And finally I would like to acknowledge all the students and teachers of the Yoga Workshop in Boulder, Colorado, who have listened with such attention for all these years.
Sanskrit Pronunciation Guide
Sanskrit is the language in which the hymns of ancient India, the Vedas, and the many thousands of subsequent texts and epics were composed. Though it is no longer considered a spoken language, it is still used extensively in many of the yoga traditions of Asia as a sacred language for chanting, mantra, and the study of philosophy. The word Sanskrit means “constructed,” “polished,” or “perfected.” The pronunciation, grammar, and rules for linking its words were crafted and tuned to create and maintain a basic, underlying humming resonant quality, which proves to be entrancing and joyous to the practiced chanter. It requires a precise articulation of the tongue and use of breath as well as tone in order to create the sounds well. These pronunciation guidelines will give a close approximation to the correct sound. The simple vowels (a, i, u) may be either short (one beat as a without a mark above) or long (two beats with a horizontal line above, as in ā). The diphthongs (e, ai, o, au) are also long (two beats). Consonants each have five different forms of pronunciation depending on the positioning of the tongue making them: guttural, palatal, cerebral, dental, or labial. These sounds do not all directly correspond to sounds within the English language or to the alphabet, so the Roman transliteration has diacritical markings to indicate which Sanskrit sound the letter indicates.
Vowels
a - pronounced like “a” in pizza
i - pronounced like “ee” in squeeze
u - pronounced like “oo” in smooth
ā, ī, ū - pronounced as above, but held for two beats
ai - pronounced like “a” in say (natural diphthong, two beats)
e - pronounced like “e” in they (natural diphthong, two beats)
o - pronounced like “o” in open (natural diphthong, two beats)
au - pronounced like “ow” in how (natural diphthong, two beats)
Consonants
The consonants are grouped by the sounds made due to the position and placement of the tongue in the mouth. There are five positions with five sounds at each position. The second and fourth sound in each position are aspirated. The fifth sound is the nasal “mm” sound with the tongue remaining in the correct position for the group.
Gutturals: ka, kha, ga, gha, nā
The sound is back in the throat and the tongue does not touch the palate.
Palatals: ca, cha, ja, jha, ña
The sound is pushed up into the palate and the tongue lightly touches the mid-hard palate.
Cerebrals: ṭa, ṭha, ḍa, ḍha, ṇa
The sound stays back in the sinuses and the tip of the tongue is pulled down after touching the center point of the palate.
Dentals: ta, tha, da, dha, na
The sound is forward in the mouth and the tongue touches the back of the upper front teeth.
Labials: pa, pha, ba, bha, ma
The sound is forward in the mouth and is produced by the opening of the lips. The tongue is neutral.
Common transliteration markings are:
h after a consonant - the aspirant sound that appears in English between certain palatal and guttural sounds such as “top hat” (aspirant p) and cab house (aspirant b).
c - pronounced like “ch” in churn
ṛ - pronounced like “r” in brook
s - pronounced like “s” in synthesis
ś - pronounced like “sh” in shock
ṣ - pronounced like “sh” in sheer
ṅ - pronounced like “n” in bunion
ṁ - pronounced like “n” in uncle
jñ - pronounced like “ghee-yah”
h - pronounced like “ha”
ḥ - pronounced with a soft echo of the preceding vowel
Chanting
Chanting is an integral part of the yoga tradition; reflecting on the meaning of the words of the chant while the sound resonates through the body can have a transformative effect. Traditional orthodox chants are Vedic (meaning that their source is the early period of the Vedas), in which case there are very precise and specific conventions that must be followed when chanting. In addition to applying the general rules of Sanskrit pronunciation (vowel length, placement of tongue, and so on), Vedic chanting has only three tones allowed: the middle tone, the half-step up, and a full-step down. This variation in tone is called the svara and it is predetermined within the text. With other forms of classical chanting there is room for creativity—not in terms of pronunciation, but in terms of the tune. An audio recording of the seven chants below, some of which are Vedic and others which are not, is available for download at www.shambhala.com/MirrorofYoga.
Ganesha Mantra
We invoke thee, O leader of all the hosts. The wisest of the wise.
The Sage of Sages with treasures beyond measure. The King of
Brilliance. The lead chanter of prayers. Come with your blessings,
listen to our prayers. Have a seat in our sacred space.
Invocation to the Guru and Patañjali
vande gurūṇāṁ caraṇāravinde
sandarśita svātma sukhāva bodhe
niḥśreyase jāṅgalikāyamāne
saṁsāra hālāhala moha śantyai
Oṁ
I bow to the two lotus feet of the (plurality of) Gurus, which awaken insight
Into the happiness of pure Being, which are the complete absorption into joy,
The jungle physician, eliminating the delusion
Caused by the poison of Saṁsāra (conditioned existence).
ābāhu puruṣākāraṁ
śaṅkha cakrāsi dhāriṇam |
sahasra śirsaṁ śvetaṁ
praṇamāmi patañjalim ||
Oṁ
I prostrate before the sage Patañjali who has thousands of radiant,
White heads (as the divine serpent, Ananta) and who has, as far
As his arms, assumed a human form, holding a conch shell (divine sound),
A wheel (a discus of light or time), and a sword (discrimination).
Meditation on the Serpent of Infinity
maṇi bhrātphaṇā sahasravighṛtaviśvaṁ
bharāmaṇḍalāyānantāya nāgarājāya namaḥ
Salutations to the king of the Nagas,
To the infinite, to the bearer of the maṇḍala,
Who spreads out the universe with thousands
Of hooded heads, set with blazing, effulgent jewels.
Two Verses from the Gītā Dhyānam
vasudeva sutaṁ devaṁ kaṁsa cāṇūra mardanaṁ |
devakī paramānandaṁ kṛṣnaṁ vande jagadgurum || 5
I adore Kṛṣṇa, the god who is the Son of Vasudeva, the destroyer of Kamsa and Canura,
The supreme joy of Devaki and the Guru of the whole creation.
mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim |
yatkṛpā tamhaṁ vande paramānanda mādhavaṁ || 8
I salute Madhava, the supreme joy, by whose grace the dumb speak eloquently and the lame cross mountains.
Verse from the Bhagavad Gītā on Fire
brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir
brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam |
brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ
brahmakarmasamādhinā
Oṁ
Brahman is the offering, Brahman is the oblation, poured out by Brahman into the fire of Brahman, Brahman is to be attained by one who contemplates the action of Brahman.
Heart of the Gītā
ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māṁ
budhā bhāvasamanvitāḥ
I am the origin of all.
All proceeds from Me.
Thinking in this way, those who are wide awake
Worship me with concentrated meditation
maccittā madgataprā�
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bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaśca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca
Those who think of Me, who absorb their lives in Me,
Enlightening each other
And speaking of Me constantly,
They are content and they rejoice.
teṣāṁ satatayuktānā,
bhajatāṁ prītipūrvakam
dadāmi buddhiyogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te
To those who are always linking in Yoga,
Those who worship Me with love,
I give the yoga of discrimination
By which they come to Me.
teṣāṁ evānukampārtham
aham ajñānajaṁ tamaḥ
nāśayāmy ātmabhāvastho
jñānadīpena bhāsvatā
Out of compassion for them,
I, who dwell within their own hearts,
Destroy the darkness born of ignorance
With the shining lamp of knowledge.
Closing Chant
svasti prajābhyaḥ paripālayantām
nyāyena mārgeṇa mahīṁ mahīśāḥ |
gobrāhmaṇebhyaḥ śubhamastu nityaṁ
lokāsamastā sukhino bhavantu ||
kāle varṣatu parjanyaḥ pṛthivī sasyaśālinī |
deśoyaṁ kṣobharahito brāhmaṇā santu nirbhayāḥ ||
May all of humankind be happy and well.
May the great noble lords protect the earth in every way by the path of just virtue.
May there be perpetual joy for those who know the real nature of things.
May all the worlds be happy.
May the rains fall on time, and may the earth yield its produce in abundance.
May this country be free from disturbances, and may the knowers of the truth be free from fear.
Glossary
ahaṁkāra. The ego function, the I-maker.
ahiṁsā. Nonharming or nonviolence. The first of the yamas.
ākāśa. Sky, space, or nonobstructive openness.
anāhata cakra. “The wheel of unstruck (sound)” or the heart cakra.
ānanda. Joy, bliss, the intrinsic nature of pure awareness.
anusvāra. The dot that is placed above letters within Sanskrit writing (Devanagari) to indicate the dissolution of a nasal “mmm” sound into a place just above the soft palate.
apāna. The pattern of the inner life breath that governs exhaling. The physical and neurological patterns within the body associated with dropping, grounding, relaxing, stabilizing, and eliminating waste.
apas. Water, river.
āsana. Arrangement and alignment of the body so that meditation can occur. the third limb of the eightfold yoga system.
aṣṭāṅga. Eight limbs; used in reference to the eight-limbed path of yoga that leads to discriminating awareness and liberation. Aṣṭāṅga Vinyasa yoga is also a popular form of yoga āsana practice that involves a flowing, meditative form of āsana practice in which postures and movement are linked together with breathing, bandhas, mudrā, and gaze.
ātman. The Self; pure consciousness.
avidyā. Not-knowing or ignorance; the basic cause of suffering because it is the confusion of impermanent process with pure consciousness.
Bhagavad Gītā. The “Song of God,” the story of Arjuna, a warrior, who is taught yoga by his charioteer, Kṛṣṇa.
bhakti. Devotion, the practice of devotion. Bhakti is a school of yoga that emphasizes surrender to, contemplation of, and service to God as the supreme Beloved.
bindu. Droplet, point, or seed.
Brahman. The whole, the true nature of all things, the ground of Being; pure consciousness, joy, and truth; in the Vedānta it is the absolute truth.
buddhi. Intelligence, the principle of mind that reveals context and connections, the context maker.
cakra. Wheel or energy center along the central axis, a point where the mind can easily enter into contemplation of the strong flow of sensation associated with the particular quality of the cakra.
central axis of the body. The midline, the plumb line through the body; corresponding to the subtle suṣumnā nāḍī and considered to be the main channel or nāḍī of the subtle body.
cit-acit granthi. The knot of the unconscious and pure consciousness; another term for the ego process.
citta. The entire mind in its most inclusive sense.
devatā. A goddess or a god.
dharma. Duty, obligation, religion, the fundamental quality of a thing, one’s calling in life, the glue that holds things together, the constituent factors that come together to form a particular experience.
dhyāna. Meditation, the level of contemplation when the attention flows smoothly as its object, when conflict with the background of the object has ceased.
duḥkha. Suffering, frustration; literally a “bad hole” in a wheel, which would give a bumpy ride.
Gaṇeśa. The elephant-headed god of Indian mythology associated with keen intelligence and the removal of obstacles. He is the embodiment of much of the esoteric and secret teachings of haṭha and tantric yoga. He holds the key to the ever-elusive mūlabandha.
guṇas. Energetic strands of creative energy that are woven together in varying proportion to form the underlying structure of all things. Each thread has a distinctive characteristic. Tamas (tamasic) is fixed, slow, sluggish, thick—the thesis. Rajas (rajasic) is fiery, strong, fast, and active—the antithesis. Sattva is stable, smooth, integrated, balanced, and sweet—synthesis.
haṭha yoga. A general term for forms of yoga that include physical practices. Ha means “sun” and ṭha means “moon”; haṭha yoga is the joining together and interpenetration of opposite patterns. Esoterically haṭha is a forcing together of prāṇa and apāna to awaken the kuṇḍalinī.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā. A primary yoga text from between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries C.E., which describes the technical practices of kuṇḍalinī awakening and absorption of the mind in samādhi.
iḍā. The moon channel (nāḍī) or nostril, which is associated with a pluralistic, feminine, cooling breath within the body.
indriyas. The senses.
Jeweled Net of Indra. The net of illusion said to be cast over people by the god Indra; a net that causes the confusion of what is real, lasting (pure consciousness, or puruṣa) with what is unreal, impermanent (creative energy and forms, or prakṛti). One can be free of the net by looking very closely at it.
jñāna. Knowledge; ultimately knowledge of reality.
karma yoga. The yoga of work.
kuṇḍalinī. The great supporting serpent said to lie coiled and dormant just above the center of the pelvic floor. In her dormant state she blocks the entrance into the suṣumnā nāḍī, keeping the internal breath out of the liberating middle path.
Mahābharata. The great epic story of Indian mythology that includes, as part of it, the Bhagavad Gītā.
mahāśakti. The great śakti or creative energy.
manas. The mind as the organizer of perception, producing unified constructions (saṅkalpa) and divided constructions (vikalpa).
maṇḍala. A circular geometric pattern used as a sacred space or temple for meditation, or to collect together the particular qualities of a deity.
mantra. A phrase or sound, which is chanted in repetition and used for collecting the attention for concentration or meditation and to clarify and focus the mind.
mudrā. A sealing or pressing together to make self-contained form a form or flow of a pattern for meditation. Mudrās can be formed with the fingers or with the body as gestures and expressions of deep internal states. Internal mudrās are used to open the central channel.
mūlādhāra cakra. The cakra or energy center associated with the pelvic floor. It is the “holder of the root” and is associated with the element earth.
niyamas. The internal practices and observances. Five are mentioned in the Yoga Sūtr
a.
Patañjali. The composer of the Yoga Sūtra. Patañjali is said to be half divine serpent, Ādi Śeṣa, and half human; the lower part of his body is represented as a coiled snake, the upper part as a four-armed human, with a cobra’s body rising up along his back and forming a hood of an endless number of radiant heads.
piṅgalā. The solar channel (nāḍī), beginning in the right nostril and associated with the clear, singular focus and heat within the body.
prakṛti. The universal creative energy that forms any object of awareness no matter how subtle. Prakṛti is not conscious, and its products are always impermanent.
prāṇa. The vital or internal breath that organizes all perceptions and influences the moments of the mind. It has many internal functions. The most obvious are inhaling controlled by the prāṇa (a subcategory by the same name) and exhaling controlled by the apāna.
prāṇāyāma. Meditative breathing practices that gradually decondition the breathing habits and patterns associated with a distracted mind. The practices stretch or extend the inhale, the exhale, and the suspensions between them, allowing the sensations and emotions associated with each phase of the breath to become objects of meditation.
pratyāhāra. The nongrasping of objects by the senses in which the mind ceases to form the appearance of separate, continuous objects within the fields of the senses. This is the fifth limb of the eightfold yoga system.
pṛthivī. Earth, externally that which we all share and stand upon, and internally the quality of stability, fixedness, and complete cohesion.
puruṣa. Pure consciousness; the actual true being for whom creative energy exists within the Sāṁkhya system.
rajas (rajasic). The component of creative energy that is fiery, strong, fast, and active and which forms an antithesis to the dull and the fixed.
Rāmāyaṇa. The great epic that tells the story of Rama.
rasa. Juice, essence, flavor, proportion.
ṛṣis. The seers who sang the descriptive and lyrical poetry that became the hymns of the Vedas.
sahasrāra. The thousand-petaled lotus flower said to be accessed at the crown of the head. It is not considered to be a cakra; rather it stands above as the vast universal array of awakened beings and realms. At its base, just above the root of the palate, is a receptacle in the form of the moon or an ocean, which collects nectar.
The Mirror of Yoga Page 26
