Vedanta - Music and the Void

BINDU CHAWLA





In Indic tradition, in terms of basic numbers, what followed as we counted after the number nine was not 10, or even one, where the count begins again, but zero. The concept of zero is shunya, a state of everythingness, fullness or wholeness, and a condition of mind our gurus asked us to reach before the singing of any raga before its unconditional manifestation could begin.Shunya in the ancient texts is known as pujyam, or `worthy of being prayed to'. In classical music, it is symbolised by `sa', the first swara, the root note where all notes rest. Japa, or chanting, of the `sa' activates the shunyata of `sa', which then begins to manifest unconditionally . Whatever it manifests, provided it is unconditional, or pure, and not conditional, or sullied, is the active word of God, and his message for all.
Ashunyata stirs, so does the divine, opening out its light, along with nada, or sound, its initial manifestations or vibrations, which then formulate as swaras unfolding the Brahmanda, or universe, of the seven notes.
When the raga is sung by a pure soul, the notes will be accompanied by light -difficult to see by the ordinary listener -reflecting the colours and hues that the specific raga configuration shows up, with immense healing properties.
The raga and its colours are the celebration of intuition, the inner eye, having no reason as its manifestation, and that is why also, the classical raga in our music has to be sung without reason, or `conditionality', or nihilism, or empty zeros.