Sound Practice

The Power of Sound

The magical power of sound has been known to human mysticism since the dawn of time. Hymns, prayers, incantations, mantra have been the key to communion with the divine for thousands of generations. The Bible tells us that in the beginning was the word, logos, while the ancient Veda proclaims the sacred mantra, om ॐ as the primordial and universal sound.

The taxonomy of divinity may vary from one tradition to another, but the divine name of God is considered to have great power in any tradition. From Yahweh to Adonai to Christ and the followers of the Jesus Prayer and the Philokalia, the practice of the mantra has held power over erudite savants and mystic pilgrims seeking the divine. Sound has transformative power.

Sound itself, the spectrum of vibration that can be heard by the human ear, is only a small expression of the overwhelming and perfect harmony of the whole universe; this may be the secret of the amazing power that music has to move us.

Writing in The Mysticism of Sound and Music, The Indian Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first teacher to bring the Islamic mystical tradition to the West, asserts that “Divine sound is the cause of all manifestation. The knower of the mystery of sound knows the mystery of the whole universe. The Yogis and the Sufis in their meditation have always had music. Music is the greatest mystery in the world. The whole manifestation is made of vibrations, and vibrations contain all its secrets The vibrations of music free the soul and take from a person all the heaviness which keeps him bound. Music reaches the soul in a moment, as the telegraph reaches from London to New York... Music, the word we use in our everyday language, is nothing less than the picture of the Beloved. It is because music is the picture of the Beloved that we love music. But the question is: What is our Beloved, or where is our Beloved? Our Beloved is that which is our source and our goal. What we see of our Beloved before our physical eyes is the beauty which is before us. If only we would listen to the voice of all the beauty that attracts us in any form, we would find that in every aspect it tells us that behind all manifestations is the perfect Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom.

While music touches the human heart, mantra penetrates deeper to the human soul. Ordinary sound takes place within the world of sense, mind and vibrations: divine sound transpires on a higher conscious plane, above the sensual, mental and intellectual plane. When mantra truly penetrates the inner ear, the true nature of the divine may be experienced through a transcendental wave or vibration.

Real divine sound takes place in a higher realm that cannot be heard with the ordinary ear. It may begin with a sensual experience; the mantra may originally be felt as a physical sound vibration. But just as Beethoven could hear inner music even when he was stone deaf, a true saint hears the holy name on a higher level--the soul plane.

True divine sound moves through a more subtle sphere of existence, beyond the planetary music of the spheres. As an example, the gayatri mantra is a gateway to the immortal plane. Higher still, the holy name of Krishna is a transcendent reality, God incarnate as divine sound. Such spiritual vibration calls one to the highest plane of existence where one is invited to participate in the dance of Govinda to the tune of his transcendental flutesong.

The Sanskrit word mantra implies manasa-trayate or deliverance of the mind from the strife of material existence. While many mantras exist in the Vedic tradition, the mahā-mantra, or great mantra is the supreme path to truth. The ultimate sacred syllables of the great mantra reveal confidential truths about the nature of Supreme Reality.

This esoteric system was first promulgated half a millenium ago on the banks of the Ganges in Nabadwip, Bengal among the saints and sages of India by its greatest mystic, Shri Chaitanya, also called Mahaprabhu or great teacher.

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu

Four hundred years ago in 1616 the two greatest proponents of literature in the Western world, the greatest poet of the English language together with the greatest novelist in the Spanish language did on the same day of the same year. Both Shakespeare and Cervantes passed away on the same day, 23 April, 1616. How fitting that the deaths of the greatest minds of the Western literary world would coincide with the publication of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, the work of the greatest Bengali poet and spiritual master, Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami.

Kaviraj Goswami’s book heralds the life and teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the foremost exponent of the power of the maha-mantra and the holy name of Krishna. His teachings have been explained by Śrīdhara Mahārāja in the Search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa:

“When Kṛṣṇa enters the heart through the ear, He captures the lotus of the heart and then gradually makes all the dirt in the heart disappear. Just as when the autumn season comes, all the water everywhere becomes pure, so also, when Kṛṣṇa enters our hearts, all the impurities within will gradually vanish, and only Kṛṣṇa will remain forever.”

Śrīdhara Mahārāja explains how to go about the practice of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, through japa or quiet prayer, using the rosary called japa-mala. He tells us that it is always beneficial to begin by invoking Śrī Chaitanya who brought the holy name of Kṛṣṇa into the consciousness of the present world:
“Before chanting the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, we must first chant the Pañcha-tattva mantra:

 श्री कृष्ण छैतन्य प्रभु नित्यानन्द
श्री अद्वैत गदाधर श्रीवासादि गौर-भक्त-वृन्द
śrī kṛṣṇa chaitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

The Pañcha-tattva, or five features of the Absolute Truth, came to give the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra to the fallen devotees of this age, so they are the general representation of Guru for us. They help us to enter into the domain of Kṛṣṇa and also the plane of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu.
After chanting the Pañcha-tattva mantra, we should count on the beads of the japa-mālā and chant the mahā-mantra:

हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे
हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

“While counting beads and chanting the holy name, the beads should be placed inside a cloth bag, and the index finger, which is generally considered inauspicious, should not touch the beads, but should remain outside the bag. Generally we use the thumb and middle finger to count. One should chant sixteen rounds, as recommended by Bhaktivedanta Swāmī Mahārāj, but if there is any emergency, he must chant at least four rounds; the mālā should not be kept fasting. In the process of counting, we begin from the bigger beads and go towards the smaller, and again return in the same line. The giant bead in the center is called Mount Sumeru. We must not cross over that. This harināma mahā-mantra is found in the Upaniṣads, as well as in the Agni Purāṇa and the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa. In the Kalisantaraṇa Upaniṣad, it is recommended as the highest mantra, and scholars have mentioned this mantra as a means of address only; no appeal should be attached to that. This Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is the yuga dharma nāma, or the process of God realization especially meant for the present age, Kali-yuga. We find the mahā-mantra mentioned everywhere in the Purāṇas. This mantra can be chanted silently, mentally, and aloud. It has been given to us by Mahāprabhu as the general recommendation for the fallen souls. He has given it for all, whether they are qualified or unqualified. The only condition for receiving it is śraddhā, faith. It is mentioned in the Padma Purāṇa that there are ten kinds of offenses we must try to avoid in the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. There are also four kinds of nāmābhāsa, or apathetic chanting, which will not give us entrance into the domain of mercy. Mere liberation will be effected by that kind of invocation.”


His Divine Grace Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhar dev Goswāmī, Search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Guardian of Devotion Press.