Nadopasana

[vgvindan]

gobilalithaji,

cml wrote -
There is one and only telisirama whether I understand the meaning or not! I think it is this spirit of CM which was captured by the Trinity that we laud! No amount of secular or other linguistic compositions can capture it until we decode and find out what makes them tick! I for one woud like to know....

nick wrote
It is a quirk of life that the more an artist appears to sing just for their own pleasure, the more pleasure they give us and the more success they will have!

I think the thread is taking a different turn. cml's query is partly answered by nick.

There is one more dimension to it - nAdOpAsana

For the benefit of nick, I shall quote Bible - "In the beginning there was word, word was with God and word was God." Here, 'word' does not mean 'w-o-r-d' - it is the underlying sound - nAda. To find the source of this sound and be identified with it is, IMHO, called 'nAdOpAsana'.

For more on 'sphOTa' - http://www.languageinindia.com/june2004 ... hota1.html

For more on 'origin of sound in the body' - please refer to discourse of Kanchi Paramacharya Chandrasekharendra Saraswati on ‘parA’, ‘pazyanti’, ‘madhyamA’, ‘vaikhari – http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/DPDS26-30.html (Page 30)

[vasanthakokilam]

VGV: Your interpretation of "In the beginning there was word, word was with God and word was God." as nadopasana is interesting. Here is where religion and science start speaking in similar metaphors.

For example, in physics, the current hypothesis/theory about the most fundamental aspects is string theory. If you ask a physisict "What is a string theory", he would say something like this:

Think of a guitar/veena string that has been tuned by stretching it under tension. Depending on how the string is plucked and how much tension is in the string, different musical notes will be created by the string. These musical notes could be said to be excitation modes of that string under tension. So music is a sequence of excitation modes.

In a similar manner, in string theory, the elementary particles we observe in particle accelerators could be thought of as the "musical notes" or excitation modes of elementary strings. In string theory, as in guitar/veena playing, the string must be stretched under tension in order to become excited. However, the strings in string theory are floating in spacetime, they aren't tied down as in guitar/veena. So the world out there, the creation, is a result of these excitation modes of these elementary strings. If you stretch the analogy, the universe comes into being as a result of the symphony of these elementary strings.

The quarks are the Sa ri ga ma pa dha ni of the strings.

[vgvindan]

In the SankarabharaNa kriti 'svara rAja sudhA', SrI tyAgarAja states -

mUlAdhAraja nAdameruguTE mudamagu mOkSamurA

"That is the blisssful emancipation - to know the nAda emanating from mUlAdhAra"

Christ said "Those who are children shall see God" - Here, 'children' does not mean those who are 'infantile in age', but 'infantile in ego'

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa would, in his typical parable style tell - give power of attorney to the God.

Let us for a moment assume -

(1) that we are that child - as described by Christ - we have all our faculties functional as that of adults, but our ego is that of an infant.

(2) We have also known the source of nAda - emanating from mUlAdhAra.

(3) we are totally dependent on our mother - given power of attorney to her based on the promise of 'yOga kshEmaM vahAmyahaM'.

Given this situation, our mother is not to be found -
In a similar situation tyAgarAja cries - cry emanating from - not even nAbhi - but mUlAdhAra - a kRti in rati rAga 'shaNmukha priya' is born -

'vaddanE vAru lEru' -

O Mother! There is none to console me
(vaddu - Tamil 'vENDAm' - this is how a mother consoles her baby - 'vENDAm vENDAm')

addampu mOmunu jUDa nEnayamu angalArcitE jUci vaddanE vAru lEru

While I cry out always in order to behold Your mirror like face, there is none to console looking at me.

kOrikalu ilalO divilO koncemaina lEni nA manasu
dAri teliyu daivamu nIvu sumI tyAgarAja hRd-bhUshaNa ninu vinA

Aren't You the mother (God) who knows the bent of my mind which has no demands either in this World or for Heaven? There is none other than you to console me.

cml,
I have tried to answer your query.

[vgvindan]

[quote]“This means that everything has its sound and its form. . . . What we call life and death are both a recognized existence within a certain degree of vibrations. For instance when a person says, "This leaf is dead," what has made it dead is the change of vibrations. It has no longer the same vibrations that it had when it was a tree. Yet it has not lost its vibrations; it still has them. Thus according to the vibrations it is not dead; it has only changed into a different rhythm of vibrations. If that leaf were dead then herbs would not have any effect upon a man when he takes them as medicine. . . . The difference in the vibrations of dead and living bodies is a difference of their speed; it is a difference of rhythm.â€

[vgvindan]

The Nada Yogis have defined that Para or transcendent sound has the highest frequency. Para's intense vibration makes it inaudible. Various texts mention that the Para sound has no vibrations. It is a sound without movement or frequency. It is a still sound. We cannot grasp a sound which has no vibration. When a sound reaches its maximum height, then it reaches stillness - and that is Para Nada. It is completely uniform. A state of consciousness corresponds with this stillness. The Nada Yogi reaches this state by becoming one with Para Nada.

Music helps us relax and creates an atmosphere, but Nada Yoga reaches deeper and more precisely into our states - and the actual Nada Yoga, the meditation on the inner sounds, has a strong liberating effect in dissolving the very deepest blocks and inhibitions of the mind. Therefore Nada Yoga belongs to Laya Yoga (Laya = dissolution).

"The deer is entrapped by sweet sound.
The cobra is enchanted by sweet music.
Raga Punnagavarrali charms the cobra.
Nada entraps the mind.
The mind gets Laya in sweet nada.
Therefore you can easily control the mind
Through the practice of Nada Yoga"
(Swami Sivananda)

http://www.yogameditation.com/articles/ ... /nada_yoga

[vgvindan]

In order to understand what Nadopasana is, IMHO, it is ideal to start with Saundarya Lahari - Slokas 1 - 41.
If persons knowledgeable in Sanskrit - like cml and SS - are willing, we may take up one sloka at a time and discuss it thoroughly and then move on to the next one.
Once we complete this, we may take up Sri Vidya for discussion.

Any takers?

[tmohan]

SHE exists in the form of nAda(sound) given as nAda rUpa in Lalita sahshranAma i.e SHE can be perceived thro' this nAdopAsana.

SHE also exists as a coiled snake(kundalini) in mUlAdhara. THIS SNAKE can be raised by the rAga punnAgavarALi ( Reminiscent of this, MD , in the naVAvarAaVa krti in this rAga refers to HER as kunDalini.) to unite with sahashrAra ( 9th shloka in Saundaryalahari). Her gradual ascent may reveal many secretes about HER.

The nAdopAsanA has its own values of mediation . I feel llike drawing an analogy to the well known Nuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR) Spectroscopy. The magnetic field arising due this meditaion splits up the nuclear levels and the sound ( radio frequency)brings about the transition to characterize HER.

Regards
Mohan

[Music]

Great topic, vgvindan sir! I always thought nAdopasana means worship of nAda, where nAda is none other than Parameswara/Parameswari. Sounds like it is really beyond just singing devotional music of whatever form. It is probably linked in some way to musicians having transcendental experiences while performing/practising. Would love to hear more on Nadopasana.

[vgvindan]

Tirumoolar in his monumental work, Tirumantiram concludes that (verse 607) but for yogis, no one can understand the glory of the veena nada.

http://www.geocities.com/vipanchee/veena.htm

kaDalODu mEgaG kaLiRoDum Osai
aDavezhum vINai aNDaraNDattuc-
cuDar mannu vENuc curisangin Osai
diDamaRi yOgikkallATreriyAdE

கடலோடு மேகங் களிறொடும் ஓசை
அடவெழும் வீணை அண்டரண் டத்துச்
சுடர்மன்னு வேணுச் சுரிசங்கின் ஓசை
திடமறி யோகிக்கல் லாற்றெரி யாதே (607)

The roar of the sea, the thundering of cloud,
The trumpeting of elephant, the euphony of lute,
The music of the orbs
That glow in firmament vast,
The melody of the flute; the resonance of conch,
All these
The yogi true alone hears.
(Translation by Dr B Natarajan)

[vgvindan]

When we think of music, how it reaches to the height of heaven and embraces the earth; how there is in it communication with the spirit-like processes of nature, we must pronounce its height the highest, its reach the furthest, its depth the most profound, its breadth the greatest. When one has mastered completely the principles of music, the natural, gentle and honest heart is easily developed, and with this development comes joy. This joy merges in a feeling of repose. The man in this constant repose becomes heaven-like, his actions spirit-like. So it is when mastering music. One regulates his mind and heart." (Yao Chi.) Nor is it probable that our dynamic times would suffer from such occasional "repose."

http://www.blavatsky.net/magazine/theos ... neArt.html

[VK RAMAN]

Sadasiva Brahmendra has a kirtana u " Sarvam Brahma Mayam"

[vgvindan]

The following Chandogya Upanishad passage points out the importance of Pranavam (Udgita) for the Upasana of Brahman thru Nada: " This Om , this imperishable Udgita must be worshipped. Of all the objects of creation, the Earth is the essence; Of Earth, the essence is water; Of Water , the essence is Hebs; Man is the essence of the Herbs; Poetry is the essence of Speech; Music is the essence of Poetry; The Udgita of Sama Veda embodied by the Pranava is the essence of Music; Thus, this Omkaara (Pranava Nada) is the utmost, the most valuble , the final essence of all essences. It must be worshipped." This Upanishadic passage asserts that the Nada and Music are intimately connected to the Udgita of samans , which is the same as that of Pranavam. In this context, the Upasana practised by the Nada Yogis is considered equivalent to the meditation on Pranavam done by the other type of Yogis to attain God Realization.

http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/cgi-bin ... adhopasana

...in 1933, when the Italian dictator Mussolini was terribly suffering from insomnia, no medicine or therapeutic mode could help him get sleep. Pt. Omkarnath Thakur, a great shastric musician was visiting Europe around that time. When he heard of Mussolini’s affliction, he agreed to perform remedial musical programme to allay the latter’s sufferings. His performance of the raga puriya indeed worked magically and Mussolini went into deep sleep within half-an-hour....

http://www.akhandjyoti.org/?Akhand-Jyot ... rapyRagas/

[vgvindan]

SarngadEva introduces the concept of nAdabrahman for the first time in Indian music in an obvious analogy with Sabdabrahman and anAhata and Ahata nAda comparable to prAkRta and vaikRta dhvani. He speaks of sequential order of Srutis and maturation into svara at the final Sruti in much the same way as padasphOTa occurring at the final syllable of the pada.

Just as the grammarian regards varNa as born of Sabda, SarngadEva holds varNa as emanating from nAda. He employs the term dhvani as actualised sound in the context of the Sruti experiment and as a synonym of the voice in the context of voice qualities. KallinAtha, while commenting on SarngadEva on his exposition of nAdabrahman, explicitly mentions it as sphOTa, synonymous with parA vAk and as illuminating the entirety of word meaning complex and as being of the nature of Sruti, varNa etc., comprehending the word and sound. These and similar references in ancient Indian musical literature allow the postulation of a sphOTa model for musical meaning, recalling to the mind BhartRhari's awe-inspired exclamation :

svaravRttiM vikurutE madhau puMskOkilasya kaH?
What causes the cuckoo to sing in the spring?

Meaning in Music (R. Sathyanarayana)
pdf version may be downloaded from -
http://www.musicresearch.in/categorydet ... p?imgid=46

[vgvindan]

I must say that even for an interested person with an overaverage familiarity with technical terms such as myself, the technical articles are a tough read and are probably wasted on most musicians. I am reminded of another discipline of technological investigation into the world of sound which is called 'Cymatics ' and was developed by a Swiss Engineer, Hans Jenny. I will not go in to all the details here but basically he went on where Chladni left off (copper plate, fine sand, violin bow) and researched the relations between sound and the visual wave-patterns it induces in liquids or other forms of matter and produced incredible results, which are all documented a long time ago. At some point, the sound of Tibetan monks chanting was input, and the visual output is unmistakably a close reminiscence of the Shri-Yantra which is for centuries of Buddhist lore the visual counterpart of the corresponding mantra that had been chanted. I think this discovery carries many meaningful implications.

(Tempus Fugit)
http://www.omenad.net/page.php

[rshankar]

in 1933, when the Italian dictator Mussolini was terribly suffering from insomnia, no medicine or therapeutic mode could help him get sleep. Pt. Omkarnath Thakur, a great shastric musician was visiting Europe around that time. When he heard of Mussolini’s affliction, he agreed to perform remedial musical programme to allay the latter’s sufferings. His performance of the raga puriya indeed worked magically and Mussolini went into deep sleep within half-an-hour....

In a purely lighter vein - A wonderful imagery of 'putting a fascist dictator to sleep' arises before my eyes! Too bad the act was merely literal......

[arasi]

[vgvindan]

rs,
Let us concede that we look at History of Europe from the angle of British only - that is how we have been conditioned.
Notwithstanding our calling Mussolini and Hitler as Fascist, we do not know what an average Italian or German feels about these personages who changed the History of the World - but for the Second World War, for all you know, India might still be under British dominion.

[vgvindan]

....we find that the precise construction ..... of the SrI yantra ..... would involve a very high level of the mathematical knowledge. As we know, the medieval and ancient Indian mathematicians did not possess knowledge of higher mathematics, even at its golden period (7-12 century AD) of outstanding achievements. One of the possible ways to solve this paradox is to suppose the possibility of exisence of unknown cultural-and-historical alternative of mathematical knowledge, e.g. the highly developed tradition of special imagination.
The SrI yantra, as shown here, is a very complicated and many-sided object, and for its deep study it is required to apply efforts by specialists from different fields of knowledge : mathematics, history, ethnography, psychology, philosophy, etc.

We cannot resist quoting again The Tantric Way: SrI yantra, in its formal content, is a visual masterpiece of abstraction, and must have been created through revelation rather than by ingenuity and craft.

...the separate elements and the whole composition of the SrI yantra were constructed in ancient India with precise adjustment to the mechanisms of human perception and nervous activity up to the neuron organization. If we distinguish between two ways of development of science - on the one hand the 'explanatory' approach of modern science based on directed experiments, and on the other hand the way of 'recipes' of the ancient science based upon century-long selection from day-to-day experience, then we can treat the SrI yantra as a peculiar 'crossing', wherein the ancient achievement can be understood only in terms of the latest physiological and neurological data."

For more details and references, please refer to -
http://www.selfreferral.com/sriyantra/

[vgvindan]

Some experts in acoustics are of the view that a well-trained ear becomes capable of perceiving 50 notes in an octave!
According to a yogi whom I met sometime back such an experience is possible by coordinating one’s sense of hearing with his ‘inner’ (anahata) hearing capabilities.

Sairam TV
http://www.musictherapyworld.de/modules ... Sairam.pdf

[VK RAMAN]

Thank you vgvindan.

[vgvindan]

Anahata–the Condition of the Relationship between Sonic Elements

In Indian musical theory there is a concept of Anahata that is the "unstruck" sound.
This unstruck sound is not perceived in auditory terms but is perceived non-verbally
by the internal perceptual capabilities of the human mind. Anahata is the aggregate
effect of different relationships adjusted by the aesthetic sense of the artist.

The condition of the relationship among musical elements operates at many levels and
is perceived non-sonically. Some of these conditions include:
• Condition of the relationship between frequencies.
• Condition of the relationship between timbres.
• Condition of the relationship between volumes.
• Condition of the relationship between musical sounds.
• Condition of the relationship between musical phrases.
• Condition of the relationship between the composition and its environment.
• Condition of the relationship between composition and the time of its
rendition.
• Condition of the relationship between composition and season.

The above-mentioned relationships are a rough estimate of the hierarchy of the nonsonic
aspects of music. John Sloboda refers to this relationship by giving an example
of a chess master:

For a chess master, the mental representation of a chess position is not a copy
of physical board. It is a more abstract structural description of the meaningful
relationships between groups of pieces. Through many years of experience he
has acquired automatic perceptual mechanisms, which rapidly pick out
frequently occurring strategic patterns from the input. (Sloboda 1985: 4)

In a Composer’s mind, it is the arrangement of specific emotive values that constitute
the emotional state. This emotional state is driven by a motivation, therefore it
becomes hierarchical. The motivation that operates in the unconscious mind is the
theme of the composition.

By definition, a musical phrase is an expression of the emotional state. In an
emotional state, emotive values are arranged in terms of their tendency and intensity
and contextual positions. Moreover, an emotional state is a depiction of certain mental
processes giving rise to an intricate structure of emotive values. The intricacy itself
gives rise to the feel of that particular emotional state. Emotive values are entangled
in terms of intensity, tendency and contextual position along with their operative
simultaneity. The simultaneity in this arrangement expresses itself in a state of
continuous flux. The continuous flux is actually the pregnancy of the emotional state
that constitutes the potential of the emotional state.

The potential of a phenomenon is a determining factor of its Ideal state. For instance
if one becomes able to understand the potential of a silicon chip in terms of its
structure he can also understand its maximum functioning or an ideal silicon chip by
keeping in mind its structural and functional limitation. Thus, the potential of a
phenomenon not only describes its ideal state but it also provides a sense of direction
in terms of its practical significance and usability.

In the mind of the composer-performer the simultaneity constitutes the potential of the
emotional state. In rendering a musical composition, the conversion of this
arrangement into progression is actually a conversion of the potential energy of the
emotional realm into the kinetic energy of the biological and sonic realm. Factually,
this conversion results in the manifestation of the properties of emotive values into
certain relationships in a hierarchical manner, among sonic values in the sonic realm
or the progression phase. The condition of the relationship communicates nonsonically
to the listener by means of his aesthetic sense.

Ajmal Husain
(pdf version may be downloaded from here)
http://sanjannagar.org/papers/sipa-unes ... report.pdf

[vgvindan]

Music is the echo from a transcendent harmonious world; it is the sigh of the angel within us. When the word is silent… and when our mute hearts lie only behind the ribcage of our chest, then it is only through music that men call to each other in their dungeons, and write their distant sighs in their wilderness. — Jean Paul Richter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_music

I told Wittgenstein that I had been listening to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, and how impressed I had been by the second movement. Wittgenstein: ‘The chord with which that slow movement opens is the colour of that sky’ (pointing out of the window). ‘At the end of the war, when we were retreating before the Italians, I was riding on a gun carriage and I was whistling to myself that movement. Just at the very end of the movement Beethoven does something which makes one see the theme in an entirely different light.â€