Shabd: Anhad (Limitless) or Anahat (Self-Existing)

 

Shabd is of two kinds: Ahat and Anahat.  Ahat is that sound which is produced when two or more things contact each other.  All the outer sounds, all the world over, fall in this category.  Anahat is that Sound which does not depend on "Hat" or contact of two or more things; it does not depend on anything whatever.  The Muslim divines call it Anhad, meaning unceasing, eternal or limitless as the term literally means.  Shabd Niaz speaks of It thus:

Hear thou one continuous and unending Music,

A music thatis eternal and beyond the confines of death,

Again,

When it has no beginning and no end,

It is therefore called Anhad or endless.

The Absolute Truth is both imageless and soundless, for all images and sounds lie dormant in that state of complete fullness within the eternal seed.

He is the Tuling Power over all that exists,

The unstruck Music too is His manifestation.  *132

                                                                       GURU ARJAN

With no form and no lineaments, His Music doth flow ceaselessly,

Shabd or the Sound Current is the creative life-principle of the Immaculate One.  *133

                                                                       GURU NANAK

 

In the Shabd there is light giving rise to music:

 

Sit steadily in the cave of the mind and then shalt thou witness the sounding fire within.  *134

                                                                       GURU ARJAN

There the unending melodies float,

And the mind drinks the nectar thereof.  *135

                                                                       GURU NANAK

This Anahat Dhun (self-existing Music) is going on all the time and is eternally endless:

The self-existing Music is eternal and continuous,

Be ye saturated in the infeffable sweetness of the Sound Current.  *136

Night and day the ceaseless strains float down.  *137

                                                              GURU NANAK

The melodious strains of the unceasing music are ineffably sweet and charming:

Countless are the notes in the unending Melody,

The charming sweetness whereof is ineffable indeed.  *138

                                                                                 GURU ARJAN

Innumerable are the melodies that are going on before the Court of God:

The sorrows are afflictions of the ages are blown away,

The endless Music plays continuously at His Court.  *139

                                                                                 GURU ARJAN

What is there to indicate the abode of God?

There plays the heavenly Music all the time.  *140

                                                                                 GURU NANAK

The All-pervading Music is going on everywhere,

In the heart of all, there Divine Music flows.  *141

                                                                                 GURU ARJAN

Its reverberations are heard in the Gagan,

And charmingly sweet is the etenal Music.  *142

                                                                                 GURU NANAK

One can contact the Heavenly Music only when he transcends body-consciousness:

When the soul currents withdraw from the sensory plane in the nine outlets and get concentrated at the still point in the body in the tenth door at the back of the eyes,

It is only then that one, with the guidance of the Master, is able to contact the heavenly Music that plays interminably.  *143

                                                                       GURU AMAR DAYS

Close thy outgoing faculties,

And hear the eternal Melody.  *144

                                                                                       KABIR

Bhai Gurdas Ji says thus:

When the soul is absorbed in the Word,

It gets lost in the sublime Music.

When the soul is engrossed in the Word,

The unending Music floats down.  *145

The communion with the Anhad Shabd is the only source of perfect knowledge, true devotion and the endless Song that glorifies God and man.

For perfect knowledge and devotion and the story of the great God,

Listen ye ever to the Anhad which is the food of the devotees and destroys all their fear.  *146

Anhad Shabd can be contacted beyond the plane of the senses; none can reach it by his own unaided efforts, without the grace and guidance of the true Master.  Its manigestation comes as a pure gift from the Master ( Gur Parsad).

Anhad Shabd is vry exhilarating,

But one gets to it by the Master's grace.  *147

                                                                                 GURU NANAK

O Nanak! one who has access to a perfect Master,

He aloneis enabled to contact the eternal Music.  *148

                                                                                GURU ARJAN

The Anhad Shabd is the only way that leads to God and one begins to relish and enjoy God-intoxication only after the eternal Song is manifested within.

The eternal Song becoming manifest within, one is united with the Beloved,

The lowly Nanak is now is perfect bliss, for he has found the merciful Lord.  *149

                                                                                 GURU ARJAN

It is only a devotee of the Master in whom the divine eternal Melody may become manifest.

The worldly wise cannot reach it.

The Creator has ordained it as a fundamental law,

The eternal Song can be heard through communion with the Word,

It is made manifest in the devotee of the Master and in no one else,

In the mighty swirl of the mind one forgets it and the godman reminds of it,

This Law has been in operation throughout the ages.  *150

GURU AMAR DAS

With the practice of the eternal Soung Current, one is purified of all sings and lusts and is washed clean of the karmic impressions of all previous births, and with the light of Self-knowledge and God-knowledge he rises into Brahm and Par Brahm and reaches far beyond into the Kingdom of God, his eternal heritage.  The "Lost Word" comes back to light and life only through the grace of a competent Master, as a free gift to whomever He may choose to grant it.