From the Veda

What’s that Sound? - Linda Johnsen

We meditators devote a part of each day to something many people would consider strange: Listening to the sound of our mantra. We sit quietly with our backs straight and our legs folded while a sacred sound reverberates in the field of our awareness. When I first started studying yoga, I wondered what made this mantra so special. How does it lead us to our Higher Self?

The yogis say that if you really want to understand what mantras are and how they work, you have to understand that sound is God—literally. But the word "sound" in Sanskrit means something radically different from what it means in English. It took me years of research, both talking to yogis from India and reading yogic texts and commentaries, to get a handle on this important teaching.

One of the first and most interesting things I learned is that another term for sound is vak, meaning simply "word." If you had a strict Christian upbringing like I did, this should start ringing bells. You’ll probably recall that in one very famous passage the Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). I remember stumbling over this in catechism class in eighth grade. "The Word was God." What on earth was that supposed to mean? To be completely honest, I don’t think my pastor knew either, though he clearly sensed it must mean something profound.

© "Yoga International" (September, 2003) published by Himalayan International Institute, Rural Route 1, Box 1130, Honesdale, Pennsylvania 18431. www.yimag.org. Reprinted with permission.

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