The Source of Music

By Sri Chinmoy

Whether you are a musician or a music-lover, Sri Chinmoy's advice and guidance will help you understand the inner meaning of music and creativity. In this book Sri Chinmoy explains spiritual approaches to composition and performance.

In the first part of this book, Sri Chinmoy explores the spiritual dimensions of music. He sees music as a vehicle to expand one's consciousness and as the living expression of the divine Consciousness within: "Music means self-expansion and oneness. The self expands through music. The self that expands is not the individual self but the unlimited Self. Music is the expansion of the unlimited reality."

Part two explores the use of mantra and japa for spiritual growth and fulfilment. From the Gayatri mantra to the money mantra, this book provides detailed instructions on chanting, including specific mantras for spiritual progress, health, wealth and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sri Chinmoy
• Release date: Jul 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781938599903

Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy was born in the small village of Shakpura in East Bengal, India (now Bangladesh) in 1931. He was the youngest of seven children in a devout family. In 1944, after the passing of both of his parents, he joined his brothers and sisters at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a spiritual community near Pondicherry in South India. He prayed and meditated for several hours a day, having many deep inner experiences. It was here that he first began writing poetry to convey his widening mystical vision. He also took an active part in Ashram life and was an athletic champion for many years. Heeding an inner command, Sri Chinmoy came to the United States in 1964 to be of service to spiritual aspirants in the Western world. During the 43 years that he lived in the West, he opened more than 100 meditation Centres worldwide and served as spiritual guide to thousands of students. Sri Chinmoy’s boundless creativity found expression not only in poetry and other forms of literature, but also in musical composition and performance, art and sport. In each sphere he sought to convey the diverse experiences that comprise the spiritual journey: the search for truth and beauty, the struggle to transcend limitations, and the supremely fulfilling communion of the human soul with the Divine. As a self-described student of peace who combined Eastern spirituality and Western dynamism in a remarkable way, Sri Chinmoy garnered international renown. In 1970, at the request of U Thant, third Secretary-General of the United Nations, he began the twice-weekly peace meditations for delegates and staff members at UN headquarters that continue to this day. He offered hundreds of peace concerts, always free of charge, in the U.S. and many other countries. He founded the World Harmony Run, a biennial Olympic-style relay in which runners pass a flaming peace torch from hand to hand as they travel around the globe bearing the message of universal oneness. And he established the Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles humanitarian organization, which serves the less fortunate members of the world family by supplying food, medical and educational equipment and other urgent support. On 11 October 2007, Sri Chinmoy passed behind the curtain of Eternity. His creative, peace-loving and humanitarian endeavours are carried on worldwide by his students, who practise meditation and strive to serve the world in accordance with his timeless teachings.

Book preview

The Source of Music

Sri Chinmoy

AUM PUBLICATIONS   NEW YORK

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Sri Chinmoy’s first book,

Meditations: Food for the Soul,

was published in 1970.

Copyright © 1995 Sri Chinmoy 

Copyright © 2012 Sri Chinmoy Centre (ebook)

ISBN: 978-1-938599-90-3

All rights reserved. No portion of this book

may be reproduced withoutexpress

written permission of the publisher.

Aum Publications

8610 Parsons Blvd.

Jamaica, New York 11432

www.srichinmoy.org

Table of Contents

one:     Music and Spirituality

two:     Vital Music and Illumination-Music

three:   Becoming an Instrument: Composing and Performing

four:    The Soulful Singer

five:     Mantras and Chanting

six:     Aum: The Mother of All Mantras

seven:   Listening with the Heart

eight:   Music from the Mountaintops: The Heights of Consciousness

nine:    God the Supreme Musician

epilogue: Master Musicians: Interviews with Pablo Casals and Leonard Bernstein

ONE

Music and Spirituality

If we can feel that

It is not our voice,

Not our fingers,

But some reality deep inside our heart

Which is expressing itself,

Then we will know that it is

The soul’s music.

* * *

The outer music

Comes from an outer instrument.

The inner music

Comes from the heart.

The name of this inner music

Is oneness.

* * *

Music is the inner or universal language of God. I do not know French or German or Italian. But if music is played, immediately the heart of the music enters into my heart, or my heart enters into the music. At that time, we do not need outer communication; the inner communion of the heart is enough. My heart is communing with the heart of the music and in our communion we become inseparably one.

In the spiritual world, next to meditation is music, the breath of music. Meditation is silence, energising and fulfilling. Silence is the eloquent expression of the inexpressible. Aldous Huxley says: After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

Silence is the source of everything. It is the source of music and it is music itself. Silence is the deepest, most satisfying music of the Supreme. Silence is like a stream that goes to one place and becomes a river, or to another place and becomes a brook, or to the sea where it is totally expanded.

Silence is the nest and music is the bird. The bird leaves the nest early in the morning and returns to the nest in the evening. Similarly, in the spiritual world, divine music comes from the inmost soul of silence.

Soulful Music

Soulful music immediately awakens and inspires our hearts because it embodies the Absolute Supreme. Soulful music is the Light that wants to express itself in a divine way. Even as darkness wants to manifest its authority on earth, Light also wants to manifest its Reality and Divinity in a specific way. Light is the soul of everything. Light is the soul of music, Light is the soul of love and Light is the soul of all art. When Light divinely manifests itself in the form of music, it is the music of the soul.

Music means Self-expansion and oneness. The Self expands through music. The Self that expands is not the individual self but the unlimited Self. Music is the expansion of unlimited Reality.

We can use music to help us in our spiritual life provided we know that music and the spiritual life are like twin brothers; we cannot separate them. How can we separate two fingers, two eyes? They sit side by side. If one eye is not functioning well, then we feel that our vision is imperfect. Similarly, music and the spiritual life must go together; one complements the other. Music helps the spiritual seeker to go deep within to get the utmost satisfaction from life, from truth, from reality. The spiritual life, in turn, helps music to offer its capacity and its strength, which is the soul’s light, to the world at large.

When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest. It climbs up and enters into something beyond. This Beyond is constantly trying to help us, guide us, mould us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soulful music, or when we play a soulful piece of music, we feel a kind of inner thrill in our entire existence, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined.

Music and Meditation

Next to deep prayer or meditation, music is of paramount importance. Meditation is like a direct route, or shortcut, to the goal. Music is a road that is absolutely clear: it may be a little longer, but it is quite clear of obstacles. If we can play soulful music or hear soulful music, the power of our meditation increases. Soulful music adds to our aspiration. Similarly, if a spiritual seeker wants to be a musician, even if he does not have a musical background, he will be able to be a good musician because prayer and meditation contain all capacities. You may never have studied music, but if you pray and meditate soulfully, then inside your prayer, inside your meditation, by the Grace of the Supreme, the power of music looms large. Then you can utilise this power in your own way.

Each time soulful music is played, we get inspiration and delight. In the twinkling of an eye, music can elevate our consciousness. But if we also pray and meditate, then we are undoubtedly more illumined and fulfilled than a music-lover who is not consciously leading a spiritual life. Each spiritual musician is consciously spreading God’s Light on earth. God is the cosmic Player, the eternal Player, and we are His instruments. It is the Supreme who makes the proper instrument. Then, it is He who makes the player play properly, and it is He who makes the musician.

The Power of Music

Soulful and spiritual music really helps us; it feeds our inner life. Music has tremendous power. With fire we can burn ourselves, or we can cook