Yoga Of Inner Light And Sound

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

Page 41

Yoga of Inner Sound (Nāda-dhyān)
The Yoga of Inner Sound or Nāda dhyān (Nāda meaning sound while dhyān means meditation) is also called nādānusandhān (Exploration (anusandhān) of the Sound (nāda)), surat shabd yoga (Yoga or Union of the Soul (surat) with the Sound (shabd)), or shabd dhyān (Meditation on Sound). 'Nāda' or 'shabd', meaning sound or word, has great attractive power. Suppose a person is in a deep reflecting state of mind, or is listening attentively to something very interesting. However, if a loud jarring or melodious sound is suddenly produced, his attention would be involuntarily removed from the earlier topic and drawn towards this sound. It is said that even cows grazing grass and calves feeding on their mother cows lost their attention when Lord Shri Krishna played his flute. As the story goes, once Lord Brahma was in a state of deep meditation, and people wouldn't succeed in breaking his concentration. Then it was decided to call for the services of ragas and raginis. The ragas (musical modes or sequences - their personifications) and raginis (modifications of main musical modes - feminine personifications) began to play such melodious tunes that the state of trance of Lord Brahma was disrupted.
There was a sage named Baba Haridas. He was the contemporary of the Akbar, the renowned Mughal emperor. Baba Haridas was an accomplished musician. Tansen, Akbar's court musician, was his disciple. Akbar, impressed by Tansen's singing prowess, once expressed his desire to listen to the vocal rendition of His Guru Haridas. Tansen said, "My Guru does never sing at any one's bidding. He sings only when he is in his own mood to do so, at his inner calling. However, I will try one thing. I will sing a composition in his front and deliberately commit some mistake. Then, may be to correct me, he would sing and you may get an opportunity to listen to him." Akbar agreed, and both went into the forest where Haridas Ji lived. When Tansen began to sing out of tune, Haridas ji snatched the sitar (a stringed musical instrument) from him and began to sing. Such was the impact of his rendition that Akbar fell unconscious.
li is said that if an accomplished singer would impeccably render the 'Terraga, herds of deer came as if drawn by an uncontrollable force. Singing the 'Malhara' raga is supposed to usher in hovering clouds. When a top is spun, it sets off a vibration. If something is brought within the sphere of this vibration, it tends to get pulled towards the top. Such is the attraction inherent in a sound or word.
No amount of information derived from any other object of the world can match the quantum of information that can be extracted from a word. We get to know about all the disciplines of knowledge through light and sound only. However, the information yielded by a word is even greater or more than that obtainable from light. Suppose, there are some people present in a room, and it is night time. Now if the power supply goes off, the persons present in the room can not be recognized, even though they are of our acquaintance. But if they start talking, by listening to their voices we can identify who all are present in the room. There are many things that can't be identified even in light for lack of word. It is said that Barbarik, the grandson of Bhima (a mighty Pandav prince in the epic of the Mahabharata), picked up Bhima like a ball and was about to drown him in deep sea, just because he didn't know him. Coincidentally, Lord Krishna appeared on the scene and exclaimed, “Barbarik, what are you doing? Don't you know he is Bhima, your own grandfather?" No sooner than Barbarik had listened to these words, he freed Bhima and fell at his feet apologetically. Here Barbarik could be introduced to his grandpa only through the words of Lord Shri Krishna. Had Shri Krishna not spoken anything, the result would surely have not been pleasant. A newly born babe is entirely ignorant of any object or language. He learns his mother tongue in the company of his parents. Though through his eyes he sees all the objects and sceneries around him, he gets to know them through the words of his parents and teachers