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Sanskrit Alphabets A Primer Dilip Rajeev
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Copyright © 2012 Author Name All rights reserved. ISBN:
i
T
his book introduces you to the Sanskrit Alphabet,
through a study of the Gayatri Mantra. Not all alphabets of the Devanagari system, which is the most prevalent alphabet for the writing of Sanskrit, is discussed in this book. As with every field of study, it is better to get oneself started by studying a bit, rather than aim for a full study initially. For one, such an approach minimizes the need for effort, and for any artificial memorization. Nevertheless, the reader finds himself or herself soon acquainted with the subject, and at a place where further effort is effortless.
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V
owels, have always had a sacred place in all traditions.
The Druids meditates on the vowels O, I, and W, as the name of the One. The Chanting were done in a way such as to prolong each sound, OOOOOOOOOO…..IIIIIII……..WWWW…… Then followed a period of silence. The vowels vibrated the etheric body, and through it the light of the One, the Sun. The individual soul finds its existence as one of basking in the Sun. The Sun is the object of Meditation in the Gayatri Mantra. The ancients did not consider the inner and the outer as entirely different. Just as the inner Sun is the source, the origin, the outer Sun is again the source and origin of life in the outer world of phenomenon of our usual experience. The outer is thus a view of the inner, and the inner a view of the outer.
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The first Sanskrit vowel we will study here is A.
अ “Among the alphabets, I am अ “- The Gita अ is pronounced similar to the A in ark. Meditate on the sound. It is the primordial impulse. An impulse into activity.
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Sanskrit letters are written usually with a horizontal line above, a vertical line, and then a form unique to each letter
The horizontal aspect above may be thought of that One God, the Effulgent, and Bright One, above the universe. The vertical line as that axis of God’s energy in the Universe. Within a human form, the axis is the spinal, and where the Crown chakra unfolds , the horizontal line above. The human form, as the moon is made bright by the Sun, is potentially where the Sun rises and illuminates the world .
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Different civilizations, as they develop, take different views of the world. And different forms of study appear. For another civilization, a view of ours as everything a disconnected set of insentient objects, a view where appearance of sentience, awareness and intelligence seems rather unexplained, and explained away as a kind of randomness, would be primitive. In a planet around a far away unknown star, the view is that everything that exists as form of life, appear from a single DNA or seed, bija in Sanskrit. This DNA differentiates, as it is animated by the Source, forming the forms of different worlds. The way the DNA is scanned is perceived as the rotation of a planet. The different aspects of a Solar DNA scanned becomes the view of different planets. Unique, individual souls are situated in different bodies, experiencing the scan, from their unique point of view. The Solar logos, thus sends forth all life impulses, and the DNA is receptive to its own unique set.
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he alphabets, which form the Vedas, were thus
thought written on the rays of the Sun.
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n Sanskrit, every vowel has both a short form and a
long form. In the long form, the vowel is pronounced for twice its short form length. अ is the a as in ark. And the long form of अ, written as आ, would be the sound aa, as in aark. In the word embark, we find that the a sound is prolonged. आ has a similar pronunciation.
आ Think of the second vertical line as saying that the sound appears on the axis of reality for a longer instant.
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इ
is the vowel sound e, with pronunciation as in the
first e in emerge.
इ This indicates the movement of electricity on the spinal axis. And also energetic movement on the world-axis. The sound e occurs in the word electricity, emergence. The hints to the memorization of the forms of the alphabets, are to be taken just as hints, and not the whole sense of the forms.
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ई
is the long version of the vowel
sound-form ee. The sound of
इ
इ
and has the
held twice its length.
And thus forms a sound similar to the ee in the exclamation “eeks!”
ई When the world energies, and energetic movement on the spine is held in a stable way, it fountains into the crown chakra space, to the origin of the Universe, that is. The form on the top of ई indicates that.
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n the advanced adept, the Sun is what shines in
the Spine. As the Spinal Chakras, in early stages.
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There are different forms of meditation, in the Zen form of meditation, one focuses on the breath. The breath is the appeared animating, the ether plane in formative movement. The breath forms the body. Thus, the breath forms a guide to planes of Silver, beyond appeared vibration. The Zen monk, discarding the unessential, the appeared universe, thus focuses on the breath as the Guide. The breath is beyond the senses. It leads to worlds beyond perception. Observe where the breath leads, breathing in, observe that is beyond the mind, and beyond perception, and breathing out let the breath fall into the earth of own body, the form of own human frame, forming it in the Silver. The Breath is Pure, Free of all aggregates of appeared Matter.
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The body, thus, in a way, is a receptacle for divine energies of the Sun.
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The vowel उ, is pronounced similar to the U in Uruguay.
उ It symbolizes the receptacle sense, where the Sun rises in the Egyptian symbolism. The Akhet, of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Sun’s energies may appear at the pelvic region and rise up the spine, in the form of a Silver Disc. Thus the form can be symbolic of the meeting point of the eyebrows, and as well, of the lower receptacle, the pelvic bone’s form.
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We find the Akhet drawn between two symbols of the Eye in an ancient Egyptian art.
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he meeting point of the eyebrows is a point of
focused meditation in ancient traditions. In focused meditation, one visualizes the light of the One, the Sun, at the point of meditation. This spot is often found marked in ancient statues of the Divine. Or, the forehead chakra is depicted. Ancient art were often meant to encode and preserve their systems of wisdom.
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In focused meditation, one may also focus on that Pineal point, where the light of the Soul, or the Sun first appears, usually. That spot may be described as within the head, where when the attention is, the feeling is that the spot is neither high, nor low, nor to the left, nor to the right, nor to the behind, nor to the front. Not in any of the directions.
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The yogasutras teach a system of meditation where all modifications of the thinking principle are destroyed, and a single pointed meditation on the soul principle is done. As the Silver light of the soul appears first at the pineal, this can take the form of a pointed meditation there after, visualizing the Silver light of the One at the point. The point as described earlier is one in which there is no sense of outward direction. Neither to the front, nor back, nor up, nor down, nor to the sides. Every other impression overcome by the impression of observing the sun, or the light of the Sun at the point of meditation.
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F
ive modifications of the thinking principle are
described in the yogasutras. These are to be studied patiently first, and then thundered away by the Silver Thunder of the Soul, or the light of the Soul as immediately as it rises. The five modifications are direct perception of the outward world, false perception, dream, sleep, and memory. Whether they be of a pleasurable nature or not – if the perception not of the Soul ,it is to be immediately thundered away. This thundering way in itself becomes an impression of the mind, that eventually replaces thunders out the thinking principle entirely, and replaces it with the Soul, which sees all truth directly. The perception of Soul is a pleasure, greater than anything of the appeared Universe. In advanced stages of meditation, one observe the body in the Silver world, whose animated form, or the form which is animated in ether by it is the appeared physical body. The sense od duality between the two is destroyed, and one abides as the soul body itself, and progresses then into single pointed meditation.
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he path of progress is to evolve forth the
Dharma impulse that appears inside. Dharma is that push to action, that appears from the unappeased plane, the plane that is unborn, eternal, Silver Bright. Engaging the Dharma impulse reveals the Silver planes, and the awareness is absorbed there. Eventually, action, in the form of Dharma, Duty, is engaged in naturally, as it leads to the evolution of the Soul, with no sense of outcome identification, or world identification. Yet, it is Dharma to hold, what is one’s own. And Dharmic to hold one’s domain well.
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When the sound उ is held for double its length, the vowel is ऊ. The sound is similar to the oo, made with rounded lips, as in the exclamation “ooh!”
ऊ The additional structure in ऊ, absent in its shorter version उ, may be thought of as a fountaining of energies, the rising of the Sun, in the urn, as the receptable sense is held for a while, in front of the Sun.
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he YogaSutras describe Tapa, Svadhyaya,
Ishvarapranidhana as the path in the second book of the Yogasutras, first sutra. Tapa is intense, focused effort. Svadhaya is self study. Studying any subject deeply, one views the Divine itself, from various angles. In later stages, the Soul studies things directly. Ishvarapranidhana is prayer before the One, the receptacle sense held regularly. The word Tapa has the same root as the word Temperature. Often refers to ascetic meditation, and so forth, in present usage
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Another key the Yogasutras offer is, when the mind is to be stabilized, evolve forth an ideal expression from the Soul, through the astral bodies, which are of ether vibration, and then fuse that energy-feeling with the physical form. In a state of anger, an ideal state of peace may be evolved forth, through the astral and mental bodies, meditated on, felt, and fused with own physical form.
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he astral planes, and higher dimensions and
worlds may be understood a planes of matter invisible to the human sensory. The universe, just as the human body is of multiple planes, and dimensions, and different timespaces on the same dimensional plane. Reality exists as a hyperbundle of multiple overlapping realities, on plane of existence.
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ओ, is a vowel pronounced the same as the English alphabet O.
ओ The form at the top indicates a return to the origin, the sound O has a sense of fullness, indicates, a whole, the Universe, the origin.
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ए, is an alphabet pronounced similar to the English alphabet a. The sound is similar to the ei in the word eight.
ए The form indicates a high state of refinement, during the return of the energies to the One origin, the form of the decussating neurons at the brainstem.
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Sanskrit has a few additional vowels, which do not occur in the Gayatri Mantra, and thus we do not discuss them in this introduction. The reader may at this point, meditatively study the forms of the vowels discussed, and form one’s own reasoned associations of their form with meaning. Refine your hypothesis over time, and abandon ideas which you find does not hold to reason.
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We are now in a position to understand on a plane, the ancient symbol of OM. The form is not an alphabet of the Devanagari system of writing Sanskrit, but is to be understood as a symbol standing for the idea of the sacred word OM.
ॐ There are two ways of intoning the sound, found n ancient writing. One is as OM. The other is as the three alphabets prolonged AAAA..UUUU…. MMMMMM. And this is followed by a phase of silence. The sound अ prolonged AAAA is a state in which the system bonds to the One, the One God, the Sun, at the origin. In the state of the vibration UUUU, उ, one is a as a receptacle for the energies of the Sun. And M indicates merging where the bright energies of the Sun fuse with the adept.
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The symbol ॐ s itself may be interpreted in one sense, as the brightness appearing at the pineal, and evolving upward to the origin, situated at the crown chakra space. Or, it may be interpreted as the brightness of the Soul, or the Sun, filling the body through the pineal. The form of the dot in a vase indicates ideas such as sublimation, bright manifestation of an individual soul, in the vase of reality – the universe, and so on. This happens as the individual soul touches the Eternal planes. The Soul is eternal – and it does not become anything else. The yogasutras describe God as a unique Individual Soul – which is different from other souls.
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