Hazrat Inayat Khan
Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound and Music
1. Music
Why is music called the divine art, while all other arts are not so called? We may certainly see God in all arts and in all sciences, but in music alone we see God free from all forms and thoughts. In every other art there is idolatry. Every thought, every word has its form. Sound alone is free from form. Every word of poetry forms a picture in our mind. Sound alone does not make any object appear before us.
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Music, the word we use in our everyday language, is nothing less than the picture of the Beloved. It is because music is the picture of our Beloved that we love music. But the question is: What is our Beloved, or where is our Beloved? Our Beloved is that which is our source and our goal. What we see of our Beloved before our physical eyes is the beauty which is before us. That part of our Beloved which is not manifest to our eyes is that inner form of beauty of which our Beloved speaks to us. If only we would listen to the voice of all the beauty that attracts us in any form, we would find that in every aspect it tells us that behind all manifestation is the perfect Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom.
What do we see as the principal expression of life in the beauty visible before us? It is movement. In line, in color, in the changes of the seasons, in the rising and falling of the waves, in the wind, in the storm, in all the beauty of nature there is constant movement. It is this movement which has caused day and night, and the changing seasons. This movement has given us the comprehension of what we call time. Otherwise there would be no time- for it is eternity. This teaches us that all we love and admire, observe and comprehend, is the life hidden behind, and that life is our being.
It is owing to our limitation that we cannot see the whole Being of God, but all that we love in color, line and form, or personality - all that is beloved by us - belongs to the real Beauty who is the Beloved of all.
When we trace what attracts us in this beauty that we see in all forms, we shall find that it is the movement of beauty: the music. All forms of nature, the flowers so perfectly formed and colored, the planets and stars, the earth - all give the idea of harmony, of music. The whole of nature is breathing, not only living creatures, but all nature. It is only our tendency to compare that which seems more living with that which to us seems not so living which makes us forget that all things and all beings are living one perfect life. And the sign of life that this living beauty gives is music.
What makes the soul of the poet dance? Music. What makes the painter paint beautiful pictures, the musician sing beautiful songs? It is the inspiration that beauty gives. The Sufi has called this beauty Saqi, the divine Giver, who gives the wine of life to all. What is the wine of the Sufi? All beauty: in form, line and color, in imagination, in sentiment, in manners - in all this he sees the one Beauty. All these different forms are part of the Spirit of beauty which is the life behind, always blessing.
As to what we call music in everyday language - to me architecture is music, gardening is music, farming is music, painting is music, poetry is music. In all the occupations of life where beauty has been the inspiration, where the divine wine has been poured out, there is music. But among all the different arts, the art of music has been especially considered divine, because it is the exact miniature of the law working through the whole universe.
For instance, if we study ourselves we shall find that the beats of the pulse and of the heart, the inhaling and exhaling of the breath, are all the work of rhythm. Life depends upon the rhythmic working of the whole mechanism of the body. Breath manifests as voice, as word, as sound. The sound is continually audible, the sound without and the sound within ourselves: that is music. This shows that there is music outside and music within ourselves.
Music inspires not only the soul of the great musician, but every infant, the instant it comes into the world, begins to move its little arms and legs with the rhythm of music. Therefore it is no exaggeration to say that music is the language of beauty, the language of the One whom every living soul has loved. And we can understand that, if we realize and recognize the perfection of all this beauty as God, our Beloved, then it is natural that this music, which we see in art and in the whole universe, should be called the Divine Art.
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Many in the world take music as a source of amusement, a pastime; to many music is an art, and a musician an entertainer. Yet no one has lived in this world, has thought and felt, who has not considered music as the most sacred of all arts. For the fact is that, what the art of painting cannot clearly suggest, poetry explains in words, but that, which even a poet finds difficult to express in poetry, is expressed in music.
By this I do not only say that music is superior to painting and poetry: in fact music excels religion, for music raises the soul of man even higher than the so-called external form of religion. But it must not be understood that music can take the place of religion, for every soul is not necessarily tuned to that pitch where it can really benefit from music, nor is every music necessarily so high that it will exalt a person who hears it more than religion will do. However, for those who follow the path of the inner cult, music is most essential for their spiritual development. The reason is that the soul who is seeking for truth is in search of the formless God. Art, no doubt, is most elevating, but it contains form; poetry has words, names suggestive of forms; it is music only which has beauty, power, charm, and at the same time can raise the soul beyond form.
That is why in ancient times the greatest prophets were great musicians. For instance, in the lives of the Hindu prophets one finds Narada, the great prophet who was at the same time a great musician, and Shiva, a godlike prophet who was the inventor of the sacred vina. Krishna is always pictured with a flute.
There is a well-known legend of the life of Moses which tells how Moses heard a divine command on Mount Sinai in the words: "Musake!'- Moses hear, or Moses ponder - and the revelation that thus came to him was of tone and rhythm. He called it by the same name: musake. Words such as "music", or "musik" have come from that word. David, whose song and whose voice have been known for ages, gave his message to the world in the form of music. Orpheus of the Greek legends, the knower of the mystery of tone and rhythm, had through this knowledge power over the hidden forces of nature. The Hindu Goddess of learning, of knowledge, whose name is Sarasvati, is always pictured with the vina. What does this suggest? It suggests that all learning has its essence in music.
Besides the natural charm that music has, it has a magical power, a power that can be experienced even now. It seems that the human race has lost a great deal of the ancient science of magic, but if there remains any magic it is music.
Music, besides power, is intoxication. When it intoxicates those who hear it, how much more must it intoxicate those who play or sing it themselves! And how much more must it intoxicate those who have touched the perfection of music, and those who have contemplated upon it for years and years! It gives them an even greater joy and exaltation than a king feels sitting on his throne.
According to the thinkers of the East there are four different intoxications: the intoxication of beauty, youth and strength; then the intoxication of wealth; the third intoxication is of power, of command, the power of ruling; and the fourth is the intoxication of learning, of knowledge. But all these four intoxications fade away just like stars before the sun in the presence of the intoxication of music. The reason is that it touches the deepest part of man's being. Music reaches farther than any other impression from the external world can reach. The beauty of music is that it is the source of creation and the means of absorbing it. In other words, by music the world was created, and it is again through music that the world is withdrawn into the source that has created it.
In support of this you may read in the Bible that first was the word, and the word was God. That word means sound, and from sound you can grasp the idea of music. There is an Eastern legend that has come from centuries ago that, when God made man out of clay and asked the soul to enter, the soul refused to enter into this prison-house. Then God commanded the angels to sing, and as the angels sang the soul entered, intoxicated by the song.
In the scientific and material world we also see an example of this kind. Before a machine - a mechanism - will run, it must first make a noise. First it becomes audible, and then it shows its life. We can see this in a ship, in an aeroplane, in an automobile. This idea belongs to the mysticism of sound.
Before an infant is capable of admiring a color or form, it enjoys sound. If there is any art that can charge youth with life and enthusiasm, with emotion and passion, it is music. If there is any art in which a person can fully express his feeling, his emotion, it is music which is best fitted for it. At the same time it is something that gives man that force and that power of activity that make soldiers march to the beats of the drum and the sound of the trumpet.
In the traditions of the past it was said that on the Last Day there will be the sound of the trumpet before the end of the world. This shows that music is connected with the beginning of creation, with its continuity, and with its end.
The mystics of all ages have loved music most. In almost all the circles of the inner cult, in whatever part of the world they are, music seems to be the center of their cult, or ceremony, or ritual. Those who attain to that perfect peace which is called nirvana, or in the language of the Hindus samadhi, do so more easily through music. Therefore the Sufis, especially those of the Chishti school of ancient times, have taken music as a source of their meditation. And by meditating thus they derive much more benefit from it than those who meditate without the help of music.
The effect that they experience is the unfoldment of the soul, the opening of the intuitive faculties. Their heart, so to speak, opens to all the beauty that is within and without, uplifting them and at the same time bringing them that perfection for which every soul yearns.
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Speaking of the harmony of music, I should like to say that the true harmony of music comes from the harmony of the soul. That music alone can be called real which comes from the harmony of the soul, its true source, and when it comes from there it must appeal to all souls.
Every soul differs in its choice in life, in its choice of the path it should follow. This is owing to the difference of the minds, for souls, in their essence, do not differ. Therefore, whatever means be chosen to bring the different minds of people together, there cannot be a better means of harmonizing them than music. It would be no exaggeration if I said that music alone can be the means by which the souls of races, nations and families, which are today so apart, may one day be united. The musician's lesson in life is therefore a great one. Music is not expressed through language, but through beauty of rhythm and tone which reach far beyond language. The more the musician is conscious of his mission in life, the greater service he can render to humanity.
As to the law of music which exists in different nations, there are of course different methods, but in the conception of beauty there is no difference. The differences come when the music is man-made; there is no difference in the soul-made music. Suppose a man comes from the far East, the extreme North, South, or West; wherever he sees the beauty of nature he cannot help admiring and loving it. So it is with the music lover. From whatever country he comes, and whatever music he hears, if the music has a soul, and if he seeks for the soul in music, he will appreciate and admire all music.
Furthermore, music has a mission not only with the multitudes, but with individuals. And its mission with the individual is as necessary and great as its mission with the multitude. All the trouble in the world and all the disastrous results arising out of it - all come from lack of harmony. This shows that the world to day needs harmony more than ever before. So if the musician understands this, his customer will be the whole world.
When a person learns music, he need not necessarily learn to be a musician, or to become a source of pleasure and joy to his fellow-men. No! By playing, loving and hearing music he should develop music in his personality. The true use of music is to become musical in one's thoughts, words and actions. One should be able to give the harmony for which the soul yearns and longs every moment. All the tragedy in the world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of harmony, and harmony is best given by producing it in one's own life.
There are different kinds of music, each kind appealing to certain souls according to their evolution. For instance, children in the street are very pleased when beating the time, because that rhythm has a certain effect upon them. But as a person evolves, so he longs for a finer harmony. Why people like or dislike each other is owing to their different stages of evolution. For instance, one person is at a stage where he appreciates a certain kind of music, another one, whose evolution is greater, wants music appropriate to his evolution.
It is the same in religion. Some stick to certain beliefs and do not wish to evolve beyond. So it is possible that the lover of music may be tempted to keep to a certain sort of music and will not rise further. The true way of progressing through music is to evolve freely, to go forward, not caring what others think, and in this way, together with one's development in music, to harmonize the life of one's soul, one's surroundings and one's affairs.
During my travels throughout the world I have heard the music of many different places, and I have always felt that intimate friendship and brotherhood existing in music; I have always had a great respect for music and for the devotee of music. There is one thing I believe and of which I have been convinced time after time in India when meeting those who have touched some perfection in music: that one can feel the harmony which is the real test of perfection not only in their music, but in their lives.
If this principle of music were followed, there would be no need for an external religion. Some day music will be the means of expressing universal religion. Time is wanted for this, but there will come a day when music and its philosophy will become the religion of humanity.
2. Esoteric Music
According to the esoteric standpoint, music is the beginning and end of the universe. All actions and movements made in the visible and invisible world are musical. That is: they are made up of vibrations pertaining to a certain plane of existence. Music is called sangita in Sanskrit, signifying three subjects: singing, playing and dancing. These three are combined in every action. For instance, in the action of speech there is the voice signifying singing, the pronunciation of words signifying playing, and the movements of the body as well as the expression of the rice signifying dancing.
Oriental music is based entirely upon a philosophical and spiritual basis. Its inventor was Mahadeva, the Lord of Yogis, and its great performer Parvati, his beloved consort. Krishna, the incarnation of God, was an expert musician who charmed both worlds by the music of his flute, making the Yogis dance. Bharata Muni, the greatest Hindu saint, was the first author of music. Mystics, such as Narada and Tumbara, were great musicians. In the heaven of the Hindus the God India is entertained by the classical singing of the Gandgarvas and the dancing of the Apsaras. The Goddess of music is Sarasvati who is also the Goddess of wisdom; she is a great lover of the vina. The whole system of Hindu religion and philosophy is based on the science of vibration and is called Nada Brahma, Sound-God.
The poet Shams-e-Tabrez, writing of the creation, says that the whole mystery of the universe lies in sound. This fact is expressed in the Qur'an as well as in the Bible.
Fine vibrations through action become grosser in their degrees, which form the different planes of existence, ending in the physical manifestation. As water, when frozen, turns into snow, so more activity materializes the vibrations. Less activity etherealizes them, showing that spirit and matter are the same in the higher sense. Spirit descends into matter by the law of vibration, and matter may also ascend toward spirit. The great Yogis and Sufis have always progressed by the help of their practices toward the highest state of perfection by etherealizing through the knowledge of vibrations.
The material sound of instruments, or of the voice produced by the human organs of sound, is really the outcome of the universal sound of the spheres which can only be heard by those in tune with it. This state is called anahad nada by Yogis, and sawt-e-sarmad by Sufis.
The musician and the music lover become refined and are led on to the higher world of sound. Sufis lose themselves in sound and call it ecstasy, or masti. Psychic and occult powers come after experiencing this condition of ecstasy, and knowledge of the visible and invisible existence is disclosed. This bliss of happiness and peace is available only to the Yogis and Sufis interested in the divine art of music.
Almost all the great musicians in the Orient have become great saints through the power of music. The more recent musicians in India, such as Tansen and Maula Bakhsh, have been great examples of spiritual perfection through music.
3. The Music of the Spheres
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By this title I do not wish to encourage any superstition, or any ideas that might attract people into the fields of curiosity; but through this subject I wish to direct the attention of those, who search for truth, towards the law of music which is working throughout the whole universe and which, in other words, may be called the law of life, the sense of proportion, the law of harmony, the law which brings about balance, the law which is hidden behind all aspects of life, which holds this universe intact, and works out its destiny throughout the whole universe, fulfilling its purpose.
Music as we know it in our everyday language is only a miniature: that which our intelligence has grasped from that music or harmony of the whole universe which is working behind us. The music of the universe is the background of the little picture which we call music. Our sense of music, our attraction to music, shows that music is in the depth of our being. Music is behind the working of the whole universe. Music is not only life's greatest object, but music is life itself.
Hafiz, our great and wonderful poet of Persia, says: "Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music."
I should like to tell you what made him say this. There exists in the East a legend which relates that God made a statue of clay in His own image, and asked the soul to enter into it. But the soul refused to enter into this prison, for its nature is to fly about freely, and not be limited and bound to any sort of captivity. The soul did not wish in the least to enter this prison. Then God asked the angels to play their music and, as the angels played, the soul was moved to ecstasy. Through that ecstasy - in order to make this music more clear to itself- it entered this body.
It is a beautiful legend, and much more so is its mystery. The interpretation of this legend explains to us two great laws. One is that freedom is the nature of the soul, and for the soul the whole tragedy of life is the absence of that freedom which belongs to its original nature. The next mystery that this legend reveals to us is that the only reason why the soul has entered the body of clay or matter is to experience the music of life, and to make this music clear to itself. And when we sum up these two great mysteries, the third mystery, which is the mystery of all mysteries, comes to our mind: that the unlimited part of ourselves becomes limited and earthbound for the purpose of making this life, which is the outward life, more intelligible. Therefore there is one loss and one gain. The loss is the loss of freedom, and the gain is the experience of life which is fully gained by coming to this limitation of life which we call the life of an individual.
What makes us feel drawn to music is that our whole being is music: our mind, our body, the nature in which we live, the nature that has made us, all that is beneath and around us - it is all music. As we are close to all this music and live and move and have our being in music, it therefore interests us. It attracts our attention and gives us pleasure, for it corresponds with the rhythm and tone which are keeping the mechanism of our whole being intact. What pleases us in any of our arts, whether drawing, painting, carving, architecture, or sculpture, and what interests us in poetry, is the harmony behind them which is music. It is music that poetry suggests to us: the rhythm in the poetry, or the harmony of ideas and phrases.
Besides this, in painting and in drawing it is our sense of proportion and our sense of harmony which give us all the pleasure we gain in admiring art. What appeals to us in being near to nature is nature's music, and nature's music is more perfect than that of art. It gives us a sense of exaltation to be moving about in the woods, to be looking at the green, to be standing near the running water which has its rhythm, its tone and its harmony. The swinging of the branches in the forest, the rising and falling of the waves - all has its music. Once we contemplate and become one with nature, our hearts open to its music. We say: "I enjoy nature", and what is it in nature that we enjoy? It is its music. Something in us has been touched by the rhythmic movement, by the perfect harmony which is so seldom found in this artificial life of ours. It lifts one up and makes one feel that it is this which is the real temple, the true religion. One moment standing in the midst of nature with open heart is a whole lifetime, if one is in tune with nature.
When one looks at the cosmos, the movements of the stars and planets, the laws of vibration and rhythm - all perfect and unchanging - it shows that the cosmic system is working by the law of music, the law of harmony. Whenever that harmony in the cosmic system is lacking in any way, then in proportion disasters come about in the world, and its influence is seen in many destructive forces which manifest in the world. If there is any principle upon which the whole of astrological law is based - and the science of magic and mysticism behind it - it is music.
Therefore, for the most illuminated souls who have ever lived in this world, as for the greatest of all the prophets of India - their whole life was music. From the miniature music which we understand, they expanded themselves to the whole universe of music, and in that way they were able to inspire. The one who finds the key to the music of the whole working of life - it is he who becomes intuitive; it is he who has inspiration; it is he to whom revelations manifest, for then his language becomes music. Every object we see is revealing. In what form? It tells us its character, nature and secret. Every person who comes to us tells us his past, present and future. In what way? Every presence explains to us all that it contains. In what manner? In the form of music - if only we can hear it. There is no other language: it is rhythm, it is tone. We hear it, but we do not hear it with our ears. A friendly person shows harmony in his voice, his words, his movements and manner. An unfriendly person, in all his movements, in his glance and expression, in his walk, in everything, will show disharmony - if only one can see it.
I used to amuse myself in India with a friend who became cross very easily. Sometimes when he visited me I would say: "Are you cross to-day?" He would ask: "Now how do you know that I am cross to-day?" I replied: "Your turban tells me. The way you tie your turban does not show harmony."
One's every action shows a harmonious or inharmonious attitude. There are many things you can perceive in handwriting, but the principal thing in reading handwriting is the harmonious or inharmonious curves. It almost speaks to you, and tells you the mood in which the person wrote. Handwriting tells you many things: the grade of evolution of the writer, his attitude towards life, his character. You do not need to read the letter, you only have to see his handwriting; for line and curve will show him either to be harmonious or inharmonious - if only you can see it.
In every living being you can see this, and if you look with an open insight into the nature of things, you will read even in the tree - the tree that bears fruit or flower - what music it expresses.
You can see from the attitude of a person whether that person will prove to be your friend, or will end in being your enemy. You need not wait until the end, you can see at the first glance whether he is friendly inclined or not, because every person is music, perpetual music, continually going on day and night. Your intuitive faculty can hear that music, and that is the reason why one person is repellent and the other attracts you so much: it is the music he expresses. His whole atmosphere is charged with it.
There is a story of Umar, the well-known khalif of Arabia. Someone who wanted to harm Umar was looking for him, and he heard that Umar did not live in palaces - although he was a king - but that he spent most of his time with nature. This man was very glad to think that now he would have every opportunity to accomplish his objective. As he approached the place where Umar was sitting, the nearer he came, the more his attitude changed, until in the end he dropped the dagger which was in his hand, and said: "I cannot harm you. Tell me, what is the power in you that keeps me from accomplishing the objective which I came to carry out?" Umar answered: "My at-one-ment with God."
No doubt this is a religious term, but what does that at-one-ment with God mean? It is being in tune with the Infinite, in harmony with the whole universe. In plain words, Umar was the receptacle of the music of the whole universe.
The great charm that the personality of the holy ones has shown in all ages has been their responsiveness to the music of the Whole Being. That has been the secret of how they became the friends of their worst enemies. But this is not only the power of the holy ones; this manifests in every person to a greater or less degree. Everyone shows harmony or disharmony according to how open he is to the music of the universe. The more he is open to all that is beautiful and harmonious, the more his life is tuned to that universal harmony, and the more he will show a friendly attitude towards everyone he meets, his very atmosphere will create music around him.
The difference between the material and the spiritual point of view is that the material point of view sees matter as the first thing, from which intelligence, beauty and all else evolved afterwards. From the spiritual point of view we see the intelligence and beauty first, and from them comes all that exists. From a spiritual point of view we see that what one considers last is the same as first. Therefore in the essence of this Whole Being - as its basis - there is music, as one can see that in the essence of the seed of the rose there is the rose itself, its fragrance, form and beauty. Although in the seed it is not manifest, at the same time it is there in essence. The one who tunes himself not only to the external but also to the inner being and to the essence of all things, gets an insight into the essence of the Whole Being, and therefore he can find and enjoy that fragrance and flower which he sees in the rose, to the same extent even in the seed.
The great error of this age is that activity has increased so much that there is little margin left in one's everyday life for repose. Repose is the secret of all contemplation and meditation, the secret of getting in tune with that aspect of life which is the essence of all things. When one is not accustomed to take repose, one does not know what is behind one's being. This condition is experienced by first preparing the body, and also the mind, by means of purification. And by making the senses finer one is able to tune one's soul with the Whole Being.
It seems complex, and yet it is so simple. When one is open to one's tried friend in life, one knows so much about him. It is only the opening of the heart; it is only at-one-ment with one's friend; we know his faults and his merits. We know how to experience and to enjoy friendship. Where there is hatred and prejudice and bitterness, there is loss of understanding. The deeper the person, the more friends he has. It is smallness, narrowness, lack of spiritual development which makes a person exclusive, distant and different from others. He feels superior, greater and better than others; his friendly attitude seems to have been lost. In that way he cuts himself apart from others, and in this lies his tragedy. That person is never happy.
The one who is happy is he who is ready to be friends with all. His outlook on life is friendly. He is not only friendly to persons, but also to objects and conditions. It is by this attitude of friendship that man expands and breaks down those walls which keep him in prison. And by breaking down those walls he experiences at-one-ment with the Absolute. This at-one-ment with the Absolute manifests as the music of the spheres, and this he experiences on all sides: beauties of nature, color of flowers, everything he sees, everyone he meets. In the hours of contemplation and solitude, and in the hours when he is in the midst of the world, always the music is there, always he is enjoying the harmony.
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There are many in this world who look for wonders. If one only noticed how much there is in this world which is all phenomena! The deeper one sees into life, the wider life opens itself to one, and then every moment of one's life becomes full of wonders and full of splendors. What we call music in everyday language is only a miniature of that which is behind this all, and which has been the source and origin of this nature. It is therefore that the wise of all ages have considered music to be a sacred art; for in music the seer can see the picture of the whole universe, and in the realm of music the wise can interpret the secret and nature of the working of the whole universe.
This idea is not a new idea; at the same time it is always new. Nothing is as old as the truth, and nothing is as new as the truth. Man's desire to search for something traditional, for something original, and man's desire for something new - all these tendencies can be satisfied in the knowledge of truth.
In the Vedas of the Hindus we read: Nada Brahma - sound, being the Creator. In the works of the wise of ancient India we read: "First song, then Vedas or wisdom." When we come to the Bible, we find: "First was the word, and the word was God", and when we come to the Qur'an we read that the word was pronounced, and all creation was manifest. This shows that the origin of the whole creation is sound.
No doubt the word, in the way it is used in our everyday language, is a limitation of that sound which is suggested by these Scriptures. Language is made up of names of comparable objects, and that which cannot be compared has no name. Truth is that which can never be spoken and, what the wise of all ages have spoken, is what they have tried their best to express, little as they were able to do so.
There is in Persian literature a poem by Hafiz who tells us that, when God commanded the soul to enter the human body, which is made of clay, the soul refused. Then angels were asked to sing and on hearing the angels sing the soul entered the body which it had feared to be a prison. It is a philosophy which is poetically expressed in this story. Hafiz remarked: "People say that on hearing the song the soul entered into the body, but in reality the soul itself was song."
Those who have probed the depth of material science as far as modern science can reach, do not deny the fact that the origin of the whole creation is in movement, in other words: in vibration. It is this original state of the existence of life which is called in the ancient tradition sound, or the word. The first manifestation of this sound is therefore audible, the next manifestation visible. In the forms of expression of life, life has expressed itself first as sound, next as light. This is supported by the Bible where it is said that first was the word, and then came light. Again one finds in a Sura of the Qur'an: "God is the light of the heaven and the earth."
The nature of the creation is the doubling of one, and it is this doubling aspect which is the cause of all duality in life. This doubling aspect represents one positive part, the other part being negative; one expressive, the other responsive. Therefore, in this creation of duality, spirit and nature stand face to face. And as there is the first aspect, which I have called sound, and the next, which I have called light, at first in these opposite nature aspects, or responsive aspects, only the light works, and if the creation goes still deeper there is sound. In nature, which is face to face with spirit, what is first expressed is light - or what man first responds to is light, and what man responds to next is what touches him deeper: it is sound.
The human body is a vehicle of the spirit, a finished vehicle which experiences all the different aspects of creation. This does not mean that all other forms and names that exist in the world - some as objects, others as creatures - are not responsive to the expression of the spirit. Really speaking, every object is responsive to the spirit and to the work of the spirit which is active in all aspects, in all names and forms of this universe. One reads in the great work of Mevlana Rumi, a Persian poet and mystic, that earth, water, fire and air before man are objects, but before God are living beings: they work at His command - as man understands living beings working under the command of a master.
If the whole creation can be well explained, it is by the phases of sound or vibration, which have manifested in different grades in all their various forms in life. Objects and names and forms are but the expression of vibrations in different aspects. Even all that we call matter or substance, and all that does not seem to speak or sound - it is all in reality vibration.
The beauty of the whole creation is this, that creation has worked in two ways; in one way it has expressed, and in the other way it has made itself a mold in order to respond. For instance, there is substance - matter to touch - and there is a sense to feel touch. There is a sound, and at the same time there is the sense of hearing to perceive the sound. There is light, there is form, there are colors, and at the same time there are eyes to see them.
What man calls beauty is the harmony of all he experiences. What after all is music? What we call music is the harmony of the audible notes. In reality there is music in color, there is music in lines, there is music in the forest where there is a variety of trees and plants, in the way in which they correspond with each other. The more widely one observes nature, the more it appeals to one's soul. Why? Because there is a music there. And to the extent to which one sees more deeply into life and observes life more widely, one listens to more and more music - the music which answers the whole universe.
But the one whose heart is open - he need not go as far as the forest; in the midst of the crowd he can find music. At this time human ideas are so changed, owing to materialism, that there is no distinction of personality. But if one studies human nature one finds that even a piano of a thousand octaves cannot produce the variety that human nature represents: how people agree with one another, how they disagree; some become friends after a contact of one moment, and some in thousand years cannot become friends. If one could only see to what pitch the different souls are tuned, in what octave different people speak, what standard different people have! Sometimes there are two persons who disagree, and there comes a third person and all unite together. Is this not the nature of music? The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature - how people agree, and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion - the more one sees that it is all music.
But now there is another question to be understood. What man knows is generally the world that he sees around himself. Very few people trouble to think that there is something beyond that which they realize around themselves. To many it is a story, when they hear that there are two worlds. But if one looks deep within oneself, there are not only two worlds, there are so many worlds that it is beyond expression. That part of one's being which is receptive is mostly closed in the average man. What he knows is to express outwardly and to receive from this same sphere as much as he can receive by himself. For instance, the difference between a simple man and a thinking person with deeper understanding is that, when the simple person has received a word only in his ears, the thinking person has received the same word as far as his mind. So the same word has reached the ears of the one, and the heart of the other. This man whose ears the word has touched has only seen the word, but he whose heart the word has touched has seen deeper.
If this simple example is true, it can be understood that one person lives only in the external world, while another lives in two worlds, and a third person may live in many worlds at the same time. When one asks: Where are those worlds? Are they above the sky, or down below the earth? - the answer is: All these worlds are in the same place as we are. As a poet has said: "The heart of man, if once expanded, becomes larger than all the heavens."
The deep thinkers of all ages have therefore held one principle of awakening to life, and that principle is: emptying the self. In other words, making oneself a clearer and fuller accommodation in order to accommodate all experiences more clearly and more fully. All the tragedy of life, all its sorrows and pains belong mostly to the surface of the life in the world. If one were fully awake to life, if one could respond to life, if one could perceive life, one would not need to look for wonders, one would not need to communicate with spirits; for every atom in this world is a wonder for the one who sees with open eyes.
In answer to the question: What is the experience of those who dive deep into life, and who touch the depth within? there is a verse in Persian by Hafiz who has said: "It is not known how far is the destination, but so much I know: that music from afar is coming to my ears." The music of the spheres, according to the point of view of the mystic, is like the lighthouse in the port that a man sees from the sea; it promises him that he is coming nearer to the destination.
Now one may say: What music may this be? If there were no harmony in the essence of life, life would not have created harmony in this world of variety. Man would not have longed for something which was not already in his spirit. Everything in this world which seems to lack harmony is in reality the limitation of man's own vision. The wider the horizon of his observation becomes, the more harmony of life he enjoys. In the very depth of man's being the harmony of the working of the whole universe sums up in a perfect music. Therefore, the music which is the source of creation, the music which is found near the goal of creation, is the music of the spheres. And it is heard and enjoyed by those who touch the very depth of their own lives.
4. The Mysticism of Sound
Before its incarnation the soul is sound. It is for this reason that we love sound.
The man of science says that the voice comes from the spine, the diaphragm, the abdomen and the lungs. The mystic says that sound comes from the soul, the heart and the mind. Let us see whether this is true. Before we sing or speak the thought of singing or speaking comes. If we have not the thought we cannot sing or speak, and before the thought there is the feeling that causes the thought. In order to make the thought concrete we must speak.
The sound goes through the ear to the mind, the heart and the soul. When the feeling, when the thought is spoken, its power becomes greater. If a person speaks of his sorrow, if he tells his grief to another, often he may begin to cry. While he kept the feeling in his heart, the thought in his mind, he did not cry, but when he spoke he wept. Sometimes a humorous person, when telling something funny that he has seen, begins to laugh at his own words. While he only thought of it he did not laugh, but when he speaks of it he laughs. If we keep a thought in our mind, it has not the strength that it has when we speak it out.
If you repeat: flower, flower, flower, your mind will be much more impressed than if you only think of the flower. This is why the Sufis repeat the name of God, and do not only think of God. There are Sufis who repeat the ninety-nine names of God. There is the wazifa, the namaz; there are different ways of repeating the name of God. The effect produced is in accordance with the soul and the heart from which the sound comes. If there are four violinists, all of whom have studied for the same length of time, and they all play the same piece of music one after the other, they will each play very differently. Each will play in accordance with his musical temperament, his heart and his soul. Therefore it is very necessary for a musician that his heart and soul should be trained.
The shopman, after he has given us the change, says: "Thank you." That "thank you" is forgotten before we have gone two steps, because it comes from the lips. A grateful person may say: "Thank you'- only that, but it goes to the heart, because it comes from the heart. One singer may sing just one note, and all the audience is moved. Another sings dozens of notes, and no effect is made.
The force of the sound is in proportion to its duration. If we strike a stone, it gives out a short sound that has no effect. If we strike a bell, the sound is more lasting and the effect greater. If we prolong a tone the effect is greater, for the life is greater. Sound is breath, the breath which is life. If there is a bell and a stone, and if an organ is played or a piano, the bell will give out a sound, but the stone will not. That which is alive gives out a sound that is alive. That which is dead gives none. The soul which is dead gives no sound. That is why in the ordinary song there are many notes, but not one note that lives. All are dead sounds. The music of the great composers lives still. Its echo has come down to us; the echo of the great souls is still here. Thousands who have never thought of anything but the self have gone, and we do not even know that they have existed. The dead souls, the ordinary people, go to hear that dead song. The living soul hears the music that is alive.
The finer people go to see the tragedy where they are moved and shed a few tears. The ordinary people go to the moving picture where they laugh. The heart finds a joy in feeling, in sorrow. It feels that it is used, and in that there is a happiness. The Sufi trains the heart in feeling. There are assemblies among them where qawl is sung and played, the music of devotion and praise, the music that arouses feeling, the feeling of devotion, of sorrow, of repentance: to think how foolish we are, how stupid we are, how many mistakes we make. Every feeling is practiced. When the heart is made capable of feeling, it can feel the sorrow and joy of others. Every thing touches it, every little sign of mercy, every feeling of admiration. In this there is happiness.
Our feeling must be in our power. A person says: "I spoke like that because I was angry!'- Yes, but why was he angry? One says: "I cry because I am sad. I cannot help being sad; the sadness comes" - or: "I laugh because I feel humorous." Sorrow and mirth should be under control. The feeling of kindness must be kept as long as we wish, whatever obstacle we meet with. When this control is learned, then no sorrow can come near.
Then there is the music of the soul. In this there is no feeling, no devotion. There are few words, the syllables have a hidden meaning. It is to awaken the soul, to make the soul conscious of its immortal life.
The longer the thought is kept in the mind, the stronger it becomes. The mystic keeps one thought in the mind for ten minutes, for twenty minutes. He practices this. He practices it with music. First he impresses one Raga upon his mind until it is fixed in his mind like a picture. Then he improves upon the Raga and looks at that picture like a painter who paints and then looks at his picture. Then he practices the sound only, without melody, one sound or - to break the monotony - two sounds, or three sounds. After that he hums. He keeps all feeling away. There is no anger, no bitterness, no prejudice, no attachment, nothing that keeps him bound to the ego. Then there is no outward sound; he keeps the sound in his mind. Then he begins to hear the sound of the breath, the fine sound that the ears cannot hear.
A very materialistic person has a loud breath, audible to all. The finer a person, the finer is his breath. He hears the sound of his heart: what it speaks, and he hears what the heart of another speaks. This is thought-reading. First he must hear what his own heart says; then he hears what is in the heart of others in their presence and in their absence. We are accustomed to call that which our ears hear sound, but there is also the sound of the mind, of the heart, of the soul.
Why do we all like to be alone? We may think that we like to be where we have some company, to talk, to be in the society of others, but we are not happy unless we are alone, away from the town, sitting by some stream or lake. It is because then, unconsciously, we hear the sound of the soul. This sound the Sufi hears in the shagl, in the qasb. It is very difficult, because for this all the tubes and veins must be open. The soul is a finer essence, and if the veins and tubes are blocked by the fluids, by very much eating and drinking, by alcoholic substances, by very much sleep, by very much comfort and luxury, this sound cannot enter.
The Vedanta speaks of Nada Brahma, the Sound-God, the sound that is God, of which all things are made. Sufis call it sawt-e-sarmad, the sound that intoxicates man. The Qur'an says: "Kunfa-yakun - when God said "Be", it became." Before this world was, all was in sound, God was sound, we are made of sound. That is why we like music. That is why you are listening to this*, because it is your element. Although it has been dimmed by manifestation, your thought, your mind, is made of sound.
5. The Mystery of Sound
Sound is perceptible activity of the all pervading life. Different sounds differ in their outer expression, but within it is one and the same activity which directs all sounds. It is in expression that sounds differ, because of the different instruments through which they are expressed. The deeper we penetrate into the mystery of sound, the more we are able to trace the link that connects all sounds. This link is what the musician calls harmony, and it is in harmony that is hidden the secret of joy and peace.
As one sound is directed by another sound, so every motion is caused by another motion. Therefore no activity can take place without a directing activity, and that activity which directs all is called God. This supports the argument of the fatalist that all is done by God, and it also proves the view of the metaphysician that there is no such thing as chance. At the same time it explains that freewill remains, since each sound, in its outward manifestation, hides within itself its directing activity, so that behind what man calls freewill there is hidden God's will.
As sound takes varying manifestations through different instruments, one sound helps another, harmonizes with another, and one sound differs from another, or covers it. All this is merely caused by the instruments, their response to the directing power within, and their relation to each other.
This symbolism explains all different aspects of life, and shows that good and evil, pleasure and pain, right and wrong, all come from one source. Thus the chief consolation of the thinker is the understanding of the mystery of life, which understanding affords contentment under all kinds of conditions.
The mystic need not follow the principle of contentment unless for convenience. The mystic must be able to rise to the cause instead of laying himself helpless at the feet of the effect. It is that mastery which is called walayat in Sufi terms.
It has been shown how every external activity is directed by an inner motion and how, at the source of it, there is a principal cause. It must be understood that every wave of life which is set in motion by the principal cause, works toward a purpose. With its every motion the purpose becomes more definite, and at its every stage of evolution it adjusts itself, making a perfect harmony - although in a limited space this same activity may appear inharmonious. Therefore good and evil, right and wrong, when viewed by the keen sight, correspond with a certain purpose, and thus prove harmonious from the standpoint of the perfect Whole.
Every life-wave which starts from the innermost part of life becomes stronger with its every succeeding motion. It is a gentle impetus given to a wheel that sets it in motion, and every revolution increases its power. The Sufi recognizes three stages of movement. These three stages need not be the same in all aspects of life, since every activity adopts the form of a circle, a wheel, and it is according to its circumference that it covers the ground. Thus these three stages may be called slow, moderately fast, and fast.
At the same time every activity forms a habit which limits each motion to a certain interval of time, and it is this character of life which forms rhythm. Just as it is necessary that motion should be the source and sustaining power of life, so it is necessary that rhythm should exist in every activity. No motion can exist without rhythm. Rhythm, when of an even nature, is felt by everybody, but when uneven it is not perceived.
There are two elements in rhythm, mobility and regularity. The former has a forward, and the latter a lateral movement. The form taken by the movement of rhythm can be seen by observing light which, to the vision of the concentrative mind, is shown to have the form of the cross.
The variety found in all aspects of life results mainly from these three stages of rhythm and its two main elements. But out of these two main elements there arises a third chaotic motion in which mobility and regularity clash together. By recognizing its rhythm the mystic understands from the character of every activity the cause and result of that particular activity.
The first element in rhythm - mobility - is gentle, productive, creative and progressive. The second element is active, supporting and controlling. It is also productive and creative in a more advanced state of things, and it is sustaining. The third element leads to inactivity, decay, destruction and death. The idea of Trimurti - three aspects of God - is the symbol among the Hindus of these three powers working as main principles in life. They are named Brahma - Creator, Vishnu - Sustainer, Shiva - Destroyer.
There are two stages in every activity, action and result. Action manifests itself in audibility, and results in visibility. In the Bible there is a statement about this: that first there was the word and then there came light. The Qur'an in this connection says that first the word was spoken, and then all became manifest. This is seen in some form or other in every activity which descends from the invisible to the visible. The preparatory stage of all things is audible, and when finished they are visible. In other words, from the world of sound there came the world of forms. Therefore the Hindus call Nada Brahma, the Sound-God, the Creator.
All things can be studied and understood by understanding the nature of the perfect life. God can be studied and understood by the study and understanding of human nature, and man can be studied and understood by the study and understanding of God.
Since all things are made by the power of sound, of vibration, so every thing is made by a portion thereof, and man can create his world by the same power. Among all aspects of knowledge the knowledge of sound is supreme, for all aspects of knowledge depend upon the knowing of form, except that of sound, which is beyond all form. By the knowledge of sound man obtains the knowledge of creation, and the mastery of that knowledge helps man to rise to the formless. This knowledge acts as wings for a man; it helps him to rise from earth to heaven, and he can penetrate through the life seen and unseen.
The whole manifestation being the phenomenon of sound, the knowledge of sound is the key to the mystery. The knowledge of sound acts as a guide in the maze of names and forms. That is the reason for the great importance attached by the Yogis to mantrayoga which to the Sufis is dhikr (Zikar). There is nothing man cannot accomplish by the power of dhikr, if only he knows which dhikr, how to use it, and for what purpose. Just as there is creative power in sound, so is there also destructive power, as in the Scriptures the expression "the blast of the last trumpet" signifies the destructive power of the sound.
6. The Mystery of Color and Sound
1
The attraction that one finds in color and in sound makes one wonder if there is a mystery hidden behind them, if there is a language of color and sound which could be learned. The answer is that the language of color and sound is the language of the soul, and that it is our outward language which makes us confused as to the meaning of that inner language. Color and sound are the language of life. Life expresses itself on all different planes of existence in the form of color and sound, but the outward manifestations of life are so rigid and dense that the secret of their nature and character becomes buried underneath.
Why is the world called an illusion by the mystics? Because the nature of manifestation is such that it envelops its own secret within itself, and stands out in such a rigid form that the fineness, the beauty, and the mystery of its character are hidden within itself. Therefore the seekers after the truth of life, the students of life, strike two opposite paths. The one wishes to learn from the external appearance, the other wishes to find out the secret which is hidden behind it. The one who learns from the external gets the knowledge of the external, which we call science. The one who finds out from the within, from that which is hidden within this manifestation - he is the mystic; the knowledge he gains is mysticism.
The first question that comes to the mind of the intelligent person is: What is it in color and in sound that appeals to us? It is the tone and rhythm, of color as well as of sound, which have an influence on the tone and rhythm of our being. Our being is our capacity for the resonance of the tone and rhythm which come from sound and color. This capacity enables us to be influenced by sound and color. Thus some have a liking for a certain color, others have a liking for another color. In the way of sound some are attracted to a certain kind of sound. In the range of voice some are attracted to the baritone or to the bass voice, others are attracted to the tenor and soprano. There are some to whom the deep sound of the cello appeals; there are others who are interested in the sound of the violin; some can enjoy even the thick sound of the horn and the trombone; others can enjoy the flute. What does this show? It shows that there is a certain capacity in our hearts, in our being, and it depends upon that particular capacity what kind of sound appeals to us.
At the same time, it depends upon man's grade of evolution, his character, his nature - whether he is gross or fine - also upon his temperament - whether he has a practical nature or is dreamy, whether he loves the drama of life, or whether he is absorbed in the ordinary things of life. According to man's condition, his temperament and his evolution, color and sound affect him, and the proof of this is that man so often changes his fancy in regard to color. There is a time when he is so fond of red; there are times when he longs to see purple, or when he dreams of mauve. And then there comes a time when he takes a fancy to blue; he craves for yellow, for orange. There are some who like deep colors, others light colors. It all depends on their temperament and their grade of evolution.
There is always someone to whom music of any kind appeals; the best or the worst, somebody likes it! Have you not seen how children can enjoy themselves with a little tin can and a stick? The rhythm comes within their capacity of enjoyment. Human nature is such that it takes in everything, all put together, from the highest to the lowest. It has such a wide capacity that there is nothing left out; everything has its place, and all is assimilated by human nature.
At the same time there is action and reaction. It is not only his grade of evolution that makes man change his fancy to different colors and tones, but it is also the different colors and tones that help him in his evolution, and that change the speed of his evolution.
Very often man gives great importance to color and tone so much so that he forgets that which is behind them, and that leads him to many superstitions, fancies and imaginations. Many people have fooled the simple ones by telling them what color belonged to their souls, or what note belonged to their lives. Man is so ready to respond to anything that can puzzle him and confuse his mind! He is so willing to be fooled! He enjoys it so much if somebody tells him that his color is yellow, or green, or that his note is C, D, or F on the piano. He does not care to find out why. It is like telling somebody: "Wednesday is your day, and Tuesday some other person's."
In point of fact all days are ours, all colors are ours. It is man who is the master of all manifestation. It is for man to use all colors and tones; they are at his disposal, for him to use and make the best of. It would be a great pity if we were subjected to one color and tone. There would be no life in this; it would be a form of death. The staircase is made for us to ascend, not for us to continue stepping in one place. Every step is our step, if only we take it.
Coming to the mystical point of view, the first aspect that makes Intelligence conscious of the manifestation is sound. The next aspect is light or color. All the mystics and prophets and great thinkers of the world, when expressing the history of creation, have in all periods of history given the first place to sound. The scientist of today says the same thing. He calls it radiance, atom, electron, and after going through all the different atoms of substance he arrives at a substance that he calls movement. Movement is vibration. It is only the effect of motion which we call sound. Motion speaks, and we call speech sound because it is audible. When it is not audible, this is because there is no sufficient capacity to make it audible. But the cause of sound is movement, and movement is always there. This means that the existence of movement does not depend upon capacity.
Color also is movement, and its capacity makes color concrete to our vision. At the same time, although we may call a color green or red or yellow, every color is different to each person. In fine shades of color people do not see alike, because the capacity is different in each of them. The tone is according to the capacity. In other words, it is not the tone or the color which differ in value; they become different when we sense them, when we feel them: in their relation to us they are different.
The conception of the five elements, which the mystics have held at all times, cannot be explained in scientific terms, because the mystics have their peculiar meaning. Although the elements may be called water, fire, air, earth and ether, this must not be taken as such. Their nature and character, according to the mystics, are different. But as words are few, one cannot give other names to the elements, although in Sanskrit there are different words for these. "Ether" is not ether in scientific terms, it is capacity. "Water" is not water as we understand it in everyday language, it is liquidity. "Fire" is understood differently; it means glow, or heat, or dryness, or radiance, all that is living. All of these words suggest something more than what is meant by earth, fire, water, etc.
The working of these five elements is distinguished by different colors and sounds. The five elements are represented by sound in the musical scales which are called Ragas. In India and China the Raga of five notes is considered the most appealing, and I myself have experienced that the scale of five notes is much more appealing than the scale of seven notes. The scale of seven notes lacks some vital influence that the scale of five notes possesses. In ancient times the scales by which miracles were performed were mostly the scales of five notes.
There is a relation between sound and color. When he hears something, the first tendency a man has is to open his eyes to try to see the color of it. That is not the way to see it. Color is a language. The very life which is audible is visible also. But where? It is visible on the inner plane. The mistake is that man looks for it on the outer plane; when he hears music he wants to see the color before him. Every activity of the outer world is a kind of reaction; in other words, a shadow of the activity which is behind it and which we do not see. Also there is a difference in time. An activity which has taken place twelve hours earlier is now visible in color on the outer plane, and it is the same with the effect of dreams on life. Of something that one has perhaps seen in a dream at night, one will see the effect in the morning, or a week later. This shows that there is some activity which takes place behind the scenes and is reflected on the outer life, according to how the activities of the outer life are directed.
This is the reason why a seer or mystic is often able to know beforehand his own condition, and the condition of others - what is coming, or what has passed, or what is going on at a distance; for he knows the language of sound and color. Now the question is: On which plane does he know the language of sound and color? In what way do they manifest to him? One cannot restrict this to a certain law, and at the same time it has a certain law. Where does he see it? He sees it in his breath.
The whole culture of spiritual development, therefore, is based upon the science of breath. What makes the Yogis, the mystics, see happenings of the past, present and future? Some law behind the creation. A certain working of the mechanism which is a finer mechanism. How can it be seen? By opening one's vision to one's self.
According to the mystics there are five capacities of one's being which may be called five akashas. The one capacity which everybody knows and is conscious of, is what may be called the receptacle of food, which is the body. The second, which is more or less recognized, is the receptacle of sense, which is in the senses. The third capacity is called the receptacle of life, and this capacity is a world in itself where one is conscious of the finer forces of life which are working within oneself. They can convey to one a sense of the past, present, or future, for the reason that they are clear to one's vision: one sees them.
But one may ask: "How can a man find out the condition of another?" It is not so that he can know more about others, for he is made to know most about himself. But many are unconscious of the third receptacle, that of life. The one who is conscious of his receptacle of life is able to empty the capacity he has, and to give a chance to the life of another person to reflect upon it. This he does by focusing upon the life of another, and by that he covers the past, present and future: he only has to make the camera stand in the right place.
It is exactly like photography. The plate is there; it is clear because man is able to empty his own capacity. The black cloth that the photographer puts over the camera and over his head is concentration. When man has mastered concentration he becomes the photographer. He can focus all the light upon one spot. It is all scientific when we understand it in this way, but it becomes a puzzle when it is put before us as a mystery. All is mystery when we do not know it; when we know it all is simple. The true seekers after truth are lovers of simplicity. The right road is simple, clear and distinct. There is nothing vague about it.
The more one follows the path exploring the mystery of life, the more life becomes revealed to one. Life begins to express its secret, its nature. What is required of man is an honest following of life's law, and nothing in this world is more important than the knowing of human nature and the study of human life. That study lies in the study of self, and it is the study of self which is really the study of God.
Question: What is the difference between sound and color. Answer: Sound and color are one, they are two aspects of life. Life and light are one. Life is light, and light is life, and so color is sound, and sound is color. But where sound is color it is most visible and least audible, and where color is sound it is most audible and least visible. You can find the unity of color and sound by studying and practicing the science of the culture of breath.
2
Both from the point of view of the Sufi and that of all mystics the original state of the whole creation is vibration, and vibration manifests in two forms, or stages. In its original condition vibration is inaudible and invisible, but in its first stage towards manifestation it becomes audible, and in its next step visible.
In its audible stage it is called nada in Vedantic terms - a word which means sound - or Nada Brahma which represents: Sound the Creator, Sound the creative Spirit. The next stage is called jatanada - a word which means light. It is the different degrees of that light and their comparison with one another which give rise to the various colors. Colors are only the different shades of light; compared with one another they are colors, but in reality the light makes all colors. This is shown by the light of the sun which has no particular color of its own, but the light of which plants partake manifests in the colors of their flowers. These colors seem to be the colors of flowers, vegetables and leaves, whereas in reality they are the colors of the sun.
In the case of souls we may also realize that the manifestation of such a variety among them is an illusion too. One forgets that all the various faces and endless forms of human beings belong to one Spirit and are the manifestations of that one Spirit. When one begins to understand the theory of color and sound, one can begin to understand that too. For instance, what is sound? The different notes are the various degrees of breath: human breath, or the echo coming from a vessel, an instrument, or a bell, for that also is breath the breath of human beings as well as the breath of objects. From the one breath many sounds manifest; so that takes one back again to the idea of unity. All this variety of colors and forms and sounds proceeds from one single source.
Associated with this there is the question of the mysticism of number. This is the idea of rhythm. Every movement must have its rhythm. There cannot be movement without rhythm. By rhythm we imagine the intervals of time, such as hour or minute, or in music crochet, quaver, semibreve. All these arise from our habit of dividing time into rhythm. We do this because our life itself depends on rhythm. The beating of the pulse, of the heart, in the head - all show life's rhythm.
The science of numbers comes from the science of rhythm. A certain number comes to denote a certain duration of time; every action or movement requires a certain time and has a corresponding effect. Every effect which is produced by color, sound or number depends upon their harmonious or inharmonious effect. If the sound is not harmonious, it has not a desirable effect upon us; if a color is not harmonious it also has an undesirable effect. This shows that it is not the particular number or sound which gives the desirable effect, but the harmony. That is why a knowledge of the effect of sound, color or number is insufficient without a development of a sense of harmony in oneself, so that one can understand the harmonious effect of these things.
The mystics have seen five tatwas, or elements, working behind both the sound and the rhythm, although musicians consider seven notes in a scale. The original scale known to the mystics had five numbers, and there were five kinds of scales among the ancient people, with five different classes of rhythm. They took five colors to represent the five elements.
People often say: "This color is lucky and that one is unlucky. This number is lucky and that one is unlucky." But it is not the particular color or number in itself, it is the harmony of the situation which is lucky or unlucky: in what relation do that particular number and color stand to you, to your life's affairs, your own constitution, your stage of evolution. If they stand in harmony with your life then they are harmonious and lucky. If not, they are inharmonious and unlucky. This does not mean that a particular color is inharmonious; it is just how it stands in your life that decides whether it is harmonious or not.
So it is with sounds. But the power of sound is greater than the power of color. Why is this? It is because sound arises from the depth of one's being, and because sound can also touch the depth of one's being. The mantrayoga of the Hindus is based on this principle. The Sufi term for this is dhikr (zikar): that is the use of words for the unfoldment of the soul. But it is not merely for bringing about any desired result that words can be used in dhikr. People often make the mistake of using the word without any spiritual idea behind it, simply for the attainment of some magical power. The Sufis of all ages have warned against this mistake, and have constantly taught that there is only one object worth striving for, the essential object of life, namely God. It is only when the science of words is being used for the attainment of truth, that is: for the attainment of God, that it is being used in the right manner. To use it for any other purpose whatever, is just like paying out pearls to buy pebbles.
We must remember the teaching of Christ, how he says: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that belong to God." In other words, give to the world what belongs to the world, and give to God what belongs to God, namely: love, worship, reverence, devotion, trust, confidence. All those are due to God, so give them to God. That which belongs to the world is: wealth, money, service, sympathy, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness. All these are due to the world, so give them to the world. We only make a mistake when we give to the world what is for God, and when we do for God what belongs to the world; for instance, when a man flatters another man, and when man depends upon a human being instead of depending upon God. All those things which belong to God and are due to God we fail to give Him, and give them to man instead.
When all things which we gain are used for a selfish purpose, we at once become confronted with difficulties, troubles and disappointments. That is why the same mystical science may be used as a means of attaining God, or may be abused by turning it into a way called black magic. It is not that there is something special called black magic, or that there is something else called white magic; magic is all one and the same. It is how we use it that makes the difference; it is the use of it which makes it right or wrong, good or bad.
A question may be asked regarding the mysticism of color and sound: Can we get our individual color or note? The answer is that in the first place it is not a matter of our own color being good for us. It is whether a number or color is in harmony with us or not that makes it good or not. In the second place, at every moment of our life our evolution changes. A person who was a thief yesterday is not a thief today. So also a given number or color belonging to us at one moment does not belong to us at another moment; it changes every moment. Therefore, to restrict oneself to a certain number or color is like tying one's feet with a chain, so that no more progress can take place. In the third place, were we to settle upon a particular number or color, we might induce a tendency to superstition in our nature, and this we must always avoid. We would always be thinking: What is the number of the house we are going to live in? What is the color of the room I shall occupy? What is the color of the dress? And so on! What would it be then if the person was obliged to live in that particular house, or was obliged to occupy that room in the hotel? If the number was inharmonious, he would think everything would go wrong while staying there!
While it is always well to learn everything one can, it is not good to give in to superstition. Otherwise it would be better never to have known such things at all. The whole aim of the Sufi is to reach to reality, and anything savoring of superstition should be avoided. What is color after all? It is an illusion. What is number? It is an illusion. What are forms? They are illusions too. It is interesting to a certain extent to know about these things and to distinguish them. It gives a certain knowledge. But since these are all illusions, how can it be worthwhile to give oneself absolutely to them and to neglect the unfolding of the self, besides at the same time neglecting the search for the reality, the only aim of the soul? Therefore all other knowledge and all other pursuits should be given a secondary place. Our main pursuit must be after Truth, believing as we do that in the Truth there is God.
7. The Spiritual Significance of Color and Sound
It seems that what science realizes in the end, mysticism reaches from the beginning. This accords with the saying of Christ: "First seek ye the Kingdom of God and all will be added." When one hears of the present discoveries about sound and color on the scientific side, one begins by being surprised. One says: "What a new discovery! Something we have never heard of. It is something quite new." And yet, when you open the Bible there it says: "First was the word, and the word was God." And if you open still older scriptures of the Vedanta, you read in their verses that in the Creator there was that word, or that vibration. When we come to the Qur'an we read: that first there was the word "Be", and then there became.
The religions of the world, the prophets and mystics who existed ages ago knew these things. Today a man comes with a little photographic plate and says: "Here I have a photograph of sound; that shows how important is vibration and its action upon the plate." He does not know that this is something which has always been known, and has been spoken of by those who knew it - but in spiritual terms. Therefore man does not think about what was spoken of in the past; he thinks that what is being spoken of today is something new. But when we realize that - as Solomon has said - there is nothing new under the sun, we begin to enjoy life seeing how, time after time, the same wisdom is revealed to man. The one who seeks through science, the one who searches through religion, the one who finds it through philosophy, the one who finds it through mysticism - in whatever manner they seek the truth, they find it in the end.
I was once introduced in New York to a scientist, a philosopher. The first thing he said about his accomplishments was: "I have discovered the soul." It amused me very much! All the Scriptures have spoken about it, thinkers have spoken about it, mystics have spoken about it, the prophets have spoken about it, and this man comes and says: "I have discovered the soul!" I thought: "Yes, that was the new discovery that we were expecting - something that we never knew!" Such is the attitude of mind today, the childish attitude. When one looks into the past, the present and the future one sees that life is eternal, and what one can discover is that which has always been discovered by those who seek. Philosophy or science, mysticism or esotericism will all agree on one point if they touch the summit of their knowledge, and that point is that behind the whole of creation, behind the whole of manifestation- if there is any subtle trace of life that can be found, it is motion, it is movement, it is vibration.
This motion has its two aspects. There are two aspects because we have developed two principal faculties: sight and hearing. One aspect appeals to our hearing, the other to our sight. The aspect of movement or vibration which appeals to our hearing is what we call audible and what we term sound. The aspect which appeals to our sight we call light, we call it color, and we call it visible. In point of fact, all that is visible, all that is audible - what is it in its origin? It is motion, it is movement, it is vibration, it is one and the same thing. Therefore, even in that which is audible, in that which is called sound, those who can see trace color, and to those who can hear, even the sound of the color is audible.
Is there anything that unites these two things? Yes, there is. And what is it? It is harmony. It is not a particular color which is harmonious, or which lacks harmony. It is the blending of that color; it is in what frame it is fixed; how the color is arranged. In accordance with that it has its effect upon the one who sees. So it is with sound. There is not any sound which is harmonious or inharmonious in itself; it is the relation of one sound with another sound that creates harmony. Therefore harmony is not a thing that one can point out; one cannot say: "This or that certain thing is harmony." Harmony is a fact. Harmony is the result of the relation between color and color, the relation between sound and sound, and the relation between color and sound.
The most interesting part of this knowledge is how to different persons different colors appeal, and how different people enjoy different sounds. The more one studies this, the more one finds its relation with the particular advancement of man's evolution; for one will find that at a certain time of one's evolution one loved a certain color, and then one lost contact with that color. With one's growth and evolution in life one begins to like some other color. It also depends upon a person's condition, whether he is emotional, passionate, romantic, warm or cold, whether sympathetic or disagreeable. Whatever be his emotional condition, in accordance with that he has his likes or dislikes in colors. Therefore that makes it easy for the seer, for the knower, to read the character of a man - even before he has seen his face - only by seeing his clothes. His liking for a certain color expresses what the person is like. His liking for a certain flower, for a certain gem or jewel, for a certain environment in his room, the color on his wall - all that shows what a person is like, what is his fancy.
As man evolves spiritually through life, so his choice of color changes. With each step forward he changes, his idea about color becomes different. There are some to whom striking colors appeal, to others pale colors. The reason is that the striking colors have intense vibrations; the pale colors have smooth and harmonious vibrations, and it is according to the emotional condition of man that he enjoys different colors.
Now coming to sound, every person, whether he knows it or not, has a certain choice of sound. Although everyone does not study this subject, and man mostly remains ignorant of this idea, yet every person has a liking for a certain sound. It is therefore that there is a saying, a belief among people, that each person has his note. It is a fact that each person has his sound, a sound which is akin to his particular evolution. Besides the divisions that the singers have made, such as tenor, bass or baritone, each person has his particular pitch, and each person has his peculiar note in which he speaks, and that particular note is expressive of his life's evolution, expressive of his soul, of the condition of his feelings and of his thoughts.
It not only has an effect upon children to hear certain sounds and to see certain colors, but it also has an effect upon animals. Colors have a great effect and influence upon all living creatures: animals, birds and human beings. Without knowing it, the influence of colors works in their lives, turning them towards this or that inclination. Once when I was visiting a house which had been taken by a certain club, one of the members told me: "It is a very great pity that since we have taken this house there is always disagreement in our committee." I said: "No wonder. I see it." They asked: "Why?" I said: "The walls are red, they make you inclined to fight. A striking color from all around gives you the inclination to disagree. The emotions are touched by it, and certainly those inclined to disagreement are helped by it."
It is from this psychological point of view that one finds among the ancient customs of the East that a certain color is chosen for the time of wedding, and certain colors for other times of different festivities. It all has its meaning, there is a psychological significance at the back of it.
Since both color and sound are perceived differently and we have different senses through which to perceive them, we have distinguished between visible and audible things. But in reality those who meditate, who concentrate, those who go within themselves, who trace the origin of life - they begin to see that behind these outer five senses there is one sense hidden, and this sense is capable of doing all that which we seem to do or experience.
We distinguish five external senses because we know the five organs of sense. In reality there is one sense. It is that sense which, through these five different organs, experiences life and distinguishes life in five different forms. And so all that is audible and all that is visible is one and the same. It is this which is called in Sanskrit Purusha and Prakriti. In the terms of the Sufis this is known as Dhat (zat) and Sifat. The manifestation of this, the outer appearance, is called Sifat. It is in the manifestation of Sifat that one sees the distinction, or the difference between that which is visible and that which is audible. In their real aspect of being they are one and the same. That plane of existence where they are one and the same is called Dhat (zat), according to that knowledge of the inner existence of the Sufi mystics, in which one sees the source and goal of all things.
What I wish principally to explain is that color and sound are a language which can be understood not only in the external life but also in the inner life. For the physician and for the chemist color has a great significance. The deeper one goes into the science of medicine and into the science of chemistry, the more one recognizes the value of color. Each element, the development of every object, or the change of every object is distinguishable by the changing of its color. The physicians of old used to recognize diseases by the color of face and form, and even today there exist physicians whose principal way of recognizing a man's complaint is from the color in his eyes, on his tongue, on his nails, on his skin. In every condition it is color which is expressive of man's condition. Also in objects their condition and their change are recognized by their change of color.
Psychologists have recognized the condition of objects by their sound and of persons by their voice. What kind of person a man is, whether strong or weak, what his character is, what his inclinations are, what his attitude is towards life, his outlook on life - all this is known and understood by his voice.
Color and sound are not only the language in which one communicates with the life without, but also the language in which one communicates with the life within. One might ask how it is done. We can see the answer in certain scientific experiments. Special plates are made, and by speaking near such a plate marks are made upon the plate with sound and vibrations. Those marks make either harmonious or inharmonious forms. If that is true, then every person, from morning till evening, is making invisible forms in space by what he says. He is creating invisible vibrations around him, and so he is producing an atmosphere. Therefore it is that one person may come into the house, and before he speaks you are tired of him, you wish to get rid of him. Before he has said or done anything you are finished with him, you would like him to go away, for in his atmosphere he is creating a sound; a sound is going on which is disagreeable. There is another person with whom you feel sympathy, to whom you feel drawn, whose friendship you value, whose presence you long for; harmony is continually created through him. That is sound too.
If that is true then it is not only the external signs, but also the inner condition which is audible and visible. Though not visible to the eyes and not audible to the ears, yet it is audible and visible in the soul. We say: "I feel his vibrations. I feel the person's presence. I feel sympathy, or antipathy towards that person." There is a feeling, and a person creates a feeling without having said anything or done anything. Therefore a person who is in a wrong vibration, without doing or saying anything wrong, creates the wrong atmosphere, and you find fault with him. It is most amusing and very funny to see how people may come to you with a complaint: "I have said nothing, I have done nothing, and yet people dislike me and are against me." That person does not know that it is not because of his saying or doing anything: it is because of his being. "What you are speaks louder than what you say." It is life itself which has its tone, its color, its vibration. it speaks aloud.
One may think: "Where is it? What is it? Where is it to be found?" The answer is: What little man knows about himself is only about his body. If you tell a man to point out where he is, he will point out: this arm, this hand, this body. He knows little further than that. There are many who, if asked: "Where is it in your body that you think?", will say: "Thinking? In my brain." They limit themselves to that little physical region which is called body, thus making themselves smaller than what they really are. The reality is that man is one individual with two ends, just like one line with two ends. If you look at the ends, it is two; if you look at the line, it is one. One end of the line is limited, it is limitedness; the other end of the line is unlimited. One end is man, the other end is God. Man forgets this end, and knows only that end of which he is conscious, and it is the consciousness of limitedness which makes him more limited. Otherwise he would have a greater scope for approaching that Unlimited which is within himself, which is only the other end of the same line, the line which he calls, or which he considers to be, himself. When a mystic speaks of self knowledge this does not mean knowing: how old I am, or how good I am, or how bad I am, or how right or wrong I am. It means knowing the other part of one's being, that deeper, subtler aspect of one's being. It is upon the knowledge of that being that the fulfillment of life depends.
One might ask: "How can one draw closer to it?" The way that has been found by those who searched after truth, those who sought God, those who wished to analyze themselves, those who wished to sympathize with life, is one way, and that is the way of vibrations. It is the same way as of old; by the help of sound they prepared themselves. They made these physical atoms, which in time had become deadened, live again with the help of sound. They worked with the power of sound. As Zeb-un-Nissa says: "Say continually that sacred name which will make thee sacred." The Hindus have called it mantrayoga; the Sufis have termed it wazifa. It is the power of the word which works upon each atom of the body, making it sonorous, making it a medium of communication between the external life and the inner life.
What one begins to realize as the first experience of one's spiritual development is that one begins to feel in communication with living beings, not only with human beings, but with animals, with birds, with trees, with plants. It is not an old tale that the saints used to speak with the trees and the plants. You can speak with them today if you are in communication. It was not only the ancient times which were blessed; the blessing which was of old is there today. The old blessing is not old today, it is new! It is the same old one that was, that is, and that will be. No privilege was ever limited to a period of the world's history. Man has the same privilege today, if he will realize that he is privileged. When he himself closes his heart, when he allows himself to be covered by the life within and without, no doubt he becomes exclusive, no doubt he becomes cut away from this whole manifestation which is one whole and is not divided. It is man himself who divides himself; if not, life is undivided, indivisible.
It is the opening of the communication with external life which makes man wider. Then he does not say of his friend: "This is my friend, I love him", but he says: "This is myself, I love him." That is the time when he can say that he has arrived at the realization of love. As long as he says: "I feel sympathy with him because he is my friend", his sympathy has not yet fully awakened. The real awakening of his sympathy is on that day when he sees his friend and says "this is myself." Then the sympathy is awakened, then there is the communication within one's self.
Man does not close himself only from the external life, but also from the inner part which is a still more important part of his life. That inner part is also sound, that inner part is light; and when one gets in touch with this sound and this light, then one knows that language which is the language of heaven, a language which is expressive of the past, the present and the future, a language which reveals the secret and character of nature, a language which is receiving and giving that divine message which the prophets have tried at times to reveal.
8. The Ancient Music
When one looks at this subject from the Eastern point of view one finds that the Eastern idea of music originated from intuition. But the tradition of any art, or even of science, will tell the same thing. It is only later on that man begins to believe in the outer things and forgets the origin, which is intuition.
Music, according to the ancient people, was not a mechanical science or art: music was the first language. The proof of this can be found even now in the language of the animals and birds, who express their emotions and passions to one another without words, only in sounds. It is the combination of the different sounds of animals and birds which also has an effect upon the numberless multitudes of the lower creation. If music was the first expressive thing in the lower creation, so it was also in the human kind. And since it was the first expression of the emotions and passions of the heart, it is also the last expression of the emotions and passions; for what art cannot express, poetry explains, and what poetry cannot express is expressed by music. To a thinker, therefore, music in all ages will stand on the highest pedestal for the expression of what is deepest in oneself.
When the ancient music is compared with the modern, one will no doubt find that there is too vast a gulf between them. If there is anything which gives one some little idea of the music of the human race, it is Eastern music, which still has traces of ancient music in it. Had it been preserved in the East only as music, it would perhaps not have been kept intact as it has been. But it was kept as a part of the religion, and that is the reason why it has been continued through the tradition for thousands of years.
One might ask: How can the music of ancient times be kept pure, as there is always a tendency in human nature to alter things? It was always difficult for the human race to change religion; anything else might be changed, but there was one thing that was always kept, and that was religion. In the religion of the Hindus one aspect was music; it was called Sama Veda. In the Western world there came a time when translations were made of the Vedas, but there is a part of them of which the translation is not to be found: it is of that Veda. The reason is that, being musical, this Sama Veda could not well be regarded as being language.
From a study of the music of the Hindus one can trace back in the traditions that thousands of years ago there was a time when musicians knew as fine a distance between tones as quarter tones. It was not only the degree of the sound that was considered in that way, but also the nature and character of the sound was analyzed, just as in chemistry. We can find today in ancient traditions the different effects attached to the different notes, whether dryness or liquidity, whether cold or heat. No doubt it is difficult today to distinguish the sounds which express these different effects, because the distinguishing is now done from the instruments, and in those times it was done only from nature. Yet it is most interesting to know that we find today in Sanskrit scriptures the different pitch of sound distinguished in ancient times. In the absence of a piano or of a tuning fork the musicians had to determine the pitch by the sound of different animals and birds.
One might ask in what way the art developed among the ancient people, reference of which is to be found even now in the East. The idea was that they attached different themes of music to different seasons, and different strains of music to different times of the day and night. And as there is nothing in the world which is without reason, that also was not only an imagination or a fancy: there was a reason behind it, a logical reason for attributing certain melodies to certain times. Had it been a poetic fancy, it would have lasted for a short period, and would have influenced a little circle only. But it has lasted for ages, until now, and has influenced the whole country of India. It is a usage which was carried on for thousands of years, and today one finds in the East or the West, the North or the South, that the same Raga is sung in the same times. When sung out of these times, then it is not appealing.
When we look at it from the metaphysical point of view, we shall find that the realization and knowledge that science has today - and will ever have - that vibration is at the root of the whole creation, was a certainty to the ancient people; it was the basis of their whole science. They knew that that which has created, and which is holding, and in which is held the whole manifestation and the whole cosmos, is one power, and that is vibration. It is because of this that astrological science, which had much to do with the way human beings and different countries were influenced, also arose out of that science of vibration. Thus music, as a science, was known by them to have a great deal to do with the influence of the planets. And the continual moving and working of the planets, and their action upon the earth, were the basis of the Ragas on which their music was founded.
In the Sanskrit tradition of ancient times there were verses to be found having relation to certain planets. The musicians therefore made their programma according to the influence of the planets of the cosmos, and that programma was carried out throughout the whole year. One might think that the influence of the planets is too vague to perceive, and that one could not make a programma upon it, but in all periods the whole of humanity has arranged its life according to the planetary influences just the same.
In order to keep their music akin to nature, it was necessary to give liberty to the singer and player to sing and play as he wished. Naturally, uniformity was lacking, and a standardized system could not be made. That is why this music a|ways remained an individualistic art only - not an education. For this reason the music of the ancient people had its advantages and a great many disadvantages. The advantages were this: a musician - a singer or player - was never bound to sing in a particular way in order to execute properly the music he wanted to play before the public, but was always free to give the music according to his inspiration at the time. It gave him full liberty to express his emotions, his passions, without any outward restrictions which he should obey. When there were a number of singers or players, no doubt it was then necessary to set a certain standard - yet that standard did not restrict them very much. It is this order which was called music.
The word music, or sangita in Sanskrit, has three aspects. One aspect is language, the other aspect is playing, and the third aspect is movement. Hindus have never separated the science of movement or dance from music; they have always combined the three aspects of what they called music. As the music of the Eastern people developed, each of these three aspects developed also. For instance, the way of singing of the more refined people was quite different from the way the peasants sang. The song of the temple was altogether different from the song of the stage. These differences were great. Not only were there particular rules and regulations to be followed, or more mechanical differences, but there was a natural difference.
The most important or valuable thing that the music of the ancient people produced, and which greatly benefited humanity, was that they distinguished the different aspects of music, and thereby came to realize that there was a certain way of expressing the tone and rhythm which brought about a greater emotion, or an inclination towards action. Together with it they found out that there was a certain use of time and rhythm which brought about a greater equilibrium, and a greater poise. This science, developing after many years of practice, formed in itself a special psychological science or art called yoga, and the special name for this science was mantrayoga.
The meaning of the word yoga is unity or connection, and mantrayoga means the sacred union between the outer life and the deeper life. For the Yogis found out that there are psychological indications: one of the tendencies of the breath is to go outward, the other inclination is to go inward. These two tendencies are to be found in nature also: in the ebb and the flow, in the sunset and sunrise. One sees this difference in oneself: the vibrations of one's own body and action are very different in the morning and in "the evening. The Yogis therefore regulated the rhythm of the circulation, of the heart and of every action of the breath, with the help of vibration, of music, of both tone and rhythm. This brought them from the audible vibrations to the inward vibrations, which means: from sound to breath, which in the language of the Hindus are one and the same. It is sura which is a name for sound and for breath. The one blends into the other, because it is the same thing in the end. It is the breath of an object which may be called a sound, and it is the audibility of the breath which may be called voice. Therefore breath and voice are not two things. Even breath and sound are not two things, if one can understand that both have the same basis.
Is there an explanation of why man rejoices, or why he is impressed by the music played to him? Is it only an amusement, or a pastime? No, there is something else besides it. The principal reason is that in man there is a perpetual rhythm going on, which is the sign of life in him, a rhythm which is expressed in his pulsation and in his heart-beats, even in his heart. Upon this rhythm depends his health - not only his health, but his moods. Therefore, anywhere, a continued rhythm must have an effect upon every person, and upon every person its effect is distinct and different.
It is amusing and interesting to know that when the jazzband came into existence everyone said to his friends: "Something crazy has come into society." Yet one has not resisted it! It has come more and more into fashion and, however much a person hates it and is prejudiced against its name, he at least likes to stand and listen to it for five minutes. What is the reason? The reason is that, in whatever form the rhythm is emphasized upon the body and the mind of man, it has a psychological effect.
It is said of a very great Persian poet, who was also a mystic, that when he got into a certain mood he used to make circles around a pillar that stood in the middle of his house. He then began to speak. People would write down what he said, and it would be perfect poetry. And what is most amusing is that I have known of a lawyer who, when pleading at the bar and being unable to find an argument, would turn himself around. After that he would find the right argument.
But in order to find a mystery we need not go to such cases. A person who cannot find an idea beats or taps with his fingers on the table, and the idea comes. Many who cannot get hold of their thoughts, begin to walk about the room. When they have made two or three turns, their thoughts become clear. If this is true, we come to the realization that the human body is a kind of mechanism which must go on regularly. If it is stopped in some way, there is something stopped in the body or in the mind. This brings us to understand that upon the rhythm the mood, health and condition of man's mind depend - not only upon the rhythm which he gets from music, but also upon the rhythm of his own breath.
This rhythm has also a great deal to do with the rhythm of man's life. There are certain kinds of sound which irritate man and have a bad effect upon the nerves, and there are other kinds of rhythm which have a soothing, healing and comforting effect upon the mind. Music is sound and rhythm, and when sound and rhythm are understood in their nature and character, then music is not only something used as a pastime, but then music will become a source of healing and upliftment.
The Sufis of ancient times, the great mystics, used to develop this art in order to bring about poise in life after their everyday activity. They called this art sama, and sama has been the most sacred thing for the Sufis; it has been a meditation for them. They meditated by the help of music, by having a certain music played which had a certain effect upon the development of the individual. The great poets, such as Rumi of Persia, used to have music for their meditation, and by the help of music they used to repose and to control the activity of their body and mind.
We see today that there is a greater and greater tendency to nervousness. It is caused by too much activity in life. Life is becoming more and more artificial every day, and with each step forward man is missing that repose which has been as yeast to the human race. Therefore for the betterment and education of humanity today the art of repose, which seems to be lost, greatly needs to be found.
Many people in the Western world, who have read about the traditions of the ancient people, have often thought that there was an art that seemed to have been lost, and that they should go to the East in order to find it. So as to make it easy for those who are in search of that art and science which are most necessary in the evolution of mankind, the Sufi Movement has made a facility for those who wish to study and practice it, to do so here, instead of going so far to the East for it.
9. The Divinity of Indian Music
In India life begins with the soul; therefore science, art, philosophy, mysticism - all were directed to one and the same goal. Not only arts and sciences, but even professions and commerce were not without a religious view. One can imagine how, in a country where even business and profession had a spiritual view, the musician's life was full of religious thought.
No part of the world, East or West, can deny the divinity of music. In the first place music is the language of the soul, and for two people of different nations or races to unite there is no better source than music. For music not only unites man to man, but man to God.
Now the question comes: When is it that music unites man with God, and how? Belief in God has two aspects. One belief in God is that a person thinks: "Perhaps there is a God", or: "As others believe, I believe too." He does not know God by reason, nor does he see God before him. God for him is perhaps in heaven. Whether He exists or does not exist, he does not know. From one who has this kind of belief a little confusion or disappointment or injustice takes away his belief in God, and it is for this reason that thousands and thousands of men who worshipped God gave up their belief in God.
There is another aspect of belief, and that belief is the realization of God's presence, not only in the heavens, but in one's own surroundings. When a person arrives at this point his belief becomes a living entity. To him God is not only a judge or a sustainer, to him He is a friend - a friend who hears the cry of his soul in the solitude and knows the best and greatest secret he has in his heart, a friend upon whom he can always rely in good and bad experiences, and even in the hereafter. For a musician music is the best way to unite with God. A musician with a belief in God brings to God the beauty and the perfume and the color of his soul.
From the metaphysical point of view there is nothing that can touch the Formless except that art of music which in itself is formless. There is another point of view: that the innermost being of man is the akasha, which means capacity. Therefore all that is directed within from the external world, can reach this realm, and music can reach it still more. A third point of view is that the creation has come from vibrations, which the Hindus have called nada. In the Bible we find it as the word which was first. On this point all the different religions unite. It is therefore that man loves music more than anything else. Music is his nature; it has come from vibrations, and he himself is vibration.
There are two aspects of life: the first is that man is tuned by his surroundings, and the second is that man can tune himself in spite of his surroundings. This latter is the work of the mystic. The Sufis in the East work for years together to tune themselves. By the help of music they tune themselves to the spheres where they wish to be. The Yogis do the same. Therefore the beginning of music in India was at the time of Shiva, Lord of the Yogis. This great Yogi teacher taught to the world the science of breath. Among the Sufis there was a great saint, Moin-ud-Din Chishti of Ajmer. At his grave music is played and Hindus and Moslems go there on pilgrimage. This shows that the religion of the knowers of truth is the religion of God, and the prayer of the greatest devotee rises from his heart in the realm of music. All different methods of bringing about calm and peace can be attained through the help of music.
10. The Use Made of Music by the Sufis of the Chishti Order
The Sufi especially loves music, calling it ghiza-e-ruh - food of the soul.
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The Yogis and the Sufis, in their meditation, have always had music. Music is the greatest mystery in the world. The whole manifestation is made of vibrations, and vibrations contain all its secret. The vibrations of music free the soul and take from a person all the heaviness which keeps him bound. Music reaches the soul in a moment, as the telegraph reaches from London to New York.
There is one difference between the Sufis and the Yogis, and all the other mystics. Their ideas, their thoughts and their life are quite the same, but you will see the Sufis sometimes in tears and sometimes in joy. Worldly persons think: "They are mad!", and mystics may think: "They are on the surface; they are not on the same level." To the Sufi self-pity, tears at what happens to the self, are haram - prohibited. But tears in the thought of the Beloved, in the realization of some truth, are allowable. Extreme joy for what happens to the self is not allowable, but joy in the thought of the Beloved, is allowable. The heart is touched, it is moved by the thought of God. It is then that the dervishes dance. Sometimes the dance expresses the action of the Beloved, sometimes it is the face of the Beloved.
The Sufis have used music not as an amusement, but as purification, as prayer to God. The Chishti Order of Sufis especially uses music. This Order exists chiefly in India, and has come from Russia. Chishti in Russian means pure, and Sufi - sara - means pure. There are different means of purification. It is according to our view that all seems good, or that all seems bad. The old Greek motto says: "Evil is to him who thinks evil." What may seem an amusement, something light, is prayer to God. There are different ways of praying to God. In times when the world was most interested in music, art, science, and in amusement, these were used to bring before people the idea of something higher. Music and plays have been used, and the churches used some sort of show.
If you go among people of other occupations you will find them cold. They will pay little attention, they will speak just one word to you. But the heart of the musicians who have to do with sound is warmed by sound.
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Once when I was sitting in the presence of Shakr Ali Ebah Ganj, a very great mystic, I asked him whether he knew the Sufis of Afghanistan. He had travelled very far. He said: "They are Chishtis, but they do not like music." This astonished me very much, because the Chishtis have a great devotion for music. He explained that the cold climate of Afghanistan does not allow music to have its effect.
The Chishti Order of the Sufis makes a great use of music to warm the heart, to produce feeling. When a person has understood that everything in the world is false, that every being is untrue- when this wisdom comes, then coldness comes. A little child is very magnetic because of its warmth. It is friendly to everyone. When its intelligence grows it distinguishes: "This one favored me; that one did not favor me. This one was kind; that one was not kind. This one gave; that one did not give." Then coldness comes. Then we think: "This one is my enemy; I should not speak with him. This man has written an article against me; therefore I should have nothing to do with him. This man's grandfather was my father's enemy; therefore I should avoid him." The selfishness and coldness grow in us to such an extent. To stop this coldness, to produce feeling, the Chishtis use music. The vibrations of sound produce warmth.
When I was travelling through Russia I made this prayer: "O God, do not let anyone who is poor come here. For anyone who is poor the cold is terrible. If he has no shoes, he has to bind bundles of rags round his feet. If he has no fire in the house, if he has no warm coat, if he has to go out to work or if she has to go out to work thinly clad - it is terrible!'
11. The Use Made of Music by the Dancing Dervishes
Dervishis are those among Sufis who adopt a certain method of progressing through the spiritual path, and who try to live a life as far away from the midst of the world as possible. Dervishes are also called faqirs and are most powerful. They have the power of wonder-working, and the power of insight. They are dreamers, and lovers of God. They worship God in nature, especially in human nature.
Among the many ways of spiritual development they have one way, called sama, which is listening to music. They listen to music in an assembly of initiates; no noninitiate is allowed to enter their assembly. They address one another saying: "O king of kings, O sovereign of sovereigns", and they are mostly clad in robes or patches, or in rags.
They never think of tomorrow. Their thought is only for the moment: to quench the thirst of the moment, and to satisfy the hunger of the time. The care of tomorrow they leave to the morrow; it is with "just now" that they are concerned - if they are at all concerned with life.
They are the ones who are really entitled to enjoy the beauty of music, whose spirit and soul are responsive with open centers, who make themselves as a medium of resonance of the music they hear. Therefore music touches them differently from any other person; music touches the depth of their being. Thus moved by music, they manifest different conditions, termed by Sufis hal, which means condition. Whoever among them is moved by spirit may manifest the ecstasy, which is called wajad, in the form of tears, sighs, or dance. It is therefore that those who do not understand the meaning of their dance call them howling dervishes, or dancing dervishes.
The gold of heaven is dust to the worldly man, and the gold of the earth is as dust to the heavenly man. To either the gold of the other means nothing but dust: their coins are not interchangeable. Therefore, the bliss of the dervish is understood by very few.
What one can learn from this is the theory of the whole process of their spiritual development. By making God their Beloved, and by seeing God in the sublimity of nature, they create the presence of God. As the whole day's affairs in life consist of both joy and pain, so the life of the dervish is also filled with both joy and pain in the presence of God. By the help of concentration, of poetry and music, both joy and pain are felt more deeply. Therefore God becomes living to the dervish. His presence is before him in all his moods. When once his pain has had an outlet in some form or other in the sama, the musical ceremony, the condition that follows is that of deeper insight into life. Upon whatever object or person he may cast his glance, these reveal to his soul their deepest nature, character and secret, thus making the whole of life clear to his vision in the light of God.
Question: What do you mean by "joy and pain in the presence of God'? Why should there be pain. Answer: If there were no pain, one would not enjoy the experience of joy. It is pain which helps one to experience joy. Everything is distinguished by its opposite. The one who feels pain deeply is more capable of experiencing joy. If you would ask me personally, I would say: if there were no pain, life would be most uninteresting to me, for it is by pain that the heart is penetrated, and the sensation of pain is a deeper joy. Without pain the great ones, the great musicians, poets, dreamers, and thinkers would not have reached that stage which they reached, and would not have moved the world. If they had always had joy, they would not have touched the depth of life.
What is pain? Pain, in the real sense of the word, is the deepest joy. If one has imagination one can enjoy tragedy more than comedy. Comedy is for children, tragedy is for the grown-up. It is through pain that a person becomes an old soul. A person may be young in age, but deep in thought.
Question: Not thinking of tomorrow, living in the thought of the moment is also taught by Christ. But can it be the ideal for a nation whose life must be built upon organization? Aswer: The path of spiritual attainment is not to be journeyed by nations. Spiritual progress is individual progress: every individual in his own direction. The teaching of Christ in this respect also was individualistic.
12. The Science and Art of Hindu Music
Music, literature, and philosophy are akin to our souls, whatever be our faith or belief, or our way of looking at life. India, in the history of the world, represents a country and a people which engaged themselves in the search for truth through the realm of music, philosophy and poetry at a time when the rest of the world had not yet begun its search for truth. It is therefore necessary to study Indian music, philosophy and poetry in order to see the foundation of words. Some linguists today state that the Sanskrit language was the origin of all language. The origin of the science of music is to be found in Sanskrit.
It is a fact that not only art, but even science has its origin in intuition. This seems to have been forgotten lately, now that man is so busy with his search through matter. Undoubtedly, even the scientist is helped by intuition, although he may not recognize the fact. Scientists, who have touched the depths, will admit that science has its source in intuition. Intuition, working in answer to the need of the mind and the body, inventing through matter things of use, and gaining a knowledge of the nature and character of things, is called science. And intuition working through the beauty that is produced in the form of line and color and in the form of rhythm, is called art. Therefore the source of both science and art is intuition.
Realizing this source, the Hindus based their music on intuition, and the practice of Indian music has been a culture of stimulating intuition and awakening the faculty of appreciating beauty, and then expressing itself in beautiful forms.
The science of Indian music has come from three sources: astrology, psychology and mathematics. We also find in Western music that the entire science of harmony and counterpoint is derived from mathematics, and so the science of Hindu music is called by the Sanskrit word prastara, which means mathematical arrangement of rhythms and modes.
In the Indian system of music there are about 500 modes and 300 different rhythms which are used in everyday music. The modes are called Ragas. There are four classes of Ragas. One class has seven notes, as in the natural scale of Western music. Then there are the modes of six notes, omitting one note from the seven-note Raga. That gives quite another effect to the octave, and has a different influence on the human mind. Then there are the Ragas of five notes, omitting two notes from the scale - any two notes. In China they use a scale of four notes, but not in India.
Some say that the origin of the scale of four notes or five notes lies in the natural instinct that man shows in his discovery of instruments. The first instrument was the flute, symbolical of the human voice. It seems natural that man took a piece of reed from the forest and made in the heart of that reed four holes in places where he could easily put the tips of his fingers - the distances of the holes corresponding to the distances between the finger tips - and then one hole below. That made the Raga of five notes.
It was only later that scientists followed with the knowledge of different vibrations, but this scale of five notes comes naturally when a man places his hand on the reed, and a great psychological power seems to be attached to it. It has a great influence on the human nature, and this shows that the power of all things that have been derived directly from nature is much greater than when man has changed, turned and altered them so as to make a new form of art.
The science of astrology was based on the science of cosmic vibration. Everything depends on vibratory conditions, including the position of the stars and planets, individuals, nations, races, and all objects. A great deal of the secret power, which the Hindus have found in the science of music, has been derived from the science of astrology. Every note of Indian music corresponds with a certain planet; every note has a certain color; every note denotes a certain pitch of nature, a certain pitch of the animal world.
The science which existed in the ancient Vedas was the science of the elements: fire, earth, water, air, ether. But these words should not be taken as meaning the same as in everyday language. The element of water, for instance, signifies the liquid state, fire signifies heat or warmth. Through this science the Hindus were able to construct Ragas or modes to be sung or played at a certain time of the day or night, or at a certain season. After these songs have been sung for thousands of years, the race has developed such a sense of appreciation of these Ragas, that even an ordinary man in the street cannot bear to hear a Raga of the morning sung in the evening. He may not know the form or the notes, but to his ears it sounds disagreeable; he cannot stand it. We may say it is a matter of habit - and that is true - but I have made experiments with different Ragas, and found that a mode that should be sung in the middle of the night loses its beautiful influence if we sing it at noon.
Every planet has a certain influence, and there must be a certain mode to answer it. If it is not so, then music may become a pastime, but it does not do the work for which music is designed.
To an Indian, music is not an amusement or only for entertainment. It is something more than that. Music, for the Indian, is the food of his soul. It answers the deepest demand of his soul. Man is not only a physical body. Man has a mind, and behind the mind there is the soul. It is not only the body that hungers for food, the mind hungers for food, and the soul hungers for food. What generally happens is that man only ministers to his bodily needs and gives no attention to his inner existence and its demands. He experiences momentary satisfaction, then hungers again, not knowing that the soul is the fineness of man's being. And so that unconscious craving of the soul remains.
In the undeveloped person that silent craving of the soul causes him to be disagreeable, restless, irritated. He does not feel contented with anything in life, he feels like quarrelling and fighting. In the person of fine feeling this hunger of the soul expresses itself in depression or despair. He finds some satisfaction in love of reading, love of art. The soul feels buried in the outer, material world, and the soul feels satisfied and living when it is touched with fine vibrations. The finest matter is spirit, and the grossest spirit is matter.* Music, being the finest of arts, helps the soul to rise above differences. It unites souls, because even words are not necessary. Music stands beyond words.
The art of Hindu music is unique in its character, for every player or singer is given perfect freedom in expressing his soul through his art. The character of the Indian nation can be understood through its spirit of individualism. The whole education tends to individualism: to express oneself in whatever form one is capable of. Therefore, in some ways to their disadvantage, in many ways to their advantage, the Indians have expressed this freedom. Uniformity has its advantages, but it very often paralyses progress in art. There are two ways of life: uniformity and individualism. Uniformity has its strength, but individualism has its beauty.
When one hears an artist, a singer of Hindu music, the first thing he does is to tune his tampura to give one chord, and while he tunes his tampura he tunes his own soul. This has such an influence on his hearers that they can wait patiently for fifteen minutes. Once he finds that he is in tune with his instrument, with that note, his soul, mind and body all seem to be one with the instrument. A person with a sensitive heart listening to his song, even a foreigner, will perceive the way the artist sings into that chord, the way he tunes his spirit to that chord. By that time he has concentrated; by that time he has attuned himself to all who are there. Not only has he tuned the instrument, but he has felt the need of every soul in the audience, and the demands of their souls - what they want at that time. Perhaps not every musician can do this, but the best can. Then he synthesizes and it all comes automatically. As he begins his song, it seems that it touches every person in the audience, for it is all an answer to the demands of the souls who are sitting there. He has not made a programma for the music beforehand; he does not know what he will sing next. But every moment he is inspired to sing a certain song, or to play a certain mode, he becomes an instrument of the whole cosmic system, open to all inspiration that comes, at one with his audience, in tune with the chord of the tampura. And it is not only music that he gives to the people, but a phenomenon in itself.
The ancient traditional songs of India, and those composed by great masters have been handed down through the ages from father to son. The way music is taught is different from the Western way. Music is not always written, it is taught by imitation. The teacher sings, and the pupil imitates; so all the intricacies and subtleties are learned by imitation.
It is the mystical part which has been the secret of all religions. The great ones of this world, such as Christ, Buddha and others, have come from time to time to be examples for the people and to express that perfection which is the object of every soul. The secret, which was hidden behind all these great religions and in the work of these great teachers, was that man should reach to that utmost height which is called perfection, and it is this principle which is taught from the first lesson the musician gives to his pupil. The pupil not only imitates the teacher, but he focuses his spirit upon the spirit of the teacher, and he not only learns, but he inherits from this spirit.
The lack we find today, in spite of all spiritual awakening, the reason why so many seekers after truth do not come to a satisfactory result, is that they always pursue outwardly; they take it from a book, or they learn it from a teacher. There was a time in the East - and this exists even now - when a little boy who went to learn from a teacher had a great regard for the teacher; his respect, his attitude towards his teacher was as towards his priest. Therefore in this manner he learned to value and appreciate and respect knowledge. Not only did he learn, but he inherited knowledge from the teacher. It is most wonderful to read about the lives of the great singers of India: how they imitated their teachers, and how they sometimes became even greater than their teachers.
The object of Indian music is the training of mind and soul, for music is the best way of concentration. When you tell a person to concentrate on a certain object, the very act of trying to concentrate makes his mind more disturbed. But music, which attracts the soul, keeps the mind concentrated. If only one knows how to appreciate it and to give one's mind to it, keeping all other things away, one naturally develops the power of concentration.
Besides the beauty of music, there is that tenderness which brings life to the heart. For a person of fine feelings, for a person of kindly thought, life in the world is very trying. It is jarring and sometimes it has a freezing effect. It makes the heart, so to speak, frozen. In that condition one experiences depression and the whole life becomes distasteful. The very life which is meant to be heaven becomes a place of suffering.
If one can focus one's heart on music, it is just like heating something which was frozen. The heart comes to its natural condition, and the rhythm regulates the beating of the heart, which helps to restore health of body, mind and soul, and brings them to their proper tone. The joy of life depends upon the perfect tuning of mind and soul.
13. The Connection Between Dance and Music
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Indian Music, which is called sangita, is divided into three sections, gayan - singing, vadan - playing, and nirtan - dancing; for the vibration takes three forms of expression: in the voice in singing, in sound in playing, and in movements in dancing. Singing, however, is considered to be the principal part in sangita.
Sangita in these three sections forms part of Hindu worship, and even the paradise of the Hindus contains players, singers and dancers. Musicians and dancers are used to playing, singing and dancing in the temples of India. It may be surprising that a dancer should be dancing in the temple, but travellers in the East will know that in the Hindu temples musicians and dancers dance and play in praise of God. According to our view, all things may seem to us high or low, praiseworthy, or not. So-called religious people who condemn all enjoyable occupations have always called dancing sin. The whole world is the manifestation of God, and we may see God in all. The musician praises God in his music; the painter and sculptor see the praise of God in their paintings and statues, and the dancers too may devote their dancing to the praise of God.
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The word dance has been much debased because the dance has been taken up mainly by entertainers who have made of it an amusement, and we see that, when a thing is made into an amusement, it always degenerates.
The voice that comes from the lungs and the abdomen cannot express itself fully without the bones of the head, the lips, the teeth, the tongue, the palate. So we see that this body is an instrument of sound. When the tree swings in the wind, each leaf gives a sound. The breeze alone cannot produce the full sound. The leaves of the tree rustle and become the instrument for the air. This shows us that the whole framework of this world is the instrument of sound.
If, while speaking to you, I remained as still as a statue, my words would have much less effect than when accompanied by gesture. If a person says: "Go away from here!", and does not move, his words will not have much expression. if he moves his arm, they will have more expression.
In India the pupil is taught to sing with gestures; these take the place of notation and guide him. A person might think: "Notation would be a much surer method", but Indian music is so complicated that no notation can render it exactly. Then, too, the intervals are all filled up, and the movements of the hand and arm can express and guide more easily than any written signs.
The third part of music, dancing, is not the made-up dance, but the expression through movement. Mahadeva, the greatest Avatar, himself danced. If you sing or play to a dervish he may begin to move his head and to move his hands.
A great Indian poet, when speaking of what a singer should be, says: "He must have a good voice. He must know the Ragas, and be able to sing them. He must be a master of graceful movements. He must be calm, unaffected by the audience. He must impress the audience."
Our life is so full of occupations that we have little time to observe animals. If we did, we should see that most of their language is movement. They speak little with one another, mostly they express through their motions. If you call a dog, the dog will at once begin to wag its tail; it will move its whole body to show its joy and affection. If you speak roughly to the dog, its whole body shows that it feels sorry. If the cat is pleased or becomes angry, it shows its feelings at once by its movements.
We waste much energy in useless speech. Among the old races we see that a motion of the hands, an inclination of the head, takes the place of words for many things.
As soon as a person comes into the room we see by his movements, by his manner of walking, what he is, how much refinement he has. If we compare the horse whose price is five thousand guineas with the horse whose price is fifty guineas, we see what a difference there is in their movements. The horse of five thousand guineas has not been taught to move as he moves, but in every movement he is graceful. We see also that the beauty given to the peacock has inspired its graceful movements.
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Dance is a very wonderful thing, and is in itself a great proof of mysticism. We have each of us in us the nature of the bird, and the nature of the animal. The nature of the bird is to fly, the nature of the animal is to jump. The tiger will jump from here to the top of the wall. If we cannot do this, it is because by eating, drinking, sleeping, we have lost the power to do it. If a man sits in an armchair, and to get up he pulls himself up by the arms, and then by eating, drinking and sleeping has become so heavy, he is not what he should be. That government is proper which knows what each of the governed is doing. Our mind governs the body; our mind should have every muscle, each atom of the body, under its command. When we move upward, all must come up; when we turn to the right, all must turn to the right; when we turn to the left, all must turn to the left.
14. Rhythm
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In the fikr - in what rhythm you began, you should continue to breathe. By losing the rhythm much is lost. Music is the miniature of life's harmony in sound in a concentrated sense. The person who has no rhythm physically cannot walk well; he often stumbles. The breath, the speech, the step, all have rhythm. The person who has no rhythm in his emotions falls easily into a spell, such as laughter, or crying, or anger, or fear. We should practice rhythm in our lives, so that we may not be so patient and yielding that everybody takes the best of us, nor so carried away by our enthusiasm and frankness that we say things that are undesirable in the world, nor so meek and mild that we fall into flattery, timidity and cowardice. Then, by and by, we may understand the rhythm of emotions, the rhythm of thoughts, then the rhythm of feeling. Then a person comes into relation with the inner rhythm which is the true meaning of the world.
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Everything in the world has two movements: the moon has its waxing and waning; the sun has its rising and setting; the tide has its flow and ebb; man has his rise and decline. This shows us that time is not in the watches and the clocks that we have made, but time is the rhythm that is in the whole universe.
15. The Vina
The Vina is the oldest instrument in the world - not, of course, in its present form, but in its original form. It is the mother instrument of all instruments in the East, and it is chiefly used for concentration and meditation.
The first vina, an invention of Mahadeva, was a bamboo with gourds attached to it. Guts were used, veins of animals, and all things that could be found in the jungle. When the Rishis went into the jungle for their yoga practices, the wish for companionship led them to take first a bamboo and a piece of gut, then to fasten two gourds to the bamboo. This was called the rudra vina, and on this the Rishis played.
The birds and deer in the jungle gathered to listen. One of the Rishis listened to what the deer said to him and, as he was a mystic, he understood the deer's language. He told this in a poem:
"The deer said: Make a string of my veins, make a carpet of my skin-but, whilst there is breath in this body, play!"
There was no carpenter's work on the first vina, there were no wires. It had only one string, because the Rishis thought that the one sound - and not a variety - could help their concentration. Later there were seven strings. The vina is considered to be the perfect instrument, and seven is the number of perfection. The gourd is there to lessen the sound, not to augment it, to make it more solid than a sound that goes out more; to make it fuller and less sonorous.
Every century has altered the form of the vina. It is very artificial now. Still it has kept something of what it was first. When the vina was taken to the palaces, it was made more elaborate: as you see it. * You may say: "Why make such a head which is like nothing?" There is a great philosophy in it. It has the trunk of the elephant, the jaw of the tiger, it has horns and wings, the neck of a fish, while the eyes, the nose and the moustache have something of man. This shows that all faces are God's, and God appears in all forms.
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You wish to hear from me the praise of the vina; therefore I shall quote the words of a great Indian poet who wrote a praise of the vina in Sanskrit. Please do not be surprised to hear the interpretation of it: "An instrument of gut strings that we produce - by looking at it, by touching it, by hearing it, you can be made free, even if you kill a Brahmin'- which is considered the greatest sin!
This instrument was invented by the Lord of Yogis, Shiva, whose name is also Mahadeva. He gave to the world his lifelong experiences in the practice of yoga. He is worshipped in India as a godhead, and his literature is considered holy scripture. He was a very great master of breathing, and an ascetic. He lived in the mountains, where he sat and breathed the fresh air of the wide horizons of the East, and practiced mantras: words or phrases which change the whole being of man.
There he wanted to make some experiments on himself of higher exaltation by the help of music. What he could do in the forest was to cut a piece of bamboo. He then took two pumpkins, hollowed them out, dried them and fastened them on to the bamboo. Gut strings he got from animals, and these he tied on to the instrument. In this way he made his first vina, and he practiced upon it in the solitude.
Mahadeva made experiments with the human body and with the mind, considering their condition in the morning, in the midst of the day, in the afternoon, in the night, and when waking at dawn. He found that at every time of the day and night a particular effect was made upon the human body and spirit, and that the rhythm akin to that particular time should be prescribed psychologically and mystically in order.
This remark shows that a musical performance had taken place. to elevate the soul. So a psychological science of music was made by Mahadeva, a science of Raga, which means emotion; emotion controlled and utilized to the best purpose.
When Parvati, Mahadeva's consort, saw this instrument, she said: "I must invent my vina." So she cut a pumpkin in halves, made a body on them, and produced another kind of vina, the saraswati vina. So there are two vinas: one is played by men, the other by women. On this latter instrument not only sharp and flat notes are produced, but also micro-tones, and in this way the music becomes rich. But to master the science of micro-tones is so difficult, that it takes a lifetime. The musicians of India devote twelve hours of the day to the practice of the different rhythms, improvising upon them. In the end they produce a psychological effect which is not music but magic; a music that can thrill a person and that can penetrate the heart of man. It is a dream, a meditation, it is paradise. By hearing it one feels in a different world. Yet their music is hardly audible. Instead of being played before thousands of people, only one or two or three persons of the same quality and nature should be together to enjoy that music thoroughly. If a foreign element is present the musician does not feel inspired.
You will be amused to hear of a musician who was once invited to play the vina. The musician came and was welcomed. He uncovered his instrument; then he looked here and there, and found some discomfort, some discord, so he covered his vina, saluted, and went out. Those present felt disappointed and begged him to play, but his answer was: "No matter what you give me, I do not feel like playing." This is quite a different thing from making a programma months ahead. The musician in the West is bound six months beforehand to play a certain programma; he is helpless. But in this way it is not music, it is labor, it is done mechanically. Would you believe that a singer in the East never knows what he is going to sing before he starts singing? He feels the atmosphere of the place and the time, and he begins to sing or to play whatever comes to his mind. I do not mean to say that music of this kind can be universal music. Those musicians have always been rare, and found only in some remote parts of India. They are now dying out because of lack of appreciation. Those potentates, those gurus, those teachers of high inspiration who lived in the past - they appreciated this music. Even in India people are becoming "civilized", and therefore music is dying away. Now there are no more those musicians of former times who could make all those who listened spellbound; they do not exist any longer. Among a million there are perhaps three or four, and they will have vanished in a few years.
Maybe one day the Western world will awaken to India's music, as now the West is awakening to the poetry of the East, and beginning to appreciate such works as those of Rabindranath Tagore. There will come a time when they will ask for music of that kind, and then it will not be found; it will be too late. But there is no doubt that, if that music, which is magic, which is built upon a psychological basis, is introduced in the West, it will root out all such things as jazz.
People seem to spoil their senses; this jazz music is destroying people's delicacy of sense. Thousands every day are dancing to jazz music, and they forget the effect it has upon their spirit, upon their mind, upon their delicate senses.
I know of a prince of Rampur who wanted to study music with a great teacher. The teacher said: "I can only teach you on one condition. You are a prince fond of music; many musicians will want to show you their talent. I do not want you to hear any musician who is not an accomplished artist, because your sense of music must not be destroyed. It must be preserved for delicate music, it must be able to appreciate its finer intricacies." If that sense is spoiled, instead of going forward one goes backward, and if music, which is the central theme of the whole human culture, is not helping people to go forward, it is a great pity.
Vina music has a likeness to the human voice. If you hear the vina played you will never think that it is an instrument, you cannot imagine that it is an instrument. Vina music is not as magnetic as the music of the human voice, but it is more attractive, more impressive, and all the delicacies of the human voice and the silky structure of it are finished in the sound of the vina.
Music has an effect upon animals. I have made experiments with cows and found that they very much liked to listen to music. There was an old ox in particular which, when it heard an instrument played, would leave its fodder and come to listen.
Birds are very fond of music. I have seen a peacock which, when I played the vina before it, would listen and spread out its wings and begin to dance. Then it would follow me and each day it would come a little nearer. It took such a delight in music that it danced and quite forgot everything else. When I stopped playing, it would come and tap the vina with its beak to get me to come back and play again.
Snakes too are easily attracted by music - by the Indian flute, a piece of bamboo, or by the vina if they hear it. A special Raga is used for charming snakes. But vina players are serious people, and would rather charm human beings than snakes!
16. The Manifestation of Sound on the Physical Sphere
Modern science has discovered recently that on certain plates one can see clearly the impression of sound. It is made visible. But in reality on all objects the impression of sound falls clearly, only it is not always visible. It remains for a certain time on any object and then it disappears. Those who have discovered scientifically the different impressions that are made by sound, have found the clear forms of leaves and of flowers and of other things of nature, which is the proof of the belief that the ancient people held, and which is expressed in the Vedanta in the well known phrase: Nada Brahma, meaning Sound, the Creator. And we read in the Bible that first was the word, and the word was God, and that first was sound (the word), and then was the light. This only means that the source of creation was sound. In other words, the creative source in its first step towards manifestation was audible, and in its next step it was visible. It also shows that all we see in this objective world - every form - has been constructed by sound: it is the phenomenon of sound.
When we go further into this subject we see that from a mystical point of view every syllable has a certain effect. As the form of every sound is different, so every syllable has a certain effect, and therefore every sound made, or word spoken before an object, has charged that object with a certain magnetism. This explains to us the method of the healers, teachers and mystics who, by the power of sound, charged an object with their healing power, with their power of thought. And when that object was given, as water or as food, that object brought about a desired result.
Besides that, many masters of occult sciences who have communicated with the unseen beings, by the power of sound have done still greater things: they have created beings. In other words, they have given a body - by the power of sound to a soul, to a spirit, making it into a certain being, which is not yet a physical being, but a being of a higher kind. They called the serpent, and it begins to feel quite different; through that effect it is attracted to the sound, even to sacrifice its life, for then it is caught by the snake charmer.
It is for this reason that the wise considered the science of sound to be the most important science to use in every condition of life: in healing, in teaching, in evolving, in accomplishing all things in life. It is on this foundation that the science of dhikr (zikar) was developed by the Sufis, and that the Yogis made mantrashastra. By dhikr is not meant one particular phrase: by dhikr is meant a science of words.
Apart from the meaning a word has, even syllables of sound can bring a good result or a disastrous result. Those who know about this can recall several instances in history where, through the mistake of a poet who did not use the proper words in the praise of a king, the kingdom was destroyed. And yet, how little one thinks about it if one says: "Well, I have said it, but I did not mean it." People think that by saying something they have done nothing, as long as they did not mean it. But even saying something without meaning to, has a great effect upon life.
The science of sound can be used in education, in business, in industry, in commerce, in politics, in order to bring about desired results. But the best use of this science is made in spiritual evolution. By the power of sound or word one can evolve spiritually and experience all the different stages of spiritual perfection.
Question: Can one use music to awaken the soul to mysticism? Answer: Music is the best medium, nothing is better. Music is the closest, the nearest way to God - that is, if one knows which music and how to use it.
Question: How do you explain that some people have no feeling for music. Answer: I only explain that feeling is not yet created in them. The day when they begin to feel life, they will begin to enjoy music also.
Question: How is the sudden healing brought about of the sword-cut made while in ecstasy? Answer: This point was touched upon by a physician in San Francisco, Dr. Albert Abrams. Although all the doctors were against him, he intuitively thought that illnesses could be cured with the help of vibrations. But instead of finding the power of vibration in the word, he wanted to find the power of vibration in electricity. Yet the principle is the same. He took the rate of vibrations of the body, and with the same rate of vibrations of electricity he treated the elements of the body. He began to get some good results, but it is a subject which will need at least a century to develop fully.
He still has representatives. I went to the Institute of Dr. Abrams in San Francisco to see how far they had developed and I saw that they were using a person as a medium. That person feels the vibrations of the drop of blood which is put in his hand. The vibrations of that drop of blood go through his body and he feels them in a certain part of his body. In that way they find out the rate of vibrations of the blood. No doubt it is a vast subject, and this is just the beginning. Therefore there is still no end to the errors. At the same time, if people could bear with it, something might come out of it in many years" time which could be of great use in the medical world.
This example shows that, when a man can cut himself and at the same time be healed, it only means that he creates by sound such a condition in his body that the vibrations of the body are in such a condition that any wound can be healed immediately. But if the same person is not in that condition, then - if there is a cut at that time - he cannot be healed. He must be in that particular condition; the vibrations of his body must be working at a particular rate. If they are not vibrating at that rate, then he will not be healed.
There is a school of Sufis in the East called the Rifai school. The main object of this school is to increase the power of spirit over matter, and such experiments as eating fire, or jumping into the fire, or cutting the body are made in order to get power and control over matter. The secret of the whole phenomenon is that by the power of words they try to tune their body to that pitch of vibration where no fire, no cut, nothing can touch it. Because the vibrations of their body are equal to those of the fire, therefore the fire has no effect.
Question: In human life is it possible to hear the soundless sound? Answer: Yes. It is by hearing the soundless sound that souls have reached the highest point and have discovered that there is a soundless sound.
Question: What do you mean by the soundless sound? Answer: Sound is that which is heard by the ears, and soundless sound is audible without the help of the ears.
Question: Those who hear the soundless sound, are they clear sighted? Answer: It is not necessary for a person to be born with clear-sight or with the hearing of the soundless sound. If a person is born with that tendency then it is no credit to him. I think that the best thing is to be like everybody else and at the same time to evolve so that one experiences all that is possible, all that is latent in man, giving others the proof that we are not different from everybody else: we are the same, but this is latent in man.
Question: By evolving you get it? Answer: Yes.
Question: Is it possible for a person who is born with a gross nature to become fine. Answer: Certainly. Other things apart, even those who have done the dhikr (zikar) in the right way - in six weeks" time the vibrations of their body change; in six weeks" time those who do it properly become finer. Take the grossest person, make him do the dhikr, in six weeks" time his vibrations will change.
Question: In the spoken words are there vibrations of air, as science teaches, or are there still more inner, finer vibrations? Answer: They are finer vibrations. The vibrations of the air are nothing. Every word has a breath behind it, and breath has a spiritual vibration. So the action of the breath vibrates physically, yet at the same time breath itself is an electric current. Breath is not only the air, but an electric current also: therefore it is an inner vibration.
17. The Effect of Sound on the Physical Body
Wind instruments, instruments with gut strings and with steel wire and the two instruments of percussion, drums and cymbals, have each a distinct, different, and particular effect on the physical body. There was a time when thinkers knew this and used sound for healing and for spiritual purposes. It was on that principle that the music of India was based. The different Ragas and the modes which these Ragas contain were supposed to produce a certain healing and elevating effect.
When we consider single notes or sounds - their effect upon the physical body leads us to think deeply on the subject. There are snake charmers, mostly to be found in India, who by playing their instrument, a wind instrument called pungi, attract cobras and other snakes from their vicinity. Often and often this experiment has been made, and one has always found that all kinds of snakes, or cobras, are attracted on hearing the sound of the pungi. First they come out of the holes in which they live and there is a certain effect on their nervous system which draws them closer and closer to the sound of the pungi. They forget that instinct which is seen in every creature to protect itself from the attack of man or of other creatures. At that time they absolutely forget, they do not see anyone or anything. Then they are aroused to ecstasy: a cobra begins to raise its head and to move it right and left, and as long as this instrument is played the cobra continues to move in ecstasy. This shows us that, apart from the psychical effect and apart from the spiritual effect that sound has on mankind, there is a physical effect also.
From a metaphysical point of view breath is the life current, prana. This life current exists also in things, such as the gut or the string or the skin of the drums. There is also a part of life in these things, and it is to that extent that their life current becomes audible, and that it touches the life current of the living creatures and gives it an added life. It is for this reason that the most primitive tribes who have only a drum to play, or an instrument to blow, get into such a condition by that continual playing of the drum that they enjoy the state of ecstasy.
Apart from this, how does the great success of jazz come about? It comes from the same principle. It does not give the brain much to think about in the technicality of music, it does not trouble the soul to think of spiritual things, it does not trouble the heart to feel deeply. Without troubling the heart or the soul it touches the physical body. It gives a renewed strength by the continuity of a particular rhythm and a particular sound that give people - I mean the generality a greater strength and vigor and interest than music that strains the mind making it think. Those who do not wish to be spiritually elevated, who do not believe in spiritual things and do not wish to trouble, the jazz-band leaves alone, yet touching everyone who hears it.
When one compares the voice with the instrument, there is no real comparison, because the voice is life itself. The movement, the glance, the touch, even the breath that comes from the nostrils do not reach so far, not as far as the voice reaches.
There are three degrees of breath current. One degree is the simple breath that is inhaled and exhaled by the nostrils. This current reaches outside and has a certain effect. A greater degree of it is blowing. When a person blows from his lips, then that breath current is more intensely directed; therefore healers who have understood this principle make use of it. The third degree - in which the breath is most intense - is sound, because in that degree the breath, coming in the form of sound, is vitalized.
In the Near East, among Orthodox Christians and among Armenians, there is a custom not to use an organ in the church; they use a chord or sound made by ten or twelve persons sitting there with closed lips. Anyone who has heard it, will say that they are right. The sound of the organ is most artificial in comparison with the sound that the voices of ten or twelve persons produce with closed lips. This has such a wonderfully magic effect, it reaches so far and so deeply into the heart of man, and it produces such a religious atmosphere among them, that one feels that there is no necessity for an organ: this is a natural organ which God has made.
Brahmins, when they study the Vedas, even now do not study only what is written there or the meaning of it: they study the pronunciation of each syllable, of each word, of each sound, and they study for years and years. It is not that the Brahmin hears the sound once with the ears and thinks: "I have learned it." No. He thinks that a thousand repetitions of the word will one day produce that magnetism, that electricity, that life current which is necessary, and which only comes by repetition.
Now this life current that comes through the breath and manifests through the voice and touches another person what action does it take? It touches the five senses: the sense of sight, the sense of hearing, the sense of smell, the sense of taste, and the sense of touch, although it comes directly through the sense of hearing. It is not true that a person hears sound only through his ears; he hears sound through every little pore of his body. It permeates through his whole being, and according to its particular influence it either slows the rhythm or it quickens the rhythm of the blood circulation; it either wakens the nervous system or it soothes it; it arouses a person to higher passions or it calms him by bringing him peace. In accordance with the sound and its influence a certain effect is produced.
Therefore the knowledge of sound can place in the hand of a person a magical instrument with which to wind, tune, control and utilize the life of another person to the best advantage. The ancient singers used to experience the effect of their spiritual practices upon themselves first. They used to sing one note for about half an hour and observe the effect of the same note upon all the different centers of their own body, noting what life current it produced, how it opened the intuitive faculties, how it created enthusiasm, how it gave added energy, how it soothed and how it healed. So for them it was not a theory, it was an experience.
When this is not understood and when people only know that sound has something to do with the body, they think that they must make some use of it, and instead of making the right use of it they make the wrong use! The Maharaja of Baroda, heating of this science, thought that he should introduce music into the hospitals. Singers were sent there who had never learned what effect sound or song has. When the singers began their technical traditional songs while the patients were suffering pains and tortures, the patients said: "Oh, take them away, take them away! Throw them into the river!" But it was the Maharaja's order that the singers were to sing. After a week the patients were far more ill, and the Maharaja had to send another order: "No more music is wanted."
In my travels I have seen now the same thing. There are some people here and there who think that music has a great effect upon patients, on health, but instead of using the right music, they use the wrong music, and its effect is to make people more ill.
Sound becomes visible in the form of radiance. This shows that the same energy which goes into the form of sound, before it becomes visible is absorbed by the physical body. In that way the physical body recuperates and becomes charged with new magnetism. By a keen study of psychology you will find that singers have a greater magnetism than the average person: because of their own practicing their voice makes an effect upon themselves and they produce electricity in themselves. In that way they are charged with a new magnetism every time they practice. This is the secret of the singer's magnetism.
As to the question which is the wrong and which is the right use of sound, it all depends upon the particular case. In one case a certain sound may be rightly used, in another case the same sound may be wrongly used, but whether it was right or wrong will be seen by the harmonious and inharmonious effects it produces. When a pitch is a natural pitch of the voice; and a person sings a note in that pitch in any pitch which is quite natural to him - that will be a source of that person's own healing as well as that of others. But the person who has found out the key note of his own voice, has the key to his whole life. That person, through the key note of his own voice, can then wind his own being and can help others. There are, however, many occasions when this much knowledge is not enough, because this knowledge only concerns oneself: one knows what is one's own note and the natural pitch of one's voice.
The great drawback today in the world of song is that people are going far away from what is called the natural voice, and this is brought about by commercialism. They have made a hall for one hundred persons, then for five hundred, and then for five thousand persons. A man must shout in order to make five thousand people hear him, in order to have a success - a success that can be had at the ticket office! But that magic charm of the voice is in the natural voice.
Every person is gifted. God has given him a certain pitch, a natural note, and if that pitch develops and he develops that natural note, it is a magic, he can perform a miracle. But he must think about the hall where he has to sing, and of how loud he must shout!
There was a man from India visiting Paris. For the first time in his life he went to the opera to hear the music and he was trying hard to enjoy it. The first thing he heard was a soprano who was doing her best, and then came the tenor, or the baritone, and he had to sing with her. So this man became very annoyed and said: "Now look, he has come to spoil it!'
When we come to the essence and the inner principle of sound, the closer to nature we keep it, the more powerful, the more magical it becomes. Every man and woman has a certain pitch of voice. Then the voice producer says: "No, this is alto, soprano, tenor, baritone, or bass." He limits that which cannot be limited.
How can there be so many voices? There are as many voices as there are souls; they cannot be classified. As soon as he is classified, that person is obliged to sing in that pitch. If his pitch is different, he does not know it; if his voice is higher, he does not sing in that pitch. Because the voice producer says: "This is a soprano", that person cannot be anything else. Besides that, a person has to depend upon what the composer has written. The composer never knew the voice of that particular person, the composer wrote only for a distinct pitch, either this one or that one. When a person has to sing in the pitch that is prescribed, then he loses the natural pitch he had.
Apart from singing, even in speaking, among one hundred persons you will find one who speaks in his natural voice, and ninety-nine who imitate. They imitate someone else; they do not know it. The same thing that you find in grown-up people you will find in little children. The tendency in a little child is to change and to imitate. Every five or ten days, every month a child changes his way of speaking; his voice, his words, many things he changes. And where does he learn it? From the children in school. He sees a child walking in some way, or making gestures, or frowning, or he hears it speaking in a certain way. He does not realize it, but he has heard it and he does the same thing; so he goes on changing.
In the same way every person - also without knowing it changes his voice, and so the natural voice is lost. To retain one's natural voice is a great power in itself, but one cannot always retain it. In order to have a great, a good, a powerful effect with one's voice and sound, one does not have to be a singer. What one has to do is to practice the breath in different ways. One must first know how to breathe; one must then know how to blow; one must then learn how to make a sound, how to say a word. If one practices in these three ways, one will attain that power which is latent in every soul.
One need not be a singer, but for every person it is necessary that he should give some part of the day - even the shortest time he can give: five, ten, or fifteen minutes to his voice, to the development of his voice.
Question: How does one find one's key note once it is lost. Answer: But where is it lost? It is only lost from one's view. It is not altogether lost. It is just the same when people say that a person has lost his soul. But the person himself is the soul! How can the soul be lost? The key note is there, one must discover it, one must find it. Just as the soul is there but hardly one person among so many finds it.
Question: How can one find one's key note? Answer: By trying to find it.
Question: How can one be sure that the note one believes to be the key note of one's being is really the key note? Answer: Belief is the first truth, and faith is the last truth. You must begin from the first, and end with the last.
Question: Has not every nerve its own sound. Answer: Yes, it has its own vibration. You may call it sound.
Question: Does the sound we hear on the radio produce the same effect as the natural sound. Answer: Yes. It is the natural sound just the same. Coming through a medium, coming through an instrument, that much is lost from it, but it is a natural sound just the same.
Question: How can one best check the tendency to imitate. Answer: The tendency to imitate has some use also. If we did not imitate, we should not know the language; if we did not imitate, we should not be what we are. Therefore imitating is not a bad thing as long as we do not imitate too much. One must know what to imitate and what not to imitate. If one went blindly imitating anything one saw, then one would imitate both right and wrong.
Question: If a singer strains his voice it is heard easily and it spoils everything. Answer: That is quite true. But to strain the voice is one thing, and to develop the voice - if it can be called a development to make an unnatural voice out of a natural voice - is a different thing. It is not a question of straining the voice, it is making the voice quite different from what was given by nature. Then the magic is lost. Nature has given a certain kind of voice; that voice represents the spirit, the soul, the heart, the intellect, everything that is in man. Evolution in man is to be seen in his voice, and when that voice is changed, then it is different. One need not strain one's voice in order to become unnatural; it is very easy to become unnatural!
Question: Is not the voice developed by dhikr (zikar)? Answer: Well, that is the best way one can do it.
18. The Voice
The voice is not only indicative of man'a character, but it is the expression of his spirit. The voice is not only audible, but also visible to those who can see it. The voice makes impressions on the etheral sphere, impressions which can be called audible; at the same time they are visible. Those scientists who have made experiements with sound and who have taken impressions of the sound on certain plates -- which impressions appear like forms -- will find one day that the impression of the voice is more living, more deep, and has a greater effect. Sound can be louder than the voice, but sound cannot be more living than the voice.
Knowing this the Hindus of ancient times said that singing is the first art, playing the second art, and dancing the third art which make music. The Hindus who have found that by these three different aspeacts of music one attains to spirituality much sooner than by any other way, have discovered that the shortest way to attain spiritual heights is by singing. Therefore the greatest prophets of the Hindus were singers: Narada and Tumbara. Narada inspired Valmiki who wrote the Ramayana and the Mahabharta, the great Hindue scriptures.
There are three principe kinds of voices: the jelal voice, the jemal voice, and the kemal voice. The jelal voice indicates power; the jemal voice indicates beauty; the kemal voice indicates wisdom.
If you take careful notice in everyday life, you will find that sometimes before a person has finished his sentence you have become annoyed. It is not because of what he has said, but it is his voice. And you will also notice -- perhaps not every day in you life, but sometimes -- that you once heard someone say something that has always remained with you: it gives always a beautiful feeling, it is always soothing, it is healing, it is uplifting, it is inspiring.
A doctor coming to see a patient may, by his voice, frighten the patient and make him more ill if his voice is not harmonious. And another doctor may, by his voice, treat the patient so that before the medicine is brought he is already feeling better. The doctor gives the medicine, but it is the voice with which he comes to the patient that counts.
In the history of the world have not men marched hundreds of miles with strength and vigor, not knowing what they were going to face, on hearing the voice of their commander: "Quick march!'? It seemed that all fear, all anxiety were taken away, and all vigor and courage were given to them, as they were going to march. And again have you not heard of commanders who said: "Fire!", and the soldiers turned back and fired at them? That is the voice too.
The voice, therefore, is a wine. It may be the best wine, and it may be the worst liquor. It may make a person ill, or it may uplift him.
There are five different qualities of the voice, which are connected with the peculiar character of the person. The earth quality of the voice is hope giving, encouraging, tempting. The water quality is intoxicating, soothing, healing, uplifting. The fire quality is impressive, arousing, exciting, horrifying; at the same time it is awakening, because very often warning is given in the voice of the fire quality. The use of the words "tongues of flame" in the Old Testament is narrative of that voice and word which were warning of coming dangers. It was alarming for the people to awaken from their sleep, to awaken to a greater consciousness, to a higher consciousness.
Then there is the air quality of the voice. It is uplifting, raising a person, taking him far, far away from the plane of the earth. And the ether quality of the voice is inspiring, healing, peace giving, harmonizing, convincing, appealing; at the same time it is most intoxicating.
Every jelal voice, jemal voice, or kemal voice has one or another of these five qualities predominant in it, and according to that it creates an effect.
The most wonderful part in the study of voice is that from the voice you can find out a man's particular evolution, his stage of evolution. You do not need to see the person, just his voice will tell you where he is, how far he has evolved. There is no doubt that the character of the person is apparent, is evident in his voice. There is another most wonderful thing to be found in the science of the voice: that the fortunate person has a different voice from the one who is not so fortunate. If you gather five persons who have really proved to be most fortunate, and you hear their voices, you will find what great difference there is between their voice and the ordinary voice. When you compare the voice of great people - no matter what their line may be - with the voice of others, you will find that there is a difference.
But what is meant here is the speaking voice. When we come to singing it is quite different, because today the art of singing has become as artificial as can be. The whole idea is to train the voice and make it different from what it is naturally. The training of the voice does not develop what is natural in it, it mostly brings into it something which is not natural to it. Therefore when a person sings according to the method of the day he has a different voice. It is not his voice, it is not his character. He may have a great success, he may be audible to thousands of people, but at the same time he is not singing in his natural voice. You cannot see his stage of evolution in his voice. Therefore the real character of the person is to be seen in his speaking voice.
Then there is another thing to be understood: that is the softness and the loudness of the voice; that there are times when the voice is softer, and there are other times when the voice is louder. Naturally that shows the condition of the spirit at that particular time, because sometimes the spirit is tender, and with the tenderness of the spirit the voice becomes softened. Sometimes the spirit is harder, and with the hardness of the spirit the voice becomes hardened. In order to scold a person you do not need to put on a hard voice; the voice becomes hard naturally. In order to sympathize with a person, in order to express your gratitude, your love, your devotion, your affection to someone, you do not need to soften your voice; your voice is soft before you can feel it, before you can think about it. This shows that the voice is an expression of the spirit. If the spirit is soft, the voice is soft; if the spirit is hard, the voice is hard; if the spirit is powerful, then the voice has power; if the spirit has lost its vigor, then the voice loses its power.
Furthermore I should like to tell you an amusing thing on this subject. Sometimes a person comes to you and begins to speak about something; and then he says: "Hm, hm"; next he says another word and then continues to say: "Hm, hm." It may be that he has a cold, but it may be that he has not. Yet at that time he is doing this. Why? Because there is something that he is bringing forth from his mind, and it does not come quickly. The same condition that is going on in the spirit is manifesting in the voice. He wants to say something, but he cannot say it: the voice does not operate, because the mind is not operating. If in the mind there is some obstacle, some hindrance, then in the voice there is also something hindering.
Inspiration chooses its own voice, and when a speaker has to change his voice in accordance with the hall where he is going to speak, then inspiration is lost. Because the inspiration begins to feel: "It is not my voice", it does not come. Then the speaker has to struggle twice: one struggle is that he must speak without inspiration, and the other struggle is that he must be audible to the number of people present. That cannot be done!
Nowadays people have adopted a new method of elocution. A person who has learned elocution can shout as loudly as ten people shouting at the same time, and everyone will think: "How wonderful!" But what impression has it made? None!
Nowadays radio technicians have made a kind of horn which they use at stations in the United States. A person takes that horn and on speaking into it his voice becomes twenty times louder. It is all right for trade and business purposes, but when you come to life itself, and when you come to conversation, to speaking to your friends, it is different. It is a most psychological occasion when you speak to one person or to many persons, because something is taking place which has its echo in the cosmos. No word ever spoken is lost; it remains, and it vibrates according to the spirit put into it. If a person makes his voice artificial in order to convince people, in order to be more audible, and in order to impress people, it only means he is not true to his spirit. It cannot be. It is better for a person to be natural in his speech with individuals and with the multitude, rather than that he should become different.
Now coming to the subject of singing: there are certain things which must be retained in the voice. However much the voice may be developed, however great its volume, however far reaching it may be and should be made by practice, at the same time one must feel responsible for keeping one's natural voice through every stage of development- that the natural voice is not hurt by it. It does not mean that one should not have a far reaching voice, it does not mean that one should not have a voice of a larger volume, that one should not have a voice that is vigorous and flexible. Everything that enriches the voice is necessary and must be developed by practice, but all the time keeping in view: "I must not sacrifice the natural quality of my voice." For every person, every soul must know that there is no other voice like his. And if that particularity of its own voice which each soul has is lost, then nothing is left with it.
Besides this, every person is an instrument in this orchestra which is the whole universe, and his voice is the music that comes from each instrument. Each instrument is made distinct and particular and peculiar, so that no other voice can take the place of that particular voice. If then - with the instrument that God has made and the music that God has intended to be played in the world - one does not allow that music to be played and one develops a voice which is not one's own, naturally that is a great cruelty to oneself and to others.
For those on the spiritual path, thinkers, students and meditative souls, it is of the greatest importance to know the condition of their spirit from time to time by consulting their voice. That is their barometer. From morning till evening one can see the weather - the weather created by oneself: whether it is warm or cold, or whether it is spring or winter. One's voice is that barometer that shows to us what is coming, because what will come is the reaction, the result of what is created, and the voice is indicative of it.
Those who think still more deeply on this subject will be able to see how, step by step, they are progressing in the spiritual path, if only they consult their voice. Every step in the spiritual path brings about a little change. By a distinct study of the voice you will find that it is so. When you go back, you will find by the change: "I had gone so much further, and I have gone back again." The voice will tell you.
There is another point which is most wonderful about the voice: that once you have worked with the voice and have cultivated it, deepened it, widened it, and it has become invigorated, and then you have left it, you may leave it for months and years, and the voice may take a different shape and a different appearance, but at the same time what you have once developed remains with you somewhere. It is just like a kind of deposit kept in a bank. You do not know of it, you have forgotten it perhaps, yet it is there. The day when you will touch it again, it will come back in the same way and it will take very little to complete it.
If the voice has developed a spiritual quality and one finds later that it has lost that spiritual quality, one must not be discouraged or disappointed. One has not lost it. One must correct oneself and want to go forward again, and be sorry for having gone backward, but never be discouraged, never be hopeless, because it is there; it only wants a little touch. It is just like a little candle which has gone out, but once you strike a match it is lighted again; it is a candle just the same. The voice is light itself. If the light has become dim, it has not gone out, it is there. It is the same with the voice. If it does not shine, it only means that it has not been cultivated. You must cultivate it again, and it will begin to shine again.
Question: Is it advisable to train one's voice, if one has not much of it. Answer: One might ask: Is it advisable to do physical exercises when one is very thin? If one is thin, it is even more necessary to do physical exercises. So if there is no voice, it is more necessary that one should develop it.
Question: Does the voice change through the different ages? Answer: Yes. Every age, infancy, childhood, youth, and more advanced age changes the pitch of the voice. The advanced age is an expression of what a person has gained, and so the voice is also indicative of his attainment. No doubt, as with every step in the age of a person, so with every step forward in spiritual evolution, there is also a difference in the voice. Every experience in life is an initiation. Even in the worldly life it is a step forward, and that experience changes the voice.
Question: Do the words one has spoken in the past continue to affect one's life? Answer: Certainly, certainly.
Question: Which is more powerful: to say something mentally or to say it aloud? Answer: If you say it mentally and do not speak, it is powerful. If you speak and do not say it mentally, it is powerless. If you say it mentally and speak it at the same time, it is most powerful.
Question: Would you say a few words about the modern art of dedamation or recitation? Answer: There is little to be said about it. Very often people think that, when they have to recite, they must have a different voice, they must become a different being. A person does not want to remain what he is, he wants to be different. There is nothing more beautiful, nothing more convincing and appealing and impressive than reciting in one's own natural voice.
Question: Would you tell us how it was that Tansen kindled candles by singing? Answer: It is told that Tansen, the great singer, performed wonders by singing. Tansen was a Yogi. He was a singer, but the Yogi of singing. He had mastered sound, and therefore the sound of his voice became living, and by his making the voice live everything that he wanted happened.
Very few in this world know to what extent phenomena can be produced by the power of the voice. If there is any real trace of miracle, of phenomena, of wonder, it is the voice.
19. The Influence of Music upon the Character of Man
One of the reasons why music is called a celestial art is that it develops music in the personality of its lover.
Tone and rhythm, the principal elements which constitute music, are the only principles of this creation, and may be traced in its beginnings, in its continuity, and in its end. People of lofty and of low ideals, of amiable or unamiable disposition, show the difference of pitch in them. Balance in man, in his thought, speech and deed, in time show rhythm in him. The winning personalities of the world show music in their voice and words. And even before he utters a word, a person shows stupidity in the movements of his body, for they are unrhythmic.
Upon the rhythm of the breath health depends. This at once shows that both mind and body are sound when musical, and disorderly when unmusical.
All beauty in the realm of nature, art, or personality is silent music. Every soul has been born on earth to love what is beautiful, and beauty is its only sustenance.
'God is beautiful and He loves beauty." (Hadith)
20. The Psychological Influence of Music
In the field of music there is much to be explored, and the psychological influence of music seems little known to modern science. According to modern science we are taught that the influence of music, or of sound and vibration, comes to us and touches the senses from without. But there is one question which remains: What is the source of the influence that comes from within? The real secret of the psychological influence of music is hidden in its source, the source where sound comes from.
It is more plain and easier to understand that the voice has a certain psychological value, that one voice differs from another, and that every voice expresses its psychological value and has its psychological power. Often one feels the personality of the one who is talking at a distance over the telephone. A sensitive person can feel the effect of the voice alone, without seeing the speaker. Many do not depend so much upon the words as upon the voice that is speaking the words. This shows that one's psychological development is expressed in speaking, and more especially in singing.
In Sanskrit breath is called prana, the very life. And what is voice? Voice is breath. If there is anything in life, in man's constitution, which may be called life, it is the breath. Breath manifested outwardly - the sound of the voice - is called prana. Therefore a person can best express himself in song, or in what he says. If there is anything in the world that can give expression to the mind and the feelings it is the voice. Often it happens that a person talks on a subject with a thousand words, and it has no influence. Another person expresses a thought in three words, and makes a deep impression. This shows that the power is not in the words, but in what is behind the words; that is: in the psychological power in the voice which comes from prana. According to the strength it has, it impresses the listener.
The same thing is found in the fingertips of the violinist, and comes from the lips of the flute player. According to the influence coming from his thought the musician produces that influence through his instrument. He may be very skilful, but if his fingertips do not produce a feeling of life, he cannot be successful. Apart from the music he plays, there is the value of the prana, or psychological power that he gives to what he plays.
In India there are vina players who do not need to play a symphony in order to have influence, in order to produce a phenomenon. They only have to take the vina in their hands and strike one note. As soon as they strike one note it goes through and through. In striking one or two notes they have tuned the audience. It works on all the nerves; it is like playing the lute that is in every heart. Their instrument becomes only a source, the response to which is found in the heart of every person, friend and foe alike. Let the most antagonistic person come before a real vina player, and he cannot keep his antagonism. As soon as the notes have touched him, he cannot prevent the vibrations which are created in him, he cannot help turning into a friend. In India, therefore, such players are often called vina magicians, instead of musicians. Their music is magic. No doubt the power of the music depends upon the grade of spiritual evolution that a person has touched.
There is a story of a Hindu musician, Tansen, who was at the court of the great emperor Akbar. The emperor asked him: "Tell me, O great musician, who was your teacher?" Tansen replied: "My teacher is a very great musician - but more than that. I cannot call him musician, I must call him music." Said the emperor: "Can I hear him sing?" The musician answered: "Perhaps. I may try. But you cannot think of calling him here to the court." "Shall I go where he is?'
'His pride may be revolted even there, thinking that he is to sing before a king." "Shall I go as your servant?" "Yes, there is hope then."
So both of them went up into the Himalayas, into the high mountains where the sage had his temple of music in a cave, living with nature, in tune with the Infinite. When they arrived the musician was on horseback, the emperor walking.
(missing) follow the crowd instead of following the great souls. All that is general is ordinary, because the great mass of people is not highly cultured. Things of beauty and good taste are understood, enjoyed and appreciated by few, and there is no way for the artist to reach those few. In this way, what is called uniformity has become a hindrance to individual development.
What is necessary today is that in the education given to children the psychological value of music should be taught. That is the only hope, the only way in which, after some time, we can expect better results. Children learning music should not only know the music, but they should know what is behind it and how it is presented.
Of course there are two sides to this question: outward conditions, and the presentation of the art. Outward conditions may be more or less helpful. I myself have seen in my musical life that music, or a song, performed before two or three persons who are congenial, sympathetic, harmonious, understanding and responsive, brought quite a different vibration, created a different effect from the same music played before five hundred people. What does this mean? It means that some persons are like instruments. When good music is presented to them, they respond, they become attuned to it, they are all music, they take a share in the music, and so a phenomenon is created. This phenomenon can reach even that highest ideal that is to be expected of music, and that is the realization of the soul's freedom: what is called nirvana or muskti in the East, and salvation in the Christian world.
There is nothing in this world that can help one spiritually more than music. Meditation prepares, but music is the highest for touching perfection. I have seen wonders happen through the psychological power of music, but only when there were congenial surroundings. Five or six persons, no more, a moonlight night, or dawn, or sunset. It seems that nature gives its help to make the music complete, and music and nature both work together, for they are one.
If a great opera singer, or a violin soloist has to play before ten thousand people he cannot, with all his ability, touch every soul there. Of course it depends upon the greatness of the artist. The greater the artist, the more he will reach. But he has to consider what will please his audience, not what will be pleasing to God. When music has become commercial, its beauty is lost; it has lost much of its value.
There was a time in the East when every effort was made by the aristocracy of India to keep the art of music from being commercialized. They were successful for some time in doing so. Musicians were not paid a certain sum of money; their needs were supplied, even though they were extravagant. Musicians felt that they should have surroundings of harmony and beauty; they were generous; their doors were always open to others. They were always in debt, but their debts were paid by the kings.
Besides this, the musician was not restricted by his programma. He was left to feel by his intuition what the people wanted. He had to decide at the moment he saw them, and as he went on playing or singing he knew more. The chemical effect of the minds of the listeners told him what they wanted. So at the end it was a spiritual treat.
The secret of all magnetism, whether expressed through personality or through music, is life. It is life which charms, which is attractive. What we are always seeking for is life, and it is the lack of life which may be called lack of magnetism. If musical teaching is given on this principle it will be most successful in bringing about psychological results." It is on the health of the physical body, on thought, on imagination, and on the heart - which is often cold and frozen!- that the psychological power of music depends. It is this life which the musician puts through his fingertips when playing the violin, or through his voice when singing.
What the world is seeking, what human souls yearn for, is that life - whether it comes through music, color and line, or through words. It is that life which everyone desires. It is life which is the real source of healing. Music can heal, if life is put into it. There is no great secret about it, if a person is able to understand the truth in its simplicity. When a person plays mechanically, the fingers running about the piano or violin almost automatically, it may create a temporary effect, but it soon passes.
Often one hears disagreeable music. At the time it does not seem so disagreeable, but afterwards one realizes the bad effect. It is exciting, it is harsh. The music that heals the soul is music with a soothing effect. One can have the soothing effect, or one can have the harsh effect. This depends not only upon the musician, but upon the composer also - upon the mood that has inspired him. A person awakened to the psychological effect of music will find it easy to understand what mood the composer was in when he wrote it. Every page shows his mood and his development at the time when he was writing. He can put life and beauty into his music, and after a thousand years it will still prove to be beautiful and life giving. No doubt, study and qualification help him to express himself better, but what is really needed is life behind it, which comes from the expanded consciousness, from the realization of the divine light which is the secret of all true art, and which is the soul of all mysticism.
Composition is an art rather than a mechanical arrangement of notes. A composer of music performs his small part in the scheme of nature as a creator. Music being the most exalted of arts, the work of the composer of music is no less than the work of a saint. It is not only the knowledge of technicality, of harmony, of theory that is sufficient: the composer needs tenderness of heart, open eyes to all beauty, the conception of what is beautiful, the true perception of sound and rhythm, and its expression in human nature.
By composing music a composer must create his own world in sound and rhythm. His work, therefore, is not a labor, it is a joy, a joy of the highest order. If the composer writes music because he is obliged to write something, that is not the thing to do. The composer should write when his heart feels like writing, when his heart is singing, when his soul is dancing, when his whole being is vibrating harmony. That is the time that he should write music.
Question: Could you please explain what you mean by listening to music spiritually? Can one listen to common music spiritually, such as tunes played on a street organ? Answer: But we do not sit and meditate in the street! Do we? Besides, there is a technical stage. As a person develops in technique and in appreciation of better music, so he feels disturbed by a lower grade of music. But then there is a spiritual way which has nothing to do with technique: it is to tune oneself to the music, and therefore the spiritual person does not care about its grade. No doubt, the better the music the more helpful it is, the higher the music the better. At the same time you must remember that there are Lamas in Tibet who do their concentration and meditation by moving a kind of rattle, the sound of which is not especially melodious. They cultivate thereby that sense of perception which raises a person by the help of vibrations to the higher spheres. There is nothing better to use than music as a means for the upliftment of the soul.
Question: Is it a distinct disadvantage for a human being to be born without a good ear. Answer: It is, because what is received through the ears goes deeper into the soul than what is received through any other way. Neither by smelling, or tasting, or seeing does beauty enter so deeply into oneself as by hearing.
Question: As music is the means to perfection, are unmusical persons imperfect. Answer: To play or sing oneself, and to listen to music are two different things. A person may become a musician by learning music theoretically and mechanically. But only he is really a musician who lives in music and loses himself in music.
All people have music in them, in the rhythm and harmony of their actions and life. If a musician has the desire for spiritual perfection, I think that he can perfect himself much more easily and quickly than another person.
Question: Why is it - if music is rhythm - that so often musicians are temperamental and easily disturbed. Answer: But is it not beautiful to have a little temperament? Life is unmusical when there is no temperament. A person who does not get angry once in a while does not live! It is human nature to have all kinds of minor faults. The joy is in overcoming these faults. Music is not all sadness. There are higher octaves and lower octaves. Music is all. That is why music is even greater than heavens.
21. The Healing Power of Music
Healing through music is in reality the beginning of development through the art of music, the end of which is attaining that which in the words of the Vedanta is called samadhi.
In the first place, if we see what is at the back of all medicines that are used for healing purposes, and if we ask what it is in them that heals, we shall find that it is the different elements which constitute our physical existence. The same elements are present in these medicines, and that which is lacking in us is taken from them, or that effect which should be produced in our body is produced by them. That vibration which is to be created in the body is created by their power, and that rhythm which is necessary for our cure is brought about by putting the circulation of the blood into a certain rhythm and speed. The intensity of vibration which may be necessary for our health is brought about by the medicines.
From this we learn that health is a perfect condition of rhythm and tone. And what is music? Music is rhythm and tone. When the health is out of order it means that the music is out of order, that the music in ourselves is not right. Therefore, in order to put ourselves into a state of harmony and rhythm, what is most necessary is the help of harmony and rhythm. This way of healing can be studied and understood by studying the music of our own life, by studying the rhythm of the pulse, the rhythm of the beating of the heart and of the head. Physicians who are sensitive to rhythm determine the condition of the patient by examining the rhythm of the pulse, the beating of the heart, the rhythm of the circulation of the blood. To find the real complaint a physician, with all his material knowledge must depend upon his intuition and the use of his musical qualities.
In ancient times, and even now in the East, we find two principal schools of medicine: one which comes from the ancient Greek school through Persia, the other which comes from the Vedic medicine, and is rounded on mysticism. What is mysticism? It is the law of vibration: it is the understanding of the nature of complaint by the rhythm and tone that can be perceived in the human body, and it is regulation through rhythm and tone, according to one's understanding of the proportions of the rhythm and tone that make for proper health.
Besides this there is another way of looking at this question. Every illness apparently has its peculiar reason, but in reality all illnesses come from one reason; from one reason, or cause, or condition, which is absence of life, the lack of life. Life is health; its absence is illness, which culminates in what we call death.
Life in its physical form, as perceived throughout the physical spheres, is called prana in Sanskrit. This life is given by food or medicine - or the body is prepared by a certain food or medicine to be able to breathe in this life itself, in order that it may be in better health, that it may experience perfect health. But this prana, which means breath - the central breath - attracts from space all the different elements which are there, as the herbs, plants, flowers, and fruits all attract from space the same element which they represent. All these elements are attracted by the breath. Therefore the great mystics, whether from Greece, Persia, or India, always had the culture of breath, the science of breath as their basis of spiritual evolution, and the source of all healing was the science of breath. Even now you will see in the East healers who magnetize water, or food, or the atmosphere. Where lies the secret of this magnetism? It is in their breath. It is the influence of their breath which is in the water or the food.
The religious people of India have a ceremony where something like a sacrament is given by a holy person to someone who is suffering, and it helps him. It is the holy person's power of breath which is so balanced, so purified and developed, that it attracts all elements, all that one can get from herb, flower, or fruit - and even more. Therefore his breath can do a thousand times more than what medicine can do. There are healers in the East who whisper some spiritual words. What is whispering? It is breath again - breath with words directed through it.
There was a physician in Delhi who mostly used his healing power with his patients. One day a skeptical friend came to consult him. The physician whispered a few sacred words before the patient and said: "Now you may go." This skeptical man said he could not understand how such a method could have any effect upon his health. The physician then did something quite unusual for him: he offended the man by speaking harshly to him. The man became very angry, and said: "How can you, a physician, say such words to me!" The physician replied: "Usually I never do such a thing, and I only did it to prove something to you. If my words can make you angry and ill, they can also make someone well." If words can make one ill and upset, they also have the power behind them to harmonize the patient, and to put him into a good condition.
Now what is music? According to the Sanskrit thinkers there are three aspects of music: singing, playing and dancing. All three represent rhythm, and all three represent tone in some form or other. And what is the effect of music? The effect of music is to regularize the rhythm and to tune a person to the music that is being performed.
What secret is there in music which attracts all those who listen to it? It is the rhythm which is created. It is the tone of that music which tunes the soul, and raises it above the depression and despair of everyday life in this world. If one knew what rhythm is needed for a particular individual in his trouble and despair, what tone is needed, and to what tone that person's soul should be raised, then one could heal a person with music.
There was a time in India when music was used for healing. It was healing for the mind, for the character, and healing for the soul. For it is health of the soul that brings health to the physical body, but healing of the physical body does not always help the soul. That is why the material science of medicine can do good for some time, but does not entirely suffice the need of the patient. I do not mean by this that outward treatment is absolutely useless. There is nothing in this world which is useless, if we only know how to make use of it. All things in this world are needed, all things have their benefit and use, if we only know how to use them properly.
In order to give healing through music, one must study what is needed, what is wanted. In the first place one must study what the complaint is: what elements are lacking, what is the symbolical meaning, what mental attitude is behind the illness. Then, by a close study, one can do great good to the patient with the help of music.
Even if music were not used as a prescription particularly intended for a certain illness, still the power of illness, which has its abode in the heart of man, can be reduced by lifting up his heart, by changing his thought. What brings illness is the thought of illness rather than the illness itself. The existence of illness in the body may no doubt be called a shadow of the true illness which is held by man in his mind. By the power of music the mind may become so exalted that it rises above the thought of illness; then the illness is forgotten.
You may ask: "What kind of music can heal man? Is it singing, or playing, or something in the way of dance?" Singing is the most powerful, for singing is living. It is prana, it is life itself, it is voice. No doubt it is also life which is working through an instrument by the touch, but in singing it is direct life, the breath touching the heart of the listener. But what must be behind this voice? There must be a heart prepared with the help of the battery that it needs. What is that battery? That battery is what we call love and sympathy - the greatest power there is.
A person who is material, who is struggling for himself from morning to evening, who is looking for his own benefit, who is in trouble and bitter, who is in the midst of fighting and is fighting himself- he cannot heal. The healer must be free, free to sympathize, free to love his fellowman even more than himself.
What teaches this love? Where can one learn it? Where can one get it? The key to this love element is God. As we look upon life today with all its progress, what is lacking? It is God. God is the key to the unlimited store of love which is in the heart of man.
Once I was very amused and surprised at an answer that a very godly and good natured maid gave me. Working in the house, she could not answer a knock at the door as quickly as it should have been answered, and the lady visitor who was waiting at the door became very impatient and spoke crossly to the maid. When I asked her what had happened, she was not cross at all. She smiled and said: "Yes, yes, that lady was very cross with me." I asked: "Well, what was the matter with her, what made her cross, what was the reason?", and this maid, with innocence in her face, replied: "The reason? There was no God." A beautiful answer. Where God is lacking, there is no love. Wherever there is love, there is God. Wherever there is God, there is love.
If we interpret it rightly, what causes pain and suffering? It is lack of life. What is life? It is love. And what is love? It is God. What every individual wants, what the world wants, is God. All we have to attain by music, by harmony, by tone, by the science of right tuning, by a life of goodness - all we have to gain to bless our lives is God. This is the central theme of all good.
22. Spiritual Attainment by the Aid of Music
Before commencing this subject I should like to explain first what the word spiritual means. Is it goodness which may be called spiritual, or is it wonderworking, a power to produce miracles, or a great intellectual power? The answer is: No. The whole of life in all its aspects is one music, and to tune one's self to the harmony of this perfect music is the real spiritual attainment.
You may ask: "What is it that keeps man back from spiritual attainment?" The answer is that it is the denseness of this material existence, and the fact that man is unconscious of his spiritual being - divided into limitations. This prevents that free flow and free movement which are the nature and character of life.
What do I mean by this denseness? There is a rock, and you want to produce sound from it. It does not give resonance, it does not answer your desire to produce sound, but the string or wire will give an answer to the tone you want. You strike it, and it answers. There are objects which give resonance to sound. You wish to produce a sound in them, and they resound; they make your music complete.
So it is with human nature. One person is heavy and dull. You tell him something, he cannot understand; you speak to him, he will not hear. He will not respond to music, to beauty, or to art. What is it? It is denseness. There is another person who is ready to appreciate and understand music and poetry, or beauty in any form. In character, in manner - in every form - beauty is appreciated by such a person. It is this which is the awakening of the soul, which is the living condition of the heart, and it is this which is the real spiritual attainment. Spiritual attainment is to make the spirit live, to become conscious. When man is not conscious of soul and spirit, and is only conscious of the material being, he is dense, he is away from spirit.
You may ask: "What is spirit, and what is matter?" The difference between spirit and matter is as the difference between water and snow. Frozen water is snow, and melted snow is water. It is spirit in its denseness which we call matter; it is matter in its fineness which may be called spirit. Once a materialist said to me: "I do not believe in any spirit or soul or hereafter. I believe in eternal matter." I said to him: "Your belief is not very different from mine. Only, that which you call eternal matter, I call spirit. It is a difference in terms. That is not a thing to dispute about, because we both believe in eternity. So long as we meet in eternity, what difference does it make if the one calls it matter and the other calls it spirit? It is one life from beginning to end."
Beauty is born of harmony. What is harmony? Harmony is right proportion, in other words, right rhythm. And what is life? Life is the outcome of harmony. At the back of the whole creation is harmony, and the whole secret of creation is harmony. Intelligence longs to attain to the perfection of harmony. What man calls happiness and comfort, or profit and gain - all he longs for and wishes to attain - is harmony. In smaller or greater proportion he is longing for harmony; even in attaining the most mundane things he always wishes for harmony. But often he does not adopt right methods. Often his methods are wrong. The object attained by both good and bad methods is the same, but the way one tries to attain it turns the object into right or wrong. It is not the object which is wrong, it is the way one adopts to attain it. No one, whatever his station in life, wishes for disharmony, for all suffering, pain and trouble are disharmony.
To attain spirituality is to realize that the whole universe is one symphony in which every individual is one note. His happiness lies in becoming perfectly harmonious with the symphony of the universe. It is not following a certain religion that makes one spiritual, or having a certain belief, or being a fanatic in regard to one idea, or by becoming too good to live in this world. Many good people there are, who do not even understand what spirituality means. They are very good, but they do not yet know what ultimate good is. Ultimate good is harmony itself. For instance, all the different principles and beliefs of the religions of this world taught and proclaimed by priests and teachers - but which men are not always able to follow and express - come naturally from the heart of a man who attunes himself to the rhythm of the universe. His every action, every word he speaks, every feeling he has, every sentiment he expresses, is all harmonious; it is all virtue, it is all religion. It is not following a religion, it is living a religion, making one's life a religion, which is necessary.
Music is the miniature of the whole harmony of the universe, for the harmony of the universe is music itself, and man, being the miniature of the universe, must show the same harmony. In his pulsation, in the beat of his heart, and in his vibration he shows rhythm and tone, harmonious or inharmonious chords. His health or illness, his joy or discomfort - all show the music or lack of music in his life.
What does music teach us? Music helps us to train ourselves in some way or other in harmony, and it is this which is magic, or the secret behind music. When you hear music that you enjoy, it tunes you and puts you in harmony with life. Therefore man needs music; he longs for music. Many say that they do not care for music, but these have not heard music! If they really hear music it will touch their souls, and then certainly they cannot help loving it. If not, it only means that they have not heard music sufficiently, and have not made their heart calm and quiet in order to listen to it, to enjoy and appreciate it. Besides, music develops that faculty by which one learns to appreciate all that is good and beautiful. In the form of art and science, in the form of music and poetry, in every aspect of beauty one can then appreciate it. What deprives man of all the beauty around him is his heaviness of body, or heaviness of heart. He is pulled down to earth, and by that everything becomes limited. When he shakes off that heaviness and feels joyous, he feels light. All good tendencies, such as gentleness and tolerance, forgiveness, love and appreciation - all these beautiful qualities - come by being light, light in mind, soul and body.
Where does music come from? Where does the dance come from? It all comes from the natural spiritual life which is within. When that spiritual life springs forth, it lightens all the burdens that man has. It makes his life smooth, floating on the ocean of life. The faculty of appreciation makes one light. Life is just like the ocean. When there is no appreciation, no receptivity, man sinks like a piece of iron to the bottom of the sea. He cannot float like the boat which is hollow, which is receptive.
The difficulty in the spiritual path is always what comes from ourselves. Man does not like to be a pupil, he likes to be a teacher. If man only knew that the greatness and perfection of the great ones, who have come from time to time to this world, was in their pupilship, and not in teaching! The greater the teacher, the better pupil he was. He learned from everyone, the great and the lowly, the wise and the foolish, the old and the young. He learned from their lives, and studied human nature in all its aspects.
The one who learns to tread the spiritual path must become as an empty cup in order that the wine of music and harmony may be poured down into his heart. You may ask: "How can one become an empty cup?" I shall tell you how cups show themselves filled instead of being empty. Often a person comes to me and says: "Here I am. Can you help me spiritually?", and I answer: "Yes." But then he says: "I want to know first of all what you think about life and death, or about the beginning and the end." And then I wonder what his attitude will be if his previously conceived opinion does not agree with mine. He wants to learn, yet he does not want to be empty. That means, going to the stream of water with one's cup covered up: wanting the water, and yet the cup is closed, filled with preconceived ideas. Where have the preconceived ideas come from? No idea can be called one's own! All ideas have been learned from one source or another, but in time one comes to think that they are one's own. For these ideas one will argue and dispute, although they do not satisfy fully. At the same time they are one's battleground, and all the time they will keep the cup covered up.
Mystics therefore have adopted a different way. They have learned a different course, and that course is self-effacement or, in other words, unlearning what one has learned. They say in the East that the first thing that is learned is to understand how to become a pupil. They do not first learn what God is, or what life is. The first thing to learn is how to become a pupil. One may think that in this way one loses one's individuality. But what is individuality? Is it not that which is collected? What are one's ideas and opinions? They are just collected knowledge. This should be unlearned.
How can one unlearn? You would say that the character of the mind is such that what one learns is engraved upon it, and how then can one unlearn it? Unlearning is completing knowledge. To see a person and say: "That person is wicked" - that is learning. To see further, and recognize something good in that person - that is unlearning. When you see the goodness in someone whom you have called wicked, you have unlearned. You have unravelled that knot. You have once said: "I hate that person'- that is learning. And then you say: "Oh no, I can like him, or I can pity him." When you say that, you have seen with two eyes. First you learn by seeing with one eye; then you learn to see with two eyes. That makes sight complete.
All that we have learned in this world is partial knowledge, and when this is uprooted by another point of view, then we have knowledge in its completed form. That is called mysticism. Why is it called mysticism? Because it cannot be put into words. Words will show us one side of it, but the other side is beyond words.
The whole manifestation is duality, the duality which makes us intelligent, and behind the duality is unity. If we do not rise beyond duality and go towards unity, we do not attain the perfection which is called spirituality.
This does not mean that our learning is of no use. It is of great use. It gives us the power of discrimination and of discerning differences. This makes the intelligence sharp and the sight keen, so that we understand the value of things and their use. It is all part of human evolution, and all useful. So we must learn first, and unlearn afterwards. You do not look first at the sky when you are standing on the earth. First look at the earth, and see what it offers you to learn and to observe, but at the same time do not think that your life's purpose is fulfilled by looking only at the earth. The fulfillment of life's purpose is in looking at the sky.
What is wonderful about music is that it helps man to concentrate or meditate independently of thought. Therefore music seems to be the bridge over the gulf between the form and the formless. If there is anything intelligent, effective, and at the same time formless, it is music. Poetry suggests form, line and color suggest form, but music suggests no form.
Music also produces that resonance which vibrates through the whole being. It lifts the thought above the denseness of matter; it almost turns matter into spirit, into its original condition, through the harmony of vibrations touching every atom of one's whole being.
Beauty of line and color can go so far and no further. The joy of fragrance can go a little further. Music touches our innermost being, and in that way produces new life, a life that gives exaltation to the whole being, raising it to that perfection in which lies the fulfillment of man's life.
Aphorisms
Love produces harmony and harmony creates beauty. Therefore the chief motto in life is "Love, harmony and beauty." Love in all things and beings the beloved God, in harmony with all in the right understanding, and beautify your life by observing the beauty within and without. By love, harmony and beauty you must turn the whole of life into a single vision of divine glory.
Life is a symphony, and the action of every person in this life is the playing of his particular part in the music.
The best moral is to learn from all that sounds inharmonious to us that we may not use it for another, and to use that which sounds harmonious to us for others. Thus should the ears be trained.
The further we advance, the more difficult and the more important becomes our part in the symphony of life; and the more conscious we are of this responsibility, the more efficient we become in accomplishing our task.
Once a soul has awakened to the continual music of life, that soul considers it as his responsibility, his duty, to play his part in the outer life, even if it be contrary to his inner condition at the moment.
The secret of seeking the will of God lies in cultivating the faculty of sensing harmony, for harmony is beauty and beauty is harmony. The lover of beauty in his further progress becomes the seeker of harmony, and by trying always to maintain harmony he will tune his heart to the will of God.
There is nothing in this world which does not speak. Every thing and every being is continually calling out its nature, its character, its secret; the more the inner sense is open, the more capable it becomes of hearing the voice of all things.
If the soul were awakened to feel what the birds feel when singing in the forest at dawn, man would know that their prayer is even more exalting than his own, for it is more natural.
There is nothing in the world which is not the instrument of God.
Sound is the sign of life; in the temples of gods and goddesses, in Hindu churches, bells ringing show life even in the silence.
Sound is hidden under words, and words are hidden under sound. When one perceives the words, one does not perceive the sound underneath, and when one perceives sound, one does not perceive the words underneath. When the poet perceives words, the musician perceives sound underneath. The mystic perceives even in that sound a Word which was God.
Tone continues, time expires.
Tone lives on time, time assimilates tone.
God is not in time. Therefore He is in the silence. Sound is part of the world of time.
Rhythm cannot exist without tone, nor tone without rhythm. They are interdependent for their existence, and it is the same with time and space.
Noisiness comes from restlessness, and restlessness is the destructive rhythm.
Man's atmosphere explains the condition of his soul. The further we go, so the more our disputes and arguments cease. They fade away until there is no color left in them; and when all the color has gone, the white light comes which is the light of God.
Nirvana means no color. What is color? Right or wrong, sin or virtue - all this is color, and in the realm of truth they fade away, as every color fades in the brightness of light. He who has realized this has entered nirvana.
A Sufi must always recognize in God the source of all things and the origin of all beings.
A Sufi must observe in the continual unfoldment of the spirit the birth of the soul.
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