The Power of Sound

V e d i c

C h a n t i n g

An ancient and uplifting practice that works from the inside out
by Lucinda Strahan
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Th e P o w e r o f S o u n d

chant. I remember the instructions of

my teacher at the KYM, you cannot
chant Om with a tense jaw. You must
open your mouth and make the sounds
AUM. I know when Im doing it
right because I feel the sound rolling
around my throat and nasal cavities and
a wonderful vibration in my tongue,
palate, cheeks, and lips.
I continue, reaching up again to the sun
and exhaling Om, each time touching a
different part of my body and chanting
the mantra. I touch my thighs; I touch
my abdomen; I touch my heart; I touch
my forehead; and then finally, the
crown of my head. Then I turn to the
right and do it again facing south, west,
north, and again facing east. By the time
I am back where I began, my mind is
awake and I can feel my body from the
inside out.

Every morning, the first thing

that comes out of my mouth is
the ancient sound of the Gayatri
mantra. Bleary-eyed and wobbly, I
stumble on to my mat and raise my
arms to the sun, then exhaling with
a long Om, I bend forward and
touch the ground. As I do, I chant.

This wonderful feeling of

working from the inside out is one of

the powers of chanting. Anyone who
enjoys singing will know the feeling
of your whole body ringing like a bell.
You can feel something elemental going
on, like your very cells are catching
the vibrations. Theoretically, this can
be explained by the concept of sabda
tanmatra, says Dr Kausthub Desikachar
who is son and student to Sri TKV
Desikachar, and grandson of the great
master Sri T Krishnamacharya.

My teacher has given me the

Gayatri mantra. It is traditionally
one of the first mantras a student
learns. It honours the sun in a
feminine form, asking it to dispel
the darkness of our ignorance and
provide us with clarity, warmth,
and strength.

If you look at the philosophies of yoga

and sankhya and other philosophies
of India, they say that we come from
fundamental matter called tanmatras,
of which the most primary one is called
sabda tanmatra. According to this, we
can say that our most subtle element is
sound and that, in a way, we come from
sound matter.

Ive been working with vedic

chanting in my practice for
some time now. It has become
particularly powerful for me since
I was lucky enough to attend
vedic chanting classes at the
Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram
(KYM) in Chennai, India.

So if this is the case, when we use

sound, we are influencing something
very fundamental. We are working from
within towards the outside when we
are working with sound and chanting.
When we use certain techniques like

Reaching up to the sun again,

I exhale another Om, this time
bending forward and resting
my hands on my shins while I

asana we are working from the outside

to the inside, but when we are working
with sound, we are working from the
inside to the outside; so we reach the
core of our matter.
Sri T Krishnamacharya was instrumental
in opening up vedic chanting as
a universal tool for yoga during the
twentieth century. Muddled history,
according to Kausthub is the reason
gender and caste restrictions were
placed on who was allowed to learn
and chant the Vedas for centuries
only Brahmin men were permitted
to do it. Sri Krishnamacharyas work
was revolutionary in not only allowing
women to learn vedic chanting, but also
in opening it up to non-Hindus.
This required taking a conceptual
leap that separated vedic chanting
from religion, a controversial move
considering that the Vedas are widely
considered to be the sacred scriptures
of Hinduism. But Kausthub argues
that historically, the Vedas came before
Hinduism, and originally were not
restricted by gender or caste. It was this
insight that Sri Krishnamacharya drew
on to open up the practice of vedic
chanting, he says.
While the practice has been liberalised
by these insights, a strict inheritance
of the pedagogy (way of teaching) has
been maintained. For millennia, the
Vedas were passed down through a
strict but simple practice: repeat exactly
how the teacher recites. Traditionally,
the student sat in front of the teacher
listening to the recitation and repeating
exactly. If the student made a mistake,
the passage would be recited over and
over again, until it was perfect.
This kind of intimate teacher-student
relationship is a rare possibility now,
but the tradition of oral transmission
continues. Since 1999, the KYM has run
vedic chanting education and awareness
through its specialist arm Vedavani,
where training is provided for those

The most important thing is that the

student has an authentic connection
with the sound.
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australian yoga life june - august 2011

The Power of Sound

who wish to take on the rigours of

this ancient oral tradition, for their
own enrichment, and to pass on to
yoga students.
Vedic

chanting

adheres

to

six rules: varna, the precise Sanskrit

pronunciation; svara, correct use of the
three tones of vedic chanting; matra,
correct duration of tones; bala, correct
force in pronunciation that requires
aspiration on some syllables; sama,
correct linking of tones and sounds
so they do not appear disjointed;
and santana, punctuation which is
something like the concept of rests in
Western music.
Each of these rules must be adhered
to exactly because variations in
pronunciation and sound can change
the meaning of the chant, Kausthub
says.
Sanskrit is a phonetic language, so
the way it is constructed is very precise
because each sound is supposed to
produce very particular vibrations in
the body that affect a particular place in

the body. There is a lot of theory behind

this, he says, but basically, if you
pronounce it wrong then you are not
stimulating the right area, you will be
stimulating something else, introducing
something else.
Many people feel self-conscious about
using their voice, and at first chanting
can bring back awkward memories of
school music lessons. The good news

octave. In vedic chant, the neutral or

middle tone where you might begin is
called svarita; from there you include
an upper tone, udatta, and a lower tone,
anudatta. Thats as much musical ability
as you need; the key is really in the
resonance and breathing.
Thinking about this, Im taken back to
our classes at the KYM where 10 of us
sat cross-legged on the floor, following

This universality of sound across

cultures is another sign of its primary,
elemental power.
is that you need not have any particular

our teachers instructions and sounding

musical ability to do it. Vedic chanting

(at first) like a bad primary school choir.

is based on just three notes, svaras,

There were lots of giggles and mistakes,

which can be made in any pitch. This

but our teacher would encourage us.

is one of the main differences between

Raise your voice! Dont worry about

vedic chant and Western music, which

making a mistake. If you make a

is based on the seven tones of the

mistake, do it loudly! she implored.

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Th e P o w e r o f S o u n d

So we did. And eventually we grew

comfortable with our own voices and
the unfamiliar sounds of the laghunyasa
mantra, the chant we were set to learn.

Have some
fun with
your voice:
the kirtan
revival

Laghunyasa is a health mantra found

in the Taittiriya Brahmana Kathaka
(10.3.8). One afternoon, about a month
after returning from Chennai and the
KYM classes, Im riding home from
work in drizzling summer rain and
suddenly I find myself chanting the
first lines:

Along with the current and

growing interest in vedic
chanting comes a revival
of another Indian tradition
using chant: kirtan. Kirtan
is an Indian folk tradition
originating from the 15th
century bhakti movement.
It involves call and response
chanting, where a band
of musicians will chant a
mantra and participants will
repeat it. This continues for
many minutes, often getting
faster and more energetic
as it goes. Gradually, the
chant will slow down again
until the whole group is left
with a still silence. Kirtan
is a great way to connect
with your voice and the
joy of chanting. There are
many events happening in
Australia and around the
world. See these links for
details:

agnirme vaci sritah | vagghrdaye |

hrdayam mayi | ahamamrte | amrtam
bahmani.
It loosely translates to something
like this:
Let fire support my speech | Let speech
be linked to my heart | Let my heart
be linked to my atma | Let my atma
be linked to the internal forces | Let
the internal forces be linked to the
highest force
As this comes to me, my voice

springs spontaneously from somewhere

and even though riding along a busy
city street is not the best place to
practice vedic chanting, it feels good
just to play with it. In fact, for weeks

after my return from India, I catch

myself making all sorts of random
sounds absent-mindedly, low-pitched
humming and buzzing with my lips
that kind of brrrm brrm toy car sound.
I notice these sounds sort of mingle
with my breathing that feels deeper
and more relaxed. It feels good to be
in touch with my voice and the way it
feels in my body. I also feel much more
in touch with all sorts of singing and
chanting, and sound in general, and the
place it holds in different cultures.

Vedic Chanting
recognised by the United
Nations
In 2008 Vedic Chanting was
inscribed on the UNESCO
Representative List of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage
of Humanity. The inscription
of Vedic Chanting on this list
signifies not its importance
to Indian and global culture:

About six weeks after returning

www.unesco.org/culture/
ich/index.php?RL=00062

australian yoga life june - august 2011

This universality of sound across

cultures is another sign of its primary,
elemental power says Kausthub.
There is no culture that does not
use sound. All cultures use sound as a
strong medium. Whether you take the
Christian, or the Islamic tradition, or
the Jewish tradition, or pagan tradition,
or Aboriginal or Maori traditions, you
see that sound is fundamental. Other
cultures do not use asana or breathing,
but all cultures use sound.
Considering this, Kausthub says that
in some instances students of TKV
Desikachar have been given sound from
their own backgrounds and traditions
to chant in yoga practice. For example,
hallelujah or shalom instead of Om.
The most important thing is that the
student has an authentic connection

Vedic chanting offers new possibilities

for yoga beyond the popular practice
of asana.

www.kirtanaustralia.com
www.chantyoga.com
www.davestringer.com

36

Australian desert, I come across an

information stop that includes a set
of speakers playing the sounds of the
traditional ceremony of the Anangu
people. They are chanting. Their sound
is deep and resonant and seems like
it uses only a few different tones in
the same way as vedic chanting does.
I stop and listen, wondering about the
knowledge it holds.

from India, I take a trip to Central

Australia. Walking around Uluru, the
ancient monolith in the middle of the

with the sound, he says, and this is

achieved either through faith and trust
in your teacher and the mantra you are
given, or by using sounds with which
you have an inherent connection.
As awareness and interest in vedic
chanting grows, it is spreading to yoga
practitioners throughout the world. At
the KYM classes I attended, there were
teachers from Australia, Singapore,
Britain, Canada, the USA, Germany,
and Spain. Each took the knowledge
back home to share with their students.
As Kausthub points out, vedic chanting
offers new possibilities for yoga beyond
the popular practice of asana.

The Power of Sound

I think this is a field that will grow and it is a field that

will be more and more embraced because there are many
people who can do chanting who cannot do asana for
example. So this will open the doors of yoga to more people
who are unable to do what we now have as the popular
tools of yoga.
Chanting opens up exciting possibilities for taking yoga
to people in rehabilitative and physical disability settings
people who might otherwise think they have no chance
of experiencing its benefits. The key for teachers is to
demystify the practice of chanting and to help people get
over any negative feelings they have about using their own
voices. Almost everyone can relate passionately to sound
all you need to do is ask someone about their favourite
piece of music to find out just how passionate they are.
Using sound in yoga can harness this passion to deepen
the connection with the practice. As Kausthub says, many
people relate to sound and music so much more intimately
than they do with their physical bodies. And I think this is
fascinating.
Months after my return from Chennai, chanting continues
to enliven and deepen my morning practice. Rising to face
a busy day at work, my mind wants to take off and begin
thinking about all the things I have to do, people I have to
email, and that funny thing that someone put on Facebook
last night. As I chant, I feel the sound resonate through
my body and it brings me back to the present, it focuses
my mind and deepens my breathing. If Im in a hurry and
I skip the chant and go straight into my first asana, its not
the same. When this happens, I usually start again with
my chant and cheat somewhere else. For me, chanting has
become as fundamental to my practice as a sun salutation
or Triangle Pose (Trikonasana). I simply cant imagine not
doing it.

Further Information
Vedic chanting teachers and training
India: www.kym.org
Australia: www.yogapractice.com.au
Other international: www.vedicchantcentre.org
www.chasebossart.com

Lucinda Strahan lives and works in Melbourne where

she practices yoga every morning in her living room
following the instructions of her teacher Barbara Brian
of Agama Yoga Centre in Middle Park. Email lucinda.
strahan@rmit.edu.au
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