What happens in your body when you hear the perfect piece of music? Ancient Yogis knew it was far more than just an emotional response. Through their mastery of sound, they developed a science that could activate 108 energy centers in the human system, opening doors to transcendental dimensions of consciousness.
Sadhguru: Recently, there have been news reports about a study suggesting that genetics accounts for up to 54 percent of one’s ability to enjoy music. But these findings might change as research centers continue to release new and sometimes conflicting studies, often driven, unfortunately, by commercial interests rather than pure scientific inquiry.
If your father did not enjoy music, it does not mean you cannot enjoy music. Every human being can restructure themselves in whatever way they choose. But what is music? Modern science proves to you that the whole creation is a reverberation, and so is sound.
When you arrange sounds in geometric perfection to achieve a specific impact, we call it a mantra. When you arrange sounds not only geometrically correct but also aesthetically appealing, we call it music.
Music is a way of producing sounds where rough edges are taken away, allowing them to flow smoothly, geometrically, and harmoniously. This harmony exists not just in the sounds itself, but in the forms that the sounds take. If you feed any sound into an oscilloscope – a sound measuring instrument – it produces a distinct form based on its frequency, amplitude, and other aspects.
Every sound has an associated form to it. Similarly, every form has an associated sound to it. Looking at you, we can determine which sound corresponds to your form – that is the name we would give you. When we utter the name, the sound and the form match, which has many benefits. This science is called Nada Yoga, meaning Yoga of Sound. It is a profound way of listening – not just to music, but to everything in existence.
In everything, there is music if you actually listen. Even within noise, there is music if you listen carefully enough to hear the pure sound beyond the aberrations. The essence of music is in your attention. Attention opens doors in this universe.
You need attention to open any door. If you develop keenness of attention, you can open any door – sound being one of them. I use the word “sound” because music is a certain pattern of sounds. All sound is important because sound is a reverb; life is a reverb; creation is a reverb.
Modern science has established that the whole existence is a reverberation of energy, oscillating between physical form and vibration. The source of all that is physical in existence is a reverberation or a vibration. The Yogic sciences recognized this many millennia ago, saying that the whole existence is sound because where there is a vibration, there is bound to be a sound.
Vibration is a general physical process, but humans can perceive only a certain range of frequencies as sonic sounds. Frequencies above this audible range are ultrasonic, and those below are subsonic; both are generally inaccessible to the human ear. Only in a certain state of sadhana, which is referred to as ritambhara pragna [1], may a few become able to hear sounds beyond this normal frequency spectrum.
[1] A heightened state of perception where one can experience the relationship between sound and form.
Music is a refined arrangement of the sounds that are already present in creation. Indian classical music emerged from a deep understanding of the human system. Every human experience – light and darkness, sound and silence, joy and misery, agony and ecstasy – is happening within us. We are the basis of our experience, and everything we do is rooted in the nature of the self.
Based on this understanding, Indian classical music has identified specific dimensions of the body that respond to both generated and received sounds. In Yogic sciences, the human system is seen as consisting of five koshas, sheaths, or layers: annamaya kosha [1], manomaya kosha [2], pranamaya kosha [3], vignanamaya kosha [4], and anandamaya kosha [5].
Among the five koshas, the pranamaya kosha is the most significant, consisting of 72,000 nadis [6] that converge and redistribute at 114 junction points within the human system. Of these 114, 2 are outside the physical body and 112 are within. Out of these 112, 4 are largely dormant.
There are 108 active energy centers or chakras in the body, divided equally between ida[ 7] and pingala [8] – 54 on the right and 54 on the left. Similarly, the Sanskrit alphabet consists of 54 sounds. These 54 sounds exist in 2 manifestations – feminine and masculine – totaling 108. These 108 sounds form the foundation from which the entire classical music system evolved.
Indian classical music is essentially about activating these 108 chakras or energy centers in the body, which leads to the natural evolution of the human being toward a higher level of consciousness. Indian classical music has never been merely entertainment but a way of evolving an individual human being into a universal entity.
This dimension of activating the human system and allowing it to evolve to its ultimate possibility by using these 108 sounds is called Nada Yoga. What we know as Indian classical music today evolved from this fundamental process.
[1] The physical body that is formed from food and composed of five elements (earth, wind, water, fire, space).
[2] The mental body.
[3] The energy body in the human system.
[4] The transitory body between the physical and the non-physical dimension.
[5] The innermost body, also known as the bliss body.
[6] The channels through which the life force or prana flows in the energy body.
[7] One of the three major pranic channels, located on the left side of the body, feminine (intuitive) in nature.
[8] One of the three major pranic channels, located on the right side of the body, masculine in nature.
