By ved Kovid, Durgadas

Over the years, experimenting with Mantras, I began to realise their powers on the physical (sthula), astral (sukshma) and causal (karana) bodies in Yogic philosophy, seeing their many powers as subtle vibrations of word or language. The higher side of mantras however is the unspoken language, or the non-audible "mental" lingustic forms of mantras such as silent mantras or thought-projections.

In my early years, I began to chant mantras in Hindi pronunciation, as I had been taught as a child, and also as I heard other Indian seers and Swamis chant. But upon learning Sanskrit in later years, my shift changed to this Sanskritic pronunciation in pure forms, which added another dimension. I did realise however, that it made little difference to the effects of mantras, especially beeja or seed-mantras, since early language itself, particularly Sanskrit, had undergone several changes since it's origins in the Vedas.

The modern Pandit changes the pronunciation from the original Sanskrit: often we note the endings in Sanskrit such as “yai” are sounded as “yei” or “ye”, as in more modern Indian languages. It is hard to keep such long vowel-sounds at the end of, and during words when chanting – however with effort, it does make a change.

Technically in Sanskrit, the “ye” suffix is masculine; “yai” being the feminine counterpart, as it is in the Mantra Purusha. From my own perspective, it is hence best to keep this sounded correctly, as it is the original sounds of the vowels ri, rr, lri and lrr, as many have shown. Sri Sri Anandamurthi in his work states the original vowel-sounds such as these originated with the Rig Veda, and changed to ri, ree,lri and lree with Yajurveda and again with Atharvaveda to ru, roo, lru and lroo as we find in southern Indian pronunciations of Sanskrit.

It is to butcher Sanskrit however thought, to not be consistant in one’s pronunciations. For a Hindi speaker, it is hard to get around these, and also the “sah” and “namah” sounded as “saha” and “namaha” also takes re-educating – but once one has the inner rhythem of the sound, it becomes natural.

Mantras become more powerful, and especially to the Goddess, attain more power when uniformity is applied to the pronunciation in original tones, such as suffix-vowels etc. We can compare this to Maharishi Dayanand’s “going back to the Vedas” for his original purity of Hinduism, or Sri Aurobindo’s vision and resurrection of the Original Yoga through the Integral Yoga.

Just as in India, many Gurus give various descriptions on how to do various Yoga asanas (postures) and pranayamas (breathing techniques), so also languages also change. In India, deities likewise change from Mariamma in the South to Kali in the North - but the central theme of the Divine Mother remains intact. Only their outer forms changae - same with languages and vowel sounds as well as lost sounds etc.

Classical Sanskrit for example hardly uses the retroflex sounds found in the Rig Veda, such as "La", the retroflex version of "Da" in Hindi, similar to the "Da." of Hindi. Southern languages such as Malayalam and Telugu however still retain these sounds, as also the longer vowel sounds in their alphabets, much like the longer vowels of classical Sanskrit or the pluti (3 x as long vowels) in Vedic Sanskrit, which are also lost in Hindi. I found southern languages as more preservative of the Sanskritic language than modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi, particularly Malayalam, which has a very high percentage of Sanskritic words. This matches also Sri Aurobindo's idea that many languages from southern India were the origins of the old Aryan languages from which Sanskrit was derived.

Language itself comes from subtle, not physical realities, as a more imaginative and creative aspect of the physicalised thought in the psychic world. Tamil tales tell us that the Tamil language (perhaps best represented by Malayalam tongues, which bridge the later Tamil words via Sanskrit) came from the god Murugan, the war god to the Vedic Rishi or seer Agastya, also a Siddha or perfected being in Tamil Yoga circles. Murugan can be connected with the Vedic deity Agni, the god of Fire, divine speech (vak) and lord of prayer (brahmanaspati, narashamsa) in the Rig Veda. Agni is lauded in the first hymn in the Rig Veda - "AgnimiLe" - "I invoke Agni", which also contains the retroflex "La" sound, found in Dravidian languages. Ile or Ila, to invoke is also the name of the Vedic Goddess of speech (Vak) connected to Agni and goddess Saraswati as the founder of Tamil language and first woman. Her name also appears in Tamil legends, as the name for the sunken Lemurian land of Ilam. This matches Northern tales which state that Ila was the daughter of the flood-figure Manu, first of Aryan peoples and the son of the Sun-God, who sailed from the ancient ruined Vedic lands of the Dravida (Southern) country, and with Vedic Rishis, founded new cities in the Himalayas and later the Saraswati river basin (Indus-Saraswati Valley). North Indians likewise called ancient India "Ilavarta", the 'Land of Ila'!

Sound (shabda) itself is a manifestation of the akasha (ether element, or space) in Yogic philosophy (Samkhya). On a physical level, it relates to the karna (ear), the organ of sound and hearing, and also the voice, the organ of speech. This is why to physically chant OM, the sacred sound, and trace it back and hear it internally in the ear in primordial form, is also to hear the Soul-self, the origin of these, and through which we can understand the origin of language itself, manifested.

Fire (Agni) is the element of sight (Rupa) or form, and hence connects to the eyes, the organs of sight, as also the feet (pada), the organs of movement. It can hence here be showed that as Sanskrit came via Agni-Murugan, it came in it’s manifested form, and changed via movement (chala) – feet – symbolically meaning geographical movements and isolation, which also explains in modern day terms, which these changes occurred from the original formation in the elemental world.

On language, the great Yogi, Swami Yogeshwaranand has stated:

“Sound is the attribute of word, and pervades the space. Speech also pervades space, and is heard in space but the speaker is a sentient being. If the being is gross, the speech is also gross. If the speech is subtle, the speech is also subtle.”

“The sphere of cosmic organ of speech helps the people of the whole world, animals and birds of all classes, to make use of their own individual languages or speeches. No obstruction is ever felt…

“…If a man concentrates on words, their significance and their parts, he can aquire a knowledge of the speech of human beings, animals and birds. If by the power of Yogic exercise a man can understand all the languages, why should he learn one particular language for practicing Yoga. The Yoga is open to all peoples of the world. It is not limited by language, region or religion.” (“Brahm Vigyaan”, P.232-233)

We hence see that language in it's primal form, first came from a subtle being, the Fire-God, who represents the subtle (manifest) speech. As noted, Fire itself is tapas (heat and austerity) and tejas (heat and radiance) - representing the creative principle of rajas (passion, action), itself having a creative and expansive nature, as in the original creation of the Cosmos - chala (movement) is required, representing the element of air (vayu), by which by friction of it's movement causes heat (tejas) and fire (agni) - the sound of the creative word, from the primal ether (akasha).

It is much like when we use our creative intellect, and we concentrate on something, by will-power (iccha-shakti), we can make it manifest. As also, by the fire of discrimination and discernment (vivekagni), we can learn to possess a sound view on all thoughts. From this creative energy of Fire, likewise comes language. 

We can best see this in body language and expressions today, by which, without audible language of any kind, a "Universal Mental Language" is communicated between us, by facial expressions, stance and body signals conveyed physically. These are remnants of that earlier language. Sciences such as Hindu Palmistry and Face-Reading detail these down to fine arts, assessing not only the psychological signals of the person, but also their marks, signs etc. which detail past lives, diseases and events, without having to do a physical Astrological chart or questioning.

Likewise, without the use of physical language, by heart-rhythms alone, mechanically or subtly, the Ayurvedic physician can find out all details of one's past lives, origin of diseases by karmas and all about them - not just what disease or organ is faulty! All this without uttering a word or question to the patient! These are the higher subtle linguistics of Yoga that were the primal seeds of language itself.

The original language was one of beejas (seeds) or mulas (roots) - representing the "aksharas" or letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. These sounds had their own meanings, as is described in Sanskrit and Tantric texts. These can be described as "sparks" emanating from their origin in the celestial Fire, or the Fire-God, Agni-Murugan. The Vedic Fire-Seers themselves were called Bhrigus, which itself refers to sparks.

In the esoteric Upanishads, which serve as commentaries on the mystic Vedic texts at a time when people's intellects became more exoteric and they were unable to comprehend the deeper hidden language of the Vedas, wrapped in symbolism of the highest kind, the primal origins of speech are also discussed in various ways - various aksharas of letters are discussed with their origins and meanings, which came to formulate various words of later times. All languages can hence be traced back to the origins of these aksharas.

For example, the term "Hatha" as in Hatha Yoga, is derived from Ha (Sun) and Tha (Moon). But, Ha + U, meaning "Hu" in Sanskrit, means to invoke (Huta). Now, let's use an example and look at Ha for the Sun. The Sun represents the Self, Spirit, Masculine Principle, Light, Heat etc. and so in other languages, "Ha" can denote any of these qualities in it's own right, and then go on expanding, in time, to meaning something else, but having origins in this primal thought.

Take another example. Ayu or Ayus means "Life" in Sanskrit, in one interpretation. We find in the Maori language of New Zealand, "Ora", which likewise means Life or Life-Force. 

Various mantras are also related to Deities and Cosmic Forces in Sanskritic sciences as Ayurveda (Medicine) and Jyotish (Astrology) as also Yoga, having their own meanings as per these. For example, mantra Shreem relates to delight and abundance, and also goddess Lakshmi (Hindu Aphrodite) and also the Moon. Ida, the Left Lunar current in Yoga also relates to the Moon. Syllables of Sanskrit language are correlated in Astrology also - Sounds as  Dee, Doo, De, Do for example relate to the Cosmic Serpent Constellation of Ashlesha in Hindu Astrology. These can hence stand for any serpent, dragon or related force. 

Not only Sanskrit, but the entire Hindu tradition has preserved language in it's best forms - through expanding and retaining these hidden gems of wisdom and correlations throughout nature, with their correspondences in various languages and tongues or meanings, which also gives us an idea of how expansive the primal language was, and as noted was one composed of thought originally. Later, these thoughts became mantras, seed-mantras as we find in Tantra (Shreem, Hreem, Hum etc.) through which thoughts were conveyed through. Wrathful thoughts were conveyed through fiery mantras (Hum, Hreem, Ram) and so on.

Even today, by chanting of mantras, it opens up a flow of Consciousness via the Cosmic Intellect Principle (Mahat, Buddhi) into our own Higher Minds. Chanting the seed sounds releases their energies in purna (full) forms. Chanting Kreem for example, the seed mantra of energy and action (kriya), opens up all electrical and creative, expansive natures and centres of the Higher and Physical Mind, giving us wisdoms of all things in it's stream - electricity, storms, weather, prana wisdom, pranayama wisdoms both lost, old and new (future), higher perception of the third eye, of physical wind and ether and their related sciences, of the goddess Kali, and of time, space and reality itself, plus so much more! All this from just one mantra / sound (if we use it properly)!

This is an example of the power of these primal seed languages etc. By using "Kreem" towards another, we can mentally direct all of our thoughts and wisdoms upon them through Prana, much like "uploading" files to another via the Internet. That is also an example of how the ancients conveyed and communicated their wisdoms and sciences, in geographical and cultural separation. Scientists will hence never understand these ancient subtle processes. 

Later, these turned into words, and into a "mantric language" as we find in the Rig Veda, where ideas were chanted as mantric compositions of aksharas, which were formulated into words or speech (vak) and languages (bhashas), by the physical aspect of the creative mind of Vedic Rishis.

Thus, to try and reconstruct languages today as linguistics do, with modern comparisons, without a spiritual, yogic or cosmological basis such as language was originally found upon, especially through the roots and aksharas, is herein wrong, incomplete and at best, a child's attempt in frustration at gaining the truth.

Great Yogis such as Sri Aurobindo picked up and spoke many languages. Ganapati Muni, the disciple of Sri Ramana Maharishi, is himself said to have learnt Tamil language within a month, picking up it's vibrations. Swami Vivekananda likewise noted that Shankaracharya, the great Monist, had picked up the Vedic rhythm of chants by his meditations and knowledge, accessing the higher subtle stream of knowledge from whence all was created. Theosophists call this the "akashic records" or ethereal records of history. 

Today, many people see the native African tribes or Aborigine of Australia as a primitive humanoid, devoid of civilisation. However, these cultures are the opposite - they represent the higher, older vast spiritual cultures that were more Yogic and astral, more subtle in speech and mannerisms, and whose history and culture is still shrouded in the sacred, inner anti-material, not the physical worlds. They have tales of communications with spirits and gods, or telepathic and remote viewing, and of accessing great cities and civilisations in the astral worlds, even today. What use is the physical civilisation, when one can live simply in the outer world, but access all spiritual kingdoms above daily? Scientists (who as yet are ignorant of these realms) think that in the future, machines can be invented for this, when the Yogic and spiritual laws alone can grant access to these realms, such as all ancient Native cultures around the world still possess.

In older times, even before temples and images, humans were able, like these Native cultures, to worship the Gods directly in their subtle form. They would appear at sacred junctions of Planetary alignments and also sacred abodes or spiritual portholes on earth, such as the Himalaya or Andes mountain ranges. Later temples were built to mirror these, as also physical rituals of worship for images, in place of the subtle bodies of these spiritual beings. Yogis however still performed mental worship (manasika pujas) to them and visited them in the astral worlds, such as we find the Rishis did in the Puranas, the epic-histories of Hinduism.

Just as it is said in Vedanta, the Hindu theological science, that the entire manifest world is like a perverted mirror-image of the Soul or Self, like the Sun's reflection in water and hence illusory and non-existent in that sense - so also the physical world we dwell on here on earth at this time, is also a perverted reflection of the astral world of the Devas or Gods. Native cultures, as noted still can see this, and hence do not, like scientists, get caught up in terminology such as "Alien", UFO" and "Paranormal", as to them all of these can be explained - all are known to them - remaining unknown only to the tamasic or dulled mind of the scientists, who remains in deeper ignorance of this reflected world, than the rest of the species dwelling here, who can at least see this!

Wisdom or knowledge of anything is accessible to us at all times. There is no "God" stopping or preventing us from knowing anything, or that is above us, except our own preconceived ignorance, due to on this planet to the tamasic nature of faiths such as Islam and Christianity, that seek to smother the intellect, just as smoke obscures our true vision. We must cast it aside.

There are astral streams of knowledge of the past, and even the future, let alone present, that we can access. Anything thought, envisioned or realised by any being in the entire cosmos and beyond, remains in these streams. Just as in a river, we can catch a certain fish that we desire, or see an eel - or likewise in the ocean, so also in the subtle worlds, the subtle language of thoughts, the origins of the forms of the aksharas, exist, in entire wisdoms we can "catch" or access by the Yogic mind. 

For example, the original Mahabharata of Vyasa is said to have eventually expanded to 600,000 verses! Of these, 100,000 were verses that humans knew; 140,000 in the world of the Gandharva beings and 300,000 in the world of the Devas or celestial for example. This gives us an idea of how limited our knowledge is, even compared to the ancient cultures - and possibly explains why the oldest collections of hymns and tales in the world - including the sacred Vedas and those of indigenous cultures, remained immortalised in the minds rather than in printed forms, which seems more primitive and easier to get destroyed, lost and discarded, as also interpolated and hence ruined.

For example, scholars today think that "Marmas" of pressure-points in Ayurvedic medicine may have arisen from the Vedas, but expanded later.

Marma points can be described as the similar pressure-points used in Chinese medicine, but are not that well known by all people in the West, as being an

integral part of Ayurvedic medicine and healing procedures.

The use of herbs and healing with relation to the 107 Marmas is also noted in the Rig Veda, the oldest text of the Hindus:

“Herbs were generated in ancient times, three yugas before the deities.

Oh these, the brown-hued, I tell their one hundred and seven locations”

-Rig Veda Samhita, 10.97.1

Clearly here the 107 Marmas of later Ayurveda are described, as also along with Marma Chikitsa or Marma Therapy. These include use of herbs (oshadhi), medicated oils (siddha tailas) and other forms of therapies.

The brown (babhru) refers to the tailas (oils) made from herbs, which are brown in colour. It thus shows of the 107 “siddha tailas” of medicated oils that were used on these various marma points. Here, the terms “shatam dhamani sapta ca” means “one hundred and seven locations”, and hence shows that these were all known along with their respective herbs, which shows that in the Vedic times, each Marma-point had it’srespective oshadhi (herb) or herbal formula.

In fact, it states that “three yugas (ages) before the Gods”, the herbs were created, which shows that some herbs were preserved for long periods of times.

This shows that some rasayanas (ayurvedic rejuvenation formulas) were at least three-yugas (time-spans) in length (treat, dvarpara and kali, as Rig Veda was written in Satya Yuga).

Symbolically, it shows they also used arishthas or fomented wines and other forms of herbs on marmas, meaning also, the various locations on the body. It

thus shows that the Ayurvedic science was quite comprehensive even in the time of the Rig Veda, and perhaps, even more comprehensive than today! Of these marmas, located all over the body, they are classified as head, face, neck, chest / shoulder, torso, leg and arm, hand and foot marmas etc.

Thus, the COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE of Marmas was in the ancient Vedic times, but has been lost today, and not in it's entire form - exactly opposite to what scholars think. 

This is because in such Vedic times, as noted, the wisdoms were more complete, having come down from the higher astral worlds and retained in memory. They are hence only alluded to in the Rig Veda and older texts - their entire sciences, like all others, being confined to the immortal streams of subtle wisdom and human memory and remenberance (smarana) of the Priests and Yogis alike, for future ages.

For example, we see dangers in Buddhism, when this was relaxed and many later texts and sciences were confined to writing. This became available to the masses rather than passed-down to worthy (pure minded or sattvik / advanced Yogic) souls alone, to those who could access the ethereal libraries (of sattvic minds and hence no threat was there), and hence vicious people such as the Persians and Arabs as also Chinese got hold of these and eventually used these wisdoms (as warfare) against Hindus - destroying many sciences that remained in the Libraries of Nalanda and Takshashila in India. It is only, thanks to the Priests and Yogis who retained links with the akashic libraries and also the Libraries of Human Mind (Vedic Pyramidal Wisdoms), that retained it. 

Yogis kept these in their new system, Tantra, which was shrouded in mysticism and occultism as also secrecy and oral and mental (unspoken) wisdom, to retain the seeds of wisdoms that Islamic onslaught of India had destroyed - thanks to the laziness of culture and socialist openness or relaxed rules created by the Buddhists and Jains in India!

In the same manner, a sane man does not allow a bottle of poison around an infant, nor a box of matches and bottle of Kerosene near an arsonist! He keeps them hidden for the good of all. The liberality of such sects as Buddhism and Jainism should hence be carefully noted, as also the dangers of it's later creations, such as Gandhism, which we need not go into here, but of which the letters of Sri Auorbindo gracefully illustrate.

Sciences such as Yoga were all discovered through what is termed as "swabhava" (Self-nature) and atmajnana (self-wisdom) in the Vedas. Dattatreya, Adi Shankaracharya etc. all "re-discovered" or rather, brought down ancient lost wisdoms by such methods from subtle worlds by uniting with the Self - beyond all physical languages, and penetrating the astral spheres of sacred thought or language, wherein all knowledge lies. Dattatreya had no Gurus by definition, but observed the elements, animals etc. and all of nature, by which he learnt from and discovered the highest wisdoms. Others, such as Lahiri Mahasaya, founder of Kriya Yoga in modern times, learnt from the astral Guru Babaji.

The greatest wisdoms today hence arrive from non-physical realms and beyond the physical speech, wherein the physical languages of today had their own origins. We must stop trying to manipulate the physical-material world via physical means and again take up the Yogic techniques, meditations and practices - which means beyond physical asana and pranayama, to arrive again at these higher truths and states of Consciousness, where language itself arose.

This also does not mean entertaining the New-Age fad and misconceived ideas about the chakras and kundalini in New-Age Yoga systems, which remain at best, in the minds of these widely-publicised Hindu Ashrams and western "Gurus", a mere fascination of their minds than any actual realisation of their openings or awakenings, which requires not only access to the higher occult knowledge and subtle initiations, but also the years of sadhana and inner purification of the astral and causal bodies that go with it.

For example - in Ayurveda, we cannot go in immediately, when we have a disease, for rejuvenation of Rasayana! Nor can we just jump into purification shodhana (Panchakarma therapies). We first need to employ some basic palliative measures (shamana) and preliminary actions (purva karmas) to steady the mind, body and help ready the body for detoxification. The same must also be employed in the system of Yoga of all kinds - especially Hatha Yoga. For example, one cannot wake up and assume "I am a Bhakti-Yogi today!" - one must himself first prepare himself, by performing rituals, reading the sacred stories and meditating on the qualities of the Deity, his names, significance and above all - japa of his mantra or names, to establish a closeness and affinity with the inner energies of the Deity.

This lazy and closed culture however that we have today, which requires all things in literal form, as also the literal and written word is hence dangerous and will be disastrous in the future, to the masses of intellects as also to the environment of the earth planet itself. Today, we remain closed to the ethereal and even complete wisdoms - many Western Yogis for example simplifying and adapting or moulding Yoga into their Christoccentric views and cultures, rather than accepting the deeper, greater, broader and complete wisdoms that remain an Integral part of it's heritage and spiritual / sacred teachings.

If we remain closed, as we have already however, we will begin to suffer as a whole, and begin to create more of a "breeding ground" of tamasic beings, such as Pishachas and Asuras, which feed off negative energy and are attracted by the gross-physical realities, avidya (ignorance, that is, physical intellectual sciences and technology), just as flies and rats flock to unsavoury and unsanitary wastelands!

It is our own Karma-Yogic duty to the Earth Goddess (Bhumi Devi) then, a sacred living Mistress and entity of Consciousness and wisdom - the spiritual partner of the Sky's Ruler, to bring down this astral and sacred knowledge for her benefit also, as all of her Kingdom, rather than implant seeds of negativity for the future generations on earth, creating further ignorance and destruction, such is the psychological bent of Asuric faiths as Islam and Christianity that dominate her soil today!

In such an age, when languages and pronunciations; when sciences of the Vedas are in decline – there remains only one True way – that path of Bhakti Yoga or Devotion, leading to the Supreme realization.