Sanskrit is not an easy language to master. It captures the essence of human communication and prepares a framework as our mind prepares to communicate our feelings, our observations, and our intent in as precise terms as possible. Like all animals, human beings get pleasure through accurate communication. Sanskrit makes it helpful for the human to express time, space, relationship and context such that we can convey our thoughts in words. It is the economic use of phonemes with the ability to create new words to compose our thoughts that gives Sanskrit its unique space in the world of communication. Its base is possibly with the early man's intent to express ideas verbally. Concepts and observations could have been converted to phonetic patterns which might have rolled and expanded in time. The current words and constructs are a poor representation of the cognitive element of human expression and research into these areas is not done. There was a biblical prohibition to conduct research into the spoken words, because the word was supposed to be "divine" by declaration. The western research is still restrained on this. India on the other hand went on the other side by claiming that a phoneme itself is divine and one can comprehend the universe through the vibration of a phoneme. The science for the latter is deep and most ideas are loosely expressed by not-so-literate present-day custodians of the language.
I have positioned myself between these two camps by choice. The western literary tradition and the word use fail to experiment the depth of the phonemes and there is no tradition of recitation as in the east. Lately the west teaches certain confined boundaries through religious views and very few leak out to explore otherwise. These individuals happen to encounter myriads of self-styled gurus to help them with education that the west is unable to impart. Suddenly an exploration becomes an acceptance in faith and the gurus proliferate. In my view, the guru phenomenon of faith-healing in exchange of money is a disservice to India's magnificent tradition. Reading a line of the Gita everyday can give one more willpower than all the gurus in the world.
On the Indian side, the principles of yoga have died in everyday living and people line up miles to see a deity to clean their minds. That the doer in us is indeed sitting inside is not fully comprehended through the external process. People visit hundreds of temples and attend thousand of discourses, but remain tense inside. A short meditation everyday can do miracles to human life. Our pain and anxiety live in our mind and we need to "observe" our mind through meditation. Sanskrit phonemes are a vehicle in the path of winning over the mind in order to keep the mind occupied such that it does not wander away. A meditative man is free and is not bounded with the nuances of time. Indian "scientists" discovered this through long years of experimentation. There is no physicality of attainment, but a realization of the cosmic nature of oneself. All should try.
The "scientists" discovered that the human beings are capable of expressing sixty five phonemes independently and a mix and match of them through intensity and intonation make human speech. It is the expression of phoneme that communicates. With proper breathing and muscular efforts a phoneme can be clearly expressed. A string of clearly expressed phonemes becomes a "mantra," a natural healer of human woes. A single phoneme can be used as a mantra for a learned person. It is the sincerity and immersion that matters. Most fail in this and then run to other agents for help. A whole group of semi-literate brahmins have emerged in India who fool people everyday in helping them recite a mantra. People have no choice than to support these pretentious individuals. Among the brahmins, there do exist real practitioners but they are not easy to find. Discovery of anything needs an intent.