Indian rishis, masters of the cosmology of Yogic poetry
By Vivek Sharma
The Indian rishis knew the basic cosmic principle of communication and followed the same as the mode of fruitful interaction between the teacher and the student.
Which cosmic principle did they follow? The transmitter and the receiver principle. But, every transmitter is a receiver too. And hence there is a chain of transmission and reception going on among various cosmic bodies. This can be called inter-planetary communication.
The transmitter releases the signals at a particular metric frequency to a particular receiver. The receiver receives it and transmits it to the next receptor putting in its bit of assimilation and releasing it forward with slight modulations to suit the next receptor.
The mode of communication is metric waves or the frequencies travelling at a particular rhythmic pattern. The scientists have already discovered it and found out that every planet has its own frequency humm. All these frequencies resolve back into the basic one which has been described as OMMMM by the rishis and verified by the cosmic scientists.
The sun radiates light, the moon receives it. Only the light of a particular frequency is received by the moon, assimilated and radiated to the earth, the receiver. The earth has double receptions. It directly receives light of a particular frequency in the day time and the moon light at the night time. This is poetry between the sun, the moon and the earth which is carrying on as millions of life cycles as a rhythmic poetry of her own—!
What we gather?
Therefore, the basic mode of cosmic communication is in rhythmic patterns. We can call it poetic romance among the cosmic bodies. Frequencies are nothing but various metres which the Indian rishis had discovered. They composed their hymns on them as the communication bridge between the teacher, the transmitter, and the student, the receiver. The student might not understand the words woven in a particular metre, but the rhythmic vibration of its bhaav (essence) would enter straight into his brain as a reception and transfer the inherent experiential truth to it. Some students would be fast to assimilate it and send off their own metric communication forward others would take some time and carry forward the communication.
Yogic communication
In the Indian yogic traditions, the common factor has always been the art of communicating the knowledge to the student. The Indian rishis had done a profound research in the function of the human brain and found that if a communication is bound in a particular rhythmic pattern, it would communicate the message to the student fully by generating in him the equivalent experience of the teacher.
This is how the ancient rishis discovered the science of poetry as the medium of communication. The communication , they thought, if did not serve the purpose of connection with the bhaav is useless. It is like English to a Hindi knowing students or Hindi to an English knowing one.
What they found out was that it was not the words that communicate, but the bhaav behind them that does. And every bhaav was nothing but a metric vibration which the human brain is able to receive and identify with. When the human brain identifies with the bhaav of the vibrated words, the brain is technically overridden and the student is in direct communication with the teacher or the speaker from where the bhaav is travelling to him. The yogis called this continuous flow of knowledge from the source to the receiver yagya (the linking give and take), which is the purest form of communication between the two. It is the kind of to and fro communication. The receiver is communicating with the source with a genuine wordless question and receiving the answer from the source as a wordless reply. This communication is like a continuity, unbroken flow, in a particular vibratory mode. When the reception is complete, the receiver weaves the communication received in words and sounds in that particular vibration he had received it. This is called poetic expression. It has words woven in the thread of bhaav vibrating at a particular frequency. The spoken metric rendition ( let’s call it a shloka or a richa) is received by another brain in the same vibratory form and retained till it manifests through him, may be in different words, but the same metric communication.
This sanchar ( continuity of vibratory give and take-yagya) is nothing but a unification, a union, a connection of the receiver-transmitter chain. This unified communication within and without is called yoga in the yogic literature.
Krishna says, I am the sound अ in various letters. No other sound can do without this अ sound. Why? Because, it conveys its union with the first bhaav of creation or Srishti. It is the first sound which vibrates, and all other sounds are only its different expressions. The message is that if one is open to or receives or tunes into this sound, one will automatically identify with the cosmic poetry from which all the poetries have emerged.
Sanskrit is poetry
Great Sanskrit grammarian Panini describes the poetry of sounds or vibrations in his famous Maheshwar Sutras, from which the entire Sanskrit grammar—standards of language of communications have emerged. The sutras are nothing but various rhythmic patterns coming off Shiva’s damroo (drum). They follow the pattern of combination and separation to produce grammatical formula.
Sanskrit language itself is grammar in poetry and its spirit is yoga, union. Have you ever wondered why there is a horizontal line running above the words spoken in one breath or as one word? It is because together they carry one bhaav and that they are a union of a bhaav expressed through different letters or frequencies (differentials of अ-कार).
You go through the Vedas, the upanishads, the Puranas or even the Bhagwad Gita, you will find yogic poetry as the medium of communication. They are set in certain scientifically chosen metres to evoke corresponding bhavaas in even those who don’t understand the meaning of the phraseology used. This communication is nothing but a transfer of bhaava through the bridge of metric rhythm called poetry.
Question and answer
Questioner is a receiver and answerer is the transmitter. Go through all the Sanskrit texts and you will find a student (in a receptive mode) puts a query to the teacher and the teacher replies to that in a rhythmic rendition. You may call it a deliberate exercise, but it is a fact that once the communication is bound in metres it goes straight into the receiver as sun rays fall straight on the moon and the earth and then transmitted as moon light and life cycles on the earth respectively. Isn’t that poetry itself?
Krishna’s take
In Discourse Four, shloka 1, He says, “ I vibrated the sun with this undecaying continuity of union. The sun transmitted it to Manu and and Manu to Iskhavaku etc. He has used the term अव्ययम् for vibratory communication through union. What is अव्ययम्? It is अक्षर, which doesn’t decay. What is अक्षर? अ-कार, the creative vibration. He Himself says अक्षराणां अकारोस्मि, I am the creative vibration अ-कार among all such frequencies. Manu is traditionally taken as a person or the father of mankind. That is all right. However, can mankind survive without trees, animals and the rest? No. Therefore, Manu principally represents all who are on the earth. That also means he is the समष्टि (summation) of earth bound consciousness (चेतना), or collective consciousness. He communicated the same to Ikshvaku, Eyes and ears and the rest. Now this communication is expressed manifested through eyes, ears and the rest—that is nothing but the sensory system. Now if you resolve the sensory system to its core principle, you will find that they all link to the memory, the individual storehouse of experiences and images. What He is trying to say is that this natural metric communication or non-verbal communication multiplies on earth in different rhythms—birds, fish, ants, cows, wolves, dogs, lions, men all manifesting it in their languages. There is a rhythmic poetry in that also. But, they alone can understand it. Here the cosmic rhythm is being received and expressed through the sensory system, where images and words are. That is called verbal communication. Even a prose has some metre. But, poetry has a distinct one and hence is effective. Therefore, the closer your communication is with the source, the more poetic and effective shall it be. Even the old English and French plays made use of poetical renditions to increase effectiveness. They composers, however, weren’t really aware of the science behind it beyond the perception that it is wonderful.
We should thank the rishis and the yogis who perfected the science of poetic communication and practically used it to raise intellectual and perceptional level of others.Indian yogic poetry has been with a purpose of communication as a mode of experiential transfer or the transfer of knowledge.