Vedic Chanting and the Neuroscience of Sacred Sound
This summer, I traveled to Italy to participate and teach the hatha yoga sadhana at a Vedic Chanting retreat led by Shantala Sriramaiah, an unforgettable experience that left me with a clear sense of just how potent mantra meditation can be for brain health.
Spending four to five hours per day chanting with 50 of her most devoted students, eating incredible Italian vegetarian food, and occasionally enjoying on-demand espresso was its own kind of panchakarma. Each day I could feel my mind going through a profound purification and rejuvenation.
Among the mantras that we practiced, Shantala introduced the Dakṣiṇāmūrti Mūla Mantra, which I have continued to practice regularly since the retreat. In Śaiva and Advaita traditions, Daksiṇāmūrti is Śiva in the form of the Supreme Teacher (Ādi Guru) — the embodiment of silent, intuitive knowledge. Because he transmits jñāna (wisdom) directly, without words, his energy is the source of medhā — the ability to understand subtle truth intuitively.
From the Āyurvedic perspective, sound, and more specifically mantra, is considered one of the most profound tools for protecting brain health.
Because sound travels through the nervous system.
Vibrations from sound travel through the vagus nerve and the brainstem, influencing heart rate, breath rhythm, and even inflammation. When that sound is rhythmic and aligned with the breath, it regulates the stress response and helps restore balance in the brain.
I recently learned that every cell has the ability to "hear" sound and certain kinds of frequencies and rhythms are more salutary than others. The fore-parents of the yoga tradition knew this intimately and transmitted a vast array of ways to incorporate mantra for helping us heal and move in a good direction in our lives by sharpening our powers of awareness and cognition.
Mantra is a very precise combination of sound and rhythm. It engages the mind, breath, and subtle body to strengthen medhā (memory, intelligence), refine prajñā (discerning wisdom), and calm the vāta that drives mental overactivity.
In fact...in a 2021 clinical trial involving breast cancer survivors (with cognitive vulnerabilities) who practiced mantra-based meditation (vs. music listening) showed lasting improvements in memory, verbal fluency, attention, psychological well-being, and perceived cognitive function — benefits that continued even three months after the study ended.
This study confirms what we understand from Vedic Wisdom. That chanting improves focus, supports emotional regulation, and enhances cognitive flexibility, which are key factors in maintaining long-term psychological and cognitive health.