Madhyamā
Madhyamā · madhyamā, “the middle (speech)”
Grammar: feminine adjective used as a noun, from madhya (middle): “the middle one”, with vāk (speech) understood.
Meaning: the third of the four levels of speech: the subtle speech grasped by the mind, which stands between paśyantī, in the heart, and vaikharī, the spoken word.
In the scriptures: teaching Uddhava, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa says that the Paramātmā, directly present, enters the bodies and becomes manifest through the senses, and gives the four stages of vāk:
- parā: the prāṇa-śakti joined with nāda, which is the Paramātmā himself;
- paśyantī: that śakti entering the heart;
- madhyamā: the subtle speech grasped by the mind;
- vaikharī: that subtle speech made manifest through the throat.
The gross form, made of mātrā, svaras such as udātta, and the letters, is the vast world of sound. As fire, hidden as heat, appears when wood is churned, grows with the wind and blazes with havis, so, Śrī Kṛshṇa says, “my manifestation, parā vāk,” spreads out in the form of the Veda (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 12).
Maitreya Maharshi, telling Vidura of the śabda that is the very form of Brahmā, says that śabda is of two kinds: vyakta, the manifest, in the form of letters (vaikharī); and avyakta, the cause of the letters, not manifest in a particular form, glossed as parā, paśyantī and madhyamā, or the Oṃkāra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12).
Related terms: Vāk · Parā · Paśyantī · Vaikharī · Nāda · Oṃkāra
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12; Skandha 11, Chapter 12