The Yoga
of Listening
Nada Yoga
is listening for the subtle background of
sound that underlies creation. To listen to sacred music or sit in
quiet woodland aware of the subtle sounds of nature against a
background of stillness is a help in becoming aware of the first
movements toward manifestation. Stillness being the canvas on which
the eternal presents its life forms, and listening to the subtle
sounds of nature helps in refining the consciousness of listening.
To quote
from Byron:-
There’s
music in the sighing of a reed;
There’s
music in the gushing of a rill,
There’s
music in all things, if men had ears,
Their
earth is but an echo of the spheres.
Nada
Yoga the Yoga of listening has been from the earliest times a
reference to the mystical or inner sounds, which can be heard during
this form of meditation. These sounds are referred to in the Hatha
Yoga Pradipika, and to quote a few lines from these early Sutras.
“Yogis
who practise Samadhi (Contemplation) on those internal sounds
experience an indescribable joy”.
“The
Muni (Sage) should close his ears with his hands and fix his
attention on the internal sounds until he attains perfect stillness”.
“At
the beginning of practice various sound are heard, and as practice
continues subtler and higher sounds”.
The
Pradipika also describes the types of sounds, which are heard, such
as the sounds of the ocean, small drum, a conch, a bell and a gong.
For
many people sounds heard within the ears are an unwanted phenomenon
and listed under the medical condition “tinnitus aurium”. It may
be that some of these sounds are more than just a malfunction of the
hearing system, as Yogi Dr Ramamurti Mishra, when a guest at Faith
House Yoga and Natural Health Centre, put forward a remarkable
theory, that some tinnitus was the result of psychic or higher levels
of consciousness, attempting to make a break through whenever a
change of direction was needed.
It is during
the meditative process of stilling the mind and listening that we
become aware of the profoundly subtle, and if we attempt to verbalise
the intuitive response at this level it can resemble a Zen koan. For
example one meditator described the transcendent sound of the breath
as the ‘sound of unstruck gold’, which at one level appeared very
apt, but at another not to make much sense.
The Yoga of
listening is both therapeutic and healing as there is a level of
transcendent awareness at which healing is more likely, help along
the way is listening to sacred music. Which one writer described as
music that is not chained to the instrument, but which when released
reaches heavenward, transforming the nature of the listener?
It is worth
noting that there is a close link between the Sanskrit word Nada
(sound) and Nadi (nerve Vessel), that is the channels in which the
which the vital force travels around the body, and when listening to
music the body becomes a sounding board and the music can be felt to
resonate at different levels. The purer the tone the more specific is
the level affected.
To quote
from an article by Roland Everett, Music in Teaching.
The
three families of the musical instruments are representative of the
three elements of music, of melody, harmony and rhythm, and these
again are closely connected with threefold Man in his thinking,
feeling and willing.
Instruments
Elements of Music
Faculties of Man
Pipe
– wind section
Of
an orchestra melody
thinking
Lyre
–string section
Of
an orchestra harmony
feeling
Drum
– percussion section
Of
an orchestra rhythm
willing
Background
music played in a Yoga class can prove to be a useful aid in creating
a stress free and relaxing atmosphere as well as being conducive to
healing, and to support this here is an extract from an article by
June Kynaston “Can Music cure sick minds?” (Health for All, July
1958). Hephzibah Menuhin, the concert pianist and sister of violinist
Yehudi Menuhin, claims to have made an extraordinary experiment with
music. It is the curing and rehabilitation of the insane through
social clubs in which music plays a very large part.
“Music is
a mysterious thing” she said, “like the mind. Perhaps that is why
I have found it a language that speaks directly to lost minds,”
Between concerts and recording sessions, Hephzibah spends much time
in mental hospitals playing, singing and talking to patients... In
Australia, three hospitals have paid tribute to this novel approach
to mental patients, which, is unlike the dangerous medical methods at
present in vogue, may prove to be a humane contribution to the
constructive treatment of mental illness.
There is no
doubt as to the value of music in its ability to calm and relax and
for sacred music in its power to build up and mould the organs of
spiritual perception. It is however an aid under the control and
direction of the Will, not the earth bound Will conditioned by
earthly expediency but the Will of the higher Self and Supreme that
flows through life and nature and to quote Shopenhauer “music is
the inner life of the Cosmos”. The aim of Nada Yoga does not lie in
the separate notes which appear in time but in the space between and
the transcendent harmonies, beyond which lies perfect stillness and
the silent voice of the Universe.
Many inner
sounds or voices are not mystical in origin, but suppressed thoughts
long kept out of sight. By meditating with a still mind thoughts will
rise like bubbles to the surface of a pool. You will hear the sounds
of parents and educators telling you things. Some things you will
agree with and others not. Some things will be said with great
authority, none the less examine them all and say to yourself “do I
really believe these things”? If they stand the test of your
Conscious examination, affirm them and make them your own and keep
them close to your heart. If not, throw them out, and by so doing
avoid the second death, which will be the death of all your unrelated
ideas. By so doing you will be working to be reborn in this lifetime
to all that is universally true.
Listening to
spiritual and uplifting music is simply a means to an end on the
Journey toward experiencing Nada Yoga and the perfect stillness which
is the living backdrop to life itself. The music, sounds or mantras
that we choose are usually subjective and we have to discover our own
as time and place will determine the music that is needed for the
next step. The right music has the power to transform at the levels
of Mind, Feeling and Will and to quote a line from Carlyle, “Music
is a kind of inarticulate speech, which leads us to the edge of the
infinite and let us for a moment gaze into that”
A good time
to listen to relaxing and soothing music is immediately prior to
sleep when it has the power to calm the mind after a busy day and
transport us into the eternal presence of the Divine. Here is a quote
from the writer Eleanor C. Merry in “The Flaming Door” (Rider)...
(Music) is there in eternal and inaudible beauty and we speak of this
– to us – inaudible beauty, as the “harmony of the spheres”.
Sometimes, in the moment of waking out of a sleep we can feel
ourselves streaming earthwards in a river of light and of great organ
tones – a magnificent and indescribable harmony comes with us,
“trailing clouds of glory”. Then suddenly we are awake, and it is
silent.
The pure
sounds and tones which we experience in music, mantra and the sounds
of nature, remind us of God as Supreme Artist and the harmonies we
establish within ourselves provide the subtle link between the world
in which we live and the profound underlying stillness in which
wisdom lies. Great teachers of the past such as Patanjali came to
this realisation and to remind us of his sutra. “Yoga is
controlling the activities of the mind (chitta)”. Which when
achieved with full awareness we can truly listen to the pure tones
subtle harmonies that we associate with Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
