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This work started somewhere in 2008 June. Post my joining my music class (Tilak Sangeet Vidyalaya, Dadar, Mumbai) I started going to listen to my Guruji (Shri Bhalchandra G Tilak) when he practiced. I simply went there, sat and closed my eyes. I heard, enjoyed and let things move as they could. I felt some connection between music and Yogic Chakras of human body. So I started exploring this and later started a post on Orkut community on Indian Classical Music.
(the following is taken from my first post on the Orkut Indian classical music community)
Post 1 (21Nov08) - ...Just was wondering if there can be any relation between swars/raags and the chakras.
7 swars - 7 chakras
if any raag can be used to invoke a chakra or help in spiritual practice of an individual.
I want to work on this and if anyone can help me explore this, that will be great. I am learning classical music but I'm still a learner and not a scholar.
Secondly, I believe people with profound knowledge of classical music have felt a type of trance (which I believe is termed as meditation in spiritual pursuit) when they gave their best performance, may be in general during their practice also.
There may be many more instances where spirituality and classical music can have similarity...
Post 2 (27Nov08) - ...I have heard that for each chakras there is an associated colors and some key inklings suggesting the activities of the chakra.
My personal point is - there should be Ragas which can help in spiritual pursuit of individual or help invoke those chakra and upward movement on the path...
Post 3 (23Dec08) - ...When I talked about chakras in my last post, I knew for each chakra there is a light designated and what I believe is - we can invoke these chakras through special swars or raagas... only thing is we need to either read any old and authentic book on classical music or experiment on these things with someone experienced (sage or spiritual person)...
Post 4 (24Jan09) - ...Happened to read the book titled Music as Yoga by Patrick Bernard (visit PatrickBernardDOTcom). I liked this book in parts and pages. Have made notes too. I believe it was the right time that I suddenly discovered it and got some more research info...
...Few points I am putting from the book for your perusal are relation of musical notes with chakras.
mULaDHaR CHaKRa
the note C and the bija mantra Lam
svaDHISTHana cHaKRa
the note D and to the seed vibration Yam
manIPURa CHaKRa
the note E and the bija mantra Ram
anaHaTa CHaKRa
the note F and the seed-sound Yam
VISUDDHa CHaKRa
note G and its bija mantra Ham
aJna cHaKRa
note is A and its bija mantra om
SaHaSRaRa CHaKRa
the note B and its bija mantra consists of all the sound frequencies connected with the Divine Names; these Names culminate in the maha- vakya or mahamantra A.U.M., which is the complete representation of the Divine and everything that is.
Page 109 - (I take this as how great Practitioners must had devised Raagas in ancient times in Classical Music) According to Young: “when a specific series of harmonically related frequencies is continuous, in more definite way it produces or stimulates a psychological state which is felt by the listener given the fact that such a series of frequencies will continually trigger a specific series of auditory nerves which, in turn, will carry out the same transmission operation from a periodic model of impulses to the series of points determined by their counterparts in the cerebral cortex.”
...
Experiment info
The background – As I wrote earlier – there should be Ragas which can help in spiritual pursuit of individual or help invoke those chakra and upward movement on the spiritual path. Only thing is, we need to either read any old and authentic book on classical music or experiment on these things with someone experienced (sage or spiritual person). Now, to experiment we have few data points as from the reference book “Music As Yoga” By Patrick Bernard and discussions on the forum here –
mULaDHaR CHaKRa – the note C and the bija mantra Lam
svaDHISTHana cHaKRa – the note D and to the seed vibration Yam
manIPURa CHaKRa – the note E and the bija mantra Ram
anaHaTa CHaKRa – the note F and the seed-sound Yam
VISUDDHa CHaKRa – the note G and its bija mantra Ham
aJna cHaKRa – the note is A and its bija mantra om
SaHaSRaRa CHaKRa – the note B and its bija mantra consists of all the sound frequencies connected with the Divine Names; these Names culminate in the mahavakya or mahamantra
A.U.M., which is the complete representation of the Divine and everything that is.
This and my earlier experience forces me to think that ragas with Vaadi notes can help individuals invoke particular chakra. Yesterday talking to another Art of Living senior teacher (Mr Bhaskar D Shirur) I came to know about one thing – Naad brahma – which is something practiced by music players.
Experiment – The idea is to try and explore few ragas in particular Vaadis and meditate; if this meditation helps meditators to experience something for a particular chakra we can infer that what is the relation between the raga and the chakra.
Aim – This work could be a great help to all those who are spiritual seekers or classical music practitioner. This would further be useful for other meditation practices at various schools – music, yoga and meditations etc. This is the opportunity to not only learn from experimenting but also help the coming generations.
What to do – To experiment we need
1. Recording (about three minutes) of few ragas with Vaadi of each note – C, D, E, F, G, A and B. These recoding can be used to help meditator meditate.
2. Few meditators for the experiment. Few could be informed about the trial and others could be control group. The group is –
· Not performing Yoga
· Performing Yoga
· Performing Yoga with various other meditation technique (Kriya Yoga, other meditations and Sudarshan Kriya)
· Other group who are regularly practicing music.
3. Few experts of music who can help explain things at various times and meditate simultaneously.
4. A place for experimentation.
Some questions –
Is frequency of each individual’s chakra is common or different?
Measurement system can be built on this because as of now there is no instrument available to know this.
Other posts will be updated soon... for curious rest of the post are at the following link - Orkut post orkut community Indian Classical Music