tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5396517587773846626.post8029189446456032535..comments2022-12-11T05:09:07.838-05:00Comments on Vedanta Society of Providence: Comment on "Mysticism of Sound and Music" class (Tuesday, July 08, 2014)Vedanta Society of Providencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01607465523968495680noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5396517587773846626.post-89430676763725587882014-07-16T22:09:20.153-04:002014-07-16T22:09:20.153-04:00Thank you for your insights in explaining why the ...Thank you for your insights in explaining why the sound perception has predominance over other sense perceptions.<br />Could you also kindly provide your thoughts if any genre of music has some inherent characteristic that gives it a superior position over other genres in spiritual context?Srikanth_Snoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5396517587773846626.post-52078684766245830072014-07-16T17:48:27.524-04:002014-07-16T17:48:27.524-04:00This comment pertains to both - the original blog ...This comment pertains to both - the original blog and the 'second thoughts'. I agree that sense of music too is present in all human beings like the sense of taste, there is a difference in the degree. In that class of Swami Yogatmananda, there was discussion on the the Vedantic understanding of how the sense of sound is involved in all other sensations like tactile, sight, taste and smell as the 'materials' for all these senses are evolved from akasha - which has the property of 'sound'. So it has to be appreciated only by the organ 'ear'. When one is appreciating the 'touch', while the organ of touch is predominant, the organ 'ear' too has a role to play. In 'sight' appreciation, the 'eye' gets the inputs from ear as well as touch. for taste - 4 organs are at work and for smell all 5 organs play a role. To put it simply, sound is the 'purest' sensation, being unmixed with other senses. The mixture goes on becoming more complex as one moves from touch to smell. The sense of taste and smell are so closely mixed together that sometimes it is difficult to tell what exactly is being liked or disliked. Whether one is liking (or disliking) the feel or taste or smell of fish is not easy to separately tell. The 'taste' of food therefore is a mixture of the looks of the plates/cups/silver/table, the warmness, coldness, softness or crunchy feel, the aroma, the level of hunger, the friends around, the ambiance of the place etc.So the 'food' -appreciation is done by all senses. It is also connected with survival, and with protection against harmful matter getting into the body. Appreciation of 'sound' (music=beautification of sound) does not involve any other organ, it is not 'need' for survival. The cultivation of the sense of music is therefore a matter of choice, it is not a 'must'. So the statement 'appreciation of music is much less than that of food stuff', it is from this point. There is actually a lot to think/speak about this; one can see all 'thought' and language is associated with sound (so with music too). The scope of music is therefore tremendously vast and profound. There is some valuable literature available to help understand these ideas. Swami Prajnanananda's works are very nice.<br />SChaitanyaSChaitanyanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5396517587773846626.post-57446479597471454072014-07-13T22:59:51.363-04:002014-07-13T22:59:51.363-04:00My second thoughts:
The "sound" used in...My second thoughts:<br /><br />The "sound" used in this context of mysticism is not the sound felt as a sense perception, but it is a fundamental entity that constitutes every object including all sense perceptions: sound, light, taste, touch, smell. Light is also used fairly well in this context. However, you could still argue why the word "sound" was picked fpr this fundamental unit and not any other sense perception word such as "taste" or "touch" or "smell". <br /><br />Regarding music being given an exalted position in spiritual context over say a beautiful scenery or a delicious food, I am guessing the effect of sense perception on a person has got to do something with this. Not all sense perceptions would have the same effect on a given state of mind. Swami Vivekananda mentions about a beautiful scenery that could inspire someone to meditate very deeply: his own life exemplifies it. Sri Ramakrishna also had profound states of mind triggered by mundane incidents. So music is not the only vehicle. But for a vast majority of humanity perhaps music is the best means to sooth the mind as compared to other sense perceptions. Also amongst different genres of music, classical suits the most people to quieten the mind. Rock music may also lead to the same exalted state of mind to a person just as classical does to another person, but again by and large we see <br />classical music having such spiritually beneficial effect on more people<br /> than other music genres. So simply put, classical music gets importance<br /> in spiritual context over other sense perceptions and genres of music <br />purely due to statistical evidence of having observed their effects on <br />lives of all people till now in the context of spirituality.Srikanth_Snoreply@blogger.com