The idea of the power of the word is as old as the Vedas of the Hindus.
— Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Mysticism of Sound and Music1
The first stream of Sound Yoga we will explore is Shabda Yoga, which can be translated as “word yoga.” Although “shabda” refers to the spoken, “sounded,” or uttered word, it may be worth applying the principles of shabda to the written word as well, since a word is sounded in our minds as we read or write. We may further extend our use of word to include electronic communications such as e-mail, bringing the ancient principles of this stream of Sound Yoga into some of the most important activities of our present lives.
THE EFFECT OF WORDS on our consciousness and on the material world has been made visible through the amazing work of Japanese scientist Masuro Emoto. In 1992, Dr. Emoto, a quantum physicist from Yokohama, performed a series of experiments on water crystals around the world. These experiments revealed the astonishing fact that water is receptive to external messages communicated through sound. These communications may be spoken through human language, written by means of printed characters, played as music, or even thought in the mind — a testimony to the power of the word as shabda, and also to sound as nada.
Positive messages — kind thoughts or positive words such as “love” and “thank you” — actually purified the water. The effect was visible as beautiful hexagonal patterns formed in the water crystals. The same thing happened when the water was exposed to classical music, such as Bach’s Goldberg variations. In contrast, water exposed to cruel thoughts, heavy-metal music, or negative printed characters (for example, words such as “Hitler” or even “you fool” written and pasted on a bottle of water) formed water crystals of a distorted and chaotic shape.2
Emoto’s work provides us with evidence that human energy in the form of thoughts, words, ideas, and music has a vibrational quality that affects the molecular structure of water. When we reflect on the fact that our physical bodies consist of about 70 percent water, and that an equal percentage of the earth’s surface is water, we begin to get a sense of the magnitude of this discovery. We have tremendous power to affect our health and well-being in positive, powerful ways through our words.
In the language of psychology, water is a symbol of the unconscious mind. In the Bible, water was associated with the Divine body; the first line of Genesis begins with “In the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” For thousands of years, water has been the primary ritual ingredient for Hindu people; many forms of mantra using water are employed today. Imagine, then, the power of mantras as words of transformation and their ability to affect our physical and mental consciousness. From Emoto’s research, we realize that our words and sounds not only affect our own bodies, but also the bodies of other living organisms, which also contain water. It is therefore possible for us to consciously transform the world if we believe and trust in the power of our words.
Another key figure is Dr. Larry Dossey, who was instrumental in waking up the medical world to the sound of prayer and its ability to affect health, life, and consciousness. Dr. Dossey found that prayer was effective regardless of whether the subject believed in the process or not and regardless of the distance involved. The fact that our words have the power to affect life so deeply should inspire us to refine our sound, our voice, and our personal vibration field. This is the value of practicing Shabda Yoga.
TO UNDERSTAND the power of the spoken word, it is necessary to compare our own capacity to utter words with the creative power of the Divine to manifest the universe. The opening verse of St. John’s gospel sums up this Divine power:
In the beginning was the Word;
the word was with God,
and the word was God.
The first phrase states the obvious: that the origin of the universe was a great word, a great thought in the Divine mind. Secondly, this massive quantity of energy was “with God.” One interpretation is that this word was inside God, just waiting to exhale. It can also mean that the Word was pregnant with purpose and potential. Finally, there is the powerful conclusion that the word “was God.” Here we understand the Word as the supreme expression of the Divine, as the thought of God, synonymous with the Divine Presence and therefore being God. We see an amazing consortium of vibratory power present in the Word — a great potentiality and creative power that is synonymous with Divine presence. For the Christian, this is the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It also sums up the goal of the sound yogi, for whom the Word is used to merge with the Sonic Absolute — Shabda Brahman — in such a manner that the mind of the yogi, the process of yoga, and the object of yoga — samadhi consciousness — become unified as one indivisible whole.
The mysticism of the word is especially apt. On the human level, we know that breath is required in order to produce words. Thus, all of creation is produced and sustained by the breath of God. St. Thomas Aquinas drew from this vision when he wrote: “All creatures are words of God, and all of creation is a book about God.” In the chapter of Genesis, the ancient Hebrew word ruah was used to describe the “breath” of God that hovered over the primal waters of creation. It was with this breath that the first creative Divine intentions were spoken. Each spoken intention manifested as reality: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
Our intentions, too, can manifest into reality, provided that they come from that deep place where we are absolutely one with the Divine — with Truth — and provided that what we desire is for the good of the universe. The light shines upon all without discrimination; the earth allows all to walk upon her without distinction; and water cleanses all without prejudice. So to be like the Divine is to want good for the world, and to want it without distinction. Yet even when we fall short of this level of altruism, the power of speech to manifest reality is so great that even evil intent, which can be described as misdirected good, is also capable of manifesting into reality.
From the story of Genesis, we are also told that the Divine transfers its vitality and essence into the clay by “breathing into it.” Such mythological images further attest to the tremendous creative power that can be associated with breath and with sacred utterance. Add the fact that many native cultures have the same linguistic roots for “dance” as they do for “breath,” and we begin to see the world as dancing words, as poetry and music.
SHABDA YOGA teaches us that we can learn to manifest our own universe if we apply the principles outlined in St. John’s gospel. These principles were well understood and practiced by the ancient Vedic seers and Rishis, who were also great poets. Vedic mantras, which are the classic form of Shabda Yoga, are well-sculpted poetic nuances. Another form of Shabda Yoga is poetry from around the world. Rap music, too, can be a type of Shabda Yoga if it is employed with yogic consciousness and the intention of transforming the world, rather than as an unbridled outlet for negative energy and frustration.
Present-day motivational speakers and self-help authors have drawn attention to this age-old understanding of the power of human speech to manifest our dreams, our desires, and our fears. They teach us to change self-negating thoughts into positive affirmations in order to create more wealth and success in our lives. Much of what we think does, in fact, manifest into reality.
Imagine, then, that we widen the scope of this possibility beyond personal wealth and ambition to include profound matters of the soul. Imagine that we can draw energy from the sound of animals and birds, the stars, the sun, and the moon. Imagine channeling all that energy into our own nervous system. We would be able to build an immense reservoir of power to transform our families, our communities, our planet, and ourselves with the same power we have been seeking outside ourselves. Shabda Yoga is an age-old system that is a spiritual technology of the soul, a system already in use that can be expanded to create a better world for us all.
THE PRINCIPLES of Shabda Yoga are based on the spiritual power of words. These principles are:
• The sound of the word truly represents the sound of the thing it is associated with.
• There is an irrefutable sense of truth in the word and the sound.
• The composite structure of the words in a sentence or a group of sentences awakens spiritual illumination.
• A force-field of energy is generated by employing the rhythmic meters of intoning the words.
• The sounds establish energetic connections among the user, the listener, and thing signified.
Traditional Vedic mantras are a sophisticated form of spiritual poetry that captures the emotional intensity and articulate beauty of the Sanskrit language. Many Vedic mantras have gone through a rigorous process of refinement in order to embody the principles listed. This process includes not only the meaning of the words but also their phonetic beauty, which embodies an innate music that can awaken the soul to knowledge, spiritual vision, and insight. Such an awakening is possible when words work together in a sentence structure to simultaneously capture the intellect, the imagination, and the full scope of human emotion. Thus, Vedic mantras reveal a cosmic vision by awakening spiritual insight in the user as well as in the listener.
The Vedas, which are composed mostly of Vedic mantras, are considered to have been birthed from two inseparable aspects: sruti (that which is heard) and smriti (that which is remembered). One way of understanding these aspects of Vedic mantras is that the words and sounds awaken memory — knowledge that is already encoded in our cells, genes, and DNA. The combination of meaning and rhythm in Vedic mantras, arranged in specific sentence structures and poetic meters, serves to illuminate the soul, especially when chanted during ritual. It was within the context of ancient Vedic rituals that these mantras were developed.
Vedic mantras are often recited aloud. The word “mantra” is derived from the ancient Vedic word manas, representing the mind, and tra meaning “instrumentality.” A mantra is therefore an instrument of the mind, a spiritual device capable of producing transformation. A lesser-known interpretation of the word “mantra” comes from the root man-a, meaning “to utter.” This explains Vedic mantras and Shabda Yoga as a form of sacred speech that must be spoken aloud, as in the recitation of sacred texts, so that it could be “heard by the Gods.” Since speech causes our thoughts to manifest into reality, Vedic mantras — used to negotiate with the Gods — were painstakingly sculpted and refined so that even the Gods could not refuse what was being asked of them.
The function of linking human aspirations with the Divine power of the universe to fulfill these aspirations leads us to yet another aspect of Vedic mantras: clarity of speech. The Vedic priest is very articulate in his enunciation of mantras so that the utterance is decisive — even aggressive. Thus, Shabda Yoga constitutes what we might classify as a masculine approach to Sound Yoga. For many thousands of years, women were not taught these mantras. In our present situation, I believe it is imperative that women be introduced to this type of chanting so that they can reclaim their voice and power. Such a step moves us toward the balance we are seeking as a culture and as a species.
The masculine power and articulate structure of Vedic mantras are best utilized to instill strength and confidence. It is therefore practical to use such sounds in the morning as we prepare for the day’s tasks. They can also be used during the day when we feel our confidence being depleted or whenever we feel vulnerable, because shabda mantras fortify our spiritual presence and give us power. Even if you weren’t using Sanskrit mantras, you can feel the power of words by articulating what you want. Using Sanskrit mantras will bolster your regular speech and thinking abilities many times over.
The Vedic grammarians emphasized two aspects of the word (shabda), namely dhvani and sphota. Dhvani is the articulated external sound we hear with our ears; sphota is the inner, illuminating power awakened in the heart when the word is “heard right.” In order for this to happen, speech must be articulate and syntax properly constructed. When we go deeply into this process, we allow the power of language to transmit insight and remove ignorance. Language then becomes a guru, capable of dispelling the darkness and illuminating the soul with its light. According to the philosophical Hindu text Advayataraka Upanishad, “guru” means “dispeller” (gu) of “darkness” (ru) .3
IN ANCIENT LANGUAGES, the sound of a word contained the energy and essence of the thing signified by that word. The earliest forms of communication were probably grunts, groans, screams, and laughter — sounds that transparently expressed how one felt in the moment. Ancient languages evolved out of those sounds. Gradually, words were formed to capture the essence of other things that helped form the matrix of life: the presences of trees, rocks, animals, and birds. In this sense, all ancient languages were originally mantric because their words embodied the essence of what they signified.
In Hinduism, mantric speech was considered especially sacred because it made present the reality of the thing signified by the sound. The Hebrew tradition reflects a similar awareness; one could not take the name of God in vain because the name of God summoned the presence of God — an overwhelming energy “too terrible to behold.” Imagine how comfortably we use many powerful words today without connecting them to the depth or energy of what they signify. A famous passage from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras says: “The word (shabda), the object (artha), and the idea (pratyaya) appear as one [in ordinary discourse]; but by meditation (samyama) over their distinctions comes the knowledge of the sounds of all living beings.”4
This “essential sound” of things is known as Vak, a feminine principle central to the Vedic tradition and revered as a Goddess. Vak represents “the speech of all things.” Mantras, particularly Vedic mantras, are a form of “applied Vak.” In the spiritual vision of Hindus, Vak is more sacred than ordinary speech and carries a far deeper significance. The Rishis are said to have visualized the mystic form of Vak, which is subtle, eternal, imperishable, and incomprehensible by ordinary sense organs.5 The Rg Veda, the earliest of the four Vedas, states that threequarters of the mysterious nature of Vak is hidden in heaven: “Vak was divided into four parts. These, those Brahmans [wise priests] with insight know. Three parts, which are hidden, mortals do not activate; only the fourth part they speak.”6
The Rg Veda, composed entirely of mantric poems, is the earliest of the four Vedas. The other vedas are the Sama Veda, which are poems of the Rg Veda set to music; the Yajur Veda, comprised essentially of prose mantras and mantras associated with Vedic sacrifices; and the Atharva Veda, which deal with mantras of magic. Vak is essential to Shabda Yoga because it is central to the sacred speech of the Vedas, an underlying “language” of nature in which the sounds of cows, animals, birds, frogs, drums, and even inanimate objects participate because every sound, for those who are spiritually attuned, is a kind of speech.7
One of the first tasks of the postmodern sound yogi is to reconnect the words we use with the feelings associated with them. As language has evolved into its contemporary abstract form, we have learned to communicate without feeling — a disastrous condition for our relationships and our wholeness. Our present culture is based on the ability of human beings to communicate effectively with one another, but today we do so purely on an intellectual and technological level. We can, for instance, speak of God and not feel God; we can speak of love and be incapable of it; and, of course, we can speak of peace without truly desiring it. We have built our business infrastructures, our politics, our religion, and our personal relationships on words that can be said without feeling and still be understood.
Our task now is to rebuild our lives with words that fully embody the significance of their sounds. Once we reconnect our words with the experiences they signify, we bring the feminine back into our language and we reinstate the goddess Vak into our speech.
THE VEDIC GRAMMARIANS differentiated among four levels of linguistic speech through which outer sound led to inner experience, and ultimately to Shabda Brahman, the absolute presence of the Divine Word. Vaikari vak is external speech, the dense outer sound of the “sounded word.” Madhyama vak is the intermediate process of translating speech into understanding, as well as the reverse process of translating thoughts into speech.Pasyanti vak is unitive thought — the full comprehension of what is being communicated, invariably acknowledged by nodding in silence. In musical terminology, both speaker and listener are attuned to the same wavelength when the meaning of the words exchanged has been apprehended. If we could empathically sense what others were thinking and feeling, we wouldn’t need words. While some Australian aboriginal tribes possess this ability, most of us can’t communicate without the use of language.
But sacred speech goes even deeper, penetrating to a fourth level of Para vak — the great Word, the ultimate vibration in which the Divine dwells and thinks this universe into existence. Mantras are speech patterns that have the thrust and acceleration to find their way back to this primal level of speech because they originate at this deepest level. They are like guided mystical vehicles, programmed in their sonic nuance and meter to merge with Absolute Sound, the ultimate vibratory realm we’ve been referring to as Shabda Brahman.
These four levels of sacred speech —Vaikari, Madhyama, Pasyanti, and Para — are pivotal in using sacred sound as mantras and as a form of yoga. There are also four vibratory strengths for using mantras that correspond with these four levels of speech; I will introduce them at the end of this chapter. The path of sacred sound leads to enlightenment only when we follow the vibratory path of the mantra all the way into the depths of our consciousness, merging in samadhi with Shabda Brahman.
SHABDA YOGA teaches us to connect the dense, audible, outer word with inner meaning and experience. When we learn to do this effectively, we know where a person is coming from and to what end their words will take us. Such knowledge can protect us from those who don’t mean well and help us differentiate between the authentic and the inauthentic. It also means that our own words will originate from a truth within us; when people connect with the vibration of words that come from such a depth, they too will be led to a truth within themselves.
Even in everyday use, we can recover the essence of words through conscious awareness of shabda in our normal exchanges. This requires that we carefully consider what we say and think, and that we stay attuned to the effects of our words on ourselves and others. The more we attune ourselves to the vibratory power of words, the more we will become inspired to methodically replace negative words and phrases with positive ones. Through this substitution, we affect ourselves emotionally by replacing fear with trust, hate with love, and anger with peace. This is the gift that a shabda yogi gives to the world, beginning within.
AS I MENTIONED, the Vedic seers understood Divine revelation to have two forms: sruti, meaning that which is heard, and smriti, that which is remembered. Vedic mantras, traditionally referred to as “sruti,” are often recited aloud so that they are heard by the practitioner and can awaken the memory of protection and beneficence associated with the sounds. The vibrations of loud utterance are also for the benefit of the world, which absorbs them through a type of spiritual osmosis. Interestingly, the word “sruti” is also used to denote the fundamental tone in Indian music, which serves to help Indian musicians hear the pitch they are working in. In the same way, shabda mantras remind us that everything is being uttered by the Divine ground — the fundamental tone of all existence — and that we must stay connected to this Shabda Brahman, this absolute sound, this archetypal logos.
“Smriti,” meaning “that which is remembered or recalled,” traditionally refers to the sacred lore and laws that are passed on from generation to generation — ancestral wisdom, in other words. According to Vedic philosophy, shabda mantras should awaken the deep states of consciousness encountered by the Vedic Rishis because these mystical experiences are within our own memory. As long as we confine our study of mantras to reading “about” them, we are limited to the level of smriti, which is like the words of a story that help us remember an incident. Without having had the experience yourself, it is hard to relate to the story.
Sound, as shabda, should therefore be consciously employed in a manner that seeks to awaken us to the memory of our underlying cosmic consciousness — of our union with the Divine ground of being and all of creation. The following is a mantra from the Isa Upanishad that I like to use to collect my energies when I feel scattered or disempowered. The mantra translates as “Oh, my soul, remember everything good that you have strived for in the past, and recall this energy into the present moment.”
Kra-to Sma-ra Kru-tam Sma-ra
BECAUSE SOUND and memory are so inextricably linked, sound can awaken us to the ultimate presence of God — a memory just waiting to be recalled. Our spiritual journey through time has been metaphorically described as a fall from primeval harmony and a forgetting of our true nature. Spiritual practice is meant to help us find our way back home — to the Om, so to speak. The role of sound in creation is underscored by the observations of John Cramer, a University of Washington physicist who developed an actual audio file of the “big bang,” the sound origin of the universe, that can be played on your computer.8 According to Dr. Cramer, the big bang wasn’t an explosive sound at all, but more like a deep hum, which is exactly what the Rishis perceived in their meditations and uttered as Om.
Shabda Yoga should therefore be practiced with the intention of awakening ourselves to our highest potential, our deepest spiritual identity, and our Divine ancestry. Just as we can discover the true meaning and essence behind the words of everyday human existence, the practice of Shabda Yoga can awaken us to the memory of the Divine Presence, stored inside us and waiting to break through. When this happens, we see all things as emanations from a common source that awaken in us the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: that we, indeed, are a word of God. The universe then becomes a “web of interdependent and interconnected relationships,” a phrase made popular by physicist Fritjof Capra in his work, The Tao of Physics .9
IN CHAPTER THREE, we discussed “rta,” the Vedic sense of order and harmony that pervades the universe and creates a basic drive toward harmony in all living creatures. Even with those aspects of the physical world that we consider to be inanimate — without life, without breath — we can perceive order, structure, and harmony in their symmetry and molecular construction. Another clear sign that our own being is vibrating in sympathy with cosmic consonance is the fact that, no matter how much we deviate into disharmony, we feel at peace when harmony is restored.
The harmony that pervades our universe was intuited by early Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras and Ptolemy, and later proved by Johannes Kepler in the seventeenth century through his Music of the Spheres. Today, scientists say that music is ubiquitous in nature (the earth herself hums a tune), and that musical harmony shows up in the arrangements of the planets, in seascapes, and even in our brain waves.10 Robert Roy Britt, a science writer for Space.com, writes: “A CD of black-hole music most likely can’t compete with Britney Spears or the Soggy Bottom Boys, but a new study shows these venerable gravity instruments produce complex tunes whose underlying principles are remarkably similar to pop, bluegrass, classical, or any other style you might think of.”11
The evidence is in. Our motivation is to now trust in the harmony of the universe and allow this harmony to influence our thoughts, our words, and our emotions. This means that we consciously make use of ancient and sacred languages that embody this harmony in our spiritual and yoga practice. The practice of Shabda Yoga, through the recitation of Vedic mantras in Sanskrit, can help us achieve this sense of cosmic order by organizing the energy in our lives into structured and harmonic form, transforming life into music and speech into poetry.
WHEN WE DISCOVER the mantric power of sound, we learn to live in a cosmic context; we feel that we belong to the universe. The concept of the “university,” a term coined in the Middle Ages by European monks, was of a center where people would learn to find their place in the universe, helping them discern their role in the grand scheme of things and play their part in a great symphony. Ours is an amazingly sonorous universe. From DNA and the atomic structure of oxygen to the blossoming of a rose and the hum of planets, we encounter sounds as familiar as the music of Bach. Indeed, Willie Ruff and John Rogers of Yale University created music by programming the angular velocities of the planets into a synthesizer, precisely following the mathematical equation of Johannes Kepler. Joachim-Ernst Berendt says the following about their resulting recording:
Mercury, the fast and restless “messenger of the gods,” does indeed have a quick, busy, chirping, “quicksilvery” sound. Aggressively and ruthlessly, Mars slides up and down across several notes. Jupiter has a majestic tone reminiscent of a church organ, and Saturn produces a low, mysterious droning.12
Recovering our sense of cosmology is imperative. Isolating ourselves more and more in our automobiles and high-rise buildings, we estrange ourselves from the earth, the stars, and the heavens. Shabda Yoga is applied cosmology; it lets us rediscover, directly and immediately, that we are each like little universes, part and parcel of an immense cosmos made up of innumerable universes like ourselves. This immensity moves us beyond the limits of the ego, enabling us to embrace a Self that is magnanimous. We become great souls in the process, for that is what the word means: magna meaning “great,” and animus meaning “soul.”
SHABDA YOGA, because of its complex consonants, poetic nuance, and grammatical syntax, sculpts and shapes the energies of our soul in a special way. It offers protection from negative forces and configures our energy to attract beneficial circumstances into our lives. To use words and sounds in this consciously sacred manner is to posture the soul — in much the same way that Hatha Yoga, through its postures, sculpts and shapes the slower or denser energies of the body. Proper posturing of the soul enables us to feel better, think better, and act better.
To enter into a day-to-day experience of Shabda Yoga, we must learn to use our speaking and thinking language for spiritual purposes. We do this by reconnecting feeling and experience to the words we use in our private lives, in our homes, in our relationships, and in our professional environments. In addition, we must simultaneously develop a sacred language for the needs of our soul. As with all mantras, I highly recommend Sanskrit for this purpose, but you may choose otherwise if your ancestral roots resonate more strongly with another tongue.
In Hatha Yoga, postures (asanas) and stretches create a strong, balanced infrastructure that helps optimally channel and distribute energies generated by breath practices, or pranayama. In the same way, posturing the soul through the sounds of Shabda Yoga allows us to introduce bija mantras, or the energetic seed syllables characteristic of Shakti Yoga, the stream of sacred sound that we will explore in the next chapter.
THIS EXERCISE will help you experience the power of Shabda Yoga in relation to familiar words and concepts. The Sanskrit term is associated with the specific vibratory consistency of each type of utterance. Think of something you want very much and encode this need in a short phrase, such as, “I want to feel ___________.”Then use the following steps to work with your desire:
1. Vachaka: Get in touch with your emotions, and articulate what you feel clearly and confidently by saying your phrase aloud three times to activate the dense, physical form of the physical-material plane and have it conform to your statement.
2. Upaamsu: Soften the sound by whispering it three times into the air. This brings the message to the emotional-energetic plane and strengthens the power of your statement. As you take your words to this subtler layer of being, you will feel closer to your heart space. Sounding in this manner helps you release your fears and doubts.
3. Maanasa: Say the phrase three times in your mind, slowly, clearly, and confidently. You are now affecting the deep substructures of your being and reconfiguring your core belief system to accommodate what you are speaking, thus activating the causal-spiritual plane of our existence.
4. Tusnim: Become internally quiet and just listen. When you listen with your whole body, you will feel the effects of your Shabda Yoga practice. It is as though your soul were speaking in silence to the Divine, who is listening in silence.
While it is possible to feel the effects of this exercise using ordinary words, imagine what could happen if you were to employ actual Sanskrit mantras. Try the method again, this time using a prayer phrase, such as Om Namah Christaaya, Shivaaya Namah Om, a sacred word such as Shanti (peace), or even your core mantra. Notice how quickly you can feel the power of the words you are uttering and how effectively you can journey into the heart.
Traditional Vedic mantras, as you will see in appendix one, are complex mantric phrases designed to illuminate, protect us, and draw beneficial circumstances into our lives. They are usually chanted just once, or possibly three times.
Remember that the external sound is always paramount in Shabda Yoga. To feel the progressive vibratory experience of any type of mantra, chant it nine times: thrice audibly, thrice softer on the breath (in a whisper), and thrice internally in your mind. These three variations also correspond with three planes of existence: the physical-material plane, the subtle-energetic plane, and the causal-spiritual plane. You want to reach a state in which you can say a word or phrase just once and recognize the complete experience of feeling that goes along with the idea or thought that the word signifies.
The method we are using makes us consciously aware of the progressive movement of all linguistic processes, from vaikari through madhyama to pasyanti, retracing sound’s manifestation in the physical world, through our emotional field, to the causal level of spirit. Gradually, with Divine grace, we can break through to the great Sound, the great Word — Para Vak — and encounter Shabda Brahman, the vibratory presence of the Divine itself.
VEDIC MANTRAS are often chanted using just three tones. A fundamental tone, which I call the base tone, is the default pitch; it should be centered in the heart. By this I mean that you should choose a comfortable tone that resonates in your mid-chest. A high tone is to be used above the base tone, and a low tone below it; this causes the energy of the mantra to move into the head and belly, alternating between these three essential centers of reference. This pattern of chanting is common in Jewish cantor and in the tones of liturgical prayer in Catholic or Episcopalian masses.
Although it is possible to speak many traditional Vedic mantras, the use of tones confers a special quality. Certain Vedic mantras, such as the Rudram of the Yajur Veda, must be chanted because the Rishis perceived certain specific tones and prescribed them for yogic transformation.
For those of you who are musically adept, I recommend that you use a halftone above your fundamental base tone for your morning practice and a whole tone above the base tone for evening practice. This matches the energy of those times of the day. For the tone below the base tone, a whole tone is appropriate for both morning as well as evening recitation of Vedic mantras.
Comparing the Vedic mantras on the accompanying audio tracks with those in appendix one will help you distinguish between the half-tone and whole-tone variation. More information about tones and musical intervals is provided in chapter ten,“Nada Yoga.”
In appendix one, you will see Vedic mantras positioned along three lines so that you can gauge how the mantra moves among the three tones. Even if you don’t feel musically knowledgeable and need to approximate, moving among these tones will optimally calibrate the flow of your mental energies.
During Vedic rituals and ceremonies, Shabda Yoga mantras can go on continuously for days, recited by groups of Brahmin* priests who alternate their breath cycles so that no pause occurs in the complex recitations of the set formulae. Because the tones are prescribed by scripture, the priests can come in precisely with phonetic accuracy.
The power of moving among three tones sustains the wavelength of sound frequencies generated by our brain, streamlining our mental processes toward the intention of the mantra. This is dhyana, the seventh limb of Raja Yoga, which leads to samadhi. The brain waves of consciousness are discussed in chapter sixteen.
In closing, I’d like to suggest that you regularly channel your practice of Shabda Yoga into the tones of everyday speech. Take care to use kind and gentle tones as much as possible; at other times, be firm yet loving. In The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell quotes the outgoing message of a little girl on her mother’s answering machine: “After the beep, please leave your tone.”13 The vibratory effects of our tones, in both speech and written communications, find their way deep into the psyche — our own as well as that of the person who receives the message. Let us be mindful about these tones and use our voices to heal rather than to hurt.
* To clarify these terms, a Brahmin is a Vedic priest; Brahman is ultimate reality; and Brahma is God the Creator.