The Art of Speaking
How does breathing contribute to the enrichment of civilisation …How is breathing a seva? While we all racked our grey matter with great sincerity and pondered upon the enigma hurled at us by Mahacharya ji. It was Neeta Ma’am today who hammered the nail- "With Language" she said. With that began a yogic exploration of language- 'bhasha'
To begin with– speaking is almost a by- product of breathing” – Mahacharyaji explained…how sound is only possible when we exhale. So any sound…be it music…language…reflex is fundamentally entwined with our breath. "Infact simply put, music is the art of aesthetic exhalation"
But what about speech, how do we speak aesthetically to evolve a 'behtar' language? The answer to this lies in the mechanic of grammar which Mahacharya ji explained. Wow! That bit is interesting but how? "Language is an organism that evolves with time. It’s workings are completely regulated by the manner the noun, pronoun, verb, adverbs etc are used"- Mahacharya ji said.
He then spoke about how language can be deconstructed into it’s grammatical elements and linked to the four aspects of our being-
Tan
praan
mann
chit
For example- verb or the ‘doing word’ is intricately linked to our tan or body…Words like run eat sleep work these are words that involve the physical execution of the task. Similarly adjectives are defining words are linked with the mann or mind. It is based on our perception of people things etc. For Eg a good man, an tired worker, a sleepy sheep, a violent dog. The impact of adjectives builds the foundation of feeling which is in the realm of chit or spirituality. For example a good man triggers an inspiration….a tired worker triggers sympathy etc.
"Quite like adjectives even noun is linked to mann and chit. It evokes the sense of ‘identity’ who is the doer? Who is the subject?"
Adverbs interestingly, mahacharya ji said, has it’s link straight with praana or the energetic dimension. Words like 'quickly', 'slowly', 'gracefully' and so on directly manipulates the energetic dimension of our body, and truly so.
So it is very important to choose your words consciously, to be conscious of how you use your adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs and the best kaushal to do that is – atmadarsan
Mahacharya ji today awakened us to a handy tool of atma darshan- our voice recorder. He recommended us to develop the practice of recording our day to day speech with our smart phone- "By doing this, you can observe how you use your elements in speech and how can you improve it to evolve your language behtar." .
After all, for bhasha to be an agent of seva, it should be- 'sat mangalmay sundar'
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