There are about 170 000 words in the English language.
A finite number to express an infinite number of things – is it any wonder we have such a limited understanding of the world, our own minds, the workings of the cosmos? Is there any wonder we lack deep understanding and connection between ourselves?
But what if it wasn’t always like this?
According to the Vedas, the lifespan of the universe is cyclical, just like the lifespan of a tree, a
star, a human being. And like any lifespan, it includes growth and decay.
Also our universe, like any other force of energy, contracts and expands, creating a range of vibrations that are expressed in our own experiences.
The vedas illustrate this perfectly. Each of Shiva’s drum beats marks a Big Bang, the beginning of an era and the sound that emanates from it, lasts for millions of years. It carries and creates all that exists in it’s vibrational force, including our human experience.
Our bodies and minds always work in harmony with the universe. We have no other choice. We ARE the universe.
Another story of the vedas illustrates this perfectly.
At the beginning of an era, universal vibrations are high and subtle, creating lightness, clearness, awareness in our minds. Love and compassion, pure bliss and perfect health would have once filled our beings. We were perfectly aware of our connection to all that exists, living as gods and goddesses on and with the earth, not divided by gender, race or belief. Our true self, our purest soul, was aligned with the whole universe and so this era was called the age of truth – Satya Yuga.
When vibrations began to slow, the universe contracted and we began we began to change too. Our individual intelligence awoke. Our curiosity brought us to explore the world with our senses, we became aware of our individual differences, we divided our genders, our ego minds grew and our bodies materialised and became dense. The awareness of our true nature was diminished by one third – which is why this time was named Treta Yuga.
After further contraction, human lifespans became shorter satisfaction of the senses became more and more important to human life and greed took over our minds. The first wars emerged and ignorance and agitation took over our mind. Knowledge of our true reality became diminished by half so this era was named Dwapara Yuga.
And as the lowest point of vibration approaches, humanity is at it‘s blindest point, most unaware and ignorant of their own divine origin, led by fear and separation. Ignorance has become so strong that we are killing not only for food but for fear and the satisfaction of the senses. Awareness and compassion are reduced to just one quarter.
Blind being led by the blind, humans are destroying themselves and everything around them, including the earth itself. The age of destruction – Kali Yuga – is the age we currently live in, or, according to newer calculations (Sri Yukteswar, “Holy Science”), the age we have just left behind, heading toward more conscious times again.
But even in the darkest of times there is always some amount of light. The light of consciousness can come in many forms, as humans are as diverse as the stars in the sky. And to survive Darkness, we need a form of light.
What if we had some of the knowledge from Satya Yuga recorded for us so we have a tool to remind us of our divine origins? What if the inhabitants of the previous ages had a way of communicating with us, to shine a light for us that allows us to survive Kali Yuga with awareness and love in our hearts?
What if the Vedas themselves are this message?
Full of knowledge (Vedas = knowledge) about the workings of the universe, our own origins, the secrets of the mind and soul together with practical instructions on how to become aware of and fulfill our own potentiality as humans, living lives in perfect health, love, and happiness, written in a variety of forms so every kind of person – from the scientifically minded, the practical, the emotional to the religious – can understand their messages, These scriptures can not be underestimated in their importance to humanity.
Written by Rishis (Seers – those who see things others can‘t) who claimed this knowledge comes from the gods themselves – orally transmitted over thousands of years or received in deep meditations from the inhabitants of Satya Yuga, they speak to the most ancient, timeless parts of our being, stirring in us memories of our forgotten heritage and slowly awakening us to the realisation of who we truly are and where we come from.
The earliest of the Vedas, the Rig Veda was found in todays Syria. It’s age and origins are debatable and there are many differences between western and eastern findings but they likely date back to more than 4000 B.C., possibly 12000 B.C.
The start of Kali Yuga is estimated to about 3000 B.C (after the great battle of the Mahabharata epic).
The Vedas are written in Sanskrit, a language which is commonly referred to as the mother of all languages, as most of our Indo European languages developed from it, or from it‘s assumed prototype (simply called Proto Indo European language).
What makes Sanskrit so special is that, unlike any other language, it‘s structure and alphabet is completely built on the vibration of sound. Each letter of the alphabet – 52 in total – represents a certain sound that emanates from, and affects a certain place within our body and also resonates with a certain aspect of the universe. Each thing is therefor named after it‘s true vibration, reflected in the sound of it‘s name, which is also why it is believed that chanting Sanskrit, even if one doesn‘t understand the meaning, has a profound healing effect on the body and mind, aligning our own vibration to that of the chanted word.
Sanskrit grammar is so complex and perfect that out of these sounds, any number of words can be arranged, to describe correctly any aspect, be it real or imagined, of the universe. The number of words in Sanskrit are estimated to be between a few million and infinity.
The perfection of the language is even reflected in it‘s name – Samskrita – perfect creation. It refers not only to the perfect creation of the language but the perfection in all creation.
In fact the perfection of the grammar is so profound that there was never any need to change the language to adapt to cultural evolution as is the case of (to my knowledge) all other languages.
Old forms of German or English even from a mere one hundred years ago for example can nowadays only be properly understood by language experts while even the oldest Sanskrit scriptures, authored thousands of years ago, can still be read with the same ease as any newly composed text, once the rules of grammar are understood. These rules never needed to be changed and the same rule book (the Ashtadhyay, written by Panini ca 500 BC) is used by everyone learning Sanskrit today.
As an example to the meaningfulness of each word – the syllable AUM is a combination of vowel sounds from all five locations of origin in the mouth – guttural, palatial, cerebral, dental and labial. Vowels in Sanskrit are called Svarah (that which shines by itself) or Matrika (mother/matrix of all creation) so these five basic sounds contain the potential for all other sounds and connect us with „that which shines by itself“ within us and within the whole universe.
Chanted as a continuous sound (OM) it resonates deep within our own potentiality and connects us with all that exists in its true, pure potential.
John Cramer, a physics Professor of Washington university, has converted data from cosmic microwave background into sound waves and published his recordings online. The sound of the Big Bang – one of Shivas drum beats, one Maha Yuga, compressed in to a 20 or 50 second sound file, illustrates this slowing down of vibration and frequency clearly. In human sound, it would sound very much like the Sanskrit syllable AUM.
It is no wonder that it is called the language of the gods. And maybe this is closer to the truth than we think?