Peace of Mind: Shunya to Nada Yoga - Journey of Peace

By Pandit Amarnath

In the language of yoga, the purpose or the effect of continuous nada sadhana on the human mind is ananda - extreme bliss.

Nada, or sound, is divided into two parts - aahada and anhada, heard and unheard. Heard means that which is possible for you to hear 'through the physical ears', and unheard means 'felt', which is the condition of nada before it is musically shaped and regularised. Then come the shrutis, then swaras, notes, which from time to time have been explained by the masters.

Any musical piece which is conceived by a musician before rendering is of course anhada nada . Before rendering, somewhere you are listening and relishing, and then you utter. The jeevatma craves for nada . In any given moment, the jeevatma resides in one of five chambers of sound that are supposed to exist in the human body. The first is (diaphragm), then hridaya (cavity between the lungs), vaksha (chest), kantha (throat), and moordha (the upper portion inside the jaw). The jeevatma is believed to reside in the concentration of nada at a given point of time during singing.

The first step in nada yoga is shunya or nothingness. The most innocent state of the mind is shunya . There is always something before a feeling arises - that is shunya .

What comes out of nothingness? Anything. When your mind is dipped in nothingness then you wish to do the aavaahan . Aavaahan means craving for something. It is also known as sankalp or dharana .

Dislodging is the condition of the mind during aavaahan and the process of return is called yoga or union. Unheard music is felt, and then produced with the help of agni or power. The unheard is the stage after shunya. From shunya, comes the unheard. And, simultaneously, the heard.

Heard is a deliberate thing, when you try to shape unheard into heard. This very intention brings the processes of yama, aayaam, niyam, dhaarna, siddhi, samadhi and pranayama . These are the stages, not steps only.

Now where are the eight stages? These stages are nothing but different attitudes for the same thing. Sometimes you cannot differentiate one stage from another. You may be working simultaneously on four or five stages at the same time. There are no green signals in between. When you take a decision about something, it is dharana. To prepare for what you have decided you have to observe certain disciplines. That is yama . And so it goes on. Any matter you want to sing, that is nada sadhana . If you want to sing ragas, the same nada sadhana is raga sadhana . It is only when you concentrate on one discipline that you unite with that one - this is what yoga says. If your mind is on ten things at the same time, the energy is equally disturbed.

So the best way to measure your progress would be to see how peaceful you are with your music, to see how comfortable you feel with your progress in music. The purpose of any yoga is to find peace within; enlightenment is natural. You produce 'tremendous' music and still you are not peaceful.

On the other hand, you sing very little, but it gives you the utmost inner peace. That is the achievement of nada yoga. Nada yoga is your inner attitude towards music. It has nothing to do with a particular form or style. The attainment - the peak of attainment of any music - that is nada yoga.

(As told to Bindu Chawla, his daughter. From 'Conversations With Pandit Amarnath' (unpublished). March 9 was Panditji's seventh barsi.)

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See also: Peace of Mind, Peace on Earth, Life and Beyond, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)