The Music Within

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart “ – Helen Keller

When is that one hears and sees with the heart ?

It would be when he listens within.

But the interesting fact is not many of us understand what that means or rather have lost the very trait in our “evolution” into a being fit for today’s mechanical world; a world driven by a chase after money , power and status rather than the invaluable gifts of peace and contentment. There is one point on which all psycho analysts seem to agree upon and that is – we live in an increasingly restless world, with all new avenues having opened up for any comfort one can name the discontentment seems to grow and not diminish.

Our world is ruled by competition and this competition is being promoted by many as “competition brings out the best” , this may be true for business enterprises in a limited way and in fields such as sports, but for an individual having to compete with his brothers and sisters to prove his/her worth is highly detrimental. He/she falls under the delusion that life is all about a race where one needs to stamp on others to move up, where one’s worth is determined by how much better is his/her “success” in making it above one’s fellow beings. What would be the outcome of such a mindset, nothing but a mass of human beings who are human beings just in appearance, who seldom experience what it is to be compassionate or to be selfless or to see oneself in others.

Swami Chinmayananda was once asked as to why the Chinmaya mission never built orphanages, hospitals and institutions of charity. Prompt and clear was his reply “My treatment is for the cause and not the effect”. Most of the time we end up treating the effect being oblivious of the cause. What is the cause ? Answer is simple – a defective education system. Our education system as it is today is a close imitation of the British education system as that existed more than a century ago. The idea has been to cram facts into the minds of little children right from when they are able to pronounce “Ma”. There is no natural cohesion with life, just capsules for disaster, and this the child is expected to devour and reproduce in his examinations. The child who reproduces the most is the topper. Of course there are exceptions but this is the main theme of almost any educational institution we can think of in today’s times.

Looking back we see a ray of light. Ours is no small heritage, we are the offsprings of the ancient Sages who taught in the Gurukulas. In the Parliament of Religions at Melbourne in Dec, 2009, Swami Sandeep Chaitanya who represented India said “In ancient times the sages were fine- tuned to Nature- they heard and listened. Their deep and quiet wisdom was a result of hearing and listening and this was reflected in their hymns and worship. They heard, they listened and they sang in glory:

“ Om bhadram karnebhih shrunuyaama devaah

Bhadram pashyemaakshabhiryajatraah

Sthirairangaistushtuvaamsastanoobhih

Vyashema devahitam yadaayuh

Swasti na indro vridhashravaah

Swasti nah pooshaa vishwavedaah

Swasti nastaarkshyo arishtanemih

Swasti no brihaspatir dadhaatu.

Om shantih, shantih, shantih!”

This shloka was recited by our rishis to nature through which they appealed, “May our ears rejoice from hearing your voices”. “May we see what is auspicious”.

To the Hindu sage ‘hearing each other’ means not just humans hearing humans. It signifies hearing the whole universe with utmost reverence, attention and concentration. When in meditation, one can hear and see even the quiet blooming of a flower. Every bit of Nature would have much to tell us – the seas, rivers, plants and animals- even the tiny ant.”.

Swami Vivekananda said “We see the world as we are. That which we have inside, we see outside”. How then can happiness come from a mind which hasn’t known any genuine happiness but only faint shadows of it, only fleeting glimpses of joy? The answer is to go back to our ancient wisdom, blend it with the knowledge of technology and business that has erupted on our society in such a way that does justice to our having taken birth in this country of ancient wisdom. That alone is the ultimate solution to all the poverty we see, material and spiritual. When an empowered society is built on such solid grounds we may no longer need to preach values to one another. The simplest step which each of us can take would be to promote any endeavor that is taken up on these lines, let our children grow amidst an ocean of love and wisdom and not in a pre-school to empty materialism. The greatest Satsang or divine company is said to be with Mother Nature. When we can hear her, we need not hear anything else.

[Author : Soorya SS, Trivandrum]