It is true that everything we come across in the universe is energy, manifesting itself through a unique pattern of vibration. One could feel them within and sense them without.
Vibration forms the very core of our existence. When everything in or about us transforms, ages and rots off, all that is out is just vibration. All Universal manifestations – both animate and inanimate – that we see, hear, touch, smell and taste are made of vibrations, for vibration and by vibration.
The sound intonation, celebrated as nada in the ancient Indian system of Nada Yoga, has been re-interpreted by present-day scientists. Thanks to the great strides made in neuro-mapping technique, the impact of sound vibrations on the functioning of the brain and on the human behaviour pattern has come to be increasingly studied and interpreted in recent years.
Thus, we know how certain sound patterns and rhythmic pulsations can influence certain brain wave patterns, which can cause alertness or relaxation, as desired by an individual.
Apart from the beta brain wave pattern which denotes alertness, scientists have also put an individual in high alert (e.g., beta waves) or in a deep state of relaxation (alpha or theta waves). Resonance is the universal striving of objects to vibrate in harmony – in other words, vibrating at the same rate.
When you strike a tuning fork and keep it near a similar tuning fork without touching each other, the second fork starts vibrating precisely like the first one! This phenomenon of resonance, though appears simple to the young scientists, holds many a mystery within its capabilities. Experiments of vibration take place, even within those ranges of sound frequencies, which are not audible to human ears.
While mapping the brain states of individuals engaged in various activities, Anna Wise has demonstrated that the brain wave pattern of a mother and a nursing infant match with each other, whereas in a quarreling couple they are in dissimilar patterns. Wise also holds a firm belief that the use of binaural beats and the entrainment of the brain to controlled frequencies can increase our creative potential and produce the ‘awakened mind condition; in which all levels of consciousness are accessible for creative thinking or problem-solving.
While the fundamental tone in all music remains the same, it is the overtones, the sound vibrations hovering above this tone, that plays magic. Monks in the Himalayas concentrate on such harmonics, emanating from their ‘singing’ bowls to reach into higher (or deeper) realms of consciousness. The practice is akin to the minute observation made by a Carnatic musician when holding steadily the tata ‘sa’. The overtones (tarasthayi antara ‘ga’ and ‘pa’) can be heard by him as shifting echoes.
Laya, a Sanskrit term which refers to a combination of tempo and rhythm, interwoven, can also be made explicit by a strange fusion of a sound and a gap (silence). Here, mathematics gets itself transformed into art.
Laya prajna, refers to an ability to perceive the minutest fragments of time, the symbolic significance of tempo and gait, and spacing of notes – all capable of affecting our mood to a great extent. It’s again the magic of music that suits us away from our mind orientation towards time. Time, as we know, is always there in our beta consciousness – whether the music is progressing or not. Simple events such as the arrival of music for the stretching of a note (karvai) disturbs (or expunges) our minds orientation towards time.
When we talk of music, or read or write about it, music seems to have an existence altogether different and isolated from us.
Conversely, as we listen to it with all our devotion, we tend to identify it with our very own being, thoughts or wisdom – almost as an inseparable part of our existence here and now!
All through, we forget that it is our very mind that has made its very existence possible!
It is this advaitism that comes in the way of a rational discussion on music.
Yoga teaches us to look within,to discover our own self; Nada Yoga teaches the same thing to discover the nada intonation which is taken as our own self.
Whether nada intonation leads to the discovery of the the self or the self leads towards nada intonation is a million dollar question, like whether chicken came first or the egg! The mysteries that surround music make it all the more magical!
This article was published in Bhavan’s Journal, March 31, 2005, Pages 77 to 79
Edited by Geeta shreedar, Mar 31, 2021