Looking at the nature of sound, Sadhguru explains that language is essentially a conspiracy between two people or a group of people. Sound is the substance of creation, but words or meanings are made up in human minds. He also explores the relationship between sound and light, which are both reverberations, on a fundamental level.

Full Transcript:

Language is a kind of a conspiracy between two people. When we speak in English, some who do not understand English language, they’re sitting like this (Gestures) because they’re left out of the conspiracy, tch (Laughter). Suddenly I speak in Tamil, all the Tamil people start laughing, English people (Gestures) (Laughter) – they’re left out of the conspiracy (Laughter). Because it is a conspiracy… it’s a widespread conspiracy so you don’t think on those terms. Suppose all of you know one language, just me and one more person know another language and I start speaking in that language, all of you (Gestures) (Laughter). “What’s happening?” Conspiracy, isn’t it (Laughs)? Sound is the substance of Creation. Meanings are made up in human minds. If you can evolve a sound within you… When I say evolve a sound… Sounds are of various kinds. There are some which are very refined sounds, there are some which are gross; depending upon the nature of the reverberation that it is.

Or in other words, everything is sound – the rock is a certain kind of sound, the tree is a certain kind of sound, this is one kind of reverberation, that is another kind of reverberation. The very air that you’re breathing is another kind of sound. The very body is another kind of sound. Same rock here and the same rock there as Dhyanalinga but a completely different kind of reverberation. So the same sound can be taken and refined to a certain level. If you already do not know about this – today science is entering this space, but in the yogic systems this is something that we’ve always worked with – today modern science is talking about how both sound and light are reverberations, but if sound has to become light… in theory it’s possible. Nobody has done it yet in the… in a laboratory, but if you multiply something like a hundred decibel sound, if you double it forty times over in hertz, you would arrive at a place where mathematically it’s become light. Mathematically it’s become light means in theory we can make sound into light. Well, we still have not done it in a laboratory, but once something is theoretically possible, practicality is only a question of capability. But this is something that we’ve always done within ourselves.

If you take a sound and incubate it within you, you can incubate the sound with a refined reverberation of your consciousness. The body is one kind of reverberation, thought is another kind of reverberation, emotion another kind of reverberation, consciousness a completely different kind of reverberation. What we refer to as consciousness is the most refined reverberation. What is beyond that we say, ‘Shiva’ – that means that which is not, because its reverberation is such that you cannot even know it is there. It is utter stillness, but there is a reverberation in that also. Now, if you take a sound into you and if you can incubate it in your consciousness, this sound can slowly be transformed into light. In the sense, you – at least the calendar artists know these things, somehow nobody else. Somebody is sitting, “Aum Namah Shivaya,” you will see immediately calendar artists will put light (Laughs) because somewhere he knows if he masters the sound and incubates the sound within himself in a certain way, it will transform itself into light.

So this process of making use of a sound or a reverberation or a mantra – we’ve been avoiding doing these things large scale because I always feared that… You know, if you allow one thing, then suddenly the whole ashram will become, ‘Ram, Ram’ kind of place. So we always banished those things – nothing to say. If you ent… In the Dhyanalinga if you utter Shiva also they’ll say, ‘Shh’ (Laughter). Different reverberations do different things to people, there’s no doubt about that. With mantra, with music people have noticed these things – different types of reverberations do different things to different individuals. But if you transform a reverberation from one dimension to another by incubating it within yourself consciously, one can know light from within and nobody around will miss it either. We will utter the same mantra again.