Today it is common scientific knowledge that the whole existence is a reverberation of energy. Or in other words, the whole existence is oscillating between physical existence, and being a vibration. So, the source of all that’s physical in the existence today, as per modern science, is a reverberation or a vibration. This was recognised by the Yogic sciences many millenia ago. And, it was said, the whole existence is sound. Because, where there is a vibration, there is bound to be a sound. Vibration is only a description, but in human experience, all vibrations – we experience them as sounds.
Among the vibrations that happen in the existence, not all of it right now available to the human ear. The spectrum of sounds that the reverberations of creation throws out is not fully available to the human ear. Only a small band of frequency is available. This we call as the sonic sounds. What is above or over that – is called ultrasonic. What is below is subsonic. Both the subsonic and ultrasonic sounds are not available to the human ear, unless the human being strives – has the necessary sadhana to go beyond the limitations of a small band of frequencies.
People who are in a certain state of sadhana, which is referred to as the ‘rithambrapragna’ – may hear sounds beyond it’s [normal human] spectrum
People who are in a certain state of sadhana, which is referred to as the ‘rithambrapragna’ – may hear sounds beyond it’s spectrum. Otherwise most human beings are limited to this small band of frequencies.
What we refer to as music is a more refined arrangement of these sounds, that the creation is already making. The Indian classical music particularly comes from a very deep understanding of the human system. Because all our experience of life is essentially happening within us. Light and darkness is happening within us, sound and silence is happening within us, joy and misery is happening within us, agony and ecstasy is happening within us. Every human experience happens only within ourselves. Never outside of ourselves. Because we are the basis of our experience. Everything that we do is based on the nature of the self. Because of this, the music identified certain dimensions of the body which are responsive to the sounds that we generate. Or the sounds that come towards us.
The Indian classical music particularly comes from a very deep understanding of the human system
The human system being seen as five koshas, or five sheaths or layers of body. The annamaya kosha, the Manomaya kosha, Pranamaya kosha, Vigyanamaya kosha and Anandamaya kosha. Among these five, pranamaya kosha is the most significant one. Pranamaya kosha is made up of 72,000 nadis, which meet and redistribute in 114 significant ways. Or there are 114 junction boxes in the human system. Of these 2 are outside the physical nature, and 112 are within. Out of these 112, 4 are dormant to a large extent. So, 108 active energy centres in the body, or chakras in the body.
Based on this – these 108 are divided on the right and the left, in the form of Ida and Pingala. They are divided as 54 each. Based on this, we formed the Sanskrit alphabet of 54 sounds. These 54 sounds in 2 manifestations of feminine and masculine, we have 108. These 108 sounds – these 54 in 2 different shapes, or 2 different manifestations amounting to 108 – has a significance. And, the whole music system evolved out of these 108.
The Indian classical music essentially is about touching these 108, or activating these 108 chakras
So, the Indian classical music essentially is about touching these 108, or activating these 108 chakras, or points in the body, which will lead to a natural evolution of the human being to a higher level of consciousness. So music has never been just a form of entertainment. It has been a way of evolving an individual human being into a universal entity. So, this dimension of activating the human system, this dimension of allowing the human system to evolve to it’s ultimate possibility by using these 108 sounds is called as the ‘Nada Yoga’.
So, the Indian classical music is an evolution of this fundamental process of Nada Yoga. If one listens to music with the necessary involvement, or one involves themselves in the process of what we are referring to as classical music – it is not just about pleasantness of the body, it is not just about the pleasantness of emotion that one goes through – it is a way, it is a method to move out of compulsive cycles of life and transcend those cycles to achieve an ultimate process of freedom and liberation.
The classical music is a very refined and wonderful way of delving into oneself. This is one of the most wonderful ways that one can transcend one’s limitations and arrive at an ultimate possibility. There are many ways to do this. But this is a wonderful and beautiful way to do it.
