When creation began there was silence. Thereafter manifested sound and from that emerged all things physical. The sound was Om—the brahmnaad. Recently when researchers at Sheffield University, UK, recorded the sound emitted by the sun, it was found to be the same as Om as described by Vedic seers.
Every sound is an energy unleashed. It holds the power to alter the creation around you, including your own body. There are certain sounds that you can hear and while some others are outside your audible range. Among the former, some please you, while certain others are disturbing. Nonetheless, all of them have a specific effect on your being, some which can be perceived immediately; others become evident later, depending upon the frequency of sound and at which you exist. This explains why the same beats of drum may be music to a teenager but a source of disturbance for one who has crossed 40 (not in years but in maturity).
Yog emphasises the sound of silence which is the most powerful sound, for it is from silence that sound emerged. Yog is not about twisting your body into knots, breathing rapidly or howling in front of a man with a white beard; it means garnering the strength of silence within you, to go back to the source from where it all began. And all it requires one is to sit still and observe silence—a very difficult thing to do. So why do it? When you maintain silence, you are able to still one of the five senses that are responsible for the constant outflow of prana from your body. Yogis in the Himalayas observe maun vrat (vow of silence) for long periods to conserve the prana within, which is what gives them youth and vigour even in their last days.
What impels Himalayan yogis to stay silent for such long periods? It is the sound of silence, which is the most pleasing sound. Not everybody enjoys this sound. In fact, it discomfits 99 per cent of the population. Man by his very nature is a social being. We like to talk to people and have them talk to us; the mere thought of being alone disturbs us, and makes us nervous. To appreciate the sound of silence, one has to still the ear and that will only happen when you do not want to be here anymore. You might think you have reached places or are deep into the subject of yoga; you might be making frequent trips to the silent mountains, but if you still want to return to the noise of the world after all that, it simply means you have reached nowhere. You still haven’t managed to still the ear, because when that happens, the silence is soothing.
When one manages to still the ear, certain other sounds are heard which are from another dimension, described in the yog sutras. The first is the sound of the cricket, heard at the basic stage of yog. Slowly as one enters the second stage, it changes into that of flowing water, which then metamorphoses into the jingle of bells. (All these sounds are actually heard.) Many practitioners of Sanatan Kriya have reported hearing them in deep states of dhyan). In the final stages of yog, the jingle transforms into a humming sound—the brahmnaad; the sound that holds the power to manifest everything in the physical world. It is the reason why people approach Himalayan yogis who do not even have the resources to clothe or feed themselves. Finally, there is silence…the ultimate force from where it all emerged.
Yogi Ashwini is the spiritual head of Dhyan Ashram. dhyan@dhyanfoundation.com