast range of subjects from yoga to ayurvea. Texts of ayurveda are in this language. Texts of jotisha which is roughly translated as astrology are in this language. Texts of tantra are in this language. Texts of mathematics, Ganita, texts of music, Sangeita, text of dance, Natya. Any field of exploration in this civilization that is Bharat finds its expression in Sanskrit.

[00:03:02]I want us all to start with a small invocatory line. I hope all of you have this handout.

[00:03:09]I know the first line is hard for you to read if not impossible right now. But the next three lines depict how Sanskrit as sounds can be written in the using Roman letters the English alphabet but we'll see that it is not the most ideal way of doing it but if you need help you can refer to those three ways of writing Sanskrit which is given below if you do not want any of this I would actually suggest that you close your eyes just repeat the sound that I am uttering All right. The first sound man.

[00:03:49]>> Perfect. I'm not hearing man or man.

[00:03:51]That is perfect already. Man, >> d >> not d.

[00:04:03]>> So mandi is different from mandi.

[00:04:08]>> Maki.

[00:04:11]>> Perfect. Wow. That just sounds so beautiful. One more time.

[00:04:18]>> Beautiful.

[00:04:19]>> Javana.

[00:04:27]>> Beautiful.

[00:04:29]Javana.

[00:04:32]>> The next sound is bin.

[00:04:36]>> Not bin like the husband. It's B is an explosive sound from the mouth. Bin >> bin.

[00:04:46]>> Perfect. D >> bind.

[00:04:54]>> Perfect. Va >> vum chum >> bacham bind.

[00:05:08]>> Next sound.

[00:05:09]>> A >> vin >> da da >> n >> na >> na >> a vin dna.

[00:05:25]A rainda.

[00:05:28]Perfect. Arinda.

[00:05:33]>> Beautiful. Next sound. D.

[00:05:37]>> Not D. I'm hearing D. D.

[00:05:40]>> D.

[00:05:41]>> Sha.

[00:05:44]>> Perfect. Dsha.

[00:05:46]>> Dsha.

[00:05:48]>> Pay close attention to this. B sha >> perfect may >> let's all of us close our eyes now >> I'll do this in phrases in sections I'll not do it sound by sound but I'll do it in sections see if you can follow it along with me you can keep your eyes closed at the end once I see that most of you are comfortable. I I'll add a little bit of a tune to this, a melody to this. See if you can follow it along. Please keep your eyes closed.

[00:06:40]Vamish may mand.

[00:07:19]One more time together.

[00:07:37]One more time together.

[00:07:45]You need not repeat this time after me.

[00:07:47]Just pay attention to this.

[00:07:59]One more time.

[00:08:01]Just pay attention to this. No, you need not do it with me.

[00:08:25]to me.

[00:08:27]We'll try to do this one more time at the end together.

[00:08:31]But let us just say it without any tune together once.

[00:08:40]You can look at your handouts if you want to.

[00:08:46]Then keep looking at your handouts and we'll do this thrice then. Is that okay?

[00:08:52]This has a beautiful meaning which is written right below it. I'll come to that. But the sounds of it go like this.

[00:09:11]One more time.

[00:09:22]to me. Perfect. One last time. See? One second. One second. One second. This time because you're looking at it, maybe you can do it in tune one more time. I I'll just say it. Sing it. See if you can follow along in tune next time.

[00:09:49]Mand thank you.

[00:10:04]We have not started the session yet.

[00:10:06]This was the invocatory verse. I wanted to start with this line because it has beautiful meaning and this was written or composed by a poet of this country who is one of the greats whose name is Khali Dasa.

[00:10:25]So Khalidasa is known for many many beautiful pieces of literature but more than all of that he was known for being an extremely devout devotey of goddess Kali and this line is on her and this is a prayer seeking the goddess to grant us speech which defeats the river Mandakini.

[00:10:54]Mandakini is a river.

[00:10:57]The line is asking that asking uh the goddess Kali to give us to grant us speech which defeats the river mandakin in the strength of its flow.

[00:11:11]So we'll and if how many of you into music here some form of music did you guys notice anything going on in this line?

[00:11:29]It has a flow to it. It has a rhythm to it. Does it? Does it? Are we imagining it or is there a rhythm to it?

[00:11:41]We will figure it out together. Not just the musicians by the by the time we get to the last page of the handout. You can take a peek at it how that is.

[00:11:51]By the time we reach the last page of the handout, we will see the rhythmic nature of Sanskrit and appreciate the rhythms of poetry in Sanskrit.

[00:12:03]But all right, a beginner of language does not start with lines like this.

[00:12:09]They start with the alphabet. All of us start with the alphabet. All of us know to some extent A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, etc. What are those in Sanskrit? They start like this. You just open your mouth and say the most basic sound that you can, the most natural sound you can ut. Say ah. A.

[00:12:28]>> That is the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet. Ah. A.

[00:12:32]>> Now you just say it for longer. Ah. A.

[00:12:35]>> That is the second letter of the alphabet. Now you close your mouth slightly so that there is a constrict at the back of your mouth. And again say the most natural sound that can come out. E.

[00:12:48]>> E. You notice how Ah is more open. You just constrict the mouth a little further becomes E.

[00:12:55]>> The fourth alphabet, any guesses?

[00:12:58]>> E. E. You just do that for slightly longer. So, A E.

[00:13:05]Next, you Oh, perfect. Some of you who have learned the language before know this, but many of you are new to the language completely. So the next letter of the alphabet is you make a round closed shape with your mouth. You construct it even further and say oo.

[00:13:28]The fifth is ooh. What would the sixth be?

[00:13:32]>> Ooh. There we go. So you see there is some sort of a natural progression to this sequence as well. A E I E E U is a very natural way of producing sounds from the back of the mouth. Slowly it is coming outward.

[00:13:53]You notice it. We will let this these are the vowels in English. What are the vowels?

[00:14:01]All of you know. A, E, I, O, U. There are five vowels. And what do vowels do?

[00:14:09]They support the consonants. Perfect. So consonants do not have a sound of their own. C or does not have a sound. You add an a or a e or a u la le to make a sound manifest out outside you need vowels.

[00:14:28]Right? How do you pronounce p the letter p?

[00:14:34]P e is p. Right? But p by itself the letter p. But just there it's so in English itself the technical term for it is a stop consonants are stopping sounds and vowels are sounds which give flow we will come to vowels of Sanskrit in a bit but even the consonants of Sanskrit start at the back which is the pit of the throat I want you all to go to the second page of the handout we'll come back to the wels in a bit.

[00:15:14]The first consonant of Sanskrit is C.

[00:15:20]When we are practicing the language, by default, we add an H to it so that it's easier to pronounce it. Otherwise, it's just C.

[00:15:29]But to say it, we say C.

[00:15:32]>> The next sound is >> C.

[00:15:37]>> What is the difference?

[00:15:40]It's more breier. Yes, there's more air behind it. It's C. It's an explosive sound. C. But it's coming from the same part of the mouth. Is it C and C? Same part of the mouth. Now C and C are sharp sounds. If we make it slightly softer, we get from the same part of the mouth.

[00:16:02]G.

[00:16:04]Do you see that? It's again from the same part of the mouth. G.

[00:16:08]You can do this. You can take your two fingers, first two fingers, and place it at the pit of the throat. Say >> c.

[00:16:20]>> All of them coming from the same place.

[00:16:22]The next sound is >> g >> coming from the same place. Now the final sound in this first row of consonants is a nasal sound.

[00:16:35]So it is said using the nose. This is slightly tricky but I want you to experiment with this and see for you to get uh a better sense of what this sound is. This is that nasal sound which is in the middle of the word ganga.

[00:16:52]All of you know the word ganga. Most of you it's the name of another river ganga.

[00:16:59]>> Ganga. Say ganga.

[00:17:02]Do do you notice that there is a sound nasal sound somewhere in Ganga?

[00:17:06]>> If you do not know that, I want you to try this experiment. Close your nose.

[00:17:10]Hold your nose and try to say Ganga.

[00:17:12]>> G.

[00:17:15]So the sound that went away when you try to say Ganga >> is the nasal sound because you don't have your nose anymore. That is a nasal sound. Which is that?

[00:17:25]>> Listen to this. It is N.

[00:17:31]>> If you want to check if you're doing it properly, close your nose and try to say. You should not be able to.

[00:17:36]>> If you're still able to say that, that's not the sound.

[00:17:41]Say Ganga.

[00:17:43]>> There is a N sound to it. It is not ganga. Sorry.

[00:17:47]>> It is ganga.

[00:17:50]>> Two hints. This this nasal sound is coming from here, from the pit of the throat.

[00:17:56]And you should not be able to say it when you hold your nose. So it is N.

[00:18:00]Perfect. C-GN.

[00:18:10]>> The arrow shows where it's coming from.

[00:18:12]In the handout, the arrow shows where this these five sounds are coming from.

[00:18:17]Now we know where to go from the pit of the throat. Slightly outward.

[00:18:22]This next consonant is ch.

[00:18:26]Ch.

[00:18:27]>> It's actually ch but to ch we add that h so that we can say it out and we get ch.

[00:18:33]What what are the parts of the mouth used to say ch?

[00:18:37]>> Tongue. Yes. Surface of the tongue.

[00:18:40]Which part of the tongue? The back surface of the tongue. Ch. Right. Almost the middle back. Ch. And it is going to touch the roof of the mouth. Correct.

[00:18:50]Ch. The next sound again is an explosive sound. It is >> ch.

[00:18:59]>> Perfect. The next sound is a softer version of the same thing. J >> the good guess but it has to touch the surface. If you say h you cannot or y butch the surface is touching the roof of the mouth.

[00:19:13]>> Ch.

[00:19:18]>> Any guesses? Next sound.

[00:19:21]J.

[00:19:23]>> We we did >> ch >> J. There you go.

[00:19:29]>> J. And the fifth one is a nasal sound.

[00:19:33]What is the nasal sound that is coming from this part of the mouth?

[00:19:38]>> Nasal sound. You should not be able to say this when you hold your nose. I'll give you another hint like I gave you for Ganga. This nasal sound appears in the word chanchchala.

[00:19:49]>> Chanchchala.

[00:19:52]Hold your nose and try to say chala ch.

[00:19:57]>> You know where the sound got stuck? That is the nasal sound for the second row.

[00:20:01]It is >> funny enough all the all the foreigners.

[00:20:08]Those of you who think oh we are from a different country so we might not get this right. Even we don't get this right. In our own country different parts of the country butcher this sound in their own unique ways. So you need not worry about it. So you were saying there is no to it.

[00:20:24]>> There is no to it. It is >> perfect. Chala mula. All of these have that sound to it.

[00:20:34]Cha.

[00:20:36]We started here. We went slightly forward. Then we come even further out.

[00:20:43]We say t.

[00:20:45]I know most of you who are not from the country are used to saying T with the tip of the tongue up against the roof.

[00:20:53]But here we roll it back. Roll the tongue back. I know this is a very new phenomena for many uh nonindex speakers.

[00:21:03]You roll the tongue back. It in English the technical term for this is retroflex.

[00:21:10]So you move it back like this and hold it against the roof of the mouth and say and flick it forwards. T.

[00:21:23]So not to nitpick but when taratu the beautiful mantra that we are saying t is not the sound. T is the sound t. But this is t. All right. This is in words like uh um kaka. We'll we'll get come to the words later, but it is the tongue rolled back up and the tip flegged forwards. T. Can I hear that? T no t. It's a sharp sound. It's a very sharp sound. There is no softness to it.

[00:22:01]T perfect individuals.

[00:22:06]Perfect. Yes.

[00:22:08]>> No. You have See, there is You're trying to imitate the sound that I'm making, but I want you to do this instead. Do the instructions that I'm saying verbally. You have to roll your tongue back.

[00:22:27]Place it against the roof of the mouth and flick it forwards. T.

[00:22:34]There you go. You're getting it perfectly. You try.

[00:22:39]What's happening there is you're rolling your tongue back up. Perfect. But not against the roof of the mouth, but behind the teeth. The teeth. Upper row of teeth. I don't want it behind the teeth. I want it up. T.

[00:22:55]There you go. T.

[00:22:59]Yes. You may. Yes.

[00:23:04]again. T.

[00:23:05]>> Perfect.

[00:23:06]Ma'am, do you want to try it? The sound T. Yes, you.

[00:23:14]>> Yes. Good. One more time for me. T. Yes.

[00:23:19]You are the going to the next sound almost, which is any guesses? The same sound with more air. T.

[00:23:28]It's getting softer, guys. I can hear th >> one of Shiva's names all of you know Shiva to some extent any of you who not know Shiva all of us are familiar with him one of his names is Nilakanta >> which means the one who is bluethroated the one whose throat is blue the sound there is not nilakanta it is nilant the t sound T. Perfect. One more time for me.

[00:24:03]>> T.

[00:24:05]>> No, no.

[00:24:05]>> T.

[00:24:09]>> There you go.

[00:24:10]>> All these five sounds in this third row are from the same place.

[00:24:15]Yes.

[00:24:17]T >> T.

[00:24:20]What is the softer variation of T? T is sharp. Like if G is a softer variation of C, what is a softer variation of T?

[00:24:31]Duh. Duh is coming from the same place where you for all of this the action that the tongue is making is the same.

[00:24:42]I know for t and duh and the English or other language speaking people they're used to perform a different kind of an action with the vocal apparatus but here the action that is happening is the tongue rolls upward the tip touches the roof of the mouth and flicks forward.

[00:25:05]>> Tu du >> du The nasal sound here is >> N.

[00:25:16]>> There you go. I heard it perfectly here.

[00:25:19]>> Tongue is the exact same action of the tongue. Tongue is rolling back upwards and flicking forward.

[00:25:29]>> Tu.

[00:25:35]>> Uh, this duh. Can I hear a duh?

[00:25:38]>> The >> No, that's soft. I'm hearing the Okay, we'll we'll see what the difference is when we come to the next line. But for now, it is >> duh, >> duh >> and n.

[00:25:51]>> Perfect. This n I can I could hear very clearly. Now the next sound, next series of five sounds, they are coming from the tip of the tongue reaching the back portion behind the upper row of teeth.

[00:26:08]I want you to notice this tip of the tongue against the upper row of teeth.

[00:26:14]T.

[00:26:15]>> Do you notice this? T. The tongue went up and is behind the upper row of teeth.

[00:26:20]T.

[00:26:22]>> Correct. T.

[00:26:23]>> Now an explosive sound here. Th >> the >> the >> again some of you might be used to to uttering the like tongue coming out of the mouth. Again be beyond not out of the mouth beyond the teeth. The he is the teacher you are used to saying right the if any of you when you're saying the how do you pronounce the.

[00:26:52]>> Yes. Oh, now you are changing it for me.

[00:26:54]In English, English native English speakers might be used to pronouncing the like this. Tongue coming out of the upper row of teeth. The that when you say that, the the is coming beyond the upper of teeth. But in Sanskrit, the tongue and the tip of the tongue is behind the upper row of teeth.

[00:27:16]That's okay. the >> T >> the >> DN T-n.

[00:27:33]>> Now because you know these sounds here, you know it is not these sounds when for the previous line. So when we said T du du, it was not t- These are two different lines and where this sound what the position of the mouth is for both these uh rows.

[00:27:58]I hope it is clear. Any questions? Final the grand finale of all the consonants is what is the last part of the mouth that we can use for pronunciation? Lips.

[00:28:09]Anything beyond that we can use. Nothing beyond that. So P >> H >> B >> B.

[00:28:18]>> What is the nasal sound with the lips?

[00:28:20]>> M. If you have any doubts as to O when saying M, where is the nose being used?

[00:28:27]Same experiment. Try saying, you see, you're being restricted.

[00:28:34]So M is the final nasal sound.

[00:28:38]C-C-gba.

[00:28:55]Simple enough. In this sequence, do you see any particular progression? Any anything, any sequence, any natural?

[00:29:03]Yes. Yes.

[00:29:05]>> Yes. From back to front, from inside to outside >> from the pit of the throat to the lips.

[00:29:11]Yes. Step by step there is a logical sequence in which these are organized.

[00:29:27]You don't have to hold your breath, you know, pump your stomach and try these things. Practicing the just the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet is its own kind of pranayam.

[00:29:41]Now I did not want to progress with the vowels yet because after a a e so far so good. The next one is R.

[00:29:55]This is where uh most Meditaran Mediterranean countries and we have something in common. We don't soften our Rs. The R goes very strongly. It's not uh Parvati Parvati.

[00:30:13]It's a bit of a practice practice itself. I run. We might you might hear us saying. We pronounce it as I run because R is a very clearly enunciated sound in Sanskrit. The sixth, the seventh vowel is R.

[00:30:33]The next one is R. There is a longer variant of it. R is used in words like Rishi.

[00:30:42]It is not Rishi. You might have heard the twile prime minister of UK rishi r i s h i there is no i in it. E is a different vowel and r is a wobble in rishi ru ka. U what else? Rua all of these have that vowel sound.

[00:31:07]R does not have any words. It is used in the next vowel sound. There is only one word. It is used in entirety of Sanskrit vocabulary. But why? If there are no sounds, there are no words which are formed using these vowel sounds. Then why do we have these wobbles in the language? It's for completion. That is the bane of Sanskrit to some extent which is even if it is not practical because it is sequential and it has to be there that part of the mouth has to be used they put it we don't think about oh we can't make any words with it because the next sound is ri and there's only one word called which you need not use there is just that one word in the entirety of Sanskrit literature which might I don't know how many words are possible It's countless number of words among all of them only one word uses this next bubble which is so you can as well ignore it if but if you want to you can try but and the next variant >> these are not no yeah >> okay good question so a eu we know what the position of our mouth is what know what we are doing with it.

[00:32:29]For R, the tip of the tongue goes against the mound of the pallet in all of our pallets has a small protrusion downwards. The mound behind the upper row of teeth. Can you feel it? You know that like this? Yeah. The tip of the tongue goes to touch it but not fully.

[00:32:53]That is where it is from. R R Yes, that is where it is from. Now the next vowel R and R are from the mound.

[00:33:05]The tip of the tongue and the mound. And the next sound R is from the teeth backwards to the mound. R.

[00:33:14]If you want to practice it later on, you can you need not worry about it because only one word and that means something which has been created.

[00:33:26]You can as well work with entirety of Sanskrit language without never having to without ever having to use that word.

[00:33:32]The next sound is a natural progression of which is which is a longer variant of it. One thing is these sounds are also used in tantra all of you know the seven chakras I'm sure how many of them you know the seven chakras what is the one that here >> oh perfect I thought I'd hear throat chakra but I'm hearing Sanskrit sounds perfect vishudhi now each chakra has what is a chakra it's basically a point where the energy within the body comes together and distributes itself.

[00:34:12]The pathways the channels in which these energy uh nadis or this energy distributes itself they are called they are depicted as petals of a lotus and they say muladhara which is at the base of the spine has four petals that lotus have you ever seen a lotus with four petals hard to find? I have not. But these depict the pathways in which energy radiates outward from that energy center. Vishuhi has 16.

[00:34:48]Anywhere else you find that 16 number places but in language the 16 wobble sounds that we just see. So each of the petals of vishudhi chakra each of these wobbles is associated with it. When people do sadhana on vishudhi, they chant these 16 sounds in this sequence a e but with a nasal sound attached to it as sadhana. There and are used in sadhana but not in vocabulary and literature.

[00:35:24]So it is not that and do not have their uses. They do they and they complete the pattern the physical pattern in which sounds can be produced from the mouth from the vocal cavity. A a e r and the next sound is a.

[00:35:48]>> Can I hear it? A.

[00:35:50]>> A is seen as a combination of a and e.

[00:35:55]So how A is said and how E is said. If you position your mouth somewhere between Ah and E and mix those two sounds, you get a mix them both together fully. And if you mix A and U and position your mouth at a place where you in between a and u you get O.

[00:36:21]These will form the rules of Sanskrit grammar. Any of you have any guesses as to how many rules of Sanskrit grammar there are?

[00:36:30]200. Stop me when you think this is about it. 100 most of them should be more. 200 should be more. Probably 1,000 lesser more.

[00:36:45]>> 2,000 more than 2,000.

[00:36:49]>> 5,000 >> must be fewer. There are 4,000 rules of grammar.

[00:36:56]I would dare say just 4,000 because in other languages the exceptions are much more.

[00:37:06]There are rules but then there are exceptions. Oh, there are unique situations where something is silent, something is not, something is pronounced a, e, a, o, a. We don't know.

[00:37:15]But in Sanskrit there are 4,000 actually fewer 3,957 etc. But that's it. No more, no less.

[00:37:26]The entirety of the language has the framework of it has been put forth long long ago by this sage called Panini who came up with these who did not come up with it who saw the language happening and then structured the rules of grammar into 4,000 such rules called Ashtadhai.

[00:37:46]This uh is studied upon in multiple universities across the world. Uh Panini Ashtadhay this system of grammar is studied but we need not worry about all of that. But if we go into that we will see how a and u combined together to form o as a rule. But it is not a rule.

[00:38:08]Some of you who are practicing chanting might have heard that om is written as a u m.

[00:38:15]Some of you might even practice it as a and but in the tradition you might be hearing Omap or that is because a and u when these sounds come together they form o naturally.

[00:38:33]You will see this in many other words where o is there many times you might split it and form maha and utsa mahutsa.

[00:38:44]So a and u by coming together and ga and isha forms ganesha. So if where is ganesha is a word coming from ga and isha a and e coming together to form a as a sound.

[00:38:58]So a and e when they both come together to they form a and the next vowel is o a. Oh then there is i. I'm sorry. The a and I you don't combine but say one after the other it forms I a I then o a you say it together a i o.

[00:39:26]The next sound is um >> where you close your mouth. The last sound is ah a where you let go of the air in your lungs. That's it. Uh Jasmine is not here but uh she had asked me a question uh in we are chanting this om shanti.

[00:39:50]Why are we saying that he? Where is that he coming from at the end?

[00:39:55]There are just two sounds you in shanti shanty shanti when it is written you'll just see those that expulsion of air is just two vertical dots right you say you expelled your air but how many of you have chanted this before om shanty shanty shanty he because what does an expulsion of air make the sound ah there's no vowel to it but if that expulsion of air is coming after Ha.

[00:40:25]You ext extend that sound. Ra expulsion of air. Rama.

[00:40:32]Gu expulsion of air. You extend it as guru who because there is u before that expulsion of air. Hi expulsion of air. Hari.

[00:40:48]Uh they no expulsion of air. They no whatever wel is before that expulsion of air you extend it and that is why shanti and expulsion of air shantihi.

[00:41:04]There are nuances like this. But then why is it not shantihi shantihi shantihi?

[00:41:10]That is because after the expulsion of air that is another there is another that is coming immediately after it. So these two last vowels um and ah get influenced in their pronunciation depending on what is coming after it as a sound and what is coming before it as a vowel. Simple simple to go to complex already. Simple enough. We have finished the alphabet Sanskrit alphabet. Yay.

[00:41:43]We've just finished. Yes. If you have any questions, you can discuss this among yourselves. If you have any questions, you can ask me. Yes.

[00:41:53]>> Great question.

[00:41:56]>> Why do we do this? Why is this in a wubble? Why is it among the wobbles?

[00:42:01]Why do we do this?

[00:42:05]This is where we get into the theory of sound itself. Where is sound coming from? If you these sages they in their leisure nothing else to do they thought oh if I'm speaking where is this sound coming from they saw that it is coming from two elements within the body fire yes perfect air >> elements the five elements that we know >> the earth water fire ele uh wind and space >> air and fire from the body in the body.

[00:42:43]But yes, sound as an element is associated with space.

[00:42:46]Uh sound as an entity is associated with accasha space. But in the body there is fire and wind that is coming together to form sound as we utter as speech instead of sound. Let me say this speech. Speech is coming from the elements of wind and fire in the body. And we started a We whenever we want to use that fire and wind all of these sounds have an aspect of wind and fire. Without wind and fire there is no speech.

[00:43:22]After every kind of usage of sound is done. Once you are done with it you don't want anything more of it left in the body. So you expel it all out. So the last vowel sound is just an expulsion of the air that you used that you have generated to make speech to make the time of >> I wouldn't call it relaxation. I would I would call it closure and completion.

[00:43:56]>> End >> done. any you will also see that this visa is used generally at the end of words sentences usually but some exceptions there also sometimes it's there in the middle especially depending on what you want to convey I want you to also notice this I definitely am sitting here as a fan of Sanskrit as a language but my curiosity lies in the relationship ship between sound and meaning as a human phenomena.

[00:44:35]If you notice this, any of you know what this word means in English? Titi, >> situation.

[00:44:45]>> State.

[00:44:48]>> What is uh what is a Sanskrit word you think is for station?

[00:44:55]Have you heard the word stanam?

[00:44:58]Stanum.

[00:45:00]>> What does statue mean?

[00:45:04]>> Something that stays at one place.

[00:45:07]>> What does stay convey?

[00:45:10]Stay to be in one place. That t as a sound has something within it. Doesn't come from Sanskrit. Doesn't come from English, Latin, Greek, whatever else.

[00:45:21]There is something in the sound itself that conveys that essence of being still, station, stationary, uh, situation.

[00:45:34]Anything else you if you just sit and find, you will find even more words with that th which has the essence of staying still, stationary, situated in one place. It's not just a Sanskrit phenomena.

[00:45:48]Same and s In Sanskrit s means same as a sound heart and that hut as a sound. Uh there are all these examples of mother and matra having the same sound ma somewhere holds that sound within itself. Um there are many many examples like this.

[00:46:15]Perfect. Create creativity.

[00:46:20]Uh that has that creation that something in the sound itself that is very inherent uh which conveys an essence.

[00:46:38]So the theory extends itself. They it's it's not also just imagination. There is something existentially true about this that if there is an entity in creation any entity in creation there is a sound associated with it and that is where the science of mantras come from that you want to impact something externally or within yourself. You notice what its nature is and the sound the vibration the vibe sound whatever is associated with it and see what that sound is that gum represents going. Gana gi going has that g sound but why why do words mean what they do is a is an almost spiritual exploration. It is it is beyond us thinking about these sounds and just saying oh this sound just means this this sound means this. It's not something that we have intellectually given correlations to that all right if I think of floor I'll give that flur floor sound there is something in the sound itself and after saying all this coming back to Sanskrit and taking some credit for the language and its uh greatness among these relationships between sounds and what they convey Sanskrit as a language has this relationship closest is what they say and is also it's something that you can feel for yourself. This is a very experiential process.

[00:48:17]So any word if you can just go on this kind of a rabbit hole with any word that you take up. Why does any mean any? Why does experience that what what is there in that sound? For example, tut in Sanskrit means that it is not because people migrated and languages traveled across borders that these words have these commonalities.

[00:48:42]It is much much more profound. It is not because people there is of course this phenomena that all right some people you call pama pama because pjama is in Indian word of course no words travel.

[00:48:54]You call rice rice because rice came the Tamil Nadu it is Arsu. There is this phenomenon of languages traveling across borders. But irrespective of where a language originated, irrespective of its geography, sounds still share meanings which are common depending on the sound itself because sound has that. Kali Dasa our favorite expressed this very poetically. This is the beauty of this tradition. We know something we don't say it out straight.

[00:49:30]We package it in some sort of a beautiful poetic expression some story.

[00:49:36]Khalidasa says bak which is an utterance and ara which is what it means the meaning of the utterance are intertwined and inseparable like Shiva and Parvati.

[00:49:49]He says if there is one cannot exist without the other. If there is an ara there is a vak to it and there is an vak there is an ara to it. There is an utterance there is something that it conveys. If you have to convey an entity anything there is a sound that is best that captured by it.

[00:50:09]And we have already become kind of masters of the Sanskrit alphabet to some extent. But why do all of this? Why do this study? I know most of you have uh this inclination towards studying the um the practice of yoga in your own different traditions in your own styles in your but all of you have to some extent benefited from the practice of yoga. Now all of this finds theory and its uh its foundations in texts of yoga. How many of you have heard of yoga sutras of Patanjali?

[00:50:54]Most of you. The very first line all of you know aa shasan.

[00:51:10]Now because we have explored all of this that if something has to be conveyed there is a sound to it and if there is a sound there is something then essence to it. How do you think this line was crafted?

[00:51:30]Just randomly to say some some words that Patanjali wanted to convey. Yeah, there is a meaning to it. Ata is translated as okay and now yoga the discipline of yoga yoke yoke and union yoking they say yoga is union because of that yj as a data anushasana is self discipline shasana is a rule anushasana is a rule that you impose upon yourself there are all these meanings but the sounds that are chosen to convey this meaning are have the essence of what is being conveyed within itself.

[00:52:11]So each of those sutras I have been studying the yoga sutras I don't know for how long now but I still do not know them. I have read them. I am I'm a Sanskrit teacher. I've been teaching this for a long time now.

[00:52:28]But to know the sutra, to know that sound goes much deeper than the intellectual understanding of what it means. It is to to be one with that sound, to experience the sound and realize it. So that is the promise and potential that Sanskrit holds. I do not have that experience fully of myself and I am a seeker. I'm a practitioner in that path myself through these sounds.

[00:52:58]So yoga yoga sutras of course there is hat yoga prahipika as another text there is girandha samita as another text bhagat gita is a text in yoga all the upanishads many many many thousands if not multiple uh millions of texts across various fields now before we go there um I know we have done the first vowels and the row of consonants which started from the pit of the throat to the lips. There are a few miscellaneous consonants. You might have been wondering okay but where is la? Where is sha? Where is sha? Those are all miscellaneous consonants but they are also staged in their own uh buckets of sequencing logical sequencing. For example, you might see the second line has five consonants. The first four of them are like this. Please pay attention to this. It is >> sh.

[00:54:10]>> What is the difference sh >> Are you rolling your tongs any of you for these?

[00:54:22]>> The second.

[00:54:22]>> Yeah. Sh >> for sh >> Are you rolling your rolling the tongue is this >> sorry >> when the sound is pronounced being produced >> sh you don't need to roll it up can you pronounce sha without rolling it up sh >> no you can roll you can do whatever and then I kind of And this I can bring my tongue. Yes. Yes. You don't need the tongue to be in that position to do it.

[00:54:58]Yes. What is the difference?

[00:55:00]>> Side. Okay. Side to some extent. But what is common between these three?

[00:55:05]>> The air. For all these three, we are blowing air out. Sha sh air is being blowed out.

[00:55:14]Sh.

[00:55:16]>> The difference is the amount of air. Can we say that to some extent? S is the thinnest. Simple. All of us are familiar with S. Slightly thicker than that is sh.

[00:55:28]>> The thickest of them if you add more air behind it is sha.

[00:55:39]>> All right. The first four are y. These are common across world languages. So we do not pay much attention. Y >> r.

[00:55:50]And in Sanskrit W is always pronounced with the teeth upper row of teeth and the lower lips. There is another way of saying a similar sound which is W which is water or W. You do this u and you say immediately you might get a similar sound w >> that is used in many other languages of bharat as well. But in Sanskrit this vowel, this consonant v like sit vanta is always upper row of teeth. It's not vanta. It's not v. You can do this upper row of teeth and the lower lip v that is the sounding. Now how do I know that? Oh, you have to use this part of the mouth. You have to use this part of the mouth. This is the amount of air. I'm not making this up.

[00:56:41]among the 4,000 rules of grammar, he goes this meticulously that if you're pronouncing V, it is your lip and your teeth. It's mentioned that this is and because it is this systematic and structured, sometimes it might feel like it's a very restricting language.

[00:57:05]But the truth is because of these 4,000 rules of grammar, it has laid out a structure which does not let it decay at all. Not even decay. Forget decay. It will not let the language transform or deform.

[00:57:23]It will keep the language as it was and as it is not something that he has laid out as rules. It is how the human vocal cavity is.

[00:57:33]So it's a sanskrit itself the created kita sanskrit itself can be split as two words samyak sum which is well balanced and that sound some kit is created that which has been craft crafted created it's all sounds we're talking about something there in that sound but so one of the many many reasons why I am a fan of the language I keep studying Okay. And again then the last row of consonants there >> these are not unique consonants but they are consonants that are combined. You combine C and sh you get you get you combine th and you get thr.

[00:58:29]But these these consonants these combinations have uh unique symbols because they are used very often. These combinations which are we used very often because they don't want to write the same combination two two letters each time. They make a different unique symbol for it. These are the symbols. Now we have been learning how to utter these sounds. If you are interested in learning how to write these and get that proficiency, there is a tool we've built. If you have a phone, you can check it out this afternoon, during lunch, anytime. It has animations of how each of these letters are written.

[00:59:18]And after you watch that animation, you can write on your phone screen itself with your finger and it'll let you know if you have written it correctly or not.

[00:59:26]and it'll guide you. So if you are interested to learn this uh alphabet on how to write it as well and this also has the audio in my voice.

[00:59:36]So you can uh listen to this as you are writing it and practice it. This is called Axara the online tools at the very bottom. Axara.thesize channel.org has this. You can check out these other links as well. If you want to write any of the other videos you have many other projects you can check these links in your own leisure. But just to finish it up, I'll want I want to uh pronounce all the vowels in the all the consonants in this page from the top until uh the special symbols. We'll get to the special symbols in a bit, but the first consonant here is >> Y. Can you repeat after me? Y.

[01:00:12]>> The next one, >> R.

[01:00:15]>> The next one, L. The next one.

[01:00:18]>> V Y-rv.

[01:00:25]>> Perfect. Sh.

[01:00:28]>> Thicst sh >> thinnest s.

[01:00:33]>> The next one. H.

[01:00:35]>> You just expel air out from the throat.

[01:00:37]>> H.

[01:00:39]>> The next one is l.

[01:00:42]>> Even this is not very commonly used. You can just for the sake of completion, I have put it here. If you want to get into Vedas, which is a whole another dimension into itself. But how many of you have heard of the Vedas?

[01:00:54]What are the Vedas?

[01:00:58]Heard of it? Some people think they are a compilation of chants for different kinds of pagan deities. Oh, fire. People have are worshiping fire. So, there is a fire god and there is a mantra on fire.

[01:01:10]Oh, there is wind and there is you know uh these uh our ancestors did not really understand the force of the wind. So they made uh a god up and they bowing down to wind and a hurricane and the storm and the seas. Some other people think these are like the most sacred texts of sanatan dharma which should be put on an altar and worshiped. They throw flowers at it. They never open the book. They just worship it.

[01:01:37]many many many interpretations of what Vedas are. But you know what?

[01:01:45]Veda shares its root sounds with an English word which might surprise you as to what that is. Any guesses? Va any any guesses English word? Let me tell you in in Sanskrit itself the other words that are similar to Veda are vidya which is which vidya is knowledge wisdom to some extent wisdom is not really with sound isn't it wisdom has wisdom that dum is as as a suffix that dum kingdom freedom wisdom that is where that dum is coming from not that the does not correspond to this vidya and a video are from the same place means to see >> to see something. It's a realization.

[01:02:38]Vedas are just a compilation of realizations.

[01:02:42]things that our sages perceived and saw as a truth of creation in vid as its Greek origin also we used to just see video vision I don't know about vision but video and veda with as a root sound is to see just seeing perceiving something is vedas are a compilation of realizations about different aspects of creation but like I told you guys before this civilization is known to spice slice everything up. We know something, we don't just don't say it straight. We add stories, symbolism. Somebody has 15 hands, 16 hands, and somebody has three eyes.

[01:03:24]Most of us unfortunately still live in that kind of an understanding that oh there must be somebody up there in the clouds with four heads and 15 hands 16 hands which I would say this is where things get fuzzy a little bit fuzzy logic we are still logical but it's fuzzy it's not completely wrong there is an element of truth to which is not factual. Absolutely not facts. Of course not facts. Of course there are no winged horses roaming around and fighting seven tusked elephants which is white in color. No but Indra who is riding this seven tus elephant which is white in color who is the lord of the das and Indria which is the sense the name for the senses within the body are indrias the king of gods is Indra it's not random that they have these commonalities so and there is this again all people who are from this culture know this anybody who striving to realize to to go on a tapas on a penance the first thing if they're going towards success anybody's succeeding first thing that Indra does is send somebody to distract some beautiful looking uh absara some some distraction but why would Indra send them the the story goes that Indra is now afraid that his dominion will be lost so again If we go beyond the story because all of us now have grown to that intellectual capacity to analyze these things when we strive to I don't want to go into the theory of yoga too much into it but these stories have a have an have a layer of existential truth to them which is expressed in terms of stories which is What is contained in the Vedas as realizations?

[01:05:39]Again, you might see a lot of fantastical fantasy representation of it which contains within it a layer of truth in which this L is used. Let's come back. That is where we went on this journey. Let's not do too much of digressions. But L is the consonant that you see here is still used but only in Vic literature.

[01:06:01]>> Uh tongue rolled back L. Can I hear that once?

[01:06:06]Perfect. It's the Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Same law. It is the same >> because Tamil has a different that is no no >> that's wrong no that so uh this is again a very Indian question. Good great come up with those languages of bhat in India.

[01:06:36]Right now we have only one variant of na. Maybe we also saw saw ana. Some languages have four five variations of na. We not need not go into all of that.

[01:06:48]For Sanskrit literature this is sufficient. We specialized on top of it later on. Uh all right is done. The next consonant combined consonant. The technical word for this is a conjunct consonant. We need not know all that.

[01:07:02]But C and sh together is the next sound.

[01:07:08]>> The next sound.

[01:07:10]>> This is a combination of j and this becomes.

[01:07:19]>> Then we have combination of sh and >> there we go. Sh.

[01:07:29]And then because you might see you might go out from the workshop and then I have claimed here that I have made you masters of bubbles and consonants and then you see some other kinds of symbols and you think oh that guy scammed me.

[01:07:44]You might see some other symbols. So I have just included them here. These are symbols that you might notice which are not generally used to speak or in literature but when writing you might see these symbols. The first one is of course has a symbol of its own. The next sound which looks like an S in English is does not have any pronunciation of its own but it's a it's an abbreviation symbol. When there are too many H sounds happening this is an abbreviation.

[01:08:17]The literal word for it in Sanskrit is avagadagraha which is abbreviation when there are multiple to shorten it out. You'll see that in the next few pages next two pages that symbol being used. The next two W's one on top of the other inverted it is uh the visa sound the expulsion ah but when it is stopped with some with p when a visa sound the last of the vowels is before a p sound then when you expel air and are pronouncing p there is a sound that comes naturally because there is air coming out lips are coming together to stop that air. There is a blowing of air to represent that sound. The symbol is used. These are all symbols that are just there not to confir then it is stopped with P. Ideally, it should have this symbol. It is not used in it's not you won't see this but if you see this don't think that oh that teacher whose name ud just in case any of you have forgotten ud did not did not teach me sanskrit properly so this is just for completion the next three sounds are just a with a line below it with a line above it and two lines above it this we are now moving away slightly from the realm realm of pronunciations to the realm of music.

[01:10:01]That's almost the Vedas that the compilation of realizations have pitches, frequencies, notes associated with them.

[01:10:12]When you have to sing in a lower note, you uh draw a line below it. When you are singing at the root or the bass note, there is nothing, no symbols. If you're chanting at a higher frequency, higher note, then is the vertical line above it. This is again just for completion as to what kind of symbols you might see in Sanskrit.

[01:10:34]Beyond this there are a few more but they are just numbers. People put numbers. So there are I have mentioned three notes. There is a root note, there's a lower note and there is a higher note. But we have many more notes. Of course there are the seven notes and then there are the 12 micronotes. All that going on in music.

[01:10:49]Those are also used in Sanskrit chanting. But for those they just use numbers. So if you see those numbers they they refer to pitches pitch levels.

[01:10:57]That's it. This finishes all of this.

[01:11:00]This time for real we have completed all of the vocabulary in terms of the alphabet. Um I want you to go to the next page.

[01:11:11]This is where from the practice grounds we are getting running shoes. You want to get running shoes? Still want to practice walking for some time?

[01:11:22]running.

[01:11:24]Let's go. All right. Um I have just taken four examples, four snippets if you will of where all of this knowledge will help you in your exploration. If you want to understand, how many of you have heard of Tulsi?

[01:11:45]Tulsi as a herb. It's an herb. It's used in medication. And some some of you if you're feeling fancy maybe Anokei has Tulsi tea I I don't know if you're feeling >> yeah so there are many medicinal herbs in this culture. So the the whole science of health and healing Ayurveda or the whole study of uh of jotisha which is largely seen as oh looking at the stars and assuming that they impact our lives.

[01:12:18]Some of you believe in it, some of you might not. Some of you might see it as childish hall childish hallucinations.

[01:12:24]But how many planets do we have?

[01:12:29]>> Nine.

[01:12:31]>> Nine. Eight. Pluto is kicked off.

[01:12:34]>> Pluto has been kicked out. How many planets?

[01:12:38]eight in the solar system right now as uh as we observe it as the as modern science has been recognizing it. Eight planets.

[01:12:54]Why do planets mean what they do?

[01:12:57]Any any other English word that you know which is similar to that planet? Why does planet mean what it is?

[01:13:06]Any other English word? Something similar. Plane. You heard of plane? What does plane mean? A plane. A level surface. Something. Planar. The root sound means something that moves about.

[01:13:19]Anything that moves about in the celestial sphere is a planet in that definition of things. But is sun a planet?

[01:13:31]>> What is it?

[01:13:32]>> Star.

[01:13:33]>> A star. Is moon a planet?

[01:13:36]>> No. What is it? No. Yes.

[01:13:38]>> It's a satellite. It's a natural satellite, but it is a satellite. It's not a planet. Is Earth a planet?

[01:13:44]>> Yes. Okay. So far, our understanding is all great. How many graas do we have?

[01:13:50]>> Nine. What do graas mean?

[01:13:55]>> You have done your homework. They have come.

[01:14:00]>> Yes. So many practitioners and scholars of jotisha which is the science of looking at celestial influences upon us translate these celestial objects and these nagrahas as nine planets. It's a whole conspiracy theory of why did these nine come about?

[01:14:22]Why did the western science think of nine first? Uh all of this is a bit of a conspiracy theory zone but without going into all of that graa does not equate to a planet. Graha is something that grabs that holds an influence. Grahana an eclipse also graana is to hold. In India traditions marriage is called pani grahanam holding somebody's hand for life. Pani's hand gra is grabbing taking hold of so something that takes hold. So any influence any celestial influence that takes hold of us here on this planet on earth is the science of jotesha. Fascinatingly enough in the navagraas of nine planets that people think they can equate it to you'll not find earth but earth is a planet but we'll not find earth in the nagrahas. Why?

[01:15:24]>> Because we are the ones getting grabbed.

[01:15:26]we are the ones who that is getting uh influenced or being held. So in all of these principles will become clearer and if you are an expert in jotisha already people like me will not come back and debunk your explanations. If you have this understanding of Sanskrit and its fundamentals and the shastras which is the principles which are the guiding texts of what these sciences are. So I want you guys with this equipped with this knowledge of Sanskrit to go on that pursuit of finding words across world languages and what they mean and what they mean in common uh and where their meanings come from. Uh but here is a small snippet. Tantra has its own meaning. Jotisha, Ayurveda, yoga. I want you to repeat after me. We are we have 10 more minutes.

[01:16:23]I want to teach you something more.

[01:16:25]There there is endless amount of stuff that can be taught in Sans. All of these shlokas can be fit on your four fingers.

[01:16:35]All of these across varied disciplines. Any shloka that you see with has two lines like this.

[01:16:42]It can it has exactly 32 syllables.

[01:16:46]If you can count a syllable and you can count 32 on your four fingers which is like this. I want everybody to look at me please. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 twice. 16 into two. Right. So you can count 16 on your four fingers once by count by counting four on each finger. Is that all right?

[01:17:11]See if you can do this. Yo, uh, do one thing. Look at me as I'm doing this. As how I'm counting this ya th low ha re n b g n chal.

[01:17:37]First line on the 16 syllables.

[01:17:41]first line of the shloka. So if you look at every line in this in this whole page, you'll see that every line can fit perfectly on your four fingers. And this is the brilliance of every kind of expression that you'll see in Sanskrit language mostly if there are not other kinds of rhythms. This this is called poetic meter. You are all aware of this.

[01:18:01]Some of you might already know this amic pentameters.

[01:18:05]Shall I compare thee to Asama's eve?

[01:18:08]Shakespeare is very famous to compare compile in this thou art more lovely and more temporate. So na na na goes on like this. If we want to we can go into that exploration later on but nevertheless I want you to chant this after me. I'll do eight at a time like that. Is that okay? Is this speed okay?

[01:18:32]No no no no. Let's not uh jumble all the voices. I will chant it first then you repeat it after me two times. Ready?

[01:19:00]Begin. Galata.

[01:19:43]This shloka talks about the practice bastrika. Some of you might have learned it. It's a yogic practice where you push out your breath in a specific way. Now how you push it out and where that name bastrika, what does it mean? It's all defined in this shloka. Again to uh give you one hack, let me admit to you as a suskrit teacher that charg has gotten really good at explaining Sanskrit shlokas. So if you just take a picture of it and ask charg to explain it to you, it will do it very well without any mistakes. It still cannot write or create something of its own very well. I don't I really think it will get there also very quickly. But if you want to >> It's not >> No, no, it has not.

[01:20:30]>> I do it every day. It has not. It cannot create it cannot create stuff. There are a lot of grammatical errors. It's assumes a lot of stuff. Uh but it will get there soon. But explanations 100% 100%. I rely on it largely to write scripts for myself now. So if you want to learn more of these shlokas and their meanings for yourself in your own languages, you can definitely rely on it right now to understand the shlokas.

[01:20:58]So because I'm not going to the meanings of this in detail now uh for lack of time, you can do this on your own. The shloka the next one on ayurvea see if you can notice the eight syllables the six 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 syllables in each line.

[01:21:25]Oh, sorry. Yeah.

[01:21:46]Clean a gi vam.

[01:22:12]You might have noticed that I split the word there.

[01:22:16]Maganam is one word. So usually it goes on in one line.

[01:22:24]It would be wrong to split it as that would be wrong. So now how do I know this? How would I get that skill? With more and more vocabulary as you know that gyanam is the word not ghana then you'll know in Sanskrit. The next one again this shloka talks about the importance of sleep how it if you take any kind of medication for whatever kind of disease if it your sleep is not proper none of it will work. So the importance of sleep in Ayurveda as a science talks about all of this. Uh the next one is jotisha. The next tantra we really have are lacking in time. So I'll do this line by line because I want to do the next page also.

[01:23:07]Not um okay not right now but the next shloka.

[01:23:31]Gurana dhana dhana.

[01:24:03]The shloka is talking about the influence of the guru graha which does correspond to Jupiter and how prosperity in one's life is impacted by the position of guru during one's birth. The next loca in tantra shastra.

[01:24:37]Mornar Maya Madar May shut corner is a hexagon. Shut is six and corner is hexagon is corner and three corner three is common across world language three is three three corner is a triangle. So triangles and hexagons are talked talked about. This is a whole different science of sacred geometry where you use geometrical patterns and to various effects externally and internally. So that is the science of tantra. Um again you can use charg or you can do that research yourself to explore the meanings of this. If in any of these subjects there is enough interest maybe we can explore these separately and the text of this the shlokas of this separately. The first invocator shloka that we uh started the session with.

[01:26:10]Hopefully, it sounds a little less intimidating than how it did at the beginning of the session. It seems at least repeatable.

[01:26:19]Now, there is a rhythm. There is a l Some of the musicians were able to feel it, but you can see it through dots and lines, which might remind you a little of Morse code. There are dots and lines going on. But one unique way of looking at Sanskrit as a language is that there are only two elements in all of Sanskrit literature only two sounds. There is a short sound and there is a long sound.

[01:26:45]There is n and na. If I have to hum as na would you be able to recognize it? If I have to say java na na na right there is a short sound which is n and there's a long sound which is na mandi na na na java na na na you see in the second shloka that line depicts a long sound na and a dot depicts a short sound n. So if I have to chant or hum that rhythm of the second shloka, follow along just the dots and lines. See if what I'm chanting corresponds to it and you can follow along. Nana na na na na na na na.

[01:27:53]Long long short long short short short.

[01:27:56]Can you follow it along?

[01:27:57]>> Yes.

[01:27:58]>> Right. Every line of this shloka is in that exact same pattern of long and short psalms.

[01:28:08]The last line.

[01:28:19]to me. Can you chant it together with me?

[01:28:34]to me >> the first I'll do one thing I'll just chant the entire shloka because you have the recording you can follow it later uh you need not repeat after me or if you want to you can or if you want to hum along as I'm chanting it with me silently you can or gently you can try it I'll not stop you for Vi.

[01:29:26]Mand I notice some of you were instead of following along with the words which are difficult following along just to see double check the lines and dots if it's matching up did Did it match up? So the rhythm of Sanskrit is just the poetry the I was talking to Adita about the same thing that many people pursue Sanskrit for many many reasons that it is a divine language it's something that you can pray in it's something that all the sciences are in but it is just beautiful the the amount of poetic brilliance the amount of beauty there is to relish is immense.

[01:30:23]Mahashivatri is coming up. I guess some of you know about it. So I included one shlok on Shiva as well which has its own rhythm which is the first shlok of this page. What is the rhythm there? Can anybody hum it for me?

[01:30:37]If you can look at the dots and lines any guesses looking at what is the rhythm there?

[01:30:44]>> Short long long short long almost like a walls.

[01:30:50]Na na na na na na na na na na na. Do you see that? Short long.

[01:31:16]Shivham.

[01:31:19]Can you Can you repeat that line?

[01:31:23]>> Do you see the exact same phrase? Can we do that chidan sham three times and we'll we can do it with our eyes closed. We'll use that as our closing verse. Let's just do chidan sham sh. It just means I am Shiva who is of the form of the bliss of consciousness not the body not the mind etc are in the first few lines but the last line contains the crux of it. Let's just do that line three times and close the session.

[01:32:09]The rid shivham Please gently open your eyes. Thank you so much. Namaskarum. Namaskarum.

[01:32:49]Thank you. Keep practicing though. You guys have material now. See you.