by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 28
May. 2003

ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE BRAMHAN - Part 2

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

The uniqueness of sanskrt is indeed mind buggling. It is the most scientific and refined language known to human kind.

Consider these unique aspects. When sanskrt flourished as the means for verbal and written communication there was no developed language worth the name any where in this world. There is'nt one even now which is phonetically and grammatically so correct. We have advanced languages in this world where there are words which have identical consonant, vowel combinations, but for no apparent reason pronounced differently. Even the same letters of the alphabet have different sounds when used in different contexts. This is the result of a weak and underdeveloped grammar. No such anomalies exist in sanskrt. A perfect grammar does not allow any aberrations between sound and text which might distort the meaning.

Again, all sanskrt words are created words. They have a root which has a specific charateristic meaning. By using it as a base and conjoining with alphabets, their operative features or matras, thousands of words can be created with very specific meanings. Sanskrt words are 'created' and never 'coined' or lifted from alien sounds. Thus every word when analysed reveals its hidden meaning itself without asking for help. Take this word jagat, loosely translated as world. Why world is named `world' and not 'drowl' is difficult to justify. But jagat clearly explains itself the ever changing phenomenon ( jayate gachati iti ) which is the striking feature of the physical phenmenon all around us. It is constantly jayate i.e coming into being, and gachati i.e. vanishing or going away. That is to be understood as jagat. Take again that difficult word Maya. What is maya? Why it is called illusion and not collusion or something else? But spoken in sanskrt it gives its own explanation. Ma (it is not) ya (whatever) sa maya. It is maya, when something is not what it appears to be. It is so simple. Rama or Vishnu or Vivekananda are names with specific meanings of their characters. The same can not be said about proper names in other languages. The same thing is true for other words also. Each word is self revealing in sanskrt.

Let us see what Sri Aurobindo's observations are on the subject. I quote : "The sanskrit has always been a language in which one word is naturally capable of several meanings and therefore carries with it a number of varied associations. It lends itself, therefore, with peculiar ease and naturalness to the figure called slesha or embrace, the marriage of different meanings in a single form of words." Unquote.

He says again "The different meanings of a word, though distinct, are not yet entirely separate." To cite examples, he refers to the words like ardha which commonly means half and it means nothing else. But he observes and I quote again " To the Vedic man it carried other associations. Derived from the root rdh which meant originally to go and join, then to add, to increase, to prosper, it bore the sense of place of destination, the person to whom I direct myself, or simply 'place'... So when

they spoke of higher worlds of Satchidananda as paraardha, they meant at once the higher half of man's inner existence and the parama dhama or the high seat of Vishnu in other worlds and, in addition, thought of that high seat as the destination of our upward movement. All this rose at once to their mind when the word was uttered, naturally, easily

Further there is yet another unique feature in sanskrt that greatly help us realising within our hearts the true meaning of spiritual knowledge. The modern researchers are slowly discovering the wonder of the effect of the sound that is produced when a pure word comprised of right alphabets and adjuncts, when pronounced in a phonetically flawless manner. That is sanskrt for you. It can be pronounced only in one correct way. Its phonetic composition does not allow any aberration what so ever. And the sound emanating is the same who ever is the speaker. Its effect on body mind and intellect is fascinating.

As you are also aware, all sounds when produced create a very characteristic vibratory wave patterns. Modern machines today can identify every sound from the waves it creates. We also know today that some wave patterns could be discordant and destructive and some wave patterns could be soothing and beneficial. Then again, starting from the basic sounds it is known that by combining two or more sounds and varying their pitches the total effect of the sound could be made extremely powerful. So powerful that it can heal, it can eliminate mis-happenings, it can create new things, it can shatter objects by unleashing natural forces, it can trigger mental a nd spiritual growth and what not. It can transform the entire world for you. In the language of sanskrt these hidden powers of sound of the utterance or nada was recognised thousands and thousands of years back. Who knows what instruments were used and what experiments were made unless it was all the work of The Divine.