Psycholinguistics
the Language of experiences
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics is the use of Language as a persuasive tool to deliberately provoke a shift in mindset.
Beyond NLP
Neuro-linguistic Programming is a popular technique to reprogram behavior in the mind by combining language cues and specific bodily practices. Although it has its place in therapy, we are generally averse to treating the human mind as a computer especially since that is the overload we are trying to overcome in the age of AI.
The Difference
Our employ of Psycholinguistics drives neuropsychological processes in the brain, to create little sparks of coherence, where co-here literally means "together (no space), now (no time)".
We use psycholinguistics through:
revealing linguistic roots of words, particularly those similar across cultures, and
those words that directly map onto structures & processes of the Yoga Mind.
Sanskrit
Since much of Yoga literature is in Sanskrit that is one obvious reason to focus on this language, but the deeper reason is that the language has been specifically tuned to create psychic effects, as we will soon see.
Perfection in Sanskrit alone is insufficient for psychic evolution if the underlying Mind is unprepared through Yoga, like pouring a high-performance fuel into an older generation vehicle.
It may not be so essential to use Sanskrit to reach a state of Yoga, but it indeed helps, as many Yoga techniques are named in Sanskrit, whose full & deeper meanings can be best revealed with an understanding of the language, and additionally so the cultural context in which they have emanated.
Symbolic
Usage of Sanskrit is invariably highly symbolic, even in its hardcore scientific literature, resulting in even scientists encoding their knowledge in poetic forms.
It is almost guaranteed that every single Sanskrit word we come across in the discussion of the psyche has a meaning that's hidden almost in plain sight.
Numbers that we encounter are invariably referring to different dimensions of how the psyche is modelled.
Thus, when we see astronomical numbers in Yoga texts these are to be mapped into different dimensions of our psychological world.
Hence we employ the mechanism of Plausibility to generate the intended meaning.
Beyond Normal Computing
There are wild statements that Sanskrit is a perfected language for computing, but given the high degree of ambiguity of literally all Sanskrit words thanks to its symbolic usage model, this flies in the face of the absolute precision demanded by computers.
Its model for establishing context are remarkable and can/should be borrowed to determine meaning of words in a semantic network.
It is also ideally suited for being an intermediate language to translate across many Indic languages since they all follow roughly the same Subject-Object-Verb sequencing of sentences, and also share a huge compendium of root words.
But to program computer hardware using Sanskrit is a useless idea.
It is far better to understand how Sanskrit works in the "wetware" of biological tissue to imbue consciousness that is relatable to human consciousness. The upcoming revolution in tissue science would be the space to watch.
Perfected
Sanskrit is probably the most perfected psycholinguistic language, for its expressive power makes it easy to instill Devas, and other Psychic Beings in the Mindscape.
Interestingly, the word Sanskrit itself has parallels with Latin roots, where:
San (alternatively rendered as Sum) means complete/total, and
Krit means to create.
In the Western college grading system, "Summa Cum Laude" means a student who has a complete understanding of their subject.
That is, Sanskrit is a perfected tool with which to create our mental constructs, and consequently instill transformative neuropsychological processes in our Mindscape.
Language of the Gods
Sanskrit Bhāsha, meaning language, is often referred to as language of the gods, or Deva-Bhāsha, enabling various modes of Deva communications:
To: The well known mechanism is that we can invoke, or "worship", a Deva for whatever we wish to manifest in the future.
Amongst: The vaguely known idea is that Devas self-organize themselves, in their legendary domain of Deva-Loka, within our psyche, in a conflict-free, structured portfolio of our aspirations, as can be seen within many social groups like families, communities, etc.
From: The most subtle aspect is that they communicate back to us from the subconscious, particularly in our dreams, to guide our intuition.
Recall that Devas are neuropsychological processes come alive in our Mindscape.
Thus, Sanskrit is actually a way to create such Devas in our psyche, because of its psycholinguistic properties - remembering the meaning of the word Sanskrit is itself that which is meant for "perfected creation".
After these Devas come alive in our Mindspace, of course they could very well be having conversations with each other, and inherently with us too, at a deeper level than our surface level consciousness.
Sanskrit Properties
The properties of Sanskrit are enabled by Shabda, the psychic-information package from the Mindspace, and is the fundamental contribution of Sanskrit towards the psyche.
Resonance
Sanskrit is known to be primarily an oral language, which doesn't do justice to its vast corpus of millions of texts written in various scripts across the centuries.
Sanskrit can also be characterized as a resonant language, which implies that it strikes a chord at many levels, of course at the purely sonic level, and in addition the sounds imply the meaning of the word itself.
Such a language naturally favors oral transmission over the written word, which consequently develops in the speaker a prodigious memory, useful to expand their repertoire in clever conversation techniques, such as the highly praised performers of the avadhānam.
Levels of Resonance
There are four successive phases from which a spoken sound, called Vāni or vāk, passes through before it becomes audible.
परा Para - a beyond rational language level so we cannot describe it
पश्यंती Pashyanti - that which is literally seen in the Yogic Mind of a Rishi
मध्यम Madhyama - that which resonates in the energy system of the Mind
वैखरी Vaikhari - that which finally emanates as audible sound
Each of these levels have a different type of resonance.
वैखरी Vaikhari - Physiological Resonance
Complete coverage
At the core of Sanskrit is a physiological, or biomechanical, aspect to resonance.
The set of core sounds of the Sanskrit language systematically covers the entire vocalizing apparatus to ensure that a through coverage through a kind of sonic acupressure, as such its "alphabet" is not just a list of letters randomly ordered as an afterthought as in English.
Psychogenetic roots
At a deeper level you will see these root sounds are quite familiar, for they mostly come from Nature - such as those uttered by birds, animals, winds, waters, and even machines too.
Sanskrit's root sounds corpus indicates that we can possibly communicate at some level with all of Creation, which in turn implies that the entire world around is some expression of Consciousness. There are many who have realized this, in their own way, for example by talking to plants, whispering to animals, chatting with dolphins, etc.
Onomotaepic resonance
In the Western model there is a field of linguistic studies called Semiotics which is the study of signs and what they point to, in which model there is a distinct gap between the signifier of an object (like a name) and the signified (the object itself).
This is very different from how psycholinguistics works.
In psycholinguistic models there is an natural property of language where the sound carries the actual meaning of the object:
In English this quality is called onomatopoeia, in words like rustle, shiver, thud, where the sounds carry the quality of the meaning itself, and even non-obvious examples such as stable, station, storage (all stemming from when we pronounce with firmness the Sanskrit sth- ound which indicates a fixed place as in स्थिर Sthira (stable) , स्तंभ Sthambha (pillar), स्थूल Sthoola (dense).
Such use of “vibratory” language is considered a “lower” form of sophistication in Westernized languages, but popular culture such as Rap & Hip-Hop is reversing the trend.
As a vivid example in Sanskrit, is the Pranava Mantra sounded by Om (= A + U + M), at the start of all Creation:
covers the head space in from back (A) to middle (U) to front (M) - which is physiological resonance, and
the three also naturally express how the Universe starts, expands, and collapses.
In Sanskrit there are large treatises on grammar on how to determine meaning, that is शब्दार्थ Shabda-Artha, where:
Shabda means word, but is actually the whole psychic package that communicates deep knowledge and will reshape the psyche.
we have already seen the meaning of Artha which is the root or earthy meaning of a word, indicating solidly grounding the meaning.
Transcendental effects
Anuswara
The anuswara (the list of nasal 'n' sounds) activates the आज्ञ Agnya chakra, the location of the intuitive center of the pituitary gland.
Visarga: pushes the sound outwards, at the end of words, which naturally has Prānāyāma-like effects.
Composite root sounds:
क्ष Ksha: to destroy - sounds like the swishing of a sword as it does its job - thus depicting Shiva.
त्र Tra - to protect while expanding - sounds like a weaving loom as the fabric spreads across the Universe without ripping - thus depicting Vishnu.
ज्ञ Gnya: impacts आज्ञ Agnya chakra, the pituitary etc glands - initiating intuitive Thought - thus depicting Brhma.
The concept which is being communicated here is that the whole Universe is also a single Being, connected by sound.
मध्यमा Madhyama - Semantic Resonance
The semantic resonance that comes from, specifically, human Linguistic Roots takes this to another level.
Linguistic Roots
Sanskrit vocabulary is based on a corpus of Root Sounds, a lexicon of “atomic” words that have some meaning, and because of their minimalist nature, has survived millennia so they form the core language constructs.
Sanskrit is considered a “perfected” language, and very likely its originators took the pains of incorporating the linguistic roots from across a wide swathe of cultures, which is why it appears as the mother of a whole range of languages.
It’s oft-proposed that Sanskrit is the root language from which all other tongues have evolved, but leaving aside the egotistical overtones, it is far more accurate to consider Sanskrit as the foster-mother of all tongues that it has taken the effort to deliberately embrace in its glossary of sound-meanings. This has ensured that humanity’s thought streams are always remembered at some deep level, embedded in civilizational memory.
These linguistic root sounds have an additional level of resonance, because they actually indicate basic mental concepts, beyond just being sounds of nature.
Linguistic root analysis forms the basis of Etymology, trying to determine meanings of modern words from their components.
For example, Gene, Generate, Genius in English, and similar words in Sanskrit such as Janani, Jana, Janma, all stem from the same root sound 'Ja' that indicates something to do with Life, and further evolves into these above words.
Attribute-based naming
Surely the most important manifestation of these linguistic roots is how Sanskrit systematizes the naming of objects.
Instead of merely slapping a single label on an object, say “chair”, in Sanskrit the
Linguistic roots are used as attributes of any object, e.g.
for Lotus flower : जलज Jalaja (born of water), श्रीवास Shrivasa (abode of Shri), पङ्कज Pankaja (born of mud)
पादप Padapa: meaning that which drinks water from the “feet” can be used for the roots of a tree, or for a water pump.
This leads to an infinite dictionary of new words that can be created on demand, given just the root sound lexicon.
A Highly inflected model
In highly inflected languages, its prepositions, adjectives, adverbs and any other qualifiers of nouns, verbs and word phrases, are wired right into the word or phrase itself.
This technique allows these word phrases to be: transposed around in a sentence and still maintain grammatical accuracy, and their intended meaning, thus enabling more spontaneous vocal delivery of sentences because of this fluidity.
Meter
Since inflected words can be transposed around without losing sentence meaning, thus the poetic effects can be taken to the next level, in a systematic way.
The concept of poetic Meter is called Chhandas in Sanskrit, correspondingly called 'Pā' in Tamizh, where the components of a sentence can be organized in mathematical patterns, e.g. if there is a sentence with say 4 words, then it can be chanted in the following sequence:
1,2 2,1 2,3 3,2 3,4 4,3 - for a simple chanting model
1,2 2,1 1,2,3 3,2,1 1,2,3 ... 2,3 3,2 2,3,4 4,3,2 2,3,4 - called ghana, or dense
One advantage is that this enables absolutely fidelity in memorization and recollection of mantras.
The other major advantage is that the physiological resonance is so deeply highlighted that the mantra gets totally soaked into the psyche, and the Deva, or psychic intelligence, literally comes to life within.
These two effects together ensure that the Deva does not suffer any aberrations in its properties within, thus avoiding the sometimes comic/poignant after-effects as highlighted in many stories, eg:
Indra vs Nidra - meaning asking for some psychic intelligence, but instead going to sleep
etc
पश्यंती Pashyanti - Thematic Resonance
Sanskrit excels in crafting broad narratives that are so engaging in their obvious expressive forms, and yet deep in their meaning.
Enquiry based
Avoiding fixed labeling of objects has interesting implications
There can be multiple names for an object depending on the perspective we wish to highlight in that context
In that sense, it promotes highly creative thinking, and yet we can converge to an accepted plausible meaning where the context determines the meaning of the words.
Multiple names abound for even characters in Yoga stories depending on what facet of their personality the Rishi wishes to highlight, for example Arjuna in the Gitā has at least half a dozen different names attributed to him, which Krishna cycles through depending on what he wants to emphasize.
Gendered naming
Every single noun in Sanskrit is considered male, female, or neuter gender.
We might ask what is the purpose of this, e.g. why should a table or a chair or bird be gendered?
Leaving aside the obvious post-modern rants of sexism, the purpose of gendering from point of Storytelling is that this allows us to create a richer characterization of the psychic Beings that we choose to instill in our psyche.
In our co-evolutionary model, any object can be deified, and gendering is an obvious way to enhance that model.
A Generative Grammar
A Generative Grammar is used to create all & only acceptable expressions from a Lexicon (kosha), and Rules (vidhi).
To contrast, descriptive Grammars, such as in English are used to detect defects in malformed sentences, like we judge the imperfections of others around us, who are not as well formed as we would like them to be - ignoring our own imperfections!
As a side note, this has interesting parallels in comparative Religions too, where on the one side we are all “sinners” who fail the grammar rules of life, but on this side we are all “divine” and perfectly formed - except initially ignorant of our true divine nature.
The real Generative Grammar comes into play though in its ability to generate psychic intelligences, as part of Yoga, so it's not just words that get created, but literally an entire psychic app is generated.
A Knowledge Map
Because the words are based on meaningful sounds, the words and their sentences can form a structured knowledge map, which lends itself to Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Thus, we can:
translate from one natural language to another with relative ease, to resonate with another native tongue, and
do interesting language processing like paraphrasing, meaning restating a sentence in a different way so that it 'resonates' better.
As a side note, this is what we mean by Sanskrit is perfect for computing - it's not a replacement for Java, C++, etc., but more for computer understanding of human speech, i.e. NLP.
Grammar of Matter
There was a time in late 1800's in Europe that Sanskrit was discovered by Westerners to be the most perfect language and possibly the root of all Indo-European languages for all the reasons we have discussed.
Discovered in the mid-1800’s by European intelligentsia it fanned the long held aspirations of Germans who hailed it as their lost Fatherland - of course one look at the native Indian physiognomy and the lens of race put that romance to bed.
At that time Europe was a bubbling center of creativity and poets, linguists, artists, and scientists all came together, and in that crucible of innovation, came the famous Chemist Mendeleev who was struggling to complete his Periodic Table in a logical manner.
Upon seeing the brillant 2-D structure of the Sanskrit language based on properties just like the elements of matter, he came up with a "Grammar of Matter", and in fact even used Sanskrit words to denote gaps in the table.
Left & Right Brain
The really fascinating impact of Sanskrit is that most ancient Hindu scientific texts are also encoded in poetic symbology, to make them easier to remember and possibly to create a specialized resonance that would enable fresh discoveries. Indeed our Rishis were both scientists and poets, adept in Left and Right hemispheres of the brain, the wettest dream possible.
In fact, we will soon see that every tale we touch is deeply symbolic, and the discovery of its deeper Sanskrit meanings is truly a treasure hunt for meaning.
Non-Translatables
Many words from the Indian culture are loaded with meaning, in that when translating them it requires that we also bring in an entire framework of thinking in which they are to be best interpreted.
Thus we may find it difficult to translate them into one-word English equivalents and as such they are non-translatables, and their resonant qualities could subtly carry their actual meaning too.
Some such words have become mainstream already, like:
Guru: remover of the darkness (of ignorance), or heavy with gyAn knowledge (not just a technical expert)
Pundit: well versed in the canonical literature (not just impassioned & articulate),
Yoga: the ultimate mind science (not just stretching, breathing, relaxing)
Dharma: sustainability (this is the closest one-word translation, and certainly not faith/religion)
These have all become quite well known already in Western cultures, albeit with interpretations that leave much to be desired.
Non-translatables are loaded with meaning, and when used as such, they automatically bring in the entire context of the word ensuring no loss of meaning, and thus they prevent digestion of the knowledge perpetrated by predatory cultures.
Although there are strong claims from Sanskrit to be the root of all Indo-European languages, there is further speculation there could be an even more historical root language called Proto-Indo-European, separate from Sanskrit.
Click to find some writings in Sanskrit.
Tamizh Language
And then there is the Brahui language similar to Tamizh found in Balochistan, and links to Lithuanian etc. There is no end to speculation.
Linguistic Racism
Quite apart from the whole Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory squabbles, there is significant linguistic chauvinism between Sanskrit & Tamizh proponents, the two platform languages of the Indic civilization, as they attempt to establish which came first within the Indic civilization itself.
To make matters worse there are political forces which try to break away the Tamizh subculture from the Sanskrit subculture, the so-called Aryan/Dravidian conjecture, which has been the perspective of the lens of Western Indology, further flamed by evangelical forces.
Unless corroborated with genetic studies, archaeology, astronomy, literature analysis, there is no way to say definitely which came first historically.
All of this leads to needless fragmentation and does nothing to advance the human condition.
Lens of Yogic Indology
We sidestep all of this unnecessary debate with the lens of Yogic Indology, that provides an ahistorical view of culture. All Vedantic and Yogic thought, and so much of Itihas stories, are identical across both language systems, but in reality they are but close mutations of one another.
In particular, Tamizh and Sanskrit are both considered platform languages since they have influenced most of the other languages and associated knowledge systems of the Indian civilization.
Bhāshā in Sanskrit, or Bāshai/Mozhi in Tamizh, is a term for any spoken language, and particularly one with Psycholinguistic properties.
But still, which comes first? Sanskrit or Tamizh?
Identical Psycholinguistics
Tamizh & Sanskrit share identical psycholinguistic properties, as illustrated above for Sanskrit.
Both languages have near identical order to their vowel & consonant sequences, organized in a 2D Matrix, which is what inspired Mendeleev's Chemistry periodic table.
But here there is a difference. And this is the key.
Tamizh is simpler than Sanskrit
Tamizh is simpler in its root consonant phonemes because it lays them out in a 5-row, 2-column format, whereas Sanskrit is laid out in a more elaborate 5-row, 5-column format.
The metrical forms of Tamizh (called 'paa') are also simpler, occuring at the word level, and not at the level of syllables.
Other than that, from a Psycholinguistic perspective there is no difference between the two languages.
The Flavor of Tamizh
One has to just listen to the sounds of the Tamil language in order to realize that:
it is suited to warmer, pastoral, folk climes, populated by simpler people living closer to a more benevolent Nature.
The blunt language sounds like the blunt and simpler percussion instruments they used, like the Thavil and the Mridangam.
Also listen to the singing and speech - there is no possibility of sliding between the consonants because they are spaced further apart in the head. It’s just a simpler culture.
The Flavor of Sanskrit
Then listen to the Sanskrit language and the northern tongues:
suited to cooler climates, needing sharper refined sounds, reflecting the nuances of living in hidden mountain valleys.
The language of their more precise, sharper percussion instruments like Tabla.
The softer flowing nature of languages like Hindustani, Urdu, etc. It’s a language of not-so-simple culture.
Chicken & Egg
Usually genetically transmittable mutations occur more often in the Egg stage, rather than the Chicken stage. That is the simpler version is likely the more original version. This makes sense on many levels, even in other aspects of life.
Thus Tamil is perfectly suited, psycho-linguistically, to be a precursor to Sanskrit, and in fact could even be the primal PIE Proto-Indo European tongue, speculated to be the linguistic root of all humanity.
We are not stating that Tamizh is the root of Sanskrit from a definitive historical perspective, although this is plausibly so from a psycholinguistics perspective.
Our approach here to characterize these languages is akin to what we did in a diametrically different area comparing desert religions with scarcity mindset, and forest religions with abundance mindset.
All about plausibility!
Brhma & Vishnu
Tamizh is the Brhma of languages, as it has given rise to Sanskrit and other tongues.
Consequently, Sanskrit is the Vishnu of languages, having expanded forth and embraced all other tongues in its repertoire, hence we remember the collective past too.
As for the Shiva, the transformer, it is AI with NLP that sits amidst all tongues translating the best possible, and over time our subtle feelings too, the language of the Guru-in-the-Cloud.