Sound Meditation: A Door Towards Happiness

Is sound is only vibrating molecules or it has some higher science? Can a sound vibration have transcendental qualities? We can see with other eyes, but can we also see through our ears also? Yes, we can see. Suppose you are in a deep sleep and suddenly someone shout “wake-up! Wake-up! There is a thief” and you wakes-up immediately. Here, you have seen through your ears and not with eyes. This much powerful a sound vibration is.

First let’s pay our humble obeisance to His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, Founder Acharya of world-wide Hare Krishna Movement. From him this sound vibration technique is coming from a long chain of disciple succession.

The people in modern world are full of material resources and scientific advancement but not happy. Every living entity wants to be happy. This is natural. But for happiness he must ask two questions “who am I?” and “what is the cause of my distress?” Sri Krishna answers these questions in BG (Bhagavad Gita) shloka: 15.7 as:

“mamaivamsojiva-loke
jiva-bhutahsanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthanikarsati”

“The living entities in this conditioned world are my eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind”. The living entities are not this body but the soul. The origin of this soul is god. And the separation from god is the cause of misery.  Just like a spark separated from fire has neither heat nor light. In the same way god is full of happiness (Sat-chit-ananda) and separated living entities are bereft of it. The reviving of that relationship is yoga, and meditation is an activity in that yoga.

In the present age of kali (kali-yuga), the method of meditation told by the scriptures is the chanting of the holy name of god i.e

“Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
KṛṣṇaKṛṣṇa Hare Hare
HareRāma Hare Rāma
RāmaRāma Hare Hare” 

One can start chanting 108 times daily this 16-word Maha-Mantra (‘maha’ means ‘great’ and ‘mantra’ means ‘to deliver’). If he tries to hear attentively, then he can taste the nectar of holy name. It is not like other meditations, in which we have to forcefully bring the mind on the object of concentration. The taste of chanting and hearing the holy name is the key. Just like if someone is eating a chocolate, there is no need to forcefully bring the mind on chocolate. The taste of chocolate is enough to bring the mind on it. Remember,it is not a one-day practice. It requires at least one-month regular practice to experience the taste of holy name.

As mentioned above, Sri Krishna is full of happiness. One more thing is that he is also absolute. There his no difference between him and his name. when we chant, the lord dances on our tongue, and by touching him we revive our lost relationship with him. And that’s how we become happy again. But the effort of hearing is important, however difficult it may be in the starting. As lord is also a person by seeing our effort, he provides you taste in chanting.

This method of chanting the holy name is inaugurated by lord himself in the form of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. As Shrila Prabhupada mentioned “This process of chanting is the best process of self-realization in this age; therefore, Lord Caitanya preached it so nicely for the benefit of all humanity.” On another place he said “One can purify the mind by the chanting process, just as one can purify gold by putting it in a fire and fanning it with a bellows.”

This is not a sectarian or Hinduism chanting. Sri Krishna never mentioned the word “Hindu” in Bhagavad Gita. It is a territorial word given by foreigners to people who lived behind the Sindhu river. The living entity is not Hindu or Muslim or Christian. The living entity is a sprit soul and part and parcel of God. He is eternal (Sanatana). He has an eternal abode (spiritual world). By the rebel with god he has fallen to this mortal world. Which Sri Krishna mentioned in Bhagavad Gita as  "dukhalayamasasvatam" means “a place of misery and temporary”. The main miseries here are birth, death, old age and disease.

This chanting of holy name of god make eligible a person to go to back to god-head after death. Where he has eternal life without any misery. It is not that whole life he has to chant and he will get the result after death. The day he starts chanting he will experience spiritual bliss day after day. Death seems to be a formality for him. Just like changing of clothes.

People think that ancient human beings created a concept of god to maintain the discipline and goodness in society or to rule. They think that this is the reason why Indian gods are human alike. This completely not true. God is not human alike but human is god alike. Human has imperfect senses. Therefore, the so-called scientific advancement and research cannot give complete answers. They simply imagine and assume.  But, the ancient reviled scriptures (Vedas and Puranas) not only answers the question “How the creation happened” but also the question “why it happened”.Any body get these answers in “Srimad Bhagvatam” point to point.

The chanting of Hare Krishna Maha-mantra is an authorized transcendental sound vibration. The happiness we get from it is not like the happiness we get by possessing the material objects.  By chanting we get spiritual bliss and satisfaction. Because we are soul, this spiritual bliss is our original happiness and because the material objects are connected to body that happiness is illusionary and temporary. 

For Questions like “Where the soul seated in the body’’ and “when and how the soul entered in the body”, we can read Bhagavad Gita. Chant and hear the very same sound. Chant distinctly (every word) and hear sharply.  The so-called economic and material scientific advancement based on bodily concept cannot bring the happiness to a Human being. The big skyscraper buildings and industries can do nothing except harassing the environment and lord it over the material nature. Only the spiritual advancement through chanting the holy name of Lord can bring happiness in the present suffering human society.

For further information on the topic you can contact to The Hare Krishna Movement center in your city.

 

Anurag Sharma

Anurag is currently perusing law. He is a scholar in ancient Vedic literature like Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. He is a follower of His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad and belongs to Brahma Naradya Madhav Gaudiya Sampradaya. He is an expert in sound meditation technique for self-realization.