Shabd
signifies Sound Principle What
is the sound and how is sound produced, are the natural questions in this
context. Some say that sound is
produced when two things strike, one against the other. Others say that where there is vibration,
there is sound. It is, of course, true
that sound does follow concussion and vibration. But the Sound of which the saints speak is different from what we
ordinarily mean is common parlance. It
is something very subtle and is characterized by Consciousness as exhibited in
fecundity and growth principles. It is
the very life of life that permeates in all things, visible and invisible. It is an active and live agent of Godhead
and may briefly be described as God-in-action.
This
Sound Principle is Jnana or the real knowledge of the Rishis of old, the Cult
of Eternal Life of Zoroaster, Logos of the Greeks, Tao of the Chinese, Budhi or
enlightenment of Gautama and Sphota or Sound-essence of the philosophers. Dhum or the Sound Current is
both true knowledge and true meditation and remains indescribable all the
same. *31 GURU
NANAK This Sound is in Its
fullness in everything, though the measure of Its manifestation may very from
one thing to another. It is evfen in
stones and wood, apparently insensate things. The fact is that all things in Nature are of atoms and atoms are
full of energy as the Phrase "Atomic energy" donotes. It is because of this energy that the atoms
are always in a state of motion and as they vibrate, a natural rhythmic sound
is produced. Recent researches in
science testify to this truth. * "Change" is the law of life
ultimately depend on the Sound Principle working in space and out of space. Every second, every mintute
and every hour, the world is
in a state of continuous flux. Scitntists have found that
even the mighty Himalayas are growing from age to age. The growth may be imperceptible, but surely
it is there-- it may be a fraction of an inch in the course of a century or so. Thus all things in Nature are characterized
by vibration of rhythmic movement and this in itself implies the presence
therein of the Sound Principle, whether the things are moving visibly of
not. This Sound Principle is the
essence or "Jauhar" of one life in all things. Things full or empty are yet
filled with Music, See! How the sound comes from out of the drum. This Sound Principle is
all-pervading and is the very soul of all that exists. This current of life-consciousness is so
subtle that It cannot be heard unless one acquires transcendental hearing. A mystic has beautifully described It as
follows: Dry are the strings, the wooden body and the stretched leather, l Cf. Andrews, Donald Hatch, "The Harmonic Dimensions of
Nature," MAIN CURRENTS IN MODERN THOUGHT, Vol. 11, No. 5, May 1955. How do they give out the
divine melodies? Sound or Word is in fact the
Creator or the Universe. All this
manifestation is because of Him. Had not the Nameless assumed
a name, The world would not have
come into being. The beloved Lord God has
been calling us back from time out of mind, but the pity is that we do not
attend to Him. My friend is ever in
converse with thee, What a pity! Ye listen not
to the ancient call. SHAH
NIAZ The Sound of the Friend or
Beloved (God) is reverberating everywhere.
A Muslim mystic poet say of It: All the seven heavens are
echoing with the Sound, The ignorant do not hear it
nor catch the strains. HAFIZ By hearing ye shall hear,
and shall not understand; And seeing ye shall see and
shall not perceive. *32 CHRIST The Sound is by Itself and
of Itself. In the material or physical
region and materio-spiritual realms (Pind and Und), it is mixed up with and
enclosed by matter. The Master makes It
manifest in the Sukhman or Shah Rag in the region of the forehead. Hear ye the Music in the
Sukhman, and get absorbed in the unending song. Again, And thine ears shall hear a
Word behind thee saying, This is the way, walk ye in
it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. *33 ISAIAH For spiritual knowledge and
self-realization, the practice of the Sound Current (Shugai-I-Naghma-I-yazani)
is very necessary, for it is by hearing the Divine Music that the soul is
pulled out of the material and mental clogs of the body and is led to higher
spiritual regions from where the Sound whose reverberations are heard below in
the body emanates. It is a continuous
and unending Music, or which Maulana Rumi says, Catch hold of the Music that
lasts through eternity, Search for the sun that
never sets. Again, the people of the
world are quite ignorant of It. A rare individual practices
it after it is made manifest by some Master-Soul. Enter ye the temple of the
body and listento the divine melodies, Those sitting around thee,
shall not hear them. MAULANA
RUMI In the noisy swirl of the
work-a-day hurrid life that we lead, we cannot hear the soft and gentle echoes
of the Music floating down from afar.
All those who practiced the Sound Current, in whatever time and in whatever
clime, have spoken of these melodies, of course to the extent of their approach
and mental apparatus. Even now, those
persons, whether yong or old, who are put on the Way by some competent Satguru
with authority from above, do bear testimony to this sempiternal experience. In the Upanishads we have an
account of these musical notes. These
resemble to a centain extent the gentle murmurs of the vast sea, low rumbling
thunders of the distant clouds, the continuous splash of a waterfall, and
ultimately merge into the sound of a conch, and develop into the blast of a
trumpet, a thundering drum, sharp violin and a flute. *34 Mahatma Charan Das, in his
book "Bhakti Sagar," has described ten types of melodies--the sweet
warblings of birds, the chirping of green hoppers, tinkling of bells, sound of
the gong, conch, playing of cymbals, thunder of clouds, the roar of a lion,
violin and flute. In Hath-yoga Pradipka we
have an account of ten kinds of Nad, like the buzz of flower flies, tinkling of
anklets, sound of conch, bell and cymbals, flute, drum-beat and other musical
instruments, and the roar of a lion, etc. In Sar Bachan, *35 Swami
Shiv Dayal Singh Ji gives a wonderful account of the divine orchestra,
comprising ten musical notes resembling what has been said above, as one enters
into Sahansdal Kanwal or the region of thousand petaled lights. Madame Blavatsky, a Russian
theosophist initiated into theosophy in 1856 while in Tibet, the founder of the
Theosophical Society and the author of a controversial work, "Isis
Unveiled," writes in her book "The Voice of the Silence:" The first is like the
nightingale's sweet voice chanting a song of parting to its mate. The second comes as the sound of silver
cymbals of the Dhyanis awakening the twinkling stars. The next is as the plaint melodies of the ocean spirit imprisoned
in its shell. And this is followed by
the chant of Vina. The fifth like sound
of bamboo flute shrills in thine ear.
It changes next into a trumpet blast.
The last vibrates like the dull rumbling of a thunder cloud. Amir Khusro, a great scholar
and mystic poet (disciple of Kh. Nizam-ud-Din Christi), has described these
sounds thus: First is the hum of the bees
and the second is the sound of anklets, The third is that of the
conch and the fourth that of a gong, The fifth is a trumpet-blast
and the sixth that of a flute, The seventh is of a Bhir,
the eighth of a mardang (drum beat) and the ninth of a Shahnai (Naferi). And the tench doth resemble
the roar of a lion, Such indeed is the Heavenly
Orchestra, O Khusro. In these tem melodies a
yogin gets absorbed, The senses get stilled and
so doth the mind, saith Khusro. With the flourish of
limitless Music within, All the lusts of the flesh
and the deadly sins fly off, The Master too has a
wonderful world of his own, Khusro is now fully
engrossed within himself. *36 All these melodies come
swarming withinas the pilgrim soul starts on the Path; but of al these, one
must catch the sound of a gong or a conch for these in particular are connected
with the higher spiritual realms, the various mansions in the house of our
Father, None knows where the abode
of the Beloved is, But sure enough the sound of
the gong comes floating therefrom. HAFIZ Shabd has divine melody in
it: True Word emanates the
melodies of Sehaj, and the mind gets absorbed in Truth, Ineffable and wonderful is
the Word of the Immaculately Pure, and only a Guru's devotee implants it. *37 GURU
AMAR DAS Why do we not hear the Sound
Principle? Though Shabd is ever
reverberating in each one of us, we do not hear It. The reason for this is not hard to find. So long as the mind stuff is in a state of
perpetual stotm and stress, is torn by countless conflicting passions and
desires, feeds fat on the food of egotism, and is tossed about on the endless waves
of worldly life, it cannot possibly catch the slow and sublime rhythmic
vibrations of the subtle Sound, nor acquire any love for It. As long as the mind is in a
state of perpetual flux and unrest, and is filled with thoughts of I-am-ness, Shabd fails to impart its
sweet fragrance and Naam fails to inspire love and attraction. *38 GURU
RAM DAS Maulana Rumi likewise says: You ears cannot listen to
the Music of the Sound; Perverted as you are, you have lost the very sense of
hearing. In the Gospel of St.
Matthew, Christ says: For this peoples' heart is
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
closed; lest any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted and I
should hear them. *39 Shabd is the Voice of God
and His primal manifestation. It is
pervading everywhere in and out of space. The Word of the Master shows
the Way to Godrealization. *40 GURU
NANAK This Sound Principle has
often been referred to as "Bani" as well: Bani has been reverberating
through the four ages, Emanating from Truth, it
sings of Truth. *41 GURU
AMAR DAS The Bani pervades
everywhere. It is known as Shabd or
Naam, and has sweetness in It. In every age, Bani has been
known as Shabd, Sweet is the Naam and mind longs for it. *42 GURU
AMAR DAS What a pity! For the Jiva,
clogged as it is and hemmed in by mind and matter on all sides, has lost the
angel in him and as such cannot listen to the subtle and sublime Sound of the
Beloved. Alas! Ye are improsoned
behind the walls of the finitude (body and bodily adjuncts), And listen not to the
sublime Sound of the Merciful. MAULANA
RUMI This sound is an eternal
call for a return home: There comes a perpetual call
from afar, Calling thee back to thine
own home. TULSI
SAHIB The Sublime Sound cannot of
course be heard by the physical ears.
There is a way for our listening to the divine Music which can be heard
by the inner faculty of transcendental hearing, and this can be trained,
developed and pressed into service through the grace of some Master-soul; for
no amount of worldly knowledge, wishdom and ingenuity can help in this. Though science hasnot yet been able to probe
into this mystery, yet it can be resolved and experienced by actual
experimentation in the laboratory of the Self with the instruction and guidance
of the Saints. The results of recent
scientific investigations have now revealed the presence of rhythmic motion
even in atoms, and scientific findings are every day coming closer to reality. How can we listento the
Sound Principle? The next question is how the
Shabd can be contacted and attuned with.
The saints tell us that we can listen to the Sound Principle if we can
introvert and stop listening to the outer sounds of the world around us. In other words, we must learn to recede into
our own Self by a process of inversion and become a Pure Self by releasing the
soul from the prison of the facts of life, before we can qualify the Self for
Self-realization, which comes by listening to the Sound Current. A holy communion with and practice of the
Sound gradually disenfranchises the soul of all that is of the world and reveals
the cult of love, life and light that is at the back of all creation. We have, in brief, to stop the energy
flowing out through the senseorgans, particularly the eyes, ears, and tongue
and concentrate it at the still-point in the body, the center of the soul,
leaving the mind high and dry, before we can listen to the Music of the soul in
Its fullness. Close down the three outlets
and attend to the ceaseless Music, O Nanak! in the deep silence
of the soul, there is a perpetual light with no sunrise and sunset. *48 Kabir says: Close down thine eyes, ears
and mouth, And hear ye the unending
melody of the Shabd. Shabd Niaz tells us: Sound is pervading the whole
world in Its fullness, Ye can surely listen to it
with transcendental hearing, This ye can do by closing
the outer bodily ears, For surely then shall ye har
the endless song, And it shall take you beyond
the sway of destruction and dissolution. Apart from the physical
senses, we have with us subtle senses much more powerful than the
physical. At present these subtle
senses are lying dormant and unused.
They can, by regular practice, be wakened into consciousness and pressed
into use in the astral world, where we can witness and experience supra-mental
patterns and colors just as we do on the physical plaine; nay, with much more
clarity and understanding than we do here. Alone with the five physical
senses, we are endowed with five subtle senses as well, These are of solid gold when
compared with the others of copper. MAULANA
RUMI Shabd can thus be heard by
the ears of thought. Both the soul and
the Shabd are of the same spiritual essence and as such soul can, without the
aid of physical senses, apprehend the subtle Sound. Soul is of the essence of
God and is His very own Self, And it can sing His praises
in an unspoken language without any outer aids (tongue, lips or palate). In the holy Koran also it is
stated that soul is the fiat or decree of God.
It is His authorization that pervades everywhere, upholding the sky and
the earth and all that exists. Where does Shabd dwell and how
can it be contacted? There are ten portals of the
body, of which nine are visible while the tenth is invisible. The citadel of the body has
nine open doorways, While the tenth is closely
shut in secret, None can have access through
the tenth, the Way in, except through practice of the Guru's Word. *44 GURU
AMAR DAS Enter ye in at the Strait
gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate and narrow is
the Way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. *45 Strive to enter in at the
strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be
able. *46 CHRIST As long as the soul is
wandering in and out of the nine portals of the body, it is always unwillingly
being drained of its secret energy or Johar.
With this constant flow of energy outside, it remains a complete
stranger to the Reality within its own self and does not know the latent
potentialities of Goodhood lodged in its very nature. A whore (mind ridden soul)
madly inlove with the nine portals can hardly get to Reality. *47 KABIR Guru Amar Das also advises
that we should close down our nine protals, still the mind and then "tap
inside" (as Emerson puts it) and push our way into the mansion of the
Beloved from where unceasing Music is flowing down day and night, which can be
contacted through the practice enjoined by a Master-soul. Closing down the nine doors,
seek ye the tenth that leads to thy True Home, There the ceaseless Music
plays round the clock and can be heard through the Master's Dispensation. *48 GURU
AMAR DAS Guru Nanak describes this so
beautifully: Sukhmana, Ida and Pingla
cannot be known unless the Inconceivable makes one conceive, O Nanak! the True Master
makes the Word audible by bringing one above the three. *49 This means that one cannot
fully commune with the Word of the True Master unless one completely transcends
body consciousness. In the realm of
mind and matter, as far as the five tattwas reign supreme, the Sound Current
works through them for the benefit of the physical creation; but beyond them is
the Word in Its primordial form unalloyed by any of these things. The Sound Principle stands
by itself and is independent of everything for it is self-existing. The siddhas once asked Guru Nanak, Where does the Sound abide
that ferries us across the ocean of delusive matter? Whereon stand the Pranas
(vibrations), as they extend out ten fingers from the nostrils? Guru Nanak thus replied, The Sound Principle abides
in us; though indescribable, yet I find It immanent everywhere, The Pranas are rooted in the
region of silence, but the Sound Principle is all-pervasive in Its fullness and
is self-existent. *50 Shabd
is the very life of our life. It is a
part of our being and we cannot do without it even for a single moment. But we cannot contact it unless we rise
above body consciousness. Search
for the Sound (the soul essence) in the body, and thou shalt be saved, By
devotion to the Master, I enjoyed perpetual peace, for in me is Sound, the
crest jewel of all virtues. *51 NANAK Our
human body is a receiving set for catching the Sound Current and like a radio,
has to be adjusted properly to bring it in tune with the ethereal waves. The Master, at the time of initiation,
connects the spirit within with the lowest link of the All-pervading Sound and
this contact can be developed by day to practice, to any length one may like. |