In this episode of “5 Minutes”, Dr. Robert Svoboda explores the four levels of speech and their chakras.

Because not all speech is spoken or at least not spoken externally. It is spoken, but it’s not spoken externally. The four levels of speech are Vaikhari, Madhyama, pashyanti, and para, and the concept of the four levels of speech goes back to the rigveda in particular to Veda one. Manola, HYM 1 64. Verse 45, chat vak Paani. And it mentions that only that specifically mentions that only the fourth level of speech is actually spoken aloud. Now, those four levels are not possibly exactly the four levels that are taught in Tantra afterwards, but still the concept of there being four levels of speech was established early on wadi is externalized speech.

It’s what I’m speaking right now. It’s projecting outward with the intention of being able to be understood by someone who is not you. So you’re communicating to someone else. It’s Vaikhari. And Vaikhari is centered at the throat, at the Vishuddha location. Madhyama is centered in the chest at the anahata. And Madhyama is halfway between vaikhari, which is Externalized and pashyanti, which we’ll get to in a moment. Madhyama is how you talk to yourself. Madhyama is all about describing reality to yourself in such a way that you may be able to describe it to someone else.

Pashyanti comes from the Sanskrit root Dasha, which means to see, and pashyanti, depending on who you talk to, sometimes is regarded as being centered at the manipura, and sometimes is regarded as being centered at the ajna. But both are important because both are involved with the fact of using speech in a visual kind of way, seeing the reality. Only after you have visualized will you be able to turn it into actual speech for yourself, and only then will you be able to turn it into speech for someone else.

The fourth level is the subtlest of all levels, and that is para, which literally means beyond. And that is located at the muladhara and that is pure intention. And vimalananda emphasized repeatedly that Para is something that only the Rishi can willfully speak in all the time. So what we’re doing as we’re using the four levels of speech is we’re moving from the consciousness that is not limited by anything to the consciousness that’s limited by vision to limited by by words, phone names, and morphemes, and limited by our ability to actually externalize it.

And we go in the opposite direction also. And this is the way we should be going. If we’re trying to make spiritual progress, we should be going in the direction of r esisting the tendency to externalize everything that we say, start to be able to communicate with ourselves more realistically, more believably, more meaningfully, and more sincerely. Move into the ability to actually visualize reality without having to chat about it and words all the time. And then be able to understand better our own intentions and even more the intentions of the supreme reality, which is we are hopefully attempting to align with as we move forward in our lives.