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FEATURE SERIES: Culture of Consciousness Part 2 -- In the Beginning was the Word (Continued);
SIDE BOX: The Botony of Sound; SIDE BOX: Celestial Music; SIDE BOX: The Six Systems of Indian
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• ANCIENT WISDOM • TIMELESS TRUTHS • ETERNAL KNOWLEDGE • PRECIOUS INSIGHTS •
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CULTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Part 2, Page 3
.
IN THE
BEGINNING
WAS		 .... . money. It was due to the fact that it
was they who dealt, on behalf of the
whole community, with the Gods.
In time, in India no less than else-
where, the hierarchical priesthood
no doubt became corrupt, to the
extent that when, in the 6th century
BC, Buddha came to revive the know-
ledge of Enlightenment, he rejected
all Vedic rituals and practices and
urged his followers to practise only
 .... PLAIN TEXT
THE
BOTONY OF
SOUND
THE WORD

.Continued from previous page

 . meditation and morality as the direct
path to freedom.
....Of the Vedic terms that have filt-
ered into popular consciousness, two
stand out: dharma and karma.
Dharma, ‘that which upholds,’ de-
 .... . Sound can destroy as well as create.
It is well known that many soprano and
contralto opera singers can shatter a
glass if they hit the right note and in Old
Testament times it is said that Joshua
caused the walls of Jericho to crumble
.
....All these scriptures are designed
primarily to be chanted rather than
read or pondered over with the
rational intellect; such chanting
purifies not only the chanter and
those who hear but the surroundings
and atmosphere at large. Such
purification is essential to the deep
understanding and experience of the
knowledge contained in the texts.
Thus, none of this is ‘philosophy’ in
the modern Western sense. It is not a
collection of verbal propositions to be
pondered, debated, accepted or
rejected. It is a living truth, designed
to expand the consciousness of those
fortunate enough to come into con-
tact with it. Historically, that con-
tact was quite limited as the practice
of Vedic knowledge was strictly
limited to the hereditary priestly
caste, the Brahmins. It was they who
were entrusted with the preservation

notes the order by which the cosmos
evolves. This eternal law regulates
and orders all the streams of evolut-

 . through the use of special trumpets.
The American biologist, Dorothy Retal-
lack, made some interesting discover-
ies by playing plants various types of
music. The plants showed no changes
when played middle of the road, muzak
and Country and Western. Hard rock,
on the other hand, caused weakness
and extreme loss of growth.
....Playing the plants the uninterrupted
sound of a natural F note all day caused
them to f-f-f-fade away completely. The
plants, however, responded well to
Bach, growing rapidly and leaning at an
angle of thirty five degrees towards the
speakers. Even more dramatic was the
effect on plants exposed to classical
Indian ragas. As well as growing even
more profusely, they angled themselves
more than sixty degrees in the direction
of the speakers and eventually twined
themselves around the speakers and
almost embraced them.
and transmission of the sacred wis-
dom that had been passed down in an
unbroken tradition from father to son
and from teacher to pupil. This was
and still is an oral tradition and

involved feats of memory that were
quite extraordinary. Each passage
was learned according to five systems
of memorisation, called shakhas. The
first system was, of course, to learn
the words of the passage straight
through, thus: abcd. The next system
was to recite them without the comp-
licated rules of elision being applied.
The third was to repeat each word
twice, thus: ab, bc, cd. The fourth
system was to recite the whole thing
in reverse order -- ab, ba, ab, bc, cb,
bc. And, finally, the fifth system was
to recite the passage in compound
order. So effective was this method of
 ion; thus, in order to progress in life
we must act according to dharma. This entails aligning our minds to the Source within, our Silent Centre, and acting as best we can in the world, utilising our talents not just for our own apparent advancement but for the benefit of all sentient beings. While this imposes a tremendous moral obligation to do right rather than wrong, it is coming from the right place rather than from a sense of acting only to avoid the punish-
ment of a wrathful heavenly Father, like the Old Testament Jehovah.
....Karma is a concept that is often misunderstood in the West, where it thought to be fate or predestination. The Sanskrit word, however, means ‘action’ and describes the eternal law of cause and effect, action and reaction. Even the Bible says: ‘As ye sow so shall ye reap.’ Karma is both the power latent within action and the results each action brings. Every action, without exception, will have consequences both immediate and universal, for each action not only affects the individual but reverber-
ates through the cosmos. Therefore, every thought or action is important. Our present life and circumstances are the result of our past actions and our future depends on how we act right now. The law of karma operates on all levels: individual, family, group, nation and species. As a practical morality, karma teaches that by seeing clearly how we affect others by our own selfishness, we can take responsibility for reducing suffering in our environment.
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....The oral tradition of the Vedas, the
chanting of the Vedic Pundits and the
intoning of ancient wisdom are the
sounds of the Veda. But, above all, the
Vedic song is a silent one, of freedom.
It is the song of freedom from all limit-
ations, from all that hampers the free
flow of life. It is the freedom that re-
moves all obstacles -- physical, ment-
al and moral -- from the path, that
gives freedom from transgressions
against natural law. All the freedoms
are celebrated in the song of the Vedas
-- freedom from disease, from poverty,
oppression, impurity, darkness and
suffering. When the Rishis of the Rig
Veda chant: ’May we be free, may we
be sons of freedom, may we be a
stronghold in the midst of gods and
mortals,’ (8th Mandala; Verse 52)
they are singing of the most profound
of all freedoms. Indeed, of the only
true freedom.
....And there is only one area of life
that is truly free -- the transcendental
realm of pure consciousness, Brah-
man, the Self.
....So the Rishis chant again: ‘ I have
known this Heavenly Man, effulgent
as the sun beyond the darkness; only
by knowing Him does one overcome
death; no other way is there to go,’
(Yajur Veda, 31.18.)
....A man is free only when he is
whole -- hale, hearty, healthy, -- in
balance with himself and the whole
cosmos. This is the state of Enlighten-
ment -- the ultimate goal of Vedic
teaching and of humanity -- and it is
this that we will be looking at in the
third and final part of this article.
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memorisation that out of the 74,000
known words of the Rig Veda, there is
only one variant reading: ‘mamsc-
aatch’ for ‘mamscatch.’
....Whatever the caste system may
have been at first, one thing is cert-
ain, what remains today is a degener-
ated version of the original. In pure
terms, the status of the Brahmins had
nothing to do with either power or
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 .
PLAIN TEXT
CELESTIAL MUSIC

ot surprisingly, the Vedic civilisation’s knowledge of the
power of sound extended to music and much of India’s great
musical heritage is based on the celestial rhythms, sounds,
notes and harmonies cognised by the Vedic Sages from the deepest
levels of consciousness.It is said that at such a level of conscious-
ness one can hear the music of the Celestial Musicians, the
PLAIN TEXT
THE
SIX
SYSTEMS
OF INDIAN
PHILOSOHY

The Vedas are the basis for Hinduism but Hinduism, itself, is no more than an extension of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. These six schools of thought are called Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimasma and Vedanta. It is said that knowledge is only true when it is acceptable in the light of everyone of these. Thus the truth of any state-
ment can be tested and proved, or otherwise, by applying these systems of analysis.
The first system, Nyaya, is the science of reasoning and anal-
yses the correctness of the procedure by which the know-
ledge to be tested was gained. It does this by applying 16 crit-
eria to the knowledge which reduce it to its objective base-
line. Having arrived correctly at the object of investigation through Nyaya, the qualities that distinguish that object from other object is establish-
ed through Vaisheshika, which identifies the object of inquiry beyond any doubt. Then it is the turn of Sankhya, which enumerates the different com-
ponents of an object according to 25 numerical qualities defined as being at the root of creation. Having defined the nature of the beast, it is the for the application of Yoga to provide some subjective experience of its existence. On one hand this involves the application of techniques of meditation designed to promote the ‘union’ that is the true meaning of the word and of a number of philosophical criteria that define the nature of Yoga itself. Knowledge of the modes of action of the object and its components is provided by Mimamsa, which investigation or close consideration. Essentially this looks at the nature of the action involved and its relationship with dharma. It does this by reference to the structure and content of the Vedic canon through rules of interpretation. It also provides a philosophical justification for the observation of Vedic ritual
Finally, we come to Vedanta, the philosophical school that is best known in the West and the basis of the majority of Hindu sects. Vedanta means the end of the Veda and is based around and devoted to the final book of the Vedic cannon, the Upanishads. Said to have been created by the great sage, Vyasa,who is said to have been the author of the Bhagavad Gita,Vedanta reveals the true nature of the object. It is concerned with Brahman, or the ultimate reality, and the relation between it and the finite individual.
Established through the Ved-
ic culture and long influenced by the Vedas themselves, each of these schools of thought was systematised by sets of sutras, which reduced the doctrines of a particular system of thought into a number of brief but memorable aphorisms, form-
ulas, or rules. Although each in its own way is of some importance in Indian thinking, it is Vedanta that reigns supreme as the most influentuial philosophical school.


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. Gandharvas.
...Indian music comes in many forms but it is mainly in its classical mode -- raga -- that it is best known in the West, largely through the cultural bridge-building of Ravi Shankar and his ebullient tabla player, Ali Akbar Khan. Despite the predominance of the raga as the representative musical form of the Indian sub-continent, there are many other forms, most of them with a religious or spiritual conn-
ection. Indeed, until the recent ascendency of the Bollywood genre of glitzy show music, almost all the art forms of India were based on the spiritual epics such as the Ramayana and the Maha-
barata. Both dance and theatre -- both often involving a narrator who speaks or sings the storyline while the actors and dancers portray the action -- have distnctive musical forms, often based on folk melod-
ies. These are obviously vocal musical forms, as are the kirtans and bhajans which are the equiv-
alent of hymns for ‘congregational’ singing praising various gods from the Hindu pantheon. Both these semi-classical musical forms are alive and well but living in India.
...(Interesting sociological note: The singing of bhajans remains a largely Indian practice. In India itself it is very common to hear bhajans being sung but in the West the practice is mainly kept within the Hindu community and the temples. Except. In Amster-
dam, bhajan singing by non-
Indians is a common place phen-
omenon.)
...It is, however, in the instrument-
al form of the raga (although ragas can have a vocal element) that Indian music is best known in the West.The term ‘raga’ means colour or passion and refers not only to a musical scale but to style and form. Although folk melodies may be utilised in the playing of ragas, it is an essentially improv-
isational musical form that is based around a particular musical scale of between five and seven notes and a particular time scale or tala. Each raga scale has associations with a time of day, a colour, a deity and a mood. By using only the notes within the scale, through a matter of
emphasis and dynamics, the
 .... .

with a rapid and often virtuoso display of fast finger-work that is both impressive and exciting. In India, the playing of ragas is a extremely interactive experience with the audience shouting encouragement to the musicians as the performance progresses.
...Although it is largely through sitarist, Ravi Shankar, and his association with Beatle, George Harrison, that Indian music came to the attention of the West, it remains heavily rooted in the Vedic culture. And, indeed, its precursor is available through the auspices of that revivalist of the Vedic world, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In bringing the ancient music of the Vedas back to the world as Gandharva Veda, the Maharishi describes it as: ‘. . . . the expression of the eternal music of Nature. It is the music that is in alliance with Natural Law. If you can hear the music of Nature as the sun rises, as it shines in the fullness of the midday, as the soft shadows of late afternoon spread across the land, if you can hear the sun set, the deep silence of midnight, the stillness of early morning and the first awakening of the dawn, these are the melodies and rhythms of gandharva music. They match perfectly with the cycles of Nature and the changing rhythms of Nature that govern the evolution of all levels of creation,
. performer sets out to create a
mood or atmosphere (rasa) that
is unqiue to but reflective of the
raga being played.
...Every raga is based around a
tonic note that is often maintain-
ed as a drone throughout the
performance of the raga. Although
ragas are almost invariably ens-
emble pieces involving between
two (a sitar or sarod player and a
. tabla player) and up to six players, almost all the stringed and some of the wind instruments in India have the facility of maintaining a drone. In the West, the lead instrument is almost always the sitar but in India many ragas involve the sarod and violin or bamboo flute.
...Although improvisational, ragas have a clear structure. Best known is the northern Indian form as played by Ravi Shankar, which is noted for its increasing beat and dramatic climax. Ragas always start with an unaccom-panied introductory interlude, called the alap, during which the soloist defines and explores the notes of the raga’s scale. Towards the end of the alap, the soloist will start to explore the tala, or time scale of the raga, and the tabla player and other musicians will join in. The raga will then go through a number of ‘movements’, called gats, during which the scale and time scale will be further explored and exptrapolated. As the pace of the raga quickens, there is often an electric buzz between the lead instrumentalists as they display their music prowess in rippling casades of notes and a drum beat that almost talks. The raga ends

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 .... . from the minute to the ever-
expanding universe.’ Who says hyperbole doesn’t sell records?
...The Maharishi claims that: ‘For centuries the magical and sublime melodies of gandharva music have been lost to the West.’ But he has done something about that by producing a set of Gandharva Veda CDs and tapes. These offer appropriate ragas for different times of the day and night and are said to neutralise stress and promote harmony, peace and balance in the atmosphere. Each CD covers a three hour period and provides a raga approximately appropriate to the mood for the time of day. The morning ragas offer melodies for dynamism (7.00 - 10.00) and joyfulness (10.00-
1.00.) There are also melodies for creativity, relaxation, compassion, love and happiness and a better sleep. Unusually for Westernised ragas, the Gandharva Veda pieces feature the bamboo flute as the lead instrument, altrhough the sitar and tamboura are not far behind.
...Despite the somewhat off-
putting sales hype, the ragas on
the Gandharva Veda CDs are
particularly beautiful and are, indeed, both relaxing and energising.
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........

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