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Māheśvara Sūtras as ‘Ḍamaru’: Vāk-Yoga Technique of Vedic Mindfulness by Prof BVK Sastry

Conference on Vedic Mindfulness- Māheśvara Sūtras as ‘Ḍamaru’: Vāk-Yoga Technique of Vedic Mindfulness by Prof BVK Sastry and Achyut Karve. This paper, was presented at the seminar on ‘Vedic Mindfulness’ jointly organized by Indic Academy’s Inter Gurukula University Centre and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi in July, 2019.

Origins of mindfulness are commonly traced to Zen Buddhism. However, Buddhism and Jainism have inherited Yoga-Meditation-Mindfulness techniques from Vedic teachings. The modern Buddhist Drumming Meditation and Vipassana Mindfulness Meditation techniques are derivative variants of Vedic teachings, more specifically the ‘Ḍamaru-Vāk-Yoga Meditation’ of using sounds from ‘Mahēśvara sūtras’ of VedāṅgaVyākaraṇa (vāk-Yoga/vāk-nirukti), the teachings from Pāṇini-Patañjali-Yāska; appropriated into Buddhism, explains Prof Sastry.

The polestar benefits of Vedic mindfulness meditation practices are self-realization, visioning total truth, total wellness and peace.( Ātmadarśana, Satya-dharma-dṛṣṭi, Sampūrṇa-saukhya-śānti). The incidental secondary benefits are healing, stress relief, and relaxation. The body-mind related healing solutions can be sought by a localization and customization of Vedic Yogas in current period. Chanting of Māheśvarasūtras with ḍamaru is one such derivative of Vedic Yoga-meditation technique for mindfulness.

The paper goes on to elaborate on the Vedic techniques redefined in VedāṅgaVyākaraṇa and Nirukta (Pāṇini-Patañjali-Yāska traditionwith their background and applicability in the current times. It also highlights the use of  a percussion instrument Ḍamaru, in Yoga, meditation, dance, ritual, and religion practices. The paper also gives the basic technique of Ḍamaru- Māheśvarasūtras chanting meditation.

The revival of Vedic tradition opens up new avenue of research in Yoga and Vedic sciences, which connect to modern studies of cognitive science research, consciousness studies, cosmology and alternate healing systems. This is an effort to restore and restart the exploration of spiritual linguistic dimension of Sanskrit studies in the grammatical tradition; the root pedagogy, methods and systems of studying Vedic language for Yoga benefits, concludes Prof Sastry.

Here is a YouTube Practical of this technique.

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