Resonance of Dharma

A while back while reading Buddhadharma, I saw a tiny ad for something very interesting...a CD of Buddhist chants, sutras, and mantras...in Sanskrit! I'd previously come across "Sanskrit chants", specifically those of Malaysian singer Imee Ooi. While pretty and relaxing, her pronunciation (a VITAL aspect of the language) was way off :) That's nothing against her though since its kind of a tough language. What attracted me to the CD I saw in the ad was that it is sung in a traditional style by classical Indian singer Vidya Rao.

The CDs called Dharma Nada (धर्म नाद - Resonance of Dharma) are a two disk set and are a non commericial release to support the Deer Park Institute. Its a Tibetan Buddhist educational foundation based in India that aims to support Dharma education and practice as well as the study of classical Indian philosophies and languages. In exchange for a $25 donation per album (which includes shipping) they'll send you a copy from India.

I'm certainly NOT an impulse buyer but I just couldn't pass this up. I ordered the CD's and when they arrived, popped them into my computer. For the next hour and twenty minutes I was seriously transported into a realm far beyond anything I'd imagined...Resonance of Dharma indeed!

After dilly-dallying for far too long, I finally decided that it was time for me to try and learn a bit of Sanskrit. Its perhaps not the most "practical" language to learn these days but hey, to be able to understand things like the Heart Sutra and Kalidasa in the original is just plain awesome. Its REALLY hard and slow going but very fun and also an indirect way of improving my Hindi...sort of.

Needless to say, I encourage EVERYONE to check out the Dharma Nada CD, which includes a pretty little booklet with transliterations and brief explanations of the sutras/mantras.

As the old saying goes:
भाषसु मुख्या मधुरा
दिव्या गीर्वाणभारती

"Sweet indeed is the divine
language of the gods".