Elements of Healing in Sanskrit Chant
Among forms of sacred speech and song, sublimity is wonderfully mani-
fest in Sanskrit chant. Like music, Sanskrit uplifts the heart. Houston
writes:
Sanskrit is a language designed for maximum uninterrupted resonance.
It is language as music, attracting the full attention of the speaker or
singer with the articulation of each syllable blending perfectly without
the slightest friction into the next syllable.^85Sanskrit sounds are combined according to rules of euphonic combina-
tion called samdhiÓ (‘union,’ from sam, ‘together,’ √ dh ̄a‘to put’).
SamdhiÓ permits “the most perfect uninterrupted flow of the most eu-
phonic blending of letters into words and verse.” For instance, the
greeting NamaÓh te, “Salutations to thee,” becomes Namaste; the
sounds are blended to maintain a current of resonance. In the chanting
of Sanskrit scripture or of mantras, the experience of unbroken resona-
tion pervades one’s entire body and extends beyond oneself.^86 To send
forth one’s voice, and feel its vibration join the vibrations of the world
extending all around oneself, can be a direct and marvelous experience
of primordial unity. The rules of saÓmdhiserve purposes of efficiency
and aesthetics in both oral and written Sanskrit, but saÓmdhi’sgreatest
importance is the power it gives Sanskrit as a vehicle for inducing medi-
tative consciousness, and the higher knowledge that meditative con-
sciousness supports. Other features of Sanskrit also serve this purpose.
An essential feature of the language is the purity of Sanskrit’s basic
sounds, described by Houston as “a coherent selection of the most
pure, distinct, and focused sounds that can be made by the human vocal
instrument.”^87
The breath-patterns required for chanting is another feature of San-
skrit that supports meditative awareness. For instance, the arrangement
of the consonants in the Sanskrit alphabet is based in part on alternation
of aspirated and unaspirated sounds, such as taand tha. According to the
Taittir ̄ıya UpaniÓsad, pronunciation requires attention to sound, accent,
quantity, force, articulation, and combination [Tait. Up. 1:2]. Correct
pronunciation both requires and cultivates breath-control, and thus
chant, like the playing of the flute, has qualities like those of pra ̄Ónay ̄ ̄ama:
regulation of breath leads to calming of the vÓrttis, the activities of mind
that produce bondage and suffering. Meditative awareness gained in San-
skrit chant is thus rooted in the physical experience of:
tantra and aesthetic therapeutics 163