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.

Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound and Music

9. The Divinity of Indian Music

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Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound and Music

9. The Divinity of Indian Music