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OM: The Pranava
Joseph Campbell was an American author and editor whose works on comparative mythology examined the universal functions of myth in various human cultures. During the final years of his life, Campbell embarked on a speaking tour in which he drew together all that he...
Yogic Meal Prayer
In almost every culture there are different ways to say prayers before consuming food. Most of these prayers offer an opportunity to express the gratitude we feel to have the food we are about to eat. They sometimes give us pause to also reflect upon those who are...
Sanskrit: a Sacred Model of Language, Part 1
What makes a language sacred is how we use it. If a language is used to discover the sacredness of life, it becomes a sacred language. Whether or not a language is sacred is determined by who is using it. This in turn has a great deal to do with whether a language is...
Sanskrit: Divine Abode
Many of the universal chants sung in the Integral Yoga Institutes, as well as the ancient Yogic scriptures, are in the Sanskrit language. ''He who knows my grammar knows God," said Panini, the great Sanskrit grammarian and philosopher of ancient India. ''He who would...
Sanskrit: The Language of Enlightenment
Among the many marvelous gifts of the Sanskrit language is a rich spectrum of terminology that defines with impeccable precision a world of vision and clarity that opens through Yoga and meditation. Without this, the already difficult journey to self-knowledge could...
Chanting the Yoga Sutras in Sanskrit
To hear Dr. M. A. Jayashree chant the Yoga Sutras in Sanskrit is to be transported to the time when this great text was transmitted in the oral tradition. Her melodious voice, flawless pronunciation and classical articulation of the Sanskrit, replete with meaning and...
Sanskrit and the Yoga Sutras
The "certainty of freedom" is a striking concept. Although the concept of spiritual freedom expressed through a word such as "liberation" exists in the English language, the actual meaning as we hear it is quite abstract, somehow foreign to the reality of our day to...
Sanskrit: a Sacred Model of Language, Part 2
The primary characteristic of a sacred language is that the purpose for which it's being used is discovering one's own true nature. Sanskrit is so highly developed and refined as a tool for serving this purpose...
Sanskrit: a Sacred Model of Language, Part 3
From the perspective of Yoga, all life ultimately merges into samadhi. It could be said that samadhi is the essence of yoga, In the Yoga Sutras, samadhi is defined, "tad evaathamaatraanirbhaasam-svaruupa-shuunyam iva samaadhih" that (consciousness, engaged in...
Sanskrit, Sattva and Purusha
From Patanjali's perspective in his Yoga Sutras, there is ultimately one problem in life; not perceiving the difference between the transparent, luminous and reflective quality (guna) of the mind with its perceptual field known as sattva, and my true nature as "I"...