Vedic Chanting: Intonation and Invocation
by Dr. Katyayani Poole, Ph.D.
 "The purpose of Vedic intonation and invocation is to cause the gods, the benevolent laws of nature, to be present among us and to bring human civilization in harmony with those laws. As a natural consequence, the things that cause us to suffer in life – disease, famine, drought, poverty, and unhappiness – diminish."
~ Katyayani ~
When Alexander the Great was conquering India, he came upon a village of enlightened sages. Recognizing their learned state, Alexander perceived them as a threat and ordered all their books burned to ash.
One of the sages approached the conqueror and handed him the complete collection of their written works accumulated over centuries, remarking, “Here, take them. They are corpses.”
Surprised at his utter lack of resistance, Alexander asked the sage why he was so willing to sacrifice his country’s entire body of knowledge. The holy man replied, “Knowledge lives in me as my very cells. Why do I need something written externally, when I am that!”
Coming from a culture that values only what’s written in a book, we may also find it hard to understand why retaining knowledge in memory lasts much longer than anything we could read. Usually we forget what we read. This is because we don’t feel words on a page in our body, but only see them in our mind. And without feeling there can be no memory.
When the Vedic chants are taught orally, the teacher cultivates the student’s subtle nervous system with the sounds of Sanskrit, so she can feel as well as understand the workings of both the inner and outer world. This has been the method for transmitting and retaining the experience of enlightenment for thousands and thousands of years in traditional India.
Even though reading and writing were also available as a means of preserving knowledge, the original rsis (“seers” of the Vedas) understood there was no better storehouse for wisdom than the human body with its complex matrix of nerves. And because the body is pliant and flexible by nature, with proper cultivation, it could be made into a vehicle for divine incarnation. This is the origin of Yoga.
Vedic chanting, which relies on a refined system of intonation and invocation, is the means by which the body can house the energy of the gods. Through years and years of refining the senses and awareness, the Vedic priest just becomes the empty vessel that the divinity enters into.
The secret power behind Vedic chanting involves the arrangement of rhythmic patterns of intoned Sanskrit sounds that range from low, medium, to high. This is known as Vedic meter.
When you combine the correct meter, the precise pronunciation of the Sanskrit syllables, and the feelings they invoke in the subtle body, you carve out a sonic shape in silence. That sonic shape can be any form of Hindu religious iconography that we are familiar with, such as Ganesha (the elephant-headed remover of obstacles) or Gayatri (the goddess of light), and so on.
The purpose of Vedic intonation and invocation is to cause the gods, the benevolent laws of nature, to be present among us and to bring human civilization in harmony with those laws. As a natural consequence, the things that cause us to suffer in life – disease, famine, drought, poverty, and unhappiness – diminish.
So the way to increase happiness and abundance is to embody these positive qualities yourself. Vedic chanting is the means by which you attain all knowledge and enlightenment. Once you do, a beautiful power to bless everything and everyone in your world dawns inside.
(The Sanskrit for Yogis Method™ recreates the traditional method of teaching Sanskrit and orally transmitting the art and science of Vedic chanting -- with the help of modern technology!)
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