The science of physics recognizes ‘sound’ as an energy vibration. In the spectrum of energy frequencies, human sound comes right at the bottom of the range of frequencies, at between 40 cycles per second to 4000 cycles per second. The electromagnetic spectrum extends right up to 10 to the power of 28 cycles per second, which is in the area of ‘cosmic rays’. Visible light is in the range of 10 to the power of 14 cycles per second. The radio waves, which have been recently in the news, are in the range of 10 to the power 6 to 10 to the power of 8 cycles per second. From a physics standpoint, audible sound waves do not travel in a vacuum.
From a Vedic viewpoint, sound or
‘Shabda’ as it is termed, operates at four levels corresponding to the four layers or levels of existence, viz the basic Brahman, the soul or supersubtle level, the mental or subtle level and the physical or gross level.
The four levels of existence- Brahman( the aura around the body), Soul or Atma, Mind and Body
Human sound and all physical sounds are at the physical or gross level and are called ‘Vaikhari’. From this is derived the term ‘VAk’ or words. At the mental level, this vibration is called ‘Madhyama’. It is in the mind that forms ideas, words and descriptions take shape. At the supersubtle or soul level, the vibration is called ‘Paschyanti’. It is in the form of a concept. At the Brahman level, it is called ‘Para’.
Several scriptural texts including the Sri Lalitha Sahasranamam, the Sri Ganesha Atharvasheersham, etc describe ‘Shabda’ initiating as ‘Para’, then transforming into ‘Paschyanti’, then becoming ‘Madhyama’ and then finally being expressed by the human vocal chords as ‘Vaikhari’.
At the Brahman or ‘Para’ level, the ‘Shabda’ vibration is also called ‘Nada Brahmam’. It is a very basic or primeval vibration and is a combination of the three sounds ‘A’, ‘U’ and ‘M’ and is called ‘OM’.
Sai with a Tanpura
Brahman can thus be said to be formless but of the nature of ‘Nada’ or ‘Omkara’. In Indian classical musical tradition, the rendition spans seven notes called the ‘Sapta SwarA’. They are ‘Sa’, ‘Ri’, ‘Ga’, ‘Ma’, ‘Pa’, ‘Da’, and ‘Ni’. This is the standard octave. Of these the notes ‘Sa’, ‘Pa’ and the higher ‘Sa’ form the basis and are called ‘Sruthi’. The combined effect of the sounds ‘Sa’, ‘Pa’ and ‘Sa’ is not unlike the ‘OM’ sound. They form the three strings of the ‘Tanpura’ which is an instrument that always accompanies a vocalist or any musical instrument as it provides the background drone. All musical creativity is around this basis. The ‘Sruthi’ forms the foundation or basis. Various combinations of the other notes, with multitudinous variations in the ascending and descending scales are called ‘Raga-s’. The ‘Ragas’ are like patterns in a cloth while the basic thread that is woven into the cloth is the ‘Sruthi’. Patterns, designs and colors are innumerable, but the basic cloth remains the same.
http://www.carnaticindia.com/images/learn_music/varisha1.mp3
Classical music is said to flow from the ‘heart’ or the innermost core of the universe or ‘Consciousness’. It is considered sacred and is indistinguishable from Divinity. God is Music.
The musical nature of Brahman is treated in the Sama Veda. Thus Indian classical music derives from the Vedas.
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi guided the aspirant inwards to his own heart to re-discover his true identity. However, He himself would compose and sing the praise of His Arunachala in the ‘Aksharamanamalai’ with the words:
‘Arunachala Shiva, Arunachala Shiva, Arunachala Shiva Arunachala.......’
http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/music/arunsiva.htm
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in contrast, was on a mission to uplift and transform humanity and so He encouraged devotees to try and relate to Divinity through devotional music, closely related to classical music, in the form of ‘Bhajans’. The very first instruction He gave on October 24, 1940, even as He declared His Avatarhood, was the bhajan ‘Manasa Bhajare Guru Charanam...’. It is indeed a beautiful bhajan:
“Manasa Bhajare Guru Charanam
Dustara Bhava Sagara Tharanam
Guru Maharaj! Guru Jai Jai!
Sai Nath Sri Guru Jai Jai!
Om Nama Shivaya! Om Nama Shivaya!
Om Nama Shivaya! Shivaya Nama Om!
Arunachala Shiva! Arunachala Shiva!
Arunachala Shiva! Aruna Shivom!
Omkarambhava! Omkarambhava!
Omkarambhava! Om Namo Baba!
Manasa Bhajare Guru Charanam
Dustara Bhava Sagara Tharanam!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76NvQD21IrM
So in these compositions of both Sri Ramana and Sri Sathya Sai Baba one sees the interconnection between the two great souls, both invoking ‘Arunachala’ !
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi used to teach the ‘Aksharamanamalai’ to his early devotees and asked them to sing it as they went begging for food in the lanes of Tiruvannamalai City.
Similarly, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba taught bhajans in his sweet mellifluous voice to His devotees for the first thirty years of His mission. He has played the veena and used to render Thyagaraja Keerthanas with ease. He would often compose bhajans on the spot and they all extolled the unity of devotion and the fact that all the names of God refer to the One Alone.
Music is the language of the heart. It flows from one’s consciousness. The words, the sentiments, the ideas and the lyrics, are products of the mind. And the vocal chords are instrumental in producing the sounds.
Bhava-Raga-Thala
Baba used to go into ecstasy and samadhi many times when His students sang bhajans. He would often say that the simplest way of relating to God in this Kali Yuga is by song, sung with devotion and love right from the heart.
Ecstasy and Samadhi
Similarly He would say that the Vedic mantras are very important for the balance of the universe. Both Sri Ramana and Baba encouraged the repetition of Vedic mantras. During Baba’s lifetime Vedic Yagnas, Yagas and Homas were conducted on innumerable occasions, strictly in accordance with the provisions of the authoritative texts such as the Yajur Veda. He often said that this was very important for ‘Loka Kalyanam’ or ‘the welfare of the worlds’.
The Ati Rudra Mahayagnam in 2006
Incidentally, the term ‘Kalyanam’ has come to mean ‘Marriage’ in contemporary usage. It really means that marriage is for universal welfare, for the sustenance of society and the welfare of all the worlds.
Baba materializing the sacred nine gems
It is in this context that we have to understand Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi’s Sloka 6 of the Upadesa SAram. In this sloka , He extols the outward vocal expression of devotion, be it in the form of a prayer or invocation or mantras or bhajans or song, but gently guides the Sadhaka inwards to sing or repeat the prayer mentally, to understand the meaning of the prayers and to finally transcend the mind and merge into his true Self, the Atma.
Sloka 6
The Kumbabhishekam (consecration) of the Shrine to His mother
Uththamasthavaadhuchchamandhathaha
Chiththajam Japa Dhyanamuththamam
Uthama - Best, excellent, foremost, uppermost, highest
Sthavaha - praising, celebrating, eulogising
Athi - very, exceedingly, over, beyond
Uchcha - high, elevated, excellent
Mandhataha - faint, slow, low, deep, gentle
Chiththajaha - born in the mind, love, passion
Japa - to utter in a low voice, repeat internally
Dhyanam - meditation, reflection, contemplation
Uththamam - superior
Far superior to praising (or singing the praise of God) is to repeat (the prayers) in a low voice; meditation is superior to repeating (prayers) in the mind.
From earliest times Man recognized the Divine Principle in the manifest Universe which surrounded him. Naturally he saw a variety of facets of the Divine Principle in the multiple manifestations. The sun was a predominant symbol of God for life on earth seemed impossible without the beneficent blessings of the sun. It represented constancy. It was unchanging, permanent, resplendent, life-giving and selfless. Similarly man saw various aspects of Divinity in rivers, the ocean, in rain, in trees, in plants, in fruits, vegetables, in birds, in insects, in reptiles, in animals. The all-embracing Banyan tree symbolized God. The ever compassionate cow represented God.
Over the millions of years of evolution, every generation of human beings threw up rare individuals who not only recognized Divinity in the outer Universe, but explored and many times experienced Divinity within themselves. These persons emerged as the Realized Ones, the See-ers, the Drashta, the Rishis. They articulated the concept of Divinity in the form of songs, prayers and complex permutations and combinations of sounds which came to be known as Prayers or Mantras. These sounds could be expressed out loud or expressed internally in the mind.
Depending on the stage of development of individuals, the prayers were simply repeated or internalized and analyzed for what they represented.
The evolution of songs and prayers can be considered to have possibly evolved in parallel with language forms.
It would appear that Sanskrit, a word which itself derives from a concept of ‘culture’ or ‘Sanskruti’ was one of the earliest forms of language and means of expression of Divine concepts.
These expressions and articulations and outpourings of the Rishis came to be known as the ‘Vedas’, a word which derives from the concept of ‘knowledge’ or ‘Vid’. Over millions of years intellectual explorations of the Universe, emotional outpourings of awe, respect and devotion and philosophical concepts regarding Divinity accumulated in the form of countless ‘Vedas’. These expressions are said to have been classified and organized for passing on to posterity by a great Rishi called Vyasa as recently as only 5000 years ago.
Vyasa classified them into four major schools of thought, viz, the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharvana Veda. The Rig Veda is a collection of ancient expressions relating to Nature. The Yajur Veda is a compendium of forms of worship. The Sama Veda focuses on the relationship between sound and Divinity. The Atharvana Veda is replete with scientific methodology.
One more interesting aspect of this classification by VyAsA is the uniform three fold structure of the Vedas. Each Veda has three sections. The first section is called the Mantras. They contain a series of prayers. The second section is called the Brahmanas and is the ritualistic portion. The third section is called the Vedanta or ‘Veda- anta’ (end). It is also called Upanishads and contains philosophical and metaphysical truths.
It is difficult to state categorically as to the sequence in time of these expressions as they had been brought to the awareness of man over millions of years. Some authorities indicate that possibly the Rig Veda and its contents may be the earliest in time followed by the Yajur followed by the Sama and finally the Atharvana.
Over the last three Yugas, the Sathya, Thretha and Dwapara Yugas, extending over a vast expanse of time in this Universe, the outpourings of the Rishis, saints and Realized Ones could have got to be forgotten, vitiated, mutilated , distorted and misinterpreted. It was left to VyAsA at the beginning of this Kali Yuga, just after or during the lifetime of Sri Krishna, to re-invigorate, re-state, re-compile the Vedas in the present classification and format and establish schools of thought to specialize in each Veda and make it the duty of society to revere and sustain these schools.
Incidentally, I come from the Yajur Veda tradition and it is conceivable that my earliest forebear, the Rishi Kaundinya, who is invariably invoked whenever a ritual is performed, was a direct disciple of Veda VyAsA and had his own school of research and study with students who were dedicated to the studies. It became the tradition to state this lineage. This lineage was called a Gothra. And it was ensured that there would be no marriages within the same Gothra because it is like belonging to the same family. My late wife belonged to the Kaushika Gothra (Kaushika being another name for the sage Vishwamitra who conceived the famous Gayatri Mantra). My mother also came from the Kaushika Gotra. There are countless such Gotras in India named after important Rishis. My daughters are married into the Srivathsa and Bharadwaja Gotras.
The concept of puja or worship in a ritualistic manner derives from the ritualistic portion of the Vedas.
Starting in earliest times from a simple prostration to the rising sun, a cleansing of one’s body in a river or the lighting of a lamp in the house to symbolize the rising sun, or a sprinkling of water to symbolize the immersion in a river, mankind evolved complex and elaborate rituals involving every aspect of nature, flowers, grass, leaves, fruit, honey, milk, sugarcane, seeds and so on. These methodologies, over millions of years, sanctified and corroborated by great saintly persons, came to be considered as a compulsory form of worship.
In earliest times, every member of society was enjoined to perform certain rituals. As the human population grew and society came to be organized and structured in various ways, the performance of rituals came to be restricted to a priestly class. The majority of the population progressively lost touch with the language of the prayers, their meaning, what the rituals and symbols symbolized and the methodology of the rituals. At various stages of human evolution, great thinkers and reformers have appeared who corrected the situation and re-interpreted and re-stated the eternal truths.
From worship of the God Principle everywhere and in every aspect of Nature, man started locating special places for worship of the Divine Principle. These came to be called Temples.
These temples or places of worship would have a symbol of the God Principle. The ancient Sanskrit word for ‘symbol’ is ‘Lingam’ and the earliest such symbol which was conceived of, as representing God, was an elliptic, oval-shaped form. This symbol or Lingam was worshipped as representing God. Later, under the influence of reformers and saints, each aspect of God was creatively conceived in a kind of human configuration or human form. But the complex nature of the Divine Principle many times did not permit a simple human form to suffice to express the principle. Thus these semi-human symbols of Divinity came to display multiple faces ( Brahma) or multiple hands ( Vishnu) or to embody various additional symbols representing auspicious qualities ( purity -Ganga, moon -Mind, on the head of Shiva) or a large elephant’s head to represent Intellect ( Ganesha) or destruction of evil ( Durga) and so on.
This evolution of symbolism threw up newer and newer forms of God as appropriate at a particular time or age, or for a particular community. Each such form of God or Deity had followers and over time these followers evolved into cults of worship and narrow exclusive segments of society.
Such was the extent of proliferation of cults, modes of worship and what could be called ‘Religions’ around 2000 years ago, that a series of Divine Personages appeared in the forms of Zoroaster, Buddha , Mahavira, Jesus Christ, Mohammed and Adi SankarA to re-state the fundamental truths once again, break iconoclastic formulations, obscurantist sects and religions, the hold of the priestly classes over the minds of common men, and make humanity aware of the simplest elucidations of Divinity and the inherent unity of Divinity.
Such Divine ‘interventions’ in the evolution of mankind have taken place countless times over the Yugas. Many of these personages were known, recorded, recognized but many quietly performed their task of regeneration, rejuvenation and re-structuring of society and passed on. Some of the greatest such personages are recorded in the Vedas as Rishis. In every Yuga, at least once if not more often, Divinity is known to have ‘descended’ or ‘taken birth’ on planet Earth in human form to decisively correct the path of mankind.
Such persons embodying the full range of Divine powers have come to be known as ‘Avatharas’ or ‘Incarnations of the Divine’. Such are Vamana, Parasurama, Sri Rama and Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna elucidated the ‘Avataric Purpose’ most lucidly when He stated that whenever the path of Truth gets vitiated on earth, and the forces of obscurantism, ignorance and non-righteousness become overwhelming in their eclipse of matters Divine, then the God Principle crystallizes or concretizes Itself in human form to reform society and put mankind back on the correct path.
Thus the great Avatharas have themselves been subsequently recognized as God. Their expressions and everything associated with them is imbued with Divinity and becomes a part of worship.
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi was a Realized Soul and Himself an expression of the God Principle. In the evolving Kali Yuga, He not only re-stated eternal Truths but clarified and showed man a simple path to the Truth. This is encased in the Upadesa SAram and every one of His writings and every aspect of His life.
To humanity in the 20th century, divided vertically into religions, and horizontally into strata of society ( the rulers and the ruled, the caste system, men and women, rich and poor, the developed and the developing world, and so on ), He indicated a universal methodology, shorn of ritual , mysticism, mystery and freed humanity to re-discover the Truth in its simplicity, sublimity and purity, irrespective of the person’s background.
In this sixth Sloka of the Upadesa SAram, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi clarifies that of actions, worship is preferable. Of accepted forms of worship, including rituals and incantations, internal worship is preferable to external worship. In internal worship, repetition of a prayer helps focus and concentrate the mind but submersion in Consciousness or ‘meditation’ is preferable or the most preferred.
In listing out these steps to the Inner Path, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi gives the devotee the freedom to move step by step towards meditation in its pristine form. He acknowledges that, born in the society of the 20th or 21st century, the human being has to necessarily become aware of the forms of worship and the methodologies of that part of society in which he has been born and slowly progress towards an INNER CONSCIOUSNESS. Without stating it Bhagavan Sri Ramana clarifies that wherever one may start in whichever religion one is born and grows up, whatever form of worship one is used to , one can definitely free oneself of these trappings and re-discover ONESELF and ONE’S CONSCIOUSNESS. That SELF and CONSCIOUSNESS is free of all limitations, all multiplicity. It is UNITARY, ONE, the TRUTH ALONE. That is the meaning of the Vedic dictum:
‘EKAM SATH’ and ‘THATH SATH’.
Before one can appreciate this inherent Truth, it is necessary for all of us to come to terms with the forms of worship that prevail in our respective religions. It behoves us to participate and perform the rituals and practices that are prescribed. But it is also important to understand that all outer worship and ritual is only one form of expression to orient oneself to the eternal Truth that is embedded in one’s Soul. So ultimately, however pleasant the singing of bhajans may be, however satisfying the performance of a puja may be, and however wonderful the service of humanity may be, one has to turn inwards to the innermost core of oneself.
That turning is possible only with the aid of the ‘Mind’. Many of us are caught up in the performance of various duties in life. It is not always possible for us to withdraw and introspect or meditate. In such a case, both Sri Ramana and Sri Sathya Sai Baba advise us to work with the realization that we are serving God in the manifest world. Our parents, our spouse, our children and grandchildren, our bosses, our customers, our friends and in fact the whole visible universe becomes a manifestation of God and everything we do is for God.
However at some moment in our life depending on the special circumstance relating to him or her, it becomes necessary for us to turn inwards for that is the royal path to the discovery of Truth and the Purpose of Life. And from the next Sloka onwards Bhagavan takes us inwards.
I am rapidly reaching that point in my life. By the Grace of God, I may seem to be doing some work and interacting with the world, but essentially I am turning inwards. May you also discover your stage of your life, the purpose of your life, and while performing your duties try to find the way to move forward and inward to the Truth.
The mountain Skandagiri with the dome of the library at Muddenahalli- my Karma-Dhyana Kshetra
January 1 is called New Year's Day according to the Christian calendar. There are of course several New Year's Days with their own logic in various religious systems. Still January 1 has today become an important milestone in all our lives. May I wish you a Very Happy, Holy and Prosperous New Year and may all of you, so dear to me and representing the Divine Principle in my life, attain all that you aspire for.....
All my love, God Bless and Sairam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76NvQD21IrM
http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/music/arunsiva.htm
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