Naad Yoga – The Yoga of Sound
Yogi Bhajan said ?Yoga without mantra is not yoga.? Mantra allows regulation and integration of the powerful effects of Kundalini, allowing us to reach for the heavens and stay grounded simultaneously.
Many of you have felt the positive impact of chanting so I want to say a little more about what?s happening
Importance of sound
The entire universe is built on sound i.e. everything is vibrating at a particular frequency. Even things that seem not to be moving like stones are still vibrating at a very slow, low frequencies.
The bible starts with in the beginning was the Word, science describes it as the big bang. Naad Yoga is the merging of our sound with the UniVerse ~ the one sound.
Importance of listening
To listen fully to another and to hear both on the surface but especially at a deeper level what they are asking for is perhaps the greatest gift we can develop but it requires a quiet, calm mind. We are often not listening as we are waiting to make our point.
?You say things just to say them, you hear things just to hear them. You actually neither say things nor hear things, because you don?t perceive anything. If you cannot perceive, you cannot conceive, you cannot be pregnant, you cannot deliver. If you cannot deliver, you cannot nurse? You don?t need intellectual knowledge, you need experience. If you are sitting here and you want to get knowledge, it is already in you?.. What do we experience? We don?t experience Wahe Guru!?We experience self. And when we experience enough self, we become the Wahe Guru.?
?You listen but you don?t hear. If you speak too fast, too loud you can?t be trusted. Communication happens but it has a lot of cracks in it. It?s not bonded. It?s shallow and reactive there is no flow of the psyche, it?s just ceremonial. ?Devotees must be expansive; hear Granth, hear shabd, hear friends, hear your enemies hear those who are indifferent to you ? you?ll know what their trying to protect themselves from and so you?ll understand cause and effect? (Yogi Bhajan)
Shabd Guru
Phonemes are the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes one word from another. Shabd Guru uses this atomic level of language.
There are two systems of grammar ~ one normal, the other ?nirukta? meaning beyond the forms.When a sounds innate vibration corresponds to or in some way reproduces what it refers to, it is a sacred language. These are ?fundamental vibrations that resonate with universal energies within us?.
The more you more away from primary languages the less the connection of the word to the object.
Sacred sounds are basic word units that were put together according to the energy, emotion and awareness they create. In this context;
(1) Ordinary language is highly ineffective.
(2) An affirmation is usually a temporary fix and that?s assuming we know what we need. If not it will be difficult to maintain motivation; if it is not a call to our destiny that resonates in body and mind at a cellular level.
(3) Mantras cleanse the subconscious and move our karmic blocks so that we get clearer about what we really need. Man = mind and Trang = wave. ?The science of mantra is based on the knowledge that sound is a form of energy having structure, power and a definite predictable effect on the chakras and the human psyche? Happiness, sorrow, joy and regret are vibratory frequencies in the mind? Change the frequency and we can direct our emotional energy devotionally
(4) Shabd Guru awakens our spiritual intelligence. It is our inner resonance meeting nature?s resonance. A care free state of being. This is actually the opposite of being careless. We are directed, clear minded but non-attached. It is being fully at ease within ourselves and this being mirrored back to us. It is called sahaj. It is being confident, cosy and blissful.
Know how not just know what
Shabd Guru gives procedural knowledge that is in your cells and subconscious, not just representational knowledge in your ideas. It informs our formative tendencies to structure our structuring. It is the order behind the order. A spiritual DNA.
The sound is not indoctrinating or trying to put something on you! It is an agent to clear, to awaken. Shabd is a perfect weave of rhythm, sound, tone and focus. The raaga conveys the feeling and the poetry and the words convey the meaning. When a shabd is sung in the prescribed raag it gives the words an emotional charge. Different shabds relate to different common themes which are then conveyed through the mood of the raag. There are 34 different raags which convey the whole range of human emotion.
2 Voices
We have 2 voices one the ego and the other the soul. We are often speaking to others and ourselves from the ego mind. We need to establish a relationship between the mind (selfish and impatient side) and the soul (honest and sincere side).
Shabd Guru gives us a bridge to acknowledge both and get them to work together rather than against each other.
Ultimate aim
Anahat means ?unstruck? (the sound of one hand clapping). It is the re-established of the unity of self that has been fragmented, shattered by the ego. To be shunyia is to be zero. The mind is silent but full of universal oneness
