From very ancient times, civilizations across the world in general and in India, in particular, have recognized the significance of sound in human life. What is popularly referred to as Nada Yoga forms a body of intuitive concepts and esoteric practices exploiting sound, the ‘struck’ or material sound referred to as ahata and the ‘unstuck’ or non-material sound anahata.
Recent experiments in neurology and brain research, with the help of neuro-imaging and other electronic devices, have thrown open a new branch of science, neuro-musicology, which seems to offer a scientific explanation for the outlandish concepts and obscure practices of Nada Yoga prevalent in India over centuries or millennia. Sound known for its usefulness for mankind, recognized and celebrated for long in all ‘primitive’ societies has thus come to occupy the centre-stage of medical research and has come to be referred to as ‘future medicine’ by some enthusiasts as well.
Rediscovering the prophylactic and therapeutic role of music within scientific parameters have of course posed several problems and invited the criticisms of the conventional scientific world. However, its growing role as a non-invasive holistic medicine indicates its importance as a dependable complementary medicine system with workable solutions for alleviating the physical and psychological problems faced by mankind. Recent developments in man’s history such as migration, urbanization, globalization, competition de-linking brain activities and supersonic jet-setting habits have all contributed towards a pace of life style which goes far ahead of the normal bio-rhythmic velocity set in human organism ever since its appearance on earth. These changes have already started showing their impact in human societies: de-alienation from fellow species, break-up of joint and even nuclear families, tendency towards isolation or segregation, loss of identity, loneliness, depression and what not. Man has become marginalized in his own world and has become a robot in a mechanized jungle, for his very survival. Loss of emotional bondage or coherence has thus exposed him to far greater levels of stress and stress related disorders than his ancestors used to encounter, say a few decades back. It is here that music seems to come to his rescue as a potential medium to overcome stress, wiping out depression, rage, social disharmony, etc. that brew in the complex mental horizons leading to ‘poisoning’ of individuals as well as their societies.
It has been, of late, recognized by scientists and philosophers that all musical systems around the world, whether folk or classical, Western or Eastern, secular or religious, have made significant contributions in the past towards the maintenance of behaviour ethics and social norms in all human societies – ‘primitive’ or ‘modern’. With the increased displacement of working populations and rapid human migrations (intra as well as inter-national), the original regional flavours in sound usage have come to be greatly affected giving way to new genres of musical sensibilities and expressions cut away from the harmonious settings of old and gold days. In this ‘milieu’, it is all the more necessary that we understand the nuances in music often hidden or mystified in a scientific manner so that music is evolved as per individual as well as social needs.
This article was published in Shanmukha in April – June 2005
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, April 15, 2021