Om Bhur Bhuvas, Gayatri Mantra

Welcome to Learn Vedic Chants the Ancient Way A self study program

This program came out of the desire to share this knowledge and to make it accessible to the western mind without you having to dedicate several years of study. Yet, at the same time making sure that the power and potency of the chants are preserved through correct pronunciation, tonality and the appreciation of its heritage. It is an absolute privilege to be on this journey with you.

What does it mean to learn Vedic chants the ancient way? In the west we are used to learning most languages and songs by getting a written script to follow. However, these Vedic chants have been passed on for thousands of years by listening to them being recited and memorizing them only through the auditory channel. In this program you will be guided to do exactly that.

A lot of this knowledge has been kept secret for a long time and only made accessible to serious students who would commit their life to the study of Sanskrit and the Vedas. In ancient times, India was mainly made up of villages. Young boys who were to become Brahmins would study in Veda Patashalas, Ashrams which were in quiet areas away from the villages. There they were taught to chant. Many of them became priests and would only chant at certain times in the temple. Vedic chants were never heard in the streets. What was heard in the streets were Kirtans, songs and praise of Hindu Gods. There is an interview with Swamini Sharanananda to give you even more background information on this.

In those times, most of the knowledge was transmitted auditorily in verse forms. Chanting these phrases was the way to learn the ancient texts and pass them on to the next generation. They did not depend on the written word but instead memorized big volumes of texts by chanting. They also learned the Vedic chants without really understanding the true meaning. They first had to show that they totally absorbed them, that they learned them by heart, that they became one with them, that they embodied the chants.

This is similar to learning songs as children, being able to repeat them but not really understanding the full meaning of what is said. When I learned these chants with Swamini Saralananda, I learned it also the ancient way. We would decide on a chant, she would chant it sitting opposite me. I had to listen and then repeat after her. We kept doing that until I was able to repeat the whole chant in its entirety with correct pronunciation and tonality.

That was quite a feat for somebody who has grown up in the western world. I have never done anything like that. It taught me a lot about my mind, how much it wants to grasp the content. How frustrated my mlnd would get if it could not and how it simply had to surrender in order to learn. It’s been an unusual and beautiful way to learn these chants.

Once I knew the chants by heart, only then did Swamini write down the text of the chants and also gave me their meaning. With this new knowledge, I would keep on chanting. The more I chanted, the more I would understand the meaning, it became almost a visceral feeling, a real embodiment of the chant within my own system. I was able to make these chants my own yet stay within the correct pronunciation and tonality. I felt connected to all the generations before me, who had also learned these chants.

It creates a beautiful connection if you stay with one chant like that for a while. So I recommend that you also do that. I have a few that are my favorites. And, the more I chant them, the more they reveal about my life, about life in general, about this universe.

In this day and age where we have all the knowledge on our fingertips right away, we’re not used to learning something in a more, I would almost say, tedious way. And, I think that’s the beauty and that’s why this program has been created, to give the chance to study Vedic chants in the ancient way as a self-study course that you can do on your own. So, I encourage you to stay with it and to have fun with it. Yes, it’s a serious study, it has always been a serious study and it’s also great to just have fun with it.