America: the Sanskrit Butcher Shop

We americans have maligned India. We have raped and mutilated their yoga into a fitness system. And we even take their sacred words and pronounce them incorrectly.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• shakti
• chakra
• sanskrit
• language
• pronunciation
• america

[TheQuietCenter]

@writingsofmine "the" sanskrit language is easily 2 - classical or vedic. certainly Vyaas Houston of American Sanskrit institute is serious about where you place your tongue, etc during pronunciation. sanskritdocuments(dot)org seems to be good. congratulations on khechari (kay chuh ree) mudra - i've never done that. the lady in this video has a youtube where she does it. But she is entirely K-driven, never her will only the will of K.

[writingsofmine]

@TheQuietCenter Oh right, I was aware of that too. The Sanskrit language appears magical in that respect, to me. If only I knew it! Tell me, do you know any literature that expounds on these linguistic elements? I've always wanted to increase my awareness during chanting. I know it has something to do with the placement of the tongue and more recently I've noticed my tongue making strange movements during meditation--just yesterday I reached Khechari for the first time and boy was it heavenly.

[TheQuietCenter]

@writingsofmine I am the student. My former exposure to the American Sanskrit Institute (and sanskrit in general) implanted a belief that the specific oral techniques in sanskrit were a form of "metaphysical acupuncture" for turning the body into a tuning fork for the divine.

I had a fixation on correctness and authenticity born of a belief in linear time and original correct sanskrit.

I do Bikram Yoga these days with sanskrit butchers - so evolution is possible even with Sanskrit butchery ;)

[writingsofmine]

The student, as it were, seems entirely oblivious to the point the teacher is trying to get across, about "higher intelligence", and instead dwells on "us Americans" and how we mispronounce words. Interesting exchange, nonetheless.