Vibration, the Life’s Mystery

By T V Sairam*

It is an age-old concept that everything we come across in the universe is energy, manifesting itself through unique patterns of vibration.

One could feel them within and sense them without.

Vibration forms the very core of our existence. When everything in or about us transforms, ages and rots off, all that is let out is just vibration.

All universal manifestations – both animate and inanimate - that we see, hear, touch, smell and taste are made of vibration, for vibration and by vibration.

The sound intonation, celebrated as nada in the ancient Indian system of nada yoga, has of late, come to be re-interpreted by the present day scientists- the physicists, neurologists and psychologists.

Thanks to the great strides made in neuro-imaging and brain-mapping techniques, the impact of sound vibrations on the functioning of the brain and on the human behaviour pattern has come to be increasingly studied and interpreted in recent years.

Thus, we know how certain sound patterns and rhythmic pulsations can influence certain brain wave patterns, which can cause alertness or relaxation, as desired by an individual.

Apart from the beta brain wave pattern which denotes alertness, scientists have also put an individual in high alert (e.g., beta waves) or in a deep state of relaxation (alpha or theta waves.)

Resonance is the universal striving of objects to vibrate in harmony – in other words, vibrating at the same rate.

School children are familiar with the experiments in physics, using tuning forks. When you strike a tuning fork and keep it near a similar tuning fork without having to touch each other, the second fork starts vibrating precisely like the first one! This phenomenon of resonance, though appears simple to the young scientists, holds many a mystery within its entraining capabilities. Some experiments suggest that entrainment of vibration could take place, even within those range of sound frequencies, which are not audible to the human ears.

While mapping the brain states of individuals engaged in various activities, Anna Wise has amply demonstrated that the brain wave patterns of a mother and a nursing infant almost match with each others, whereas in a quarreling couple they are displayed in dissimilar patterns. Wise also holds a firm belief that the use of binaural beats and the entrainment of the brain to controlled frequencies can increase our creative potential and produce what she refers to as the ‘awakened mind condition’ in which all levels of consciousness are accessible for creative thinking or problem-solving.

While the fundamental tone in all music remains the same, it is the overtones, the sound vibrations hovering above this tone, that plays magic. Monks in the Himalayas concentrate on such harmonics, emanating from their ‘singing’ bowls to reach into higher (or deeper) realms of consciousness. The practice is akin to the minute observation made by a carnatic musician when holding steadily the tara ‘sa’ . The overtones (tarasthayi antara ‘ga’ and ‘pa’) can be heard by him as shifting echoes.

Laya, a Sanskrit term which refers to a combination of tempo and rhythm, inter-woven, can also be made explicit by a strange fusion of a sound and a gap (silence). Here, mathematics gets itself transformed into art.

Laya prajna, the perception of laya refers to an ability to perceive the minutest fragments of Time, the symbolic significance of tempo or gait, and spacing of notes – all capable of affecting our mood to a great extent.

It’s again the magic in music that sweeps us away from our mind’s orientation towards Time. Time, as we know, is always there –in our beta consciousness - – whether the music is progressing or not. Simple events such as the arrival of music or the stretching of a note (karvai) –disturbs (or expunges) our mind’s orientation towards Time.

When we talk of music, or read or write about it (as you and I are engaged at this moment), music seems to have an existence altogether different and isolated from us. Conversely, as we listen to it with all our devotion, we tend to identify it with our very own being, thoughts or wisdom – almost as an inseparable part of our very existence here and now!

All through, we curiously forget that it is our very mind that has made its very existence possible! It is this advaitism that comes in the way of a rational discussion on music.

Yoga teaches us to look within to discover our own Self; nada yoga teaches the same thing to discover the nada intonation which is taken as our own Self. Whether nada intonation leads to the discovery of the Self or the Self leads towards nada intonation is a million dollar question. Like whether chicken came first or the egg! The mysteries that surround music make it all the more magical!

(The author can be contacted at his e-mail: tvsairam@rediffmail.com)