Shabdam / Nadam
Sound and its influence on consciousness has been a matter of enquiry since the first human beings walked on the face of the earth. Experienced, examined, studied and researched by many cultures and civilizations for thousands of years, sound is still a mystery to a great many. In Bharat, the origin of sound is traced back to the origin of the universe. According to Hinduism, Brahman is the Supreme Infinite, the Supreme Consciousness. The first sound emanated from That and is known as Nada Brahman (Brahman as Sound) and this is what has created the entire universe. It is the purest sound in the cosmos and is said to be unstruck. Another myth associates the origin of sound (and dance) with the Tandava of Shiva. His damaru or small drum created the first sound. It is said that Sage Narada then brought that sound to the earth from heaven which later became music.
The Sanatana Dharma is rooted in the Vedas. The foundation of the Vedas lies in the primeval sounds of the cosmos; therefore, the knowledge of the origin of “sound” has never been a mystery to us. The Shabdam or sound vibrations of the Vedas and their artha or meaning are eternal and remain even after cosmic dissolution. They can be heard by those who are in a deep state of meditation and connects them to the cosmic reality.
The Vedas tell us that Shabdam is the essence of all energy. At the beginning of time, the universe quivered with the very first vibration or Shabdam emanating from the Nada Brahman. This was anaahatha, “unstruck”. It occurred at a time when there were no things to strike against each other to make a sound. There were no objects. Just the akasha – the subtlest of all the five elements that make up this cosmos. That first subtle vibration quivered and resonated through the akasha – “unheard”. It is still resonating through each and every vibration that has arisen since the beginning. It is the music of the spheres.
The word Shabdam is mistakenly translated as word, speech or sound. However, it has a very deep meaning that goes way beyond intellectual understanding. In English, a word does not have a transcendental existence. It is associated with meaning and is man-made, transitory and destructible. In Sanskrit, Shabdam is eternal, divine, indestructible and central to our existence on this planet. It is pure sound and also that which is revealed by sound. Each of the five elements that make up our cosmos has one quality corresponding to one of our sense organs. As said before, akasha is the subtlest of all the five elements and Shabdam is the quality of the akasha. The ear is the sense organ of hearing but the original Shabdam is pure sound and cannot be heard by the ear. It is anaahatha.
The process of manifestation of Shabdam begins from the pure consciousness from which prana (life energy) is propelled into action. Air is propelled by the prana into the vocal cords and leads to its final, gross manifestation as speech. This inner Shabdam is called “sphota” and the articulate Shabdam is called Nadam or “dhwani”. According to the “sphota” theory, “dhwani” or sound and “artha” or meaning are two sides of the same coin. As the dhwani manifests, this distinction becomes more prominent until we start to believe that the sound and form are independent. Sphota is the permanent, unchanging element and dhwani is the transient sound which can be heard by the ears.
The method by which this Shabdam appears as speech was carefully analysed by our rishis. During speech this Shabdam manifests itself at four levels – “para, pashyanti, madhyama and vaikhari”.
Para is the transcendent, self-luminous, pure consciousness. It is sound in its transcendental, supreme aspect as the source of all creation. It is the fully unmanifest level of language and is a synonym for the Supreme. Shabda Brahman is the term used for the Absolute expressed as transcendental sound. It is the Ultimate Reality in the form of vibrations, of which human words are only a rough representation. In this state, both thoughts and words are one and are unexpressed.
Pashyanti is “that which sees” or “that which witnesses”. It is the finest relative level of vak or “speech” where there is no distinction between word and meaning. At this level, there is no temporal sequence. It is the seed of all thoughts, speech, and actions. A sage whose consciousness is concentrated in the causal body is able to “glimpse” this in a vision or a revelation. Knowledge acquired by the inner mind is without the use of the reasoning faculty or sensory data.
Madhyama (middle) is the sound as perceived in the subtle or pranic world. These are the thoughts held in our mind just before we pronounce them. It lies between the subtle and gross manifested sounds. It refers to Shabdam (sound in its whispered or inaudible form), situated in the middle between pashyanti (subtle sound) and vaikhari (gross, manifested sound). It is the sound phenomenon that exists in between the formation of a thought (as an idea, feeling or image) and its expression on the material level as speech or action.
Vaikhari is the lowest form of sound and signifies its outward expression. This is the spoken word emerging from our throat. The words that are uttered by the speaker and heard by the listener belong to this grossest level known as “vaikhari”. It is gross physical sound, the most external, profane, and differentiated level of language.
The Cosmic Reality is also known as Shabda Brahman and Nada Brahman. This Shabdam is the sound of “Aum”. It is the “cosmic sound” that creates the universe and is found in all beings. Shabda Brahman is the primordial sonic consciousness of the cosmos. Shabda Brahman is also the knowledge given through the Vedas. It is that force of the Supreme that manifests as sound and word and is enfolded in the Vedas. It is considered to be unmeasurable and uncontainable. It is expressed through prana as well as through the physical senses and the mind. The Vedas tell us that sound and word are eternal. Once spoken they live on as part of the universe as a whole. This concept is fundamental in the use and importance of the utterance of Aum. From this we also realise how important it is to speak in a positive fashion. The negativity coming from our speech enters into the very air we breathe and is responsible for causing all the accumulated violence in the world.
Every object starts first as a vibration that gradually manifests and is experienced as a separate sound. The sound manifests further and takes on a meaning. Thus, every vibration gives rise to a sound which includes the object in potential form. The object contains a built-in name. Hence nama (name) and rupa (form) go together.
The millions of physical phenomena as well as our concepts and the names given to them are a result of these cosmic vibrations. The One Reality manifests itself as the enormous diversity that we all experience but it still retains its intrinsic unity. Since all primordial sounds are connected to the source in an integral way, it follows that in their ultimate sense, all objects in the universe are inseparably unified. Everything is intertwined and nothing is isolated. Meditation should help us to build up our sensitivity to listen and be receptive to the subtlest sounds emanating from within us and outside us and thus unite us with the whole from which they have come.
The Sanskrit language in which the Vedas are chanted, is made up of the original cosmic pulsations. In fact, these sounds constitute the alphabets in Sanskrit. Human language and the objects they represent are the outer manifestations of these vibrations at varying levels of physicality. These vibrations are known as “mantras”. The mantra originates in the subtlest level of existence which is silence. The Vedic mantras are to be found in the “mantric” portion of the Vedas. They are sequences of vibrations with experiential meanings that can only be known through yogic practices. Because of their very nature they cannot be translated. These sounds naturally produce an effect. In fact, the purpose of the mantra lies in the effect it creates.
The mantras are said to be the life breath of the Vedas and the life breath of the mantras themselves is the purity or clarity of the sound, their proper intonation. If their sound is changed, the vibration in space as well as our “nadis” will change and the expected result of the chanting will not be what is desired.
The vibrations of the sound of the Vedic language are beneficial to all orders of creation including bipeds and quadrupeds. This is not a language in the ordinary usage of the word and is not the property of one caste or of one race, but of the entire world.
The letters of the Sanskrit alphabet are called akshara or “imperishable”. So, every letter or akshara is an eternal sound that is capable of revealing the entire secret of speech. Another term for a letter is “varna” or colour. So, every letter is heard as a sound and seen in a particular hue. This is why the rishis are said to have both “heard” and “seen” the Vedic mantras. One of the terms of the Sanskrit alphabet is varnamala or “garland of colours” which the Divine artist uses to paint Reality!
The rishis knew themselves to be microcosmic organisms (exact replicas of the macrocosm). They possessed what Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras call “ritambharaprajna” or inner vision. They had merged their minds in this sea of unexpressed Consciousness, and realised that the universe is a vibrational play of varied waves with different wavelengths. By their intuitional powers, they came to understand the laws of universal harmonics governing this vibrational flow, and they developed a subtle science of sound to affect the rhythms of creation – without any mechanical apparatus.
They realised that Reality is composed of these primordial vibrations which are the very core of the cosmos. They possessed extraordinary faculties which enabled them to get a direct experience of the vibrations of the Infinite and the concrete objects to which they correspond. The deep reality from which sound and form emerge was not discovered through intellectual enquiry but by direct experience during deep meditation. Hence the rishis are known as the seers and the hearers of the Vedic mantras. They did not claim to have discovered them. This is the reason why the Vedic mantras are collectively known as “shruti” or that which is heard.
The rishis were aware that mantras manifest as concrete sounds and objects and they were the ones who saw, tested and verified it. They also explored the way to return to the source. Hence each mantra is associated with the name of the rishi who had experienced it. Numerous systems utilising mantras were developed and tested to take the sadhaka to the original state of unity consciousness. Hinduism thus provides an experiential path that leads back to the source. The different paths given by the rishis are actually very scientific.
In ancient Bharat, people always gave very specialised names to children, preferably of the gods which were actually mantras. When these sounds were repeated by everyone in the house, the vibrations became embedded in both the parents’ and the child’s psyche and helped to transform them in subtle ways. Nowadays random sounds are given as names to children resulting in the violence and depression that we see in young adults.
Nadam emanates from the mystical sound of Aum which lies within every manifest being. It is the sound of silence and is linked with pulsation, light and essential rhythm. A yogi must practice listening to this inner sound during meditation, in order to connect more deeply with his own Self.
“Nada Yoga” is the classical term for the Yoga of Sound in the Hindu tradition. It is a path of exploration of our consciousness through sound. It is a stream of sacred sound that embraces Hatha Yoga, the occult linguistics of Tantra, and the spirituality of classical Indian music. By including the non-linguistic element of music, Nada Brahman augments the Shabda Brahman of the Vedic tradition, as well as the differentiation of the energy of the chakras discovered by the Tantrics. While Bhava Yoga chooses only those frequencies that we classify as music in our earthly appreciation of sound, Nada Yoga incorporates within the field of its yogic practices, the full spectrum of frequencies – both those that are audible to the human ear and those that are inaudible. This means that all forms of earthly music, the sounds found in space, and even the entire electromagnetic spectrum of frequencies are included within this range of perception. The practice of Nada Yoga can therefore help to enhance our consciousness. The aim of the advanced state of Nada Yoga is to purify and harmonise the pranic currents in our body and create perfect health.
The history of music in Bharat can be traced back to the Vedic times. The concept of Nada Brahman was prevalent in the Vedic ages. All organised music traces its origins back to the Sama Veda which contains the earliest known form of organised music. During the late Vedic Period, music prevailed in the form called Samagana, which was purely a chanting of the verses in musical patterns. The first reference to music was made by Panini in 500 BC.
Of course Nadam is the basis for all music. Though the word Nadam and sound seem to mean the same, there is a difference if viewed from the point of view of music. Sounds that create disturbances in the minds of the listeners can also be called noise. Nadam however generates joy. Nadam is of two kinds. One is “ahatha nadam” and the other “anaahatha”. Nadam produced by human effort is called “ahatha” and that which is natural is “anaahatha”. This is experienced only by yogis. Sound produced by musical instruments and vocal singing fall under the category of “ahatha”.
In the Middle Ages, Nada yogis proficient in music combined the musical system found in Hinduism with the sonic cosmology and philosophy of Tantra and the Vedas. But it is only in the past few centuries that the strongest connections between music and Nada Yoga have been established. Interestingly, despite the fact that Nada Yoga is the classical term for the Yoga of Sound, and despite many contemporary Indian musicians using the term Nada Yoga to describe the profound spiritual significance of their musical disciplines, it is perhaps the least documented of all the streams of sacred sound in Bharat.
This intimate knowledge of sound and form has given rise to all our great sciences. Hindu grammarians like Panini were cosmologists who saw the “rtam” or cosmic law emanating from the sound of the letters and words!
This ability to correlate sound and form is to be found in our sculptures also. All the great sculptures of our temples are based on certain mantras. The sculptor meditates on the mantra which manifests itself as a form. Only then does he start chipping on the block of stone. The form manifests in the stone with the repetition of the mantra. All he has to do is to chip away the redundant material.
Ayurveda is the science of health as given in the Vedas. According to Ayurveda, our state of health lies in balancing the flow of energy (prana) through all the energy circuits of the mind and body. When this flow gets interrupted, by interfering with or breaking some laws of nature, the body begins to revolt. This revolt is seen and experienced in the form of different symptoms, discomfort and disease. Ancient people knew how to re-establish the lost harmony and rhythm of the body and mind by utilizing the power of “sound”.
In Ayurveda the names of the plants allow us to understand their medicinal properties! The Vaids (doctors) had an intimate knowledge of plant and animal life, which of course gave rise to an innate reverence for all life on this planet. The Sanatana Dharma believes in the integral unity of the cosmos and has evolved a way of life which will enable every individual to attain that unity.
Mantras evoke a certain spiritual frequency and bring about a particular state of consciousness. These sound frequencies invoke the inherent shakti or power contained within the vibration. A person who constantly chants a mantra is transformed in subtle ways. Since it is a sound, the benefits will reach out to the environment also. The mantras when directed towards any painful part of the body can actually direct the prana shakti to that point and cure the ailment. This is because these vibrations are coming directly from the Ultimate Reality or Nada Brahman from which creation emanates. The intention with which you chant the mantra will also influence the end result.
In the Tantric tradition every object has a phonetic sound or built-in name. An object can be known under many names but the bija mantra or seed vibration which is the nucleus of the object remains unchanged. If one is tuned into or united with the seed vibration one can get a complete understanding of the object.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s system of Transcendental Meditation does this. It uses the bija mantra which has to be chanted mentally until it replaces all other thoughts. Gradually the mantra becomes just a faint whisper. Then even that disappears leading to an amazing experience of the transcendental state of self-awareness. Thus, the sound retraces itself back to its source. Modern scientific research supports the claim that just the reading of the Vedic mantras even without having any knowledge of their meanings will produce a change in the psychological state. The vibrations of the mantras can take us to levels of consciousness that transcend language. This is why Vedic mantras were taught to children from the age of seven onwards. The seed is sown in the subconscious and benefits will manifest during the course of time, like the fruits of a tree. When repeated over and over again, it vibrates within the person and re-creates the reality from which it came. This is one of the reasons why Lord Krishna proclaimed in the Bhagavad Gita that of all yajnas, “japa yajna” or the repetition of the name of god is the greatest.
The association of sounds to music is one of the greatest contributions of the rishis. A raga is a given set of notes with a typical order in which they appear as melodies. The earliest raga owes its origin to the Sama Veda. Our gods are always engaged in music and love the Sama Veda which is set to music. Hence when we sing or listen to classical music, we are also worshipping the gods. In the 11th century AD, Narada is said to have written the Sangeeta Makaranda which enumerates ninety-three ragas and classifies them into masculine and feminine species – ragas and raginis.
Each raga or ragini is associated with a definite mood or sentiment that nature arouses in human beings. The raga actually unites the law of phonetics to the physiology of the sound waves. Our rishis discovered that these ragas also had a definite association with certain hours of the day. When they were used at the correct times, they gave rise to definite changes in the human psyche. The classical ragas, are subtly attuned to the rhythms of nature. Each raga is to be played or sung only during certain seasons and at certain times of the day, which in turn produces a specific emotional effect in the musician and audience. One raga is played only at dawn in the spring, to evoke the mood of universal love, another is sung only during the evening in summer, to arouse compassion; still another only during midday in the rainy season, to summon courage. If this is done, they will have the desired effects. Some ragas can even produce rain if sung at the right pitch.
This connection of time with the raga or ragini is based on the daily cyclical changes that occur in our own body and mind which are constantly undergoing subtle changes at different moments of the day. The ancient musicians were particularly interested in finding out how musical notes affect and enhance human behaviour. Music has the power to make you feel happy, sad, disgusted and even to cure. Extensive research was carried out to find out these effects. Every word has Nadam or music in it. It is the way you pronounce it that brings out the music.
This knowledge has also been utilised in Ayurveda. The human body is dominated by the three doshas – kapha, pitta and vata. These can loosely be translated as “phlegm, bile and wind”. When these are not in proper balance, our body becomes diseased. These elements work in a cyclic order of rising and falling during the twenty-four-hour day. The balance of these three elements also differs with the seasons. Hence it is said that performing or listening to a particular raga or musical composition at the proper time can definitely affect the health of human beings.
As usual with Hinduism, the Veda personifies these primordial vibrations into the form of the goddess known as Vak (speech). In the Puranas she later came to be known as Saraswati. She is the one that bring forth the root sounds that create all ideas and rhythmic vibrations that create concrete objects. She is the generator of the worlds and the material out of which worlds are made.
She is the great flood of rtam or truth who inspires true seekers to reach the truth in You in all its forms. She enables one to perceive, understand, and express in words the true nature of Reality and the way it is transformed into objects. It is the goddess that made it possible for rishis to hear, grasp, and reveal the truths of existence, to devise, and create the hymns and rituals that express the reality of their visions. She bestows vision to the seers. She gives wisdom to the wise.
She expresses herself in four ways, unmanifest, potential, mental image and outer gross expression. On one level, Mother Vak is sacred speech including the hymns and ritual chants. On another level she is also ordinary speech among ordinary people. But she is far more than speech and includes the power of perceiving, grasping the nature of things, naming them, and expressing the perception with coherence and form. Her nature is subtle, eternal, imperishable, and above all incomprehensible. Even though she helps us to comprehend all, she herself remains incomprehensible. Vak Devi also personifies the sounds of nature (including the ones from animate and inanimate sources) with which human speech is connected. She bestows all sounds with meaning, from the sound of wind and water to that of human speech.
“Each entity in this creation has its own particular rhythm, its own note in the universal harmony. From pulsing quasars to oscillating electrons – from the ultrasonic melody of mountain ranges to the ceaseless reverberation of all creatures, singing and drumming, whirring and clicking, laughing and crying – all the notes are orchestrated in a vast cosmic concert which produce certain changes in the atmosphere. The source of this ceaseless rhythmic movement is the Infinite Consciousness, soundless and still – the Ocean of Peace. Undisturbed by any vibration, it flows in an infinite straight line through eternity. Vak Devi is responsible for the magic that creates this endless, mutable world of phenomena out of this Ocean of Infinity”.
Having understood the greatness of Shabdam and Nadam it is our duty to see that we do not disturb these magical cosmic vibrations by producing cacophonic sounds and negative thoughts which are what is causing the catastrophic changes that we see occurring on this planet. Let us supplicate Maa Saraswati to purify our thoughts and thus create a perfect universe of forms.
Aum Tat Sat!
