In the hours before dawn, I select a sutra, one one calls to me, and I enter its world and stay there. I let it teach me, inform me, thrill my nerves. Welcome to my world. Sometimes I live inside one verse for weeks, all day every day.
lyrics
Here is some of the word-play around pranava:
praṇava - "the mystical or sacred syllable om. m. a kind of small drum or tabor."
pranava - the sacred syllable OM; from pra (before, forward) + nava, from √nu (sound, shout, exult). (Chris Chapple, Yoga and the Luminous).
[ exult: to show or feel a lively or triumphant joy; rejoice exceedingly; be highly elated or jubilant. Obsolete: to leap, especially for joy. Synonyms: delight, glory, revel. - dictionary.com. Exult: to rejoice, triumph, from Fr. Exulter, from L exulare, exsilire, to leap up. The notion is of leaping or dancing for joy.] [exult: 1. To rejoice greatly; be jubilant or triumphant. Obsolete - to leap upward, especially for joy. American Heritage Dictionary.]
Therefore pranava - pra (“pre,” before) + nava, (shout of joy). The primal sound of the universe continually and ecstatically singing itself into existence. OM for short.
Alternate etymologies: Pranava is the best of boats (nava) to cross the ocean; pranava is so called because it is the ideal (pra) guide (na) to moksa for you. Pranava is the ideal way (pra) to eliminate all karma for those who recite and worship it, deliver them from maya and provide them with new (nava) divine wisdom. Pranava is the prana of all living beings, all the way from Brahma down to immobile objects. - Shivapurana, etymologies discussed by Ludo Rocher.
- pra, “the Prakriti the world evolved out of,” + nava, new, fresh – “The eternal that is always new.” - pra, to evolve, + navam, boat, “the excellent boat to travel the ocean of infinity.” - pra, the “spontaneous generosity of divinity;” prasad, + nava, new, “every time you chant the mantra you are taken to a new level of divinity.”
[ pranava - “the vivifying breath of all living creatures” - Ksemaraja in Padoux, VAC ]
[pranada - a loud noise (expressive of approbation or delight), shout, cry, roar, yell, neigh. A murmur or sigh of rapture. Noise or buzzing in the ear (from thickening of the membranes).]
praṇu - to roar , bellow , sound , reverberate RV. AV. P. -ṇauti , to make a humming or droning sound. (esp.) to utter the syllable om.
Pra - forward, in front, on, forth (mostly in connection with a verb, especially with a verb of motion). As a prefix = forth, away. AS a prefix to an adjective = excessively, very much. In nouns of relationship = great. Filling, fulfilling. ( √ pṝ or prā) filling , fulfilling.
nāva - a shout of joy or triumph RV. = nau , a boat , a ship.
nava - new, fresh, recent, young, modern. A young monk, a novice. A crow. ( √2. su) praise , celebration. ( √5. nu) sneezing.
nāvā - a boat , a ship
adi – beginning with, commencement.
I am chanting the Sanskrit in a prakritized manner, raw and natural.
Let's call it Prakrit - a raw, natural, elemental version of the language of the text.
Sanskrit has the sense of being cooked, artificial, sanctified, and polished. "Prakrit," by contrast, has the sense of being raw, natural, and unadorned.
So these are raw versions of the language of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, letting the natural sounds inside the Sanskrit resonate, as you do when meditating on the mantric qualities of the text.
Sanskrit (saṁskṛta) is defined as, "put together, constructed, well or completely formed, perfected. Made ready, prepared, completed, finished. Dressed, cooked (as food.) Purified, consecrated, sanctified, hallowed, initiated. Refined, adorned, ornamented, polished, highly elaborated."
Sanskrit, by the way, is an English word. In 1899, in the preface to his Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Monier-Williams wrote, "Sanskrit is now too Anglicized a word to admit of its being written as it ought to be written according to the system of transliteration adopted in the present Dictionary – Saṃskṛit." p. xii, footnote 1
Lorin Roche began meditating in 1968 as part of physiological research on meditation at the University of California, where
he later earned a PhD for his research into the inner experience of meditation. Lorin was trained as a teacher in 1969-1970 and has been sharing the joy ever since....more
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