You advocate music and mantras for anxiety, better sleep and yoga practice - is it akin to music therapy?
Music therapy is an established health care profession that uses music to address the physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs of people and seeks to improve the quality of their life. On the other hand our online course is more akin to a spiritual practice that gives the understanding of how you can use music and mantras for anxiety and better sleep. Traditionally the healing power of music and mantra was a practice of yoga and was called Nada yoga. The human body is like a musical instrument expressing different frequencies and rhythms. It responds to certain sound frequencies and undergoes changes to brain physiology, heartbeat and breath. The aim of our course is to bring the body into alignment with its naturally pure vibration; the outcome is good health, happiness and relief for anxiety, stress and poor sleep.
Does your music and mantra course use any asanas?
In the West people are more drawn to the asana tradition or posture type of yoga, which is the most popular and not the meditation side. This is because the posture type of yoga appeals to the physically oriented culture of the western mind.The style of yoga we promote in our course is traditionally defined as meditation, not as asana which is actually taught merely as an aid to meditation.
The yoga sutras, which are the classical texts on yoga, are a compilation and codifications of the method used by yogis to attain realization of Self. They were compiled by the sage Patanjali a Vedic scholar who is believed to have lived around the second century BC. The yoga sutras are considered the definitive work on yoga and demonstrates that the ultimate aim of yoga is to reach freedom, free from cause and effect (karma). The yoga sutras deal with two hundred sutras, out of which only three deals with asana, whilst the great majority deals with the science of meditation, its theory and results.
Your course talks about the relationship between musical frequencies and the chakra system. Can you describe the chakra system?
The knowledge of the chakra system has been exhaustively recorded by the great yogis of India. They believed that inside the human body are millions of these tiny whirling vital life- forces, intensely concentrated into centres called chakras. Our course deals primarily with the seven major chakras. Chakra is a sanskrit word for wheel. Every thought, action and intention influences the sensitivity and performance of these chakras which are subtle energy centres rotating clockwise at specific frequencies. Our music and mantra course is based on the relationship between the musical notes and the chakras. When the frequency of the notes and charas are in sync by a process called “entrainment” an optimal flow of energy is activated and a balanced state of being is established.
Why have you chosen the Indian music system?
The music of India is one of the oldest unbroken musical traditions in the world. In Indian mythology, music originated with the first sound of the universe. Om is the primordial sound and is said to be the purest sound ever made. The foundation stone of the whole sanskrit language is the word Om and is also the foundation of the mantras we use in our course.When we use sanskrit mantras we awaken fields of energy represented by the sounds and awaken higher states of awareness.
Is the course on mantra and happiness a path to enlightenment?
Our course is simply one of the pathways to a more enlightened way of living. It uses music and mantras to transcend the ego/mind. Actually every authentic spiritual pathway is simply based on different approaches for transcending the ego/mind. Subtle forms of sound have the power to calm and relax the mind. Music i.e inspirational and supportive of a devotional and reverential mood and attitude shifts attention away from thoughts and the mind becomes silent in awe of the power and beauty of the music. At the same time the emitted frequencies clear the negativity held in the chakra system. The thought content of the mind is gradually emptied. So in essence music and mantra for health and happiness is a tool we can use to clear the obstacles and purify the pathway to enlightenment.
