Last week, Sadhguru looked at the influence of sound on the human system, and how Vak Shuddhi can nurture our systems. This week Sadhguru looks at how we can maintain Vak Shuddhi within ourselves.

Read in Hindi: वाक् शुधि

Sadhguru: If you want to use this human system as a higher possibility, a foundation of the right kind of reverberation is necessary. Otherwise the system will only drag behind you all the time. If you want it to be a bigger possibility, it must have a foundation of the right kind of reverberation and Vak Shuddhi or cleansing the sounds that you utter is an important part of that.

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If you simply become silent within yourself, there is no better way. It is the ultimate way. But if that is not happening, the next best is you can say Shiva. It is the closest thing to stillness. Or if just one word doesn't do for you, you can have something a little more elaborate – you can do Brahmananda Swarupa or whatever mantra you picked among the mystic chants that are there. Whatever you resonate with, just do that.

The Right Intention

Sound is one factor but another factor is the intention of the sound. Speech is a special gift to a human being. No other creature can match a human being in terms of the complexity of what can be uttered. But as the range of sounds that a human being utters reduces, the less Vak Shuddhi he or she will have. Compared to Indian languages, the English language has a lower range of sounds. This is why you will find it so difficult to utter a mantra or some other language if you have been speaking only English right from your birth.

If the sounds were scientifically structured, as in mantras and in Sanskrit, then even if you utter the sound without much awareness, you would still benefit simply because of the nature of the arrangement of sounds. The Sanskrit language was consciously created so that just uttering the language will purify the system. But now, most of the time we speak languages which are no longer made like that, so it is best to handle it with intention – you have to fix it with an active awareness and volition because the major part of the karmic process is in the volition, not in the action. You can say something out of great love or with some other intention. Both of them will not produce the same impact on the system.

If you bring the right intention into every single sound that you utter, these sounds will reverberate in a certain way within you. So if you speak to someone, if you utter it the same way as you would if these happen to be your last words to that person, if you do that with whoever you speak, it is a fantastic way of fixing your Vak Shuddhi.

Editor’s Note: “Vairagya - Bonding with Beyond” are a series of powerful chants that can be valuable supports to a spiritual seeker. This album is available in mp3 and as a free mobile app.