Music for relieving
‘Music does not give rise, in the heart, to anything which is not already there.’ - Al Suhrawardi.
The material world, as it manifests to us, apparently looks solid and secure.
But scientists know that this apparently solid world around us is made of molecules, which, very much like planets in the galaxy stand segregated from each other by distances or space in between.
These tiny molecules, we know, are in turn made of atoms, which again are made of electrons and protons moving through expanses of space in charged energy fields.
Every thing manifested to us and around us thus represents a field of energy moving in great void!
This great emptiness that pervades in us and surrounds everything around us indicate that every ‘object’ or ‘thing’ or ‘person’ we come across (including our own body, for that matter!) does not have any real substance within but for the energy fields, charged in them variously.
Experiencing music enables us to be sensitive to and appreciate this great void which exists in and around us, as all musical structures are woven by the various combinations of sound and silence, simultaneously running in a track...
The constant and continuous changes we come across in the material world, viz. birth, growth and death and several ups and down in life are fully reflected as we listen to any piece of music. A song or a composition starts, develops and tapers into silence that prevails thereafter, till another one comes to occupy our soundscape. .
The microcosmic and macrocosmic changes we come across in life are fully reflected in any musical piece: change of notes, fluctuations in sound frequencies (e.g., gamaka and meend), intervals, variations in timbre, pitch, loudness etc)
Music reminds us of the transitory possessions we acquire in our life in terms of objects, passions, ideals and what not, which all get eventually de-possessed.
Music, like life, moves undeclared towards an unimagined destination. Music also deals with a past, present and future – akin to our life experience.
The plus point in music however, is that one can re-live the past (through iteration) which is not possible in our real life!
Listening to music thus helps us in getting a new dimension in our experience: a fulfillment which occurs by returning to the past and reliving in a more productive manner!
Appreciating music and finding how wonderful it is, is no different than finding the glory of the spirit within us.
What can be viewed as ordinary events in our life can be projected into magnificent experiences by including music in our daily life.
Music goes with everything: feeling of want, sadness, frustration, happiness, rage, disappointments, successes, depression, tension, tragedies and pain.
It may not erase our habits – the habit of looking at the mud, when we could look at the stare – but it may remind us in a persuading manner that there are stars in our life worth looking at!
Courtesy: Shri T.V.Sairam (President, NADA music therapy center, Chennai)