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  Nada Yoga   

Union Through Sound

Om Symbol

India has a long and varied tradition of the use of sound and music to worship the Divine.  It's all there – the chanting of sacred texts, the ringing of bells, the thumping of drums, the keening voices in call and response, the repetition of various names given to a particular God or Goddesss, the singing of praise to the Beloved, the whispered pleas of prayer, the ecstatic trance inducing melodies, the silence between inhalation and exhalation.  To experience sound is to experience the Divine.

Since Indian classical music is ninety-nine percent improvised on an aesthetic structure known as raga, each performance is spontaneously composed.  Thus, a musician improvising with sound starts fresh each time.  In fact, it is the ambiance of the audience that is a primary inspiration for the coloration given to the music.  This cannot be planned in advance.  Until you arrive at a particular moment, you don't know what is there to experience.

There is an art to listening.  If you go to a temple in India you leave your shoes outside the door.  Just so, you leave the intellect and ego out of the act of listening.  Come with an open heart.  If one listens with the attitude of "I like" or "I don't like" then one has already slipped out of the experience.  You just surrender to the sound.  Only when one can hear clearly can the magic begin.  As the raga unfolds; the musician, the instrument, and the audience become one.

In the western world, music is most often considered to be a form of  entertainment.  The combination of music, breath, posture, and attunement is not common.  However, to K. Sridhar they are inseparable.  Just as a struck tuning fork will cause nearby forks to emit their own tone, a concert of Nada Yoga can be considered a form of communal expression.

  Nada Workshops   

Breath & Tone Workshop:  Fundamentals of Naad Yoga ( the Yoga of Sound)

To the ancient yogis of India, music and worship were intertwined.  In fact, toning or chanting could lead to samadhi, a much desired state of union with the Divine.  In Vedic texts there are many references to the metaphysics and science of sound as well as the artistic and therapeutic applications of music.  The Sanskrit word "nada" means tone or pitch.  Nada Yoga is a spiritual practice that involves tone.

"It's not about entertainment.  It's about attainment."


- K. Sridhar

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