Introduction: The following is an Englishtranslation of an original Sanskrit composition by Swami VedaBharati. The explanations and stories which follow will give thereader a glimpse of the vast linguistics theory in the Sanskritlanguage and its rich tradition of philosophy.
Allusions: Before we begin, it seems necessary toexplain some of the allusions that the reader will encounter in theforthcoming composition.
Those who, with the cool waters of the peace ofsilence, annul now the fire of the celestial poison of decibels andof cacophonies,
unto those great minds we offer our homage,Namah.
We join hands with bowed heads.
Namah, to the arrow that is silence
Namah, to that siddhi* which makes us shoot rightto the target
Namah, to the vibration of mind.
They whose silence
is the all-sheltering banyan tree
that grants us the shade of wisdom.
They who have kindled the sacrificial fire ofsilence within,
unto those gurus,
only in our silent mind,
we offer our homage, namah.
*yoga accomplishment
ALLUSIONS
1. The tradition has it that the Vedas, theancient scriptures, are nothing but the breath of God. God breathedinto the souls of his first manasa-putras--his mental offspring.These were the rishis, the first prophetic sages who were bornjivanmukta, born liberated, living liberated, and thereforeabandoning the bodies liberated, and we are all offspring of them, asall words are offspring of the archetypal Word. All languages are thechildren of the words revealed by God as he breathed into the highlyrealized souls.
2. Sanskrit word gau, for cow, is derived from theverb root gam. The English word "go" is related to this verb gam. Thenominative singular form gau, means both the cow and the earth. TheEnglish word "cow" is also derived from the Sanskrit word gau. Fromthe same word comes the modern Hindi word gayya which is more or lessthe same as gaia from the Greek that has become the key word in theecology movement. From the same gam come the Greek geo pronouncedgayo which is now pronounced as geo, measuring the earth, geometry.The idea is of a constantly moving single organism, the evermilk-giving cow, the sacred earth in which all is related andconnected. One must take all of these words and see their meaning asa single unitary whole.
3. The ancient stories in the texts called thePuranas consist of a half million verses of such narratives. Some ofthose stories tell us of a time when the earth became overburdened bythe proliferating human population and the profligate behavior of allhuman beings. She goes and seeks refuge at the feet of the Lord, thePreserver. Then the demonic forces haunting the earth are counteredby devas, the divine forces, who give battle and defeat the demonicforces. There are innumerable such episodes in the Puranas. Quiteoften the human warriors also seeking power to do battle against theforces of evil withdraw into the forests or the mountains for yearsof tapas, ascetic endeavor, so that the divine powers would manifestthemselves and grant them unfailing weapons. Many years before thewar of Mahabharata, the battlefield of which is the setting for theBhagavad Gita, Arjuna took a year of asceticism, celibacy, deepmeditation, and contemplation. The Lord Shiva appeared and grantedhim a weapon.
Now these weapons used in the Mahabharata War wereof a very peculiar quality. They consisted of sound itself wielded invarious forms as weapons. The movie Dune incorporates this idea also,borrowing from the Sufi tradition. At the time of the Mahabharata Warthis was very common scientific knowledge, so for example the accountof the war will mention the wielding of the Agneya astra, igneousmissile, whereby a single missile created a fire havoc. Then tocounter it a varuna, aqueous missile, was used. All of these missileswere impelled by the particular power of specific sounds, the weaponmantras.
It is said that there was so much destruction inthe Mahabharata War that in the 5094 years since, humanity has notyet recovered. With the power of such weapons four million warriorswere killed in eighteen days and civilization was devastated. Themantras behind these strange forces are still known in the form ofwritten texts. But from that time on the exact way of using them hasremained concealed for the duration of the kali-yuga, the currentdark ages. And since the Mahabharata War, the policy has beenenforced strictly within the tradition that this science should notbe taught to anyone who has any negative or destructive personalitytraits. That is why so many of the traditional sciences of India havebeen lost. It is preferable that they be lost rather than be given tothose who would wield them irresponsibly.
4. This allusion is based on the Upanishadicpassage on Om. Mundaka Upanishad II, 2.4.: "Om is the bow; atman isthe arrow; Brahman is said to be the mark. It is to be struck by anundistracted mind. Then atman becomes one with Brahman, as an arrowwith the target."
"Om is the bow." As the bow is the cause of thearrow's entering into the target, so Om is the cause of the atman'sentering into Brahman. The atman becomes purified through theconstant repetition of Om, and then with the support of this mysticsyllable is absorbed into Brahman.
"The atman": Here the word means the reflection ofthe Supreme Self, which is like the reflection of the sun in water.This is called the individual self, the cognizer of the differentstates of the mind. Like an arrow, it is discharged at the SupremeSelf, the immortal Brahman. Therefore Brahman is said to be itsmark.
"By an undistracted" etc.: The mind of theaspirant should be free from restlessness caused by longing forexternal objects. It should be detached from the world. Through amind disciplined by self-control and concentration one can realizeBrahman.
"Then the atman," etc.: After reaching Brahman,the atman becomes one with It. Just as the goal of the arrow, afterit has been discharged from the bow, is to be absorbed in the mark,so the goal of the atman is to become one with Brahman through theelimination of such erroneous ideas as are created by itsidentification with the body, the mind and the senses.
The sound of Om is the bow; the self is the arrow;Brahman, the supreme transcendental being is the target. Shoot theself from the bow of the enunciation of Om and become one with thetarget.
5. The entire composition reiterates the theme ofa very strong, subtle, seemingly mystical connection between thecollective temperament of human beings and what happens to the worldaround them. When the governments are unjust, the rivers dry up andthe rains do not come on time. The grains do not grow, the treeswither, the bees cease to hum, or floods and earthquakes maydevastate the earth. But then, in the Purana stories, as soon as arightful, virtuous king has been reinstated, immediately all theecological damage is undone, for reasons known only to the divinecelestial forces. Everything again begins to flow in harmony and theearth turns green. But don't blame the king, nor the governments.This has to do with the collective temperament of all human beings.Unless the mental ecology of human beings becomes sound, there is nopossibility that this earth can be saved.
6. A Devi, the divine mother Shakambhari, is alsoalluded to in the composition. There is a text in praise of the GreatMother, seven hundred verses lauding her which some recite daily(including the author). Within these verses is a prophecy by theGreat Mother which runs as follows:
"When for hundreds of years there will be norain
and the earth will be without water
the great contemplative beings shall sing praisesof me--seeking me.
I will be born without human parentage;
and with hundreds of eyes, I shall look kindlyupon these contemplative sages.
Then I shall cover the entire earth with greensborn of my own being.
I shall nourish the sages with thisgreen,
sustaining the prana of all beings,
thereby I shall be known as Shakambhari, "TheBearer of the Greens."
(Durga-sapta-shati XI.42-45)
The name and form of Shakambhari would be a mostappropriate logo of the international ecology movement.
An allusion which comes at the beginning of theverse is to Prajapati which means the "Progenitor." The greatcreator, Brahma first produced Prajapati, the great-grandfather ofthe earth and of the human race. However, as used here, Prajapatirefers to words rather than to beings as we normally understand them.The first revealed words are called Shabda; I have called them liveShabda-Prajapatis.
In the beginning before time the great Brahmanbreathed out the word-progenitors. The rishis, the prophetic sages,born liberated, saw the Word within their own spiritual selves. Thesewords, having been articulated, then became the vehicle ofcommunication whereby human beings expressed their thoughts andsentiments to each other.
The words then got introduced to each other insentence streets. Wandering about in these sentence streets, they meteach other as like attracts like. They became attracted to each otherand became associated. A certain affection arose among them. Theaffection became a passion, a momentum of lust whereby they united,bred and multiplied. These later generations of words forgot theirdivine origin from the spirit of the universe. Thus they reducedthemselves to noises. The noises surrounded and filled the entireearth go, gau, gam, gow, gayya, gaia. The cosmic poison of quarrelingwords spread throughout the world.
With the venom of cacophonies, these egotistical,corrupt words became divided into many tribes and then became entirenations. They burdened the Great Mother Earth.
The human beings, their ears full of word poisons,could no longer express their love-filled thoughts and sentiments toeach other. These human beings, originally the children ofjivan-muktas, those born liberated, were now becoming in theirthought, jivan-mrityus, living a death. There were decibel devils,together with their wives the cacophonies, their sons namedlicentiousness, and their daughters called twisted laughter andapageeti, disharmony of music.
Even while the clouds wandered in the sky, thedecibel demons drank up their waters so that none poured downwards.They kidnapped the clouds; lightning wives absorbing their energiesto strengthen themselves. Thus the streams, rivers, and lakes beganto dry up. All green things turned into copper color, causingconfusion of directions among the winds. The decibel devils by theirtwisted power uprooted the trees and by their decibel fire theyburned the cities, the countryside, the parks, the forests and themountains; turning everything to ashes. The entire world of livingbeings cried out "Save us. Save us. Help! Oh from where has thismisfortune befallen us, as though a conflagration to end the earth!Such is our grief!"
But there were among living beings ones whosepranas were synonymous with compassion, whose hearts melted withmercy. These were the distinguished contemplative sages, whoretreated to the caves of the Himalayas and hid themselves. They hidthemselves to perform ascetic devotion to Devi, the Great Mother.She, who is the very sun of great fortune shining upon the earth, waspetitioned for the right weapons to defeat the decibeldevils.
After an eon she was pleased by their tapas, andgranted them three boons. The first boon was the bows of meditation,dhyana-dhanush. She fitted these meditation bows with every-unfailingarrows of silence sharpened upon the ascetic disciplines. The secondboon, was siddhi, the power to strike the target without fail byimpelling the arrows with the enunciation of Om. For the third boonshe gave them armor by means of the contemplation of the greatsentences of Vedanta.
1. Dhyana: Meditation. Dhanush: Bow
2. Four Great Sentences of Vedanta form the topicfor contemplation of metaphysical philosophy. For details, ask forthe author's cassettes on Vedanta Philosophy.
Thus well prepared, the contemplative munisemerged from the caves of the Himalayas and went out in expeditionsin all four directions of the earth. They conquered the multitudes ofthe decibels that are the corrupt words and banished them into theseven holes in the world of patala, the underworld below theMuladhara chakra. Thereby, they sanctified the earth again and filledher with the power of merit and virtue. At that moment theyrediscovered, within the lights of their pure souls the very originalWord that had been revealed as the Shabda prajapati, the WordProgenitors, which was now but seldom spoken. They taught theirdescendants to speak with great care, and to use only words that arebeneficial, measured, and pleasant. Otherwise they steadfastly heldto the truth that silence is the true ornament of the mind.Thereafter, the sages mostly communicated through the vibrations ofthe mind.
The celestial poison of distorted sound hadformerly penetrated the free flying birds and the diving fish throughtheir ears. But no longer does it prevail, no longer does it poisonthe minds of living beings. No longer does the poison of sound leadthem towards their own destruction.
When such silence prevails, communication iswordless, from mind to mind, as when a musical string, once touched,evokes a sympathetic chord in the other strings of the instrument.This is the expression of truly silent affection. The contemplativebeings are now living in freedom, seeing their own self in the formof all the selves and listening to the light that is the subtle soundof the soul.
1. The first center of consciousness at the baseof the spine, symbolizing the earth itself, among otherthings.
2. The phrase I have coined in Sanskrit isKolahala-kala-kutam. Kolahala=cacaphonic tumultuous noises.Kala-kutam=cosmic poison of destructive time.
Shanti, the peace who is the queen of theuniverse, now reigns supreme again because the beings have foundsuccor in a pacified, saintly mind.
The earth is filled with the smile of such saintlyminds. What the Great Lady of the Universe, the Shakambhari Devi, hadpromised in silence came to be true, for the world that had becomecopper colored now was turned green again through her graciouscompassion.
This we have been told by the balladeers ofsilence, those who pass on the oral history of the phenomenon ofsilence.
We were told this in our minds and into your mindswe pass on this narrative silently.
Swami Veda Bharati was trained from childhood inmeditation and yoga philosophy and has taught yoga to thousands ofpeople from an early age. He is an expert in raja yoga which is thesource of all branches of yoga. A faculty member of the HimalayanInstitute, he has written many books and articles on yoga andmeditation. In addition to his writing and meditation, Swami VedaBharati has lectured and taught meditation throughout theworld.
Now you can have 5,000 years of wisdom, knowledgeand inspiration in your own home. Swami Veda Bharati taped lecturesallow you to study, meditate and review various facets of yogascience at your own pace and level.
In 1982, Dr. Arya took the vows of swamihood, andis now known as Swami Veda Bharati. He lives in Rishikesh,India.
You may write for a free copy of a catalog of histaped audio lectures to:
MANDALA INTERNATIONAL, 10545 Main Street,Clarence, NY 14031. Telephone (716) 759-6078, fax (716)759-7925.