Essential Sanskrit™ is an on-going series of CDs designed to help yoga teachers and students of all levels deepen their understanding of the sacred sounds of Sanskrit and their accurate pronunciation.

The ancient language of Sanskrit is the medium for a long history of Vedic and Indic sacred scriptures and texts, including the vocabulary, philosophy, and practice of yoga. An auditory grasp of Sanskrit opens to an entire world of sound and meaning, and ultimately to a deeper awareness of Self.

Essential Sanskrit™ uses an English transliteration of Sanskrit words and texts, while highlighting the details of Sanskrit pronunciation.

Essential Sanskrit™ is intended to give easy access to Sanskrit tools and resources, and is offered in service to the yoga community.

Volume I. Yoga Posture Pronunciation 2 CD set

$25.00   order form   listen

Volume I. Yoga Posture Pronunciation is a spoken audio guide to 180 yoga postures from more than three major styles of yoga practice. Each posture is pronounced in Sanskrit, a translation of the words is provided, along with a comprehensive explanation of pronunciation, and each posture is then repeated three times for deep integration. A written guide is included.

Artist:

Cynthia Snodgrass (vocals), a devoted practitioner of sacred sound and Sanskrit, is a musicologist by training and a student of religious ritual, Sanskrit, and sacred chant. She is founder of the Sacred Sound Institute.

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Volume II. Prayers and Invocations

$15.00   order form   listen

Volume II. Prayers and Invocations is a chanted collection of sacred Sanskrit prayers and invocations. It is intended for yoga teachers wishing to include chanting in their yoga classes, or anyone interested in Sanskrit chant. Each piece is chanted once with care given to the details of pronunciation, then repeated in small segments for easy listening and response, and then re-chanted a final time. This allows for slow repetition and easy integration of these chants, which are suspended over a rich mixture of traditional drones. A booklet of translations is included.

This volume also includes two longer “bonus” tracks of continuous kirtan(italics)-like chanting (“OM Agne Naya Supathaa” and “OM Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaya”) that feature the richly-textured drones and exotic keyboards of Mark Kelso, along with the intricate and inspried drumming of John de Kadt.

Artists:

Cynthia Snodgrass (vocals), a devoted practitioner of sacred sound and Sanskrit, is a musicologist by training and a student of religious ritual, Sanskrit, and sacred chant. She is founder of the Sacred Sound Institute.

Mark Kelso (keyboards and harmonium ), a former Narada recording artist, is founder of Muddy Angel Music, and has produced nearly 20 solo and collaborative albums, including music soundtracks for the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.

John de Kadt (frame drum, riq and percussion) a percussionist, poet, and licensed acupuncturist and herbalist. He plays drums from various traditions including Indian tablas, African djembes and dunduns, Cuban congas, and a variety of frame drums.

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Need help listening to these files?

We have provided 15 to 60 second samples from each of our CDs. You have a choice of two media formats, Windows Media and MP3. To play a sample in Windows Media format you need to have a Windows Media Player installed on your computer. To listen to an MP3 file, you need to have an audio player installed on your computer that plays an MP3 file. Each file is approximately 500k - 2000k and may take from 15 seconds to 5 minutes to load into your media player and start playing depending on the speed of your connection. Note: the Windows Media files are smaller and load faster if you have a Windows Media Player.