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COFFEEHOUSE CULTURE -- Issue 2

As with all things Vedic, the origins of the Sanskrit language. are difficult to trace. Like all languages, Sanskrit started out and remained for a long time, an oral tradition. Based on a dialect of north-western India, oral Sanskrit predates the earliest writings of the Rig Veda by several thousand years. The oral tradition lives on in India in the chanting of the Vedic pundits and as a sacred language that has been and still, to a certain extent, is the lingua franca of the Brahmin, or priest, caste. Elsewhere, Sanskrit is considered to be very much a written language with the Vedic canon as its sole expression.
....In fact, Sanskrit comes in two flavours. The main Vedic texts -- the Samhitas, which are the four Vedas themselves, and the Brahamans, the books that are attached to them like the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita -- are all written in Vedic Sanskrit. From about 500 BC, Vedic Sanskrit was overtaken by a less complicated grammatical form that is known as Classical Sanskrit. Both forms of the language are written in the flowing and beautiful Devanagri Script.
....It is said that like the whole of Vedic culture, the sounds of Sanskrit were cognised by the Rishis from the transcendental field while they were in deep meditation. The basic sounds of Sanskrit -- the ‘seed’ sounds -- are said to replicate the vibrations that make up all of creation. While these primordial sounds of nature have a meaningful value themselves, they are the basic constituents of a rich and resonant oral vocabulary that is impressive in its power and beauty.
....Currently experiencing something of a revival, Sanskrit is generally regarded as a sacred language.
....Among those promoting the revival is that rediscoverer of things Vedic, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder and leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. The Maharishi describes Sanskrit as the ‘language of the impulses within pure consciousness’ and the 52 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet as a ‘formula for perfection.’ The Maharishi has said that pronouncing the sounds of Vedic literature produces a corresponding quality in consciousness and, through consciousness, in the physiology and environment. The proper sequential pronunciation of the Vedas, says the Maharishi, ‘strengthens the impulse of evolution in one’s life, causing all thoughts, desires and intentions to be more in the direction of natural law.’ More than that, the Maharishi says that: ‘The perfect orderliness of the Sanskrit language creates orderliness and balance in the brain physiology, expands memory and purifies physiology. When reciting the Vedic language, the brain functions from more silent levels, increasing peace and harmony in the mind and unfolding deeper levels of consciousness.’
....Bringing the value of Sanskrit up to date, the Maharishi has established a link between the waveforms and field states of quantum physics and the sounds of the Vedas.