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Sacred sound: the thread of sound, language and reality in Hinduism
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Chappelle, Pamela Ann. Sacred sound: the thread of sound, language and reality in Hinduism. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-stf3-z523

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TitleSacred sound: the thread of sound, language and reality in Hinduism
NameChappelle, Pamela Ann (author); Karapanagiotis, Nicole (chair); Rutgers University; Camden Graduate School
Date Created2021
Other Date2021-05 (degree)
SubjectSound -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism, Liberal Studies
Extent1 online resource (x, 53 pages)
DescriptionIn several cosmologies around the world, creation came into being from the utterance of the Word. Speech as such reigns as the supreme power. This paper will seek to understand speech and sound in Hindu traditions that pursue to effect results on the human level – specifically various levels and categories of liberation and spiritual growth. Centering around the Sanskrit language, my analysis explores where these beliefs of speech and sound developed and persisted, as well as how they are unified and integrated into personal and cultural experiences. This paper traces vac (speech) as both self-revealing and a divine instrument in the release of prana (the fundamental energy of the universe). In practice, this energy of sound shapes the forms of mantras for use in spiritual enlightenment, self-realization and liberation (moksha). Because of the near inexhaustibility of Hindu philosophical and religious works many very interesting topics have sadly been omitted. Also not considered are Eastern and Western mysteries, plus topics such as the supernatural and magic, incantations and spells in ritual activity, coincidences, their results or the lack thereof. In establishing the connection between speech and prana, focus will be on the essence of the sound connection in terms of power and agency as it exists in, and as, a state of nature. This natural yet formula-like structure will be shown to inherently extend into the realms of the theological (divine; religious) and epistemically (knowledge; philosophical). And in raising such awareness, beliefs such as sacred speech and the eternity of the Word, one encounters insights to their divine manifestations which reveal knowledge and truth. That is their mystery. Background research will include the locus of whence our ancestors, and the ancient ones before them who wrote the sacred Hindu texts such as the Vedas, Upanisads and Bhagavad-Gita with their poetry and sage instructions, remain essential to culture and growth. Additional works include but not limited to subsequent centuries’ old historic as well as modern commentaries from the grammarians (phoneticians) and philosophers alike.
NoteM.A.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Genretheses, ETD graduate
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-stf3-z523
LanguageEnglish
CollectionCamden Graduate School Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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