Veda's Power

We did it..🥳💗

Hello beautiful souls out there.. how is everything there??

Here are my 5 favorite Sanskrit mantras, with their ancient meanings and how we can adopt them into our modern lives:

1) Mantra: OM

Translation: The sound of the universe. It's the first, original vibration, representing the birth, death and re-birth process.

Modern adaptation: Chanting the sound OM brings us into harmonic resonance with the universe – this is a scientific fact! OM is said to vibrate at 432 Hertz, which is the natural musical pitch of the Universe, as opposed to 440 Hertz, which is the frequency of most modern music.

Decreasing your frequency to coincide with that of the Universe stills the fluctuations of the mind, allowing you to practice yoga through sound. OM is an idyllic way to begin and end a yoga or mediation practice, and also comes in handy when you just need to chill out.

2) Mantra: Om Namah Shivaya

Translation: I bow to Shiva, the supreme deity of transformation who represents the truest, highest self.

Modern adaptation: In the book Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert is given this mantra by her Guru, which she lovingly refers to as the “Amazing Grace of Sanskrit.” Her interpretation is, “I honor the divinity within myself.” This is a great mantra to help build self-confidence, reminding us that we are all made up of divine energy and should treat ourselves accordingly.

3) Mantra: Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Translation: May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all

Modern adaptation: Most commonly associated with the Jivamukti Yoga School, this mantra is a powerful way to dedicate yourself to living a life of non-harming and being of service to the greater good. This mantra encourages cooperation, compassion and living in harmony with the environment, animals and our fellow human beings.

4) Mantra: Shanti Mantra

Om Saha Naavavatu
Saha Nau Bhunaktu
Saha Veeryam Karavaavahai
Tejasvi Aavadheetamastu Maa Vidvishaavahai Om

Translation: May the Lord protect and bless us. May he nourish us, giving us strength to work together for the good of humanity. May our learning be brilliant and purposeful. May we never turn against one another.

Modern adaptation: A perfect mantra to start a yoga class, a new day, or even a new business with. It unites the participants and sets a tone of non-competitiveness, unity, and working together towards a common goal.

5) Mantra: Om Gum Ganapatayei Namah

Translation: I bow to the elephant-faced deity [Ganesh] who is capable of removing all obstacles. I pray for blessings and protection.”

Modern adaptation: In Hindu teachings, Ganesh is known as the god of wisdom and success and the destroyer of obstacles. This is my favorite mantra, which I always draw on when I’m facing a big challenge in life and especially when I’m traveling.



When we select a word or series of words to repeat in the form of a mantra, we are affirming it to ourselves and allowing its meaning to seep above the surface, into our subconscious, helping to shift our negative habits and patterns into positive ones.

108 rounds of chanting Om Gum Ganapatayei Namah, a prayer to Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. By the end, the entire room was fired up. A renewed sense of purpose and resolve was sparked in us that day, which comes alive in me again every time I hear this mantra.

As yogis, we have access to Sanskrit, an ancient, highly mathematical, and sacred language….so why not use it?!

Sanskrit is considered by some linguists to be the “perfect language,” as its correct pronunciation evokes a unique vibration in the Universe, placing into motion whatever you are trying to manifest through your mantra.

Someone just asked me (Naresh Bhardwaj) What are Vedas??

The Vedas are a collection of hymns and other religious texts composed in India between about 1500 and 1000 BCE. It includes elements such as liturgical material as well as mythological accounts, poems, prayers, and formulas considered to be sacred by the Vedic religion.

ORIGIN & AUTHORSHIP OF THE VEDAS
The origin of the Vedas can be traced back as far as 1500 BCE, when a large group of nomads called the A***ns, coming from central Asia, crossed the Hindu Kush Mountains, migrating into the Indian subcontinent. This was a large migration and used to be seen as an invasion. This invasion hypothesis, however, is not unanimously accepted by scholars today. All we know for certain, mainly through linguistic studies, is that the A***n language gained ascendency over the local languages in the Indian sub-continent. The language of the Vedas is Sanskrit, an ancestor of most of the modern languages spoken today in South Asia.

CREMATION WAS BELIEVED TO PREVENT THE SPIRIT OF THE DEAD FROM REMAINING AMONG THE LIVING, SO WORSHIPPERS OF AGNI BURNED THEIR DEAD, AND AGNI TRANSPORTED THE SOUL.
We do not know much about the authors of these texts: In Vedic tradition the focus tends to be on the ideas rather than on the authors, which may allow one to look at the message without being influenced by the messenger. Vedic literature is religious in nature and as such tends to reflect the worldview, spiritual preoccupations, and social attitudes of the Brahmans or priestly class of ancient India.The Vedas were first composed sometime around 1500-1000 BCE in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent - present day Pakistan and northwest India - and they were transmitted orally over many generations before eventually being committed to writing. Like the Homeric epics, parts of the Vedas were composed in different periods. The oldest of these texts is the Rig-Veda, but it is not possible to establish precise dates for its composition. It is believed that the entire collection was completed by the end of the second millennium BCE.

STRUCTURE & CONTENT OF THE VEDAS
The basic Vedic texts are the Samhita “Collections” of the four Vedas:

Rig-Veda “Knowledge of the Hymns of Praise”, for recitation.
Sama-Veda “Knowledge of the Melodies”, for chanting.
Yajur-Veda “Knowledge of the Sacrificial formulas”, for liturgy.
Atharva-Veda “Knowledge of the Magic formulas”, named after a kind of group of priests.
In general, the Vedas have a strong priestly bias, as the priestly class had the monopoly in the edition and transmission of these texts.

The Rig-Veda is the largest and most important text of the Vedic collection; it includes 1028 hymns and it is divided into ten books called mandalas. It is a difficult text, written in a very obscure style and filled with metaphors and allusions that are hard to understand for modern reader. The Sama-Veda has verses that are almost entirely from the Rig-Veda, but are arranged in a different way since they are meant to be chanted. The Yajur-Veda is divided into the White and Black Yajur-Veda and contains explanatory prose commentaries on how to perform religious rituals and sacrifices. The Atharva-Veda contains charms and magical incantations and has a more folkloristic style.

The Vedas present a multitude of gods, most of them related to natural forces such as storms, fire, and wind. As part of its mythology, Vedic texts contain multiple creation stories, most of them inconsistent with each other. Sometimes the Vedas refer to a particular god as the greatest god of all, and later another god will be regarded as the greatest god of all.

Some elements of the religion practised by the natives of India before Vedic times still persist in the Vedas. The Pre-Vedic religion, the oldest known religion of India, which was found in India before the A***n migrations, was apparently an animistic and totemic worship of many spirits dwelling in stones, animals, trees, rivers, mountains, and stars. Some of these spirits were good, others were evil, and great magic skill was the only way to control them. Traces of this old religion are still present in the Vedas. In the Atharva-Veda, for example, there are spells to obtain children, to avoid abortion, to prolong life, to ward off evil, to woo sleep, and to harm or destroy enemies.

GODS & MYTHOLOGICAL ACCOUNTS

Despite the fact that the Rig-Veda deals with many gods, there are some who get a lot of attention. More than half the hymns invoke just three top-rated gods of the moment: Indra (250 hymns), Agni (200 hymns), and Soma (just over 100 hymns).

Indra was the head of the ancient Hindu pantheon. He was the Storm-god (sometimes he is referred to as the Sky-god and also as the god of war). The Vedas describe Indra as the god “Who wields the thunderbolt”, and his most celebrated story was the killing of the demon-serpent Vritra. The legend says that Vritra kept all the waters trapped in his mountain lair, and Indra was the one who slew the demon in order to release the waters.

I have slain Vritra, O ye hast’ning Maruts;

I have grown mighty through my own great vigour;

I am the hurler of the bolt of Thunder

For man flow freely now the gleaming waters.

(Mackenzie, Donald, Indian Myth.,54)

This story has a deep significance: The waters are vital for the health of any human community where agriculture is understood as the basis of wealth. By hoarding the waters, the serpent has upset the natural order, preventing the circulation of wealth and nourishment. Indra must thus do battle to restore the balance.

He, who slew the Dragon, freed the Seven Rivers, and drove the

kine forth from the cave of Vala,

Begat the fire between both stones, the spoiler in warrior's battle,

He, O men, is Indra.

(Rig-Veda 2.12.3)



Even the Heaven and the Earth bow down before him, before his

very breath the mountains tremble.

Known as the Soma-drinker, armed with thunder, the wielder of the bolt,

He, O men, is Indra.

(Rig-Veda 2.12.13)

Soma was the personification of the sacred soma plant, whose juice was holy and intoxicating to gods and men. Agni, the god of fire, is often referred to in Vedic literature as the most important god, and is considered to be the flame that lifts the sacrifice to heaven, a symbol of the fiery life and spirit of the world, the “vital spark”, the principle of life in animate and inanimate nature. Agni was seen as a sort of messenger between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead. Cremation was believed to prevent the spirit of the dead from remaining among the living, and for this reason, worshippers of Agni burned their dead, and Agni was responsible for transporting the soul of the dead.

Another important deity is Varuna, who was initially associated with heaven. Varuna eventually developed into the most ethical and ideal deity of the Vedas, watching the world through his great eye, the sun, and was thought to know everything, to enforce justice and to preserve the world’s smooth functioning. Varuna was also the executor and keeper of the eternal law known as Rita. This was at first the law that established and maintained the stars in their courses; gradually it became also the law of right, the cosmic and moral rhythm which every human must follow to avoid the celestial punishment.

The Vedas also have a hymn to Purusha, a primordial deity who is sacrificed by the other gods: Purusha’s mind became the Moon, his eyes the Sun, his head the Sky, and his feet the Earth. In this same passage we have one of the first indications of a caste system with its four major divisions:

The Brahmans or priests, came from Purusha’s mouth
The Kshatriyas, or warrior rulers, from Purusha’s arms
The Vaishyas, or the commoners (land-owner, merchants, etc.), from Purusha’s thighs.
The Shudras, or labourers and servants, from Purusha’s feet.
Myths are products of beliefs, and beliefs are products of experience. This story reflects the concerns and experiences of a community based on agricultural lifestyle, where water is seen as one of the most valuable assets. Myths with an agricultural significance are found in many other cultures and dragon-slaying myths are told all over the world, especially in many other Indo-European traditions.

LATER VEDIC PERIOD

During Vedic times, it was widely believed that rituals were critical to maintain the order of the cosmos and that sacred ceremonies helped the universe to keep working smoothly. In a sense, ceremonies were seen as part of a deal between humans and the gods: Humans performed sacrifices and rituals, and the gods would return their favour under the form of protection and prosperity.

Nature, however, remains indifferent to religious rituals, so when events went awry, society blamed the priests’ incompetence. Priests were not willing to admit their helplessness in trying to master nature and would say that the gods ignored poor quality offers. The solution, the priests said, required more royal support. Brahman priests refused to have their privileges cut, so they developed a new literature which specified, sometimes in a very detailed way, how rituals had to be performed, the precise quantity and quality of material to be used, and the exact pronunciation of sacred formulas. This new set of texts, known as the Brahmanas, was attached to the Vedic collection around the 6th century BCE. The priests claimed that if sacrifices were performed exactly as they said, then the gods would be compelled to respond. When these new rituals also proved to be useless, many sectors of Indian society believed that this whole business of ritual and sacrifice had been taken too far.

During the later Vedic period (from c. 800 to c. 500 BCE), the priestly class was seriously questioned. The rituals, the sacrifices, the detailed rulebooks on ceremonies and sacrifices, all of these religious elements were being gradually rejected. Some of those who were against the traditional Vedic order decided to engage in the pursuit of spiritual progress, living as ascetic hermits, rejecting ordinary material concerns and giving up family life. Some of their speculations and philosophy were compiled into texts called The Upanishads. A number of practices were linked to this new spiritual approach: meditation, celibacy, and fasting, among others.

Around the 7th century BCE, India saw the growth of a culture of world-renunciation, which was a reaction against the Vedic tradition. This culture is the common origin of many Indian religions considered to be “heretical” by the Indian traditional priestly class. Charvaka, Jainism, and Buddhism, among other movements, originated around this time, encouraged by the gradual decay of the priestly orthodoxy. This would result in the end of the Vedic hegemony, shifting the focus of religious life from external rites and sacrifices to internal spiritual quests in the search for answers.

The authority of the Vedas eventually diminished to give way to a new religious synthesis in India that would dominate Indian society for the centuries to come

Health is wealth!

Vedas and Puranas, which were revealed second time 6,000 years ago centuries ago, mentioned facts only recently discovered or proven by scientists.

Sphericity of Earth:

The existence of rather advanced concepts like the sphericity of Earth and the cause of seasons is quite clear in Vedic literature. For example, the Aitareya Brahmana (3.44) declares:

The Sun does never set nor rise. When people think the Sun is setting it is not so. For after having arrived at the end of the day it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making night to what is below and day to what is on the other sideHaving reached the end of the night, it makes itself produce two opposite effects, making day to what is below and night to what is on the other side. In fact, the Sun never sets.

Shape of Earth is like an Oblate Spheroid. (Rig Veda # # #. IV.V)

‘Earth is flattened at the poles’ (Markandeya Purana 54.12)

"Sixty-four centuries before Isaac Newton, the Hindu Rig-Veda asserted that gravitation held the universe together. The Sanskrit speaking A***ns subscribed to the idea of a spherical earth in an era when the Greeks believed in a flat one. The Indians of the fifth century A.D. calculated the age of the earth as 4.3 billion years; scientists in 19th century England were convinced it was 100 million years."

Namaste all beautiful soul out there.. __/|\__ :)

Bija Mantra – the Energized Sound

Mantra, the sacred word, is the most common yogic practice. It is the main tool for working on the mind. While asanas are postures for the body, mantras are postures for the mind. They provide the mind with well-being and adaptability. Whereas yoga employs mantra for self-development, Ayurveda uses it for self-healing.

Sound can be used to harmonize our panic energies around the seven chakras (see The Seven chakras). Each chakra has its own sacred syllable, a bija mantra. These “seed sounds” resonate with the cosmic vibration of each chakra evoking the body’s healing intelligence.

The chakras and their corresponding bija mantras are:

1.Muladhara (Root Chakra) LAM

2. Swadhisthana (Sacral Chakra) VAM

3. Manipura (Solar Plexus Chakra) RAM

4. Anahata (Heart Chakra) YAM

5. Vishuddha (Throat Chakra) HAM

6. Ajna (Third Eye Chakra) OM

The crown chakra is the abode of unwavering silence. The vibrations of all the bija mantras reverberate within it.

When you repeat the bija mantras, you gradually cleanse and harmonize your inner vibrations.

Pronunciation of the mantras:
The letter “a” is pronounced like the vowel sound in the word “the”.
Pronounce the final “m” as a nasalized sound, the echo “mmmmmm”.

How to meditate:

Sit in the crossed legs posture with your spine straight. Sitting upright in any comfortable posture, even in a chair is perfectly fine

(see detailed recommendations in How to meditate).

With eyes closed, begin to chant each mantra starting with the root chakra while you visualize climbing the ladder of chakras up the spine. Repeat a mantra aloud softly and at a natural pace. Say the sound, then wait for it to settle and come to mind again.

Repeat the sequence nine times. As you repeat the mantras, focus on allowing the chanting to become seamless so that the each sequence of sounds merges into the next, without beginning or end. Do not try to control your thought process. If you forget the sequence or get distracted, gently reintroduce it in the mind. Take the attitude that whatever happens, happens.
When you finish your meditation, don’t get up too quickly. Sit or lie down for at least two minutes before resuming regular activity.

Observe this practice for about seven minutes every day for seven weeks before progressing to the chakra – visualizing practice.

We say suprabhaatam (सुप्रभातम्) in Sanskrit in order to say 'good morning'. Namaskaaraha (नमस्कारः) and namaste (नमस्ते) are very popular words in Sanskrit. They are very common spoken greetings. They broadly mean, 'the divinity in me bow to the divinity in you'. Namaste is often used to greet while people meet or depart, during any time of the day.

Shubhamadhyahnam (शुभमध्याह्नम्) can be used for 'good afternoon'. And 'good evening' is shubhasaayam (शुभसायम्). We say shubharaatrhi (शुभरात्रिः) in Sanskrit, to say 'good night'.

Dhanyavaadaha (धन्यवादः) means 'thank you'. dhanyavaadaha (धन्यवादः) is quite and expensively used word in Sanskrit. susvaagatam (सुस्वागतम्) means 'welcome'. Kshamyataam (क्षम्यताम्) in Sanskrit, to say 'Excuse me'. Chintaamastu (चिन्तामास्तु) means 'No worries'. The word krapayaa (कृपया) means 'please'. For example krapayaa atra aagachchatu (कृपया अत्र आगच्छतुतु) would mean 'please come here'.

bhoho (भोः) is an 'indeclinable', that is often used to greet a person. Kim bhoho (किं भोः) is very often used, which broadly means 'Hey, what's up'. The indeclinable bhoho (भोः) is also used to 'address a person'. bhoho atra aagachchatu (भोः अत्र आगच्छतु) would mean 'Hello, come here'. Shreeman (श्रीमन्) and maanye (मन्ये)or aarye (आर्ये)are used to say 'sir' and 'madam'. For example shreeman krapayaa atra aagachchatu (श्रीमन् कृपया अत्र आगच्छतु) would mean 'Sir, please come here'. Maanye/aarye krapayaa atra aagachchatu (मान्ये/आर्ये कृपया अत्र आगच्छतु) would mean 'Madam, please come here'.

Punaha milaamaha (पुनः मिलामः) means 'see you again'. Astu (अस्तु) means 'Okay'. For example when I say punaha milaamaha (पुनः मिलामः) you would say astu punaha milaamaha (अस्तु पुनः मिलामः).

Afternoon Evening Excuse me good manners Good morning Madam Namaste Night night OK Please sanskrit Sir Thank you

Welcome to all beautiful people out there.. __/|\__ Namaste..

Admin (Naresh Bhardwaj) :)

Just few tips on speedy learning Sanskrit:

A. Do not get too bogged down by grammar and usage while you learn Sanskrit. Often Sanskrit is considered to be all about mugging up lots of declensions and conjugations and this fears off most students. Instead take is as a natural language. Feel free to make the most blatant grammatical errors so far you are able to convey your message. Develop a feel for the language instead of thinking about grammar.
How did we learn Hindi or English or our mother tongue? Did we learn grammar first or language first? And do we speak these languages in a grammatically correct fashion even today? Why burden Sanskrit with overdose of grammar in very beginning then?
Simply start talking on every other thing in Sanskrit and enjoy the funny pronunciations you make or blatant errors you make in grammar. Have a laugh on that and simply continue. Soon you will develop a natural grip over the language and grammar will be automatically taken care of.
B. Try using Sanskrit words even in your mother language. After all Sanskrit is the mother of all languages. Let the children associate with their Mom and have their foundations strengthened! And in process, your road to mastery of Sanskrit will also be traversed faster.