Quest Magazine

Originally printed in the September - October 2004 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Elwell, Elizabeth."Unveiling the Mystery of Bhajan." Quest  92.5 (SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2004):177 -179, 185.

By Elizabeth Elwell

Coming home to the United States after spending nearly thirty years in India was a traumatic experience. For the final ten of those years I had lived in the spiritually charged atmosphere of an ashram, where my assigned role was to teach antiphonal chants known as bhajans to the hundreds of foreigners who arrived regularly from every quarter of the globe. Here at home everything had changed. I had to learn all over again, for example, how to pump gas and open childproof pill bottles; as for television, it was ages before I could distinguish the program from the advertisements. I had come home primarily to help nurse my terminally ill mother and had not anticipated becoming involved in any public way with the bhajan work that had kept me so busy in India. However, almost immediately I was asked to give a talk about bhajan singing. One sings bhajans and rarely talks about them—so obviously I would have to learn a new way to approach bhajan in order to explain it to others.

Bhajanis a Hindi word derived from the Sanskrit bhaj, meaning"to serve, honor, revere, love, and adore." Generally speaking, prayers, psalms, anthems, rosaries, hymns, and oratorios like the Messiah are all bhajans. Bhajan also refers to a spiritual practice, originating in Vedic times in India and now used all over the world, in which names of God are chanted by a lead singer and repeated by the congregation.

My life in the ashram had been busy and very practical. I had to learn to read Sanskrit in order to translate bhajans for the learners and really had no time to consider bhajans in a scholarly or analytical way. Fortunately, I had a friend here in the States who had visited the ashram many times, and I turned to her for advice. We began a conversation that has never really ended, and thus we were led to many exciting discoveries. It all began so simply . . .

"Well, let's see," said my friend,"what is a bhajan composed of?"

"It's a tune, some words, and singers," I replied.

"Well, a tune is sound, words are sound and . . ."

"A singer sings sound."

"Everything is sound. Maybe the singers are also sound."

"Maybe sound reaches sound!"

Our jaws dropped open; we knew we were on to something. Then, in a classic example of synchronicity, the very next day we received a notice that a lecture on sound was to be given at a local retreat center.

We attended, of course, and were shown a film about sound being used as a healing agent by many different practitioners. Both of us sat bolt upright, however, when a short piece of film showed a Swiss researcher named Hans Jenny making sounds with a violin bow that he scraped against the edge of a metal plate on which lycopodium powder (spores of the club moss) had been spread.

As he scraped the bow and produced a sound, the particles immediately arranged themselves into a simple pattern. As he made higher notes there was an instant of chaotic movement and then the pattern reappeared, this time a more complex one. The higher the sound, the greater the complexity became."Oh my, they resemble the diagrams of the chakras in Leadbeater's book," my friend whispered. We observed the various patterns made by more solid materials, like iron filings, which were very different in design.

So, in our first exploration effort, we had discovered that sound had the power to influence matter. Sound could destroy one pattern and create another of finer complexity. In the Hindu pantheon, Shiva creates and destroys, destroys and creates with his dance.

"Do you suppose singing the Name is creating and destroying something? Is it evolutionary and getting rid of the gross vibrations in us?" my friend asked. I could answer from my own experience:"Yes, most assuredly!" I knew that I had a body within myself that had not been there a dozen years ago. It wasn't composed of flesh and bones, but rather qualities like steadiness, a more refined love, patience, an indestructible contentment along with more intuitive skill at nurturing and caring for others. It had been tested and had proven strong and vibrant. A dozen years earlier not one person who knew me would have used the word"patient" to describe me. In fact, I thought one of the reasons I had been given the job of teaching bhajans was to develop this subtle body. Teaching bhajans would make me practice more than I would otherwise. I knew that I had been in a vigorous washing machine that had temporarily left me free of nagging, negative memories and bad dreams and that I looked at myself and the world in an entirely new way. I had developed a totally new paradigm of myself, the world in which I lived, and my role in that world.

Some of the questions Hans Jenny asked during the film were: How do we reach the primal cause of vibration? What part does chaos play? In my own experience, chaos is a common and recurring element in spiritual growth. It is like a storm that abruptly starts and just as abruptly stops. One just has to ride it through. While it lasts, one feels totally confused or terribly self-conscious and skinless. The most disconcerting experience for me is to be barraged by a torrent of negative thoughts and emotions having a nature different from any thoughts and emotions experienced before, in this lifetime at least. Then the chaos lifts as suddenly as it appeared. There is peace and a refreshed feeling. In time, one becomes aware of a greater degree of inner strength.

Jenny's experiment had given us our first clue, but all our layperson's explorations and speculation took a great leap forward with the publication of a book entitled The Elegant Universe by physicist, mathematician, and string theorist Brian Green. Oh, how we cheered on the super-string theory, which is the latest attempt to put forth a"theory of everything" and identify the very ground of matter,"mater," or"Ma," the grand Mother from whom all creation is born.

The super-string theory, or string theory for short, speculates through mathematics that the smallest indivisible stuff of which everything in the cosmos is made are one-dimensional stringlike formations that are the fundamental building blocks of everything! These strings or filaments oscillate at different frequencies, all vibrating their own creative identity in mass and force by their own"song." Does this mean that all things, huge and minute, have a vibratory identity composed of the full orchestra of strings of which they are composed? Is there indeed a great cosmic symphony to which we belong and to which we must become attuned?

At least we could now envision a universe tightly packed with oscillating strings in which we, also tightly packed with oscillating strings, live and have our being. Perhaps our own strings are a bit out of tune? The major part of the cosmos has been going along so well for 15 billion years, except, perhaps, for us newcomers who now need some tuning up and tuning in. We know that the spoken word can cause change when it enters another person; for instance, shout"Stop!" and the other person freezes. Shout"Stop, thief!" and the other person runs away. We have to remember that speech can vibrate the musical tunes and patterns of sound that make up language. If we think of space as being full rather than empty, then our spoken words disturb and rearrange the existing patterns outside ourselves as well as inside ourselves. At last we felt that we had a clue as to how mantras worked! Since some Indian bhajans often contain multiple mantras as their core construction, this was an exciting moment for us.

Mantras have been used for thousands of years as spiritual power generators, allowing spiritual practitioners to change from roughly hewn humans to near-perfect beings. A lama newly from Tibet, when asked by us what that change was that occurred, put his hand out and picked up the clean glass in front of him. Then he took his table napkin and draped it over the glass."You are like this," he said, holding the covered glass high."Now you must become like this," and he pulled away the napkin, leaving us looking at the sparkling clear glass."So our task is to reveal our Real Self?" He nodded.

This was an enlightening concept. What exactly must be removed? When brass or silver becomes tarnished, the tarnish has to be removed by repeated rubbing before the object shines forth again in all its glory. In our case, we are told by the masters of the mystical sciences that it is our wrong thinking about who we really are, our wrong habits of thought and action, and our negative feelings that obscure our real identity. A big point made by my spiritual teacher was that our thoughts, our words, and our deeds must all be alike. Someone whose thoughts, words, and deeds are not the same has a fractured spiritual body, and the true divinity of the person's atmic nature cannot shine through. Healing and mending our broken spirits is the reconstruction work that happens when bhajans are sung wholeheartedly. When we need to peel a potato, we look for a potato peeler. If we want to chop wood, we search for an axe. To untangle hair, we need a comb. What tool do we have to repair a spiritual body? Obviously, a spiritual tool is needed.

But why antiphonal chanting and singing? That is because two major disciplines are involved: listening and following. By listening deeply with complete self-abandon, we cut out our own ego static and acquire the grace to simply follow, to absorb into our being the rhythm, tune, words, and total feeling of the music so deeply that we can reproduce them exactly. Bhajan singing requires much discipline; the world is blocked out and concentration is at its peak. Healing can now begin.

We all know that when we eat food, it is somehow, without our being aware of it, transformed into energy, intelligence, emotion, and a healthy body. The vibratory body called a potato becomes a part of the vibratory body called a blood cell, but we don't really know the details of how this happens, nor are we aware of it. In the same way, the vibrations of the Name get transformed into love, fortitude, courage, sacrifice, service. We don't really know how this happens, nor are we aware that it is happening. When our body gets fat, we begin to make some association between the food we eat and the girth we have reached. The Name is considered food for the spiritual body. When we notice in some testing situation that we have a degree of patience heretofore unknown to us, we may make some association between our spiritual practice and this new strength within us. As for me, I first experienced bhajan singing as if it were a washing machine. I felt myself clean, free of nagging, negative thoughts. When I returned to the United States after so many years in the ashram, I discovered I had an indestructible contentment and a more intuitive ability to nurture and care for another. Beyond this, as to how singing the Name effected these changes, as to the science of bhajan, I had and still have only the words of the masters of the mystical sciences.

This journey of discovery, of unveiling some of the mystery of this highly developed, poetic musical art form and spiritual practice, has come in bits and pieces. With new discoveries, things that have happened over the years have taken on deeper meaning. For example, when I first began to sing bhajans, my teacher had been very concerned that I identify my sruti, the key or keys that defined my voice range. She said that I must always use this sruti and practice each song until, when I was tapped to lead a bhajan, I could easily find this sruti, even while another person was singing in an entirely different one. I now understand this to mean that I must always sing in a sruti that keeps my feet on the ground. I must not sing too high and thereby abandon, so to speak, the vibratory nature of my physical and most gross body, for it is with and within this body that I must attempt to bring to maturity a much more subtle body and a body that, unlike my gross physical body, is in an embryonic state, a body that vibrates at a much higher frequency, a body of virtue, a love body. I now understand that it is this subtle body that is nurtured by chanting the Name.

One word from my teacher has led me to look in an entirely new way at bhajan as a spiritual practice."How's your bhajana?" he asked. I heard my mouth say,"It's good," but simultaneously my brain registered,"You don't understand what he is asking." We just looked at each other and nothing more was said. Why had he used the word bhajana? Then one day I read,"Life is a song . . . pass your days in song. Let your whole life be a bhajana." How could my whole life be a bhajana? I like to sing, but to think of doing nothing but singing—that would be too much, even ridiculous. Might the role of bhajan in my life be, more complicated than I had understood?

If bhajan described a way of life that I must come to understand and practice, then I needed more clues, more guidance. Curiosity captured me. What would be the elements of bhajana as a way of life? Sometime later, I found an answer. One short sentence in a book told me that success in bhajana as a way of life would require seven elements. Each of these elements was indicated by a little Sanskrit word, but when I consulted the dictionary I found that the concepts involved in each word were not little at all.

Sound was one concept, of course. I began to think about myself in terms of sound and soon realized that I had a lot of work to do to make my life a bhajana. I express myself as sound in obvious audible ways, such as in the manner and force in which I speak, laugh, and move around. However, I know that I can make a lot of"noise" silently by emanating vibrations of moodiness, irritation, or pleasure. Although my thoughts are not spoken, nevertheless, the message is loud and clear. It occurred to me that I especially needed to look at myself as sound from the perspective of how well I blend. Do I have any integrity at all as a human being? For example, unless a violin sounds like a violin, it is not a violin, however much it may look like one. If it does not sound like a violin, it cannot harmonize with other instruments as a violin. In the world of the symphony orchestra, an unrefined violin, an instrument whose wood and frets and strings are crudely formed, would sound dreadful, just a noise maker, a bothersome, disruptive presence. In a world guided by human values, what crude sounds do I make? Am I a fully human being in the choir of humanity?

Of course, sound was only one of the seven elements. Some of the other components to explore were: one's individual sound; one's hearing and listening skills; one's tempo and absorption in the song; one's mastery of the song; one's rhythm and beat; one's melody and harmony; the loveliness of one's voice; one's ways of thinking and feeling; one's emotions and attitudes; the nature of one's love and intentions; and finally, the variety included in one's life, the continuity of its song, and the artistry of its overall composition. One word from my teacher precipitated a whole chain of events of learning and exploration, enough to continue for a lifetime.

From the chanting and dancing of our Native Americans, from the drummers of Africa, from the whirling of the ecstatic Sufis, from the glorious hymns of the Christian church to the droning voice art of Tibet, wherever songs are sung to God wholeheartedly with pure intent, some miracle occurs."In the beginning was the Word," and from that original sound, galaxies and universes were organized. Vibration is the creative principle of ourselves and our world. We ourselves are the"Word" made flesh, and by bhajan singing we stabilize and harmonize that Word, echoing it back to the source in a healing and creative song.

Elizabeth Elwell, Ph.D. is a retired teacher and school principal. She lived in India from 1960-1989. During that time she spent ten years in the ashram of Prashanti Nilayam here she was given the work, at the request of Sathya Sai Baba, to teach bhajans.

Originally printed in the September - October 2004 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Mills,Joy. "O Hidden Life." Quest  92.5 (SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2004):180-185.

By Joy Mills

 Sometime in early 1923, Dr. Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society, penned some lines that have since become familiar to members throughout the world, have been translated into several languages, and have, indeed, become a nearly indispensable part of every

The words have been set to music; they have been chanted and sung; and few gatherings of the Society that have been held since that year have not been opened with the recitation of these words. At every International Convention, successive presidents of the Society have inaugurated the proceedings with the antiphonal recitation of what has come to be known as the "Universal Prayer" or "Universal Invocation." Simple in the extreme, the words possess the magical power of a mantra:

O Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom;
O Hidden Light, shining in every creature;
O Hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness;
May all who feel themselves as one with Thee,
Know they are therefore one with every other.

So familiar have these words become that it may be their significance and depth of inner meaningfulness have escaped us. When we become habituated to anything—be it a person, a situation, or an idea clothed in the fabric of language—there is always the danger that we come to take it for granted. In times of stress, we may even mouth words we learned in childhood, as in the simple prayers of our faith. People have been known to do this automatically at times of crisis. Even avowed atheists have been heard to utter prayers they deny knowing or remembering.

But words are precious and often fragile vehicles not only for thought, but for the aspirations of the heart. They can convey not only mundane meanings that get us about in the world and relate us to each other, but also the hunger of the soul and the beauty of the spirit in their reaching out to that "more-ness" that remains forever indefinable and therefore unspeakable.

Can we pause, then, to examine the lines that Dr. Besant gave the Society and the world? What inner meanings, what deeper realities lie behind the words themselves? To what new insights may we be led, even as we pronounce the words and speak the separate phrases? Have we become attached to these words simply because they came from that heroic soul, Annie Besant? Would it matter if some other individual had served as the channel for their impartation to the world? Undoubtedly, constant repetition has endowed the verse with a certain inner significance (a sacredness, if we may call it that), but repetition can also dull the spirit, and memorized phrases can be mouthed with little attention of either mind or heart.

Before we examine at least some of the inner meaning of the verse, it may be of interest to note its specific origin. In her Watch Tower notes from The Theosophist of June 1923, Dr. Besant wrote that the lines were prompted by a request from a number of members who were helping to organize the "Brotherhood Campaign" in South India. This campaign had been inaugurated some time earlier in Great Britain and was just then being taken up in India. She comments: "I wrote . . . a few lines for daily repetition, morning and evening, as I did not feel that I could write a meditation, as they had asked me to do. Meditation seems to me to be a very individual thing, the working of one's own mind on some special theme; the most I could do was suggest a theme. Here it is, as it chanted itself. . . (Then follows the verse already given above.)

She adds, "It sends forth successive waves of color, pulsing outwards from the speaker, if rhythmically intoned or chanted, whether by the outer or the inner voice, and if some thousands would send these out over successive areas, we might create a very powerful atmosphere . . ."

The fact that Dr. Besant tells us that the verse chanted itself to her may indeed indicate that its true source lay in a deeper or higher realm beyond her own conscious mind, perhaps even from that Source to which she herself always gave the most profound reverence and obeisance. Surely, we must concur that the words, as she gave them, are of such beauty and majestic sweep that any alteration or modification would be improper. The effect on the surrounding environment or community, and on the individual who may be reciting the words as the verse is spoken, can only be guessed at, although many testify to its efficacy in producing an inner peace and even actual healing.

Line-by-Line Commentary

Turning now to the verse itself, we may consider it phrase by phrase, suggesting some of the meanings latent within it.

O Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom . . .

The immediate question that arises is: Why hidden? Is not life in evidence all about us? Life surely is not hidden!

But what is referred to here, what is invoked, must be beyond or above the obvious. Dr. I. K. Taimni, in his work Glimpses into the Psychology of Yoga, reminds us:

The Ultimate Reality exists only in the Ever-Unmanifest and is the source of all relative realities which can be within the realm of human experience . . ." (p. 54)

The highest principle, then, is present everywhere and yet is beyond all existence: it is truly the "hidden life" that underlies all of manifestation. Inherent within that reality is its own dynamism, as it were, making possible the production of all things, all existence, for there, at the heart of reality, is the throbbing pulse of creation. Without that pulse, nothing can exist; it is ubiquitous and contains the power of resonating throughout all that ever is or will be. And that potency is locked up in every atom, every element, of the manifested universe; truly, it is "vibrant in every atom." So all of nature pulsates with the rhythm of the Eternal One, hidden forever but known by its countless manifestations, as the One becomes the many and yet remains forever One.

This initial phrase, then, is a call to that eternal, Unmanifest Principle: the Supreme Reality which is both beyond the cycles of manifestation and yet forever vibrating through the manifested universe. In terms of human consciousness, it is an invocation to that atman which is hidden in our very nature—as present here in the physical as at its own level—because its resonance vibrates through all the atoms of all our vehicles—carriers of that atman—from buddhi to the physical.

O Hidden Light, shining in every creature . . .

Again, we may ask: Why hidden? If there were a light shining in every creature, surely that light would be observable. The very nature of light is that it glows and therefore it can be seen. Light radiates outwards, but we are called on to invoke a hidden light—a light that shines within but is not radiating outward in a visible manner. So, a deeper meaning must be implicit in the words. The One Reality, when it manifests, may be said to become Light; it is this interior light of the Supreme Reality, of Ishvara, the manifest Deity that is present in every creature. Life has now become light; its very vibrancy is now shining with an inner dynamism. In humanity, [the faculty of] buddhi—the "light of the soul"—is now united with atma, ready to turn outward into activity. It is this light that must illumine our entire nature; it is this that makes consciousness possible, a light that is "hidden" because it is not objective to consciousness but is of the very nature of pure consciousness itself. And that light is present, shining through every atom in space.

O Hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness . . .

From the polarity of Life and Light there now springs creative activity—Love. Wherever there is polarity, relationship between the poles comes into existence; and the purest of all relationships, the one relationship that is not sullied in any manner by any object of either attachment or repulsion, is the relationship of Love. This we may call the underlying "glue" that holds together all manifested things, all parts of the universe, all elements that appear with manifestation; so it is Love that "embraces all in Oneness."

The One has become the many; out of unity has come multiplicity. Yet however great the multiplicity, all is held in the one embrace of that pure relationship that arises when Life and Light come into existence, that relationship of Love.

Love lies at the very heart of the creative process. It is therefore the principle of universal lawfulness, which underlies evolution. Hidden, then, at the heart of the manifold is the Love that binds the many into the unity of the One. This is the law and the fulfillment of the law, bringing everything into perfect equilibrium, for whatever happens anywhere in the universe has its repercussions everywhere. There is no external authority, no extracosmic deity weighing the scales of justice. Love is at the heart of the universe and brings about balance because all that is in the universe is held in its embrace.

Here, too, is the creative principle: atma-buddhi joined with manas, turned outward now on the great involutionary-evolutionary journey. Manas, or creative activity, is truly love in action. The mind, when infused with intuition, embraces the universe, perceiving all things as they truly are. The mind that can fragment the Real in order to grasp or realize its manifold nature can also be brought into a condition of stillness, in which the modifications of the thinking principle have ceased. In that condition, perception, or awareness, is undivided. The undivided state of consciousness embraces "all in oneness."

Summation of Lines 1—3

The first three phrases of the mantra remind us of the great triplicity of the Supreme Reality— Life, Light, and Love. But this triplicity is "hidden" because it is not known objectively but rather underlies the entire process of manifestation. It is "hidden" because the mind alone cannot grasp its essentialness, nor can it be experienced through the instrumentality of the senses. As Dr. Taimni points out, in the above-quoted work,

According to the Occult philosophy there is a method of knowing the Reality . . . and this method consists in suppressing the modifications of the mind completely.

That method, of course, is yoga. "Then," continues Dr. Taimni,

the individual consciousness becomes freed from the veil which separates the individual consciousness from the universal consciousness and knows this Reality directly by becoming one with it. (62-3)

In the first three lines of our verse, we invoke the triple nature of the One Reality, and in that invocation we may perform a supreme yoga of self-realization. Our attention is drawn to the sublime fact that underlying each individual and the universe is that One Reality in its triple aspect of Life, Light, and Love. Its realization lies in a realm beyond the mind, but by invoking it, we bring that Reality into direct awareness, into our consciousness attuned and harmonized with the One.

The final two lines of the verse affirm this realization.

May all who feel themselves as one with Thee . . .

The use of the word "Thee" indicates that the triplicity of Life, Light, and Love is indeed One—the One Supreme Reality. Note, however, that the emphasis first is on the word "feel." What is it to feel oneself as one with the Supreme? Feeling is acute awareness—awareness without any distracting thought, without any disturbing influence. It is an awareness that is total, which overwhelms us and takes hold of us wholly and utterly. Perhaps it may be compared to the moment of pain when one stubs one"s toe. At such a moment, there is no other awareness than the awareness of pain. No thought even intrudes at the sharp moment of impact; only later may we say, "I stubbed my toe" or "I felt pain in my toe."

The feeling that must come, and must be affirmed in the realization of oneness, is such a feeling: total, entire, complete, without analysis or reason or logical deduction. Only in such a condition can true knowing arise. In one sense, this ability to "feel . . . as one with Thee" may be described as the pain of oneness, the burden of oneness, that we all must bear if we would know the reality of life itself. It is not, in other words, a selective feeling: "I will feel one with you, but not with that person; I will feel one with a tree, but not with a snake,"and so on. When we say "May each . . .," we are invoking in ourselves a consciousness that has no divisions, no barriers; it is a consciousness infused only with Life, Light, and Love, and therefore it is pure and whole.

Know they are therefore one with every other

Out of that acute awareness of feeling, knowing must follow. So the mantra concludes with an affirmation of the certainty of knowledge. Humanity is not only meant to feel; it must know. This is the full burden of self-consciousness. But it is a knowing that is not simply a surmise, an opinion, an idea, or a belief that may be altered when some other notion comes along. It is rather a conscious act that arises because we have been immersed in a consciousness that was uncompounded, undivided, whole, and pristine in its nature.

As a result of the contact with that consciousness, of that nonverbal awareness that we are one with the Universal Reality, that we are truly atma-buddhi-manas, we have to know, to be fully conscious of our oneness with all other units of Life who are equally infused with that Reality— vibrating with it, shining with it, embraced by it.

In some versions of the mantra, the word "also" has been substituted for the word "therefore," but it may be noted that in Dr. Besant"s original version, the latter word is used. There is a subtle but very definite difference between the two words. "Also" is an additive word; it means in addition to, this plus that, and so on. "Therefore" has the connotation of subsequent upon, as a result of; it is not augmentative. Surely what is intended in the mantra is the realization that when the feeling of unity is present, recognition of the oneness with the Supreme Reality that is Light, Life, and Love, then there follows upon that recognition the realization that one is inevitably united with all other creatures. For how can we be one with the Supreme and remain separate from, distinct from, all others who are equally rooted in the One Reality?

Concluding Thoughts

Many more meanings may be discovered in this magnificent verse that Dr. Besant bequeathed to us. It is truly a reaffirmation of the entire creative process in which we — and all life—are immersed; a reaffirmation that we hold within our power, as self-conscious units of life, the ability to perceive life, whole and splendid. This is the vision we can send shining out over the entire world, the vision to which we can give wings and voice and form. This is the vision that can recreate ourselves every time we chant the mantra, and so recreate and transform our world.

Such a vision alone can bring about a new consciousness in the world, a consciousness of unity, of brotherhood, of peace and harmony, of wholeness and holiness. When we repeat these few simple lines, either alone or in a group, we invoke the One Reality to manifest itself anew, and this surely is to make whole and make holy all that is in the universe about us. No more wonderful act could we perform.

Joy Mills is an international lecturer for the Theosophical Society. She has held numerous positions within the Society, including president of the American and Australian Sections; international vice president, Director for the School of the Wisdom, Adyar, India and Director of Krotona School of Theosophy. She has authored and edited numerous books and her articles have appeared in theosophical journals throughout the world. Joy has been a student of Theosophy for over 60 years. This article is reprinted from The Theosophist, June 1976.

References
Besant, Annie. "On the Watchtower," The Theosophist, June 1923.
Taimni, I. K. Glimpses into the Psychology of Yoga. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973.

Originally printed in the September - October 2004 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Montello, Louise. "Our Essential Musical Intelligence." Quest  92.5 (SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2004):170 - 175. 

By Louise Montello

Essential musical intelligence is your natural ability to use music and sound as self-reflecting, transformational tools to facilitate total health and well-being.

Imagine starting your day by finding a tranquil spot in nature where you can sit quietly for a spell and listen with an open heart to the subtly emerging sounds of the pulsating life within and around you that gently reveal to you the secrets of your soul . . .

or

Imagine being alone on a cold winter's night wrapped in a warm blanket and listening to Brahms's Requiem with candles burning brightly, asking in your heart for assistance in mourning the loss of a loved one whom you have not been able to let go . . .

or

Imagine using intentional sound making (toning) to give voice to that persistent pain under your left shoulder blade. Feel the chronic tension melting in the creative heat of your expressive self as you let go and allow the music take you where you need to go . . .

All these scenarios are examples of how you can activate your essential musical intelligence (EMI) in daily life. They each reflect a certain level of comfort and intimacy that you can develop with the wise, compassionate, and deeply creative capacity of your higher self (or soul) through your engagement with music. It is my premise that we become overwhelmed by pain, suffering, and ignorance when we are cut off from our innate divinity, and that deep and lasting healing ensues when we reestablish a conscious relationship with this aspect of ourselves.

Although essential musical intelligence is ubiquitous and instinctual, it still requires a conscious effort to integrate its potential for healing into your daily life. There are two complementary phases involved in using EMI to facilitate self-healing and transformation.

The first phase, which I call the witnessing stance, involves the practice of self-observation and inner listening. Witnessing is the process of turning your focus inward and becoming the observer of the permutations of your mind, body, and emotions, as opposed to living your life on automatic pilot, without much conscious awareness. Witnessing can be honed through the formal practice of meditation, in which you sit quietly for a period of time and watch the flow of mind stuff with a sense of detachment; or it can be practiced informally at selected intervals throughout the day as a way of consciously tuning out the noise of external reality and allowing yourself to gradually tune in to the deeper music of your inner self. The process of tuning in to your inner music—the emotional and archetypal landscape that colors both waking and dreaming states—is associated with inner listening. In order to achieve full engagement with the witnessing stance of EMI, it is important to cultivate the ability to listen with the ear of the heart—your innate intuitive capacity that allows you to both hear your inner music and at the same time realize its true meaning. For instance, if you find while engaged in the witnessing stance that you are unable to maintain your equanimity and you succumb to mind-body states that are less than desirable (such as pain, confusion, despair, or psychological numbing), you can call upon your intuitive listening capacity to provide a deeper level of understanding of what is going on inside you.

As you become more skilled at turning inward and engaging the witnessing stance, you will soon become aware of those thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and behaviors that foster health and creativity as well as those that detract from your sense of well-being. The witnessing phase of essential musical intelligence involves your willingness to take regular time-outs from the activities of your day and tune in to how you are feeling. This can be done upon rising to observe if and how certain somatic states, feelings, and attitudes might influence your daily activities; in the evening before retiring as a way of reviewing the dynamics of your day; or any time during the day when you feel the need for centering and mind-body coherence.

Once your internal feeling states are illuminated and clarified during the witnessing phase, you may then allow yourself to move gently into the deeper, more musical essence of your being, where you can intuitively sense what you need to become more balanced and whole. As you enter this second transformational phase of using EMI, you may either consciously choose to engage in specific musical activities that help to create balance and harmony within, or you can allow spontaneous music or sound to emerge from a deeper source (improvisation) as an agent of change in harmonizing and transforming the specific physical, mental, and emotional energies at the root of your problem.

Developing a witness stance is a prerequisite to using EMI for health and healing. There are many exercises that can help to strengthen your capacity to observe the modifications of the mind-body. My favorite one involves breath awareness.

Breath Awareness 

Take a few minutes now to observe your breathing. In a comfortable seated position, be aware of the air as it enters your nostrils and again as it leaves your nostrils. Continue to follow the movement of your breath. You might notice some jerks or pauses as you breathe, or even a faint breathing sound. Do not try to change anything—just watch. You may even become impatient and resist this self-reflective activity. That is all right. On your next exhalation, allow the breath to release these impatient feelings, and as you inhale, bring your awareness back to your breath. If any thoughts arise, simply let them go for now and bring your focus back to your breath. Soon you will notice that your consciousness begins to shift. You feel more present and rooted in your body, calmer, and more relaxed. You are moving into a state of being versus doing. You have become a witness to your internal states. You will now be able to consciously connect with your essential musical intelligence.

One way of deepening your connection with your essential musical intelligence is to keep track of the choices you make every day in creating your unique musical and emotional environment. How are you using music right now to maintain a sense of emotional and physical balance, to help you to understand yourself better, and to give voice to your creative vision? You can document your relationship with music and sound by keeping a music and sound awareness journal, where you make daily entries that reflect your expanding capacity to listen with the ear of your heart (intuition) and use music and sound to create and transform your inner and outer realities. 

Your Earliest Musical Memory 

A more immediate way to reconnect with your musical intelligence is through conjuring your earliest memory of music. When we are children, listening to music usually evokes a mood of awe, wonder, joy, celebration, and love that we openly share with our parents and loved ones. Thus, for most of us, this earliest memory reflects an aura of safety, security, and trust in the inherent goodness of the world around us. It is often our first conscious experience of the vibration of the deeper self.

After many years of practicing music therapy with people from all walks of life, it often seems to me that this musical memory is like a keynote of the soul's mission or desire in this lifetime. It is uncanny how the emotional quality of the music almost always mirrors the temperament of the individual as he or she moves through life.

You can recover your earliest memory of music quite simply. Take a few moments to relax by practicing the witnessing exercise described earlier. Once your thoughts are stilled and your body is calm, allow yourself to travel back in time—as far back as you can possibly remember—and connect with your earliest memory of being with music. It should come quite easily. (If it is difficult for you to retrieve early childhood memories, you might try looking at some childhood photographs.) Pick the very first memory that comes along. Allow this memory to increase in vividness by focusing on the colors, sounds, smells, feelings, and bodily sensations that you experienced then. Write down your impressions in your music and sound awareness journal.

Did you notice any correlation between that earliest memory and your relationship with music today? What about your temperament, your personal mission, the quality of your emotional life? Take a few moments now to contemplate the remarkable self-reflecting quality of music. In your relationship with music, you can discover the origins of your current emotional makeup. As you learn to activate the transformational power of EMI, you can, over time, literally recreate your internal world so that it reflects only the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are in alignment with your higher self.

As you begin the process of reconnecting with EMI, it is important to allow yourself regular downtime so you can let go of the pressing demands of outer reality and surrender to your soul's desire for peace and solitude. It is in moments of stillness that EMI comes alive. It is really an age-old process.

In ancient Greece, people with physical and emotional ills traveled to the healing temples of Aesclepius where they were lulled into altered states by soothing music that allowed them access to the healer within. In these altered states they received dreams and visions that helped them to symbolically transform the root causes of their pain and suffering, leading to miraculous cures. EMI is not activated through the conscious mind but through the realm of imagination, the domain of the soul. In this dimension there is no concept of time. Everything is happening in the eternal now. In this realm there are infinite possibilities to create and transform your reality. The more comfortable you are living and playing in this imaginal world, the more your musical intelligence will manifest its healing presence in your life. 

The Heart of EMI 

Essential musical intelligence is always present in our lives. Its power is most available to us when our hearts are open and we are in a receptive, intuitive, playful, or prayerful state. Our earliest memory of music is so profound because as infants or young children, our hearts are open. We have not yet developed the defenses that protect our hearts from hurt, nor have we developed a strong ego that pushes forward with its own interests, ignoring the still, small voice of our essential musical intelligence.

According to the teachings of Eastern mysticism, the heart is the seat of the soul, and the soul is the link between spirit and personality. Spirit expresses itself in the form of emotional energy that is colored by the dynamics of specific archetypal issues that we grapple with at a given stage of our development. Emotions can propel us toward greater feelings of self-worth, creative expression, and harmonious relationships, or lead us to self-doubt, suffering, and destruction. At the level of the heart chakra, we begin to discriminate between emotions that are life giving and emotions that are depleting. As we open to the music of the heart, we are compelled to act out of love and compassion in our dealings with ourselves and others; we recognize that the most powerful energy we possess is love. 

In most spiritual traditions throughout history, music has been used as a way to awaken and purify the heart. According to the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes, "music has power to ease tension within the heart and to loosen the grip of obscure emotions." The ancient Chinese sages who authored the I Ching equated music with enthusiasm: "The enthusiasm of the heart expresses itself involuntarily in a burst of song, in dance and rhythmic movements of the body. From immemorial times the inspiring effect of the invisible sound that moves all hearts and draws them together has mystified mankind." (68)

In the Sufi tradition, also known as "the path of the heart," surrendering to the practice of devotional music is believed to be the most direct path to enlightenment. The Sufis use song, poetry, and improvisation to passionately express and transform their feelings into spiritual ecstasy as part of their daily ritual of worship. 

In trying to understand the relationship between intelligence, music, and the heart from a more scientific perspective, I asked my friend Ted, a neuroscientist and classical pianist, what it means when someone plays a piece "by heart." He replied matter-of-factly, "To play from memory." "But," I asked, "shouldn't it really be to play by mind' or by brain'? What does the heart have to do with memory? Isn't that the domain of the mind?" My scientist friend was stumped. I was compelled to get to the bottom of this conundrum, and after conducting a bit of my own research, I learned that in many traditions, along with being a center for feeling and aesthetic sensibility, the heart is associated with thought and intelligence. In fact, within the framework of traditional Chinese medicine, mind and spirit are intimately related, both being housed within the cave of the heart. In the Japanese language, one word that is used to describe the heart is kokoro, which refers to the "mind of the heart."

Current neuropsychological research indicates that the heart has its own independent nervous system, which is actually referred to as "the brain in the heart." According to Doc Lew Childre and Howard Martin, authors of The HeartMath Solution, "The heart's intrinsic brain and nervous system relay information back to the brain in the cranium, creating a two-way communication system between heart and brain. The signals sent from the heart to the brain affect many areas and functions in the amygdala, the thalamus, and the cortex" (31).

The amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep in the limbic system of the brain, specializes in processing strong emotional memories. As we know, music is a perfect container for strong emotions; thus, the heart-brain-music connection. But how did we musicians who have been playing by heart all these years know that? Suffice to say that the heart is an important nodal point for essential musical intelligence. 

The Voice of EMI 

By opening your heart to the music of your soul, you can pave the way to an even deeper personal relationship with your essential musical intelligence. This relationship manifests itself through the throat chakra, your most vital center for engaging with EMI. When centered in the consciousness of the throat chakra, you open yourself to receiving nurturance, not only physically, through the food you eat and the air you breathe, but spiritually, through your direct relationship with one or more of the glorious forms of Absolute Being. Take a moment now to recall a time when you had the experience of being literally filled up with feelings of joy, awe, and wonder related to some extraordinary (or sometimes quite ordinary) occurrence in your life. Perhaps you have had this kind of peak experience while deeply engaged in creating art (sculpture, music, dance, poetry), or communing with nature (witnessing a brilliant sunset, playing with your new puppy), or during periods of heartfelt prayer or spiritual practice. Often just listening to a few bars of a patriotic song or literally stopping to smell the roses on the way to work can evoke the sensation of awe that reminds us of a reality far greater than what we perceive with our five senses. The word "awe" is associated with childlike innocence and wonder and is itself a breathing sound that seems to express the act of taking in—in-spir-ation—breathing in spirit. This receptivity to the life of spirit is the keynote of the throat chakra and the true power behind your essential musical intelligence. At the level of the throat chakra, you naturally open to the innocence of the pine child within and consequently release attachments that block your experience of receiving nurturance (love, harmony, and beauty) from a higher source. 

In addition to opening to peak experiences as a way to connect with the consciousness of the throat chakra, many people experience this shift when they are caught in the throes of personal crisis or illness. Often physically or emotionally challenged individuals spontaneously connect with Absolute Being when they have exhausted their ego reserves and are forced to surrender their will to that of a higher power. Through "letting go and letting God," these people often experience profound personal and spiritual transformation that can lead to the healing of their deepest wounds.

By releasing your own egoistic preoccupations at the level of the throat chakra as you practice the exercises that follow, you can increasingly allow yourself to become a clear channel for the expression of your higher self. Because your higher self exists simultaneously within and beyond the mind, it often communicates its wisdom symbolically through sound, music, movement, poetry, and mandalas. Thus, the throat chakra is also the center for imagination and creative expression. You create your own reality through the words that you speak and the artistic forms to which you give birth. The more you direct your creative energies toward the expression of your core truth, the more you activate the transformational aspect of your musical intelligence to create harmony, balance, and healing in your life and in the world around you. 

You can connect with the consciousness of the throat chakra through devotional musical activities such as chanting, singing inspirational songs and psalms, songwriting, and vocal and instrumental improvisation. Through spontaneous music making, you can safely express the entire spectrum of emotions, allowing your EMI to transform feelings that are no longer serving you into creative power for change. It is not necessary to be involved in a particular spiritual tradition to open the throat chakra. As you open to the presence of grace in your life, you naturally respond in kind with your own soulful creative expression. Thus, creativity and nurturance are actually two sides of the same coin. When you are being creative, you nurture yourself by receiving guidance from the higher consciousness at the center of your being. In the creative process that provides the framework for using your essential musical intelligence, you open to the source of your most profound healing. 

Six-Steps to Healing through EMI 

The following six steps delineate the healing process of EMI that you can put into practice in your daily life as a way of transforming pain and negativity into increasingly deeper levels of creativity and personal power.

• Identify the problem. Learn to recognize dissonance in your body or mind that may be causing physical or emotional pain or limiting your creative expression. To do this, you must activate the witnessing stance and practice mindfulness: tuning into your thoughts and feelings at regular intervals throughout the day and taking the time to reflect on pain and frustration instead of pushing them away. Once you can identify the problem—you are fuming with rage, stuck in a horrendous traffic jam, late for an important meeting—then you can call on EMI to provide a healthy solution.

• Remember your true worth. You are precious and infinitely loved. This is a difficult step for many people, particularly if you have experienced early abuse, abandonment, or trauma. You may feel like you don't matter and consequently relinquish your power and play the victim role. It is so important to realize that, regardless of what happened to you in the past, you do matter. Health, harmony, happiness, and abundance are your natural birthright. Tuning in to the feeling that you are loved no matter what happens is wonderfully soothing and can instantly defuse the fear and tension of unmanageable situations (such as a traffic jam). In activating this step, it is most helpful to actually remember a specific time when you felt that you were loved unconditionally. Allow this memory and the associated feelings of safety, security, and self-worth to become deeply anchored within you.

• Become proactive. Empower yourself to take responsibility for your own life. Know that although you cannot always prevent or change negative situations you can call upon the creative power of your musical intelligence to help you to transform maladaptive reactions (rage, tension, self-destructive behaviors) to difficult situations. These reactions are ego oriented and, consequently, fear based; they originate in the part of the mind that is unable to see the whole picture. Asking for help from your EMI initiates the switch into a more holistic frame of consciousness.

• Connect with your throat chakra. Bring your attention to your throat center and focus your breathing there for a few moments. As this area becomes more energized, imagine that your center of receptivity and expression is opening and expanding. Allow yourself to surrender to the transformational power of EMI as it offers you a musical solution to your problem.

• Express yourself. You will receive a musical solution if you allow yourself to hold the tension and listen for your essential musical intelligence. In dealing with a traffic jam, for example, you may be drawn to make up a funny limerick about the situation or to sing your most centering Buddhist chant. Or you may simply pop your hippest James Brown tape into the cassette player, turn up the volume, and channel that rage into a funky rendition of "I Feel Good." Give yourself up to whatever musical idea comes until you begin to feel a significant shift in consciousness.

• Give thanks. When you feel more centered and whole (perhaps even joyful), acknowledge yourself for being proactive and sincerely give thanks to your EMI for its presence in your life and the unlimited possibilities that it offers for healing.

  You may liken this six-step transformational process to other stress-management techniques that you have tried in the past. What makes this process unique, however, is that through using music and sound to explore areas of dissonance, you are working directly with the energy of the negative feeling state, engaging it through the creative process of musical expression, and allowing your essential musical intelligence (the intuitive wisdom of your higher self) to transform it into a more desirable, harmonic state of being.

  As you begin to practice these steps regularly, the process of engaging with EMI eventually becomes more automatic. Before you know it, you will be conditioned to use EMI to root out and harmonize both internal and external dissonance without much conscious effort. Once you have established an ongoing relationship with your essential musical intelligence, it is important to work systematically, so that all the parts of your self are working together in alignment with a single goal—to sound the music of love. It is only in this state of coherence among the different levels of consciousness that deep and lasting healing can occur.

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  References
  
  Bly, Robert. The Kabir Book. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1993.
  Childre, Doc Lew, and Howard Martin. The HeartMath Solution. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.
  Wilhelm, Richard, trans. The I Ching or Book of Changes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950.