Why Sanskrit Matters in Yoga
Within this post and others going forward, bolded Sanskrit words link to a Sanskrit glossary with pronunciation audio and meaning.
Sanskrit is the language of Yoga, and its significance goes deep, mind-blowingly deep.
Its meaning is held within the sounds, their vibrations and resonance that penetrate to the very core of who we are. Because of its depth, many Sanskrit words have no equivalent in other languages, and their meaning can shift with extraordinary nuance depending on context.
If you’ve practiced Yoga for any length of time, or for that matter if you live almost anywhere in the world, you probably already know some Sanskrit words.
Yoga, mantra, karma, guru and dharma are all Sanskrit words.
We use these words so casually now that we think of them as part of our vernacular, but behind them is an incredible system for understanding ourselves, consciousness, health, nature, time, language and spiritual life. This is the path of Yoga.
Beyond the Mind
Sanskrit not only communicates concepts and gives us a way of thinking about them, but its sounds are understood to be so powerful that we don’t even need to know their intellectual meaning in order to receive the influence of their vibration.
The sounds are the meaning. These vibrations don't even need to be audible within our limited sense of hearing to produce meaning and result. Ultimately the vibration is within, and silently resonating a thought can be even more powerful than speaking something out loud.
A Very, Very Old Language
Sanskrit is one of the great knowledge languages of human civilization, the language of Yoga, Āyurveda, Jyotiṣa, mantra, and so much more. It’s the language of the great ancient epics the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. Across thousands of years, an extraordinary body of Sanskrit literature has developed, encompassing ritual, poetry, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and medicine.
Most people studying Sanskrit today start with Classical Sanskrit, a standardized form of the language that has remained remarkably stable for approximately 2,500 years.
Before Classical Sanskrit came Vedic Sanskrit, also referred to as Ancient Sanskrit, the language of the Vedas.
The Vedas are a profound body of sacred knowledge, vast collections of hymns, chants, ritual teachings and spiritual insight, foundational to many of India's philosophical and spiritual traditions, including Yoga.
At the heart of the Vedas were the ṛṣis, the ancient seers who perceived and received the knowledge preserved within them. These ṛṣis weren't understood to be authors of the Vedas in the way we think of someone writing a book. The Vedas are śruti, “that which is heard.” The ṛṣis weren't inventing these truths; they were receiving them from the vibrations of the universe.
This can be hard for us in our modern world to relate to, but try to imagine the world many thousands of years ago. It was without doubt a much quieter place, life was way slower, and there was far less noise. Picture these ṛṣis, extraordinary even in their own time, sitting on mountaintops or in caves, deep in meditation, refining their awareness and perceiving what ordinary consciousness could not.
This wisdom received by them is believed to have survived for countless centuries through oral transmission alone. Nobody knows exactly how far back that transmission goes, but elaborate methods were developed to preserve not only words, but pronunciation, pitch, accent and rhythm. Even UNESCO has recognized the tradition of Veda chanting for precisely this extraordinary oral preservation.
The Viṣṇu Purāṇa, an ancient Sanskrit text preserving sacred stories and cosmology, describes a succession of twenty-eight Vyāsas, each responsible for organizing Vedic knowledge in a different age. The most recent, Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa, is traditionally placed approximately 5,000 years ago. He is credited with organizing the already ancient Vedic teachings into four collections: the Ṛgveda, Sāmaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda, entrusting each to a disciple for continued transmission.
In the Ṛgveda, the oldest of the four Vedas, we can find early roots of Yoga itself. In one example, the seers speak of yoking the mind and thoughts to Savitṛ, a Vedic solar deity. The Sanskrit verb yuñjate, meaning ‘they yoke’ or ‘they harness,’ shares its root with the word Yoga. Long before Yoga was systematized into the philosophical tradition we know through Patañjali, the idea of consciously directing the mind was already present in Vedic teachings.
Across the generations that followed, seers, sages, ascetics and spiritual practitioners continued investigating consciousness, mind, breath, sound and the subtler aspects of human experience through disciplined practice and observation, and continued transmitting what they learned.
Classical Sanskrit
Around the middle to end of the first millennium BCE, the extraordinary grammarian Pāṇini systematized Sanskrit grammar in his Aṣṭādhyāyī, or “Eight Chapters,” codifying the highly structured grammatical system of what we now call Classical Sanskrit.
A familiar example for Yoga students is Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras, composed as a series of remarkably concise aphorisms designed to facilitate memorization and oral transmission, each containing layers of meaning in very few words.
Pāṇini's comprehensive grammatical system helped Classical Sanskrit remain remarkably stable all this time. In both Vedic and Classical Sanskrit, the five main consonant groups are organized according to how and where they're produced in the mouth, progressing from the back of the vocal tract to the lips. The precision of the entire system is truly astonishing.
Sanskrit Script
Because Sanskrit was transmitted orally long before it was written down, it has no single script of its own. Today we commonly associate it with Devanāgarī, the same script that Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, and others are written in, but Sanskrit has also been written in many other regional scripts throughout its history. The spoken sound came first.
For those of us reading Sanskrit in the Latin alphabet, IAST transliteration gives us the information we need to pronounce the sounds accurately. The diacritics, the lines and dots above and below some letters, tell us how the sounds are pronounced. When we can read the letters accurately, we can pronounce them with precision. This comes with awareness over time. It’s a slow roll.
Sanskrit and Sound
A good place to start is with the Sanskrit word śabda, which can mean sound or word, but it goes beyond language to deep knowledge and reality itself. And this brings us to Sanskrit mantra, where the sounds themselves are an essential part of the practice.
In Yoga, mantra isn't simply an inspirational phrase you repeat to yourself. Mantra works through the vibration of the sound, audibly or internally. Meaning matters when you’re conveying a concept, sure, but the effects of the sounds aren’t dependent entirely on intellectually understanding the translation. There are many mantras, particularly bīja mantras or seed sounds, that don’t have an ordinary translatable meaning. Their meaning is carried primarily through the sound and vibration itself, tapping into the various energies associated with those sounds.
Experiencing Sanskrit
Sanskrit is meant to be experienced.
For example, Vedic mantras are usually chanted aloud, perhaps in a group, with extraordinary attention to pitch, rhythm and pronunciation. Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras can also be recited aloud, allowing the sounds and teachings to become increasingly familiar over time. There's also kīrtan, a form of devotional singing, often involving call-and-response, in which sacred names and mantras are repeated together, accompanied by music. And then there's mantra japa, the repetition of a mantra, which can be spoken aloud or repeated silently within. In many Yoga traditions, silent japa is considered the most powerful form.
Each offers a different way of experiencing Sanskrit through sound, whether it’s audible or internal.
If your experience of Yoga has mostly been in a studio, Sanskrit is likely already in your practice. The word āsana means posture or seat, which is why the Sanskrit pose names end in -āsana. Śavāsana, for example, literally means “corpse posture”, often referred to as “corpse pose.” And maybe you've practiced with the So’haṃ kriyā, where the mantra is linked with the breath, with so silently repeated on the inhale and haṃ on the exhale. Sanskrit is part of the practice, experienced through breath, repetition and awareness.
Maybe it’s a little hard for our modern thinking to comprehend how powerful these practices can be, but think of music and how deeply it can affect us. Music can bring us to tears or instill great joy, and everything in between. That’s the power of sound.
Now consider that Sanskrit mantras have been repeated for thousands of years, passed from teacher to student through countless generations. Imagine how many millions of times those same sounds have been spoken, chanted, or resonated silently. Imagine the accumulated power of practice, devotion and intention, carried forward through these vibrations that resonate with the universe itself.
In the Yogic understanding, these sounds resonate through the body and consciousness itself, allowing us to enter into relationship with realities that ordinary language can't necessarily describe.
You don't have to believe any of that to chant a mantra. You can experience the sound and simply observe what happens. This is one of the practices of Yoga.
Pronunciation Matters
If Sanskrit works through sound, then naturally we should make an effort to pronounce it well to align with the intended vibration.
This is particularly important with Veda mantra, where pitch, rhythm and pronunciation are essential to preserve the integrity and receive the intended result. The traditional methods of Vedic recitation are magnificently exact for a reason. Veda chanting has long been transmitted directly from teacher to student, and that direct transmission is still massively important.
None of this means you shouldn't say Sanskrit words unless you can pronounce them perfectly. Practice is how we improve, but anything goes doesn't make much sense either. When we're learning pronunciation it's helpful to practice aloud, at least at first, so we can hear the sounds and make adjustments.
For example, the long ā in prāṇāyāma is held approximately twice as long as a short a. To pronounce ṇ, curl the tip of your tongue back against the roof of your mouth. Listen for sounds that your own language may not contain, and take the time to hear and practise them. I promise you it feels more natural over time.
Saying a word like prāṇāyāma then becomes a practice in awareness, and it's another way of practicing Yoga. Essentially, that’s what yoga is: a practice of cultivating awareness.
One Word At A Time
We don’t need to be Sanskrit scholars or speak Sanskrit conversationally, but if we’re going to practice and study Yoga as a transformational path, Sanskrit deserves our attention and respect.
The Sanskrit Glossary for Yoga is a free, searchable reference with accurate IAST spelling, pronunciation audio and meanings for the Sanskrit terms we’ll encounter in our studies and practices.
It’s a labour of love and the cross-referencing tool I wish I’d had when I was beginning my Yoga studies. The glossary will continue to grow alongside the blog and courses, and I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Much love,
Victoria
