Yoga Of Inner Light And Sound

Author(s): Achyutanand Swami, Praveshkumar Singh
Publisher: Santmat Sangh Samiti Chandrapur

Page 12

Preamble
How did different levels of creation come into being ? Scriptures and sants are in unison over this question. Vedas say that initially God and God alone existed. Once he had the 'mauj' (playful mood): "I am one, let me be many!" This mauj took the form of the primordial vibration/ word/sound a reference to which is found in the Bible also, "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with the God..." As great Santmat Guru Maharshi Mehi Paramhans observes, "There cannot be a vibration that is without a sound or word just as there can not be produced a word or sound without vibration. Vibration & sound, thus, are inseparable companions." This word or vibration or sound is a conscious one, permeates through each & every pore of, and is the base, essence or soul of all that exists in all planes of creations. As this primordial vibration sprang forth directly from the God, it cannot be said to be the product or result of collision or striking of two or more objects, for when it was created none or nothing save God existed. Therefore, this primeval unstruck melody has been termed as "Anāhat Nāda" ('anāhat' means "without any striking, collision or hurt" and the word 'nāda' means sound). Since this was the first sound to be produced ever, it is also called "ādi shabda/ nāda" ('ādi' meaning original or primeval and 'shabda' or 'nāda' meaning word or sound). The same word has been termed as the much renowned "Om" or "Pranava" or "Sfota" by oldest scriptures and rishis (sages).
Since this quintessential vibrations/sound springs fourth directly from the God, it is imbued with the qualities of God and it bestows its own qualities upon its perceiver also, and has a natural propensity to attract its perceiver (soul) to its source thereby effecting the complete merger of the soul into the Supreme Soul that is the God. That is why, meditation on the inner sound has been reckoned by sages and scriptures to be the loftiest of all forms of meditation. However, it is generally not easy to practice the meditation on the primeval quintessential sound straightaway, for our sensory perceptors are very limited in their capacity to grasp, are too gross to perceive that finest sound current. Hence, it is verily logical and sensible that we started our meditation from a relatively elementary level befitting our current capabilities. To understand this we have to understand that creation has flowed from the subtlest to the grossest. Five major planes or spheres of creation may be broadly identified. Starting from the subtlest they are: Chetan (conscious), Mahākāras (supra-causal), Kāran (causal), Sūkshma (astral), and Sthūla (gross) planes in the decreasing order of subtlety. The last four planes of creation are collectively called 'aparā' or 'jada' (non conscious) creation because they don't possess consciousness of their own. The first level of creation namely, Chetan is also called kaivalya or parā (conscious) creation as it is the sphere of that quintessential unstruck vibration which is conscious, devoid of any of the three qualities or attributes (namely, 'sat', 'raj' and 'tam') and is unchangeable.
"This quintessential vibration or sound”, says Maharshi Mehi Paramhans, "is all-pervading and is incessantly throbbing for sure through all creation and is the essence of all creation". Maharshi Mehi writes in the fourth part of his marvellous book "Satsang Yoga", "for any sphere to be formed, its centre must first be established. The centre of Kaivalya or the conscious sphere is the God Himself (as the Word has emanated, is emanating, from Him). The centre of the supra-causal sphere is the meeting plane between the supra-causal and