Wednesday, December 9, 2015

The Sanskrit Alphabet


Hari Sarvottama, Vayu Jivottama !

We may have heard of Sanskrit being spoken as the language of Gods. or as a Divine language.
Why is it so?

There are 52 letters in the Sanskrit Alphabet.
It is believed -in several मत - that each cluster of letters in the Sanskrit Alphabet originate from the अ, उ and म् - the constituent letters making up the Omkara शब्द - ॐ !

This has been mentioned in Shri Raghavendra Swami's small yet deep work - प्रातह्सङ्कल्प् गद्य - wherein the great rAyaru pledges - every morning - to keep his devotees on the path of Dharma.

Further - in Vaishnava मत - each letter of the Sanskrit alphabet,  is believed to be owned or ruled / represents a particular form of Vishnu. And that this form of Vishnu resides in specific body parts. . As a part of daily spiritual cleansing routine (Nyaasa or न्यास ) - these letters (अक्षर ), their owning diety (आतंरिक ) and the respective body parts (बाह्य) are meditated upon. ((There are similarities to the Patanjali Yoga school here - and there are differences))

अक्षर also means indestructible, represented by MahaLaxmi.

These and more points such as these - are a few reasons why the language is considered Divine.

Questions to reflect - what is Dharma? How do letters being divine - fit into the overall scheme of the Dvaita philosophical framework.?

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