Q - Sometimes during chanting, I find myself moving to the rhythm. Is it better to keep the body steady?
Shri Yogi Hari - It is natural that the body moves with music and rhythm, but then you are only experiencing the superficial, the gross aspect of music and vibration. When you go to a disco, the music is arranged in such a way that it will immediately take you in this state of movement and excitement. It would be hard to meditate in such a setting.
It is very different with the music that we are practicing here. This music that flew through the minds of great Rishis and Yogis, along with the rhythm, the tala, used for it, are meant to bring you to a state of physical and mental steadiness so that you can experience the most subtle levels of vibration. There is nothing wrong with moving your body a little while chanting, because movement is involved in music. Singing, dancing, playing instruments are the three components of Sangit, the art of divine music. But the deeper the level of vibration you are experiencing, the more steady you will be. Know that this is where you are heading.Q "Sometimes I am not aware anymore of what we are singing and I miss the time when we are supposed to come in for the response. Is it withdrawal of the mind or is it sleeping?"
Shri Yogi Hari - You have to develop your awareness and know that you were just somewhere else. This is not meditation. When we are chanting, I may loose awareness of the playing, but I never loose awareness of the music and the tala. If I do, I will miss a note, because it means my mind went away. That is why music is so helpful in developing awareness and focus of mind.
Most of the time people think they are meditating when in fact their mind is gone on a world tour and they are not even aware of it. Meditation is not sleeping. It is a state of complete focus and concentration where the prana keeps your body relaxed and erect, and you have full awareness of this flow of energy. This takes you beyond time and space. You experience bliss. If this experience continues for an extended period of time, it takes you into samadhi, the eighth stage of Raja Yoga.
On your way to meditation, you will have glimpses of this state. You will have to persevere in your practice in order to be established in it.Q- What difference do you feel when you are singing from your heart or from your brain?
Shri Yogi Hari - Singing from the heart means singing with total freedom and spontaneity. You can only reach there after a long time of self-effort and practice. It means that you have to start practicing with your head. This is not only true with singing, but with everything else. In everything the right foundation, right guidance and knowledge have to be there, or else you will not go far. One time in a course I had a lady who had been practicing yoga for twenty years. Yet she still needed two walls to do headstand. She was used to do this posture in the corner of the room. She was unable to progress because she never had proper instructions.
From childhood I had been chanting. When I joined the ashram people thought that I was a great musician. I was singing from the top of my voice...; and I was probably disturbing the whole community. Then when I met my Guru and started to understand what music really is, I realized how little I knew about it. For fourteen years I studied with him faithfully and with devotion. He was an ocean of musical knowledge. I will never be able to exhaust the knowledge I received from him. He gave me a strong foundation from where I am still exploring and progressing, whereas without proper basis, you get stuck at one level. The more knowledge and understanding you have, the more you will be able to appreciate instead of having just fantasies and superstition in your head. In some places people are chanting the name of God with all their heart and they are enjoying it because they are not aware of their limitations. If I go there, for me it is just noise. So there are many different levels, and people come together according to their level of understanding and knowledge. This is true with everything else. In Hatha Yoga there are teachers who keep their students on a basic level, with the same routine for years and years. They don 't even dare to venture outside of their familiar format because without proper foundation you get lost. Whereas if you understand the basics of a practice or a science you can build on it infinitely and with confidence. You will be able to measure your improvement, your progress.
For four years I had to practice exactly what my music Guru taught me, all the Nada Yoga techniques and practices that develop concentration. I discovered that it was one of the most effective tools. I had been practicing concentration for ten years, without being able to check what level I had reached. When I started to study music, I could see how much focus and concentration I really had.
Nada Yoga, divine music is an exact science, it is not any kind of hocus-pocus. It follows exact rules. It is very powerful because it is dealing with your very nature, your essence, which is vibration. Chakras and prana are nothing but vibration. With proper knowledge, this music can accelerate your evolution. Your whole being is guided by rules and laws. When they are disturbed, there is sickness. Music can restore harmony in all these rules and laws. If it is not based on proper knowledge, it will keep you on a superficial, emotional level.
Do not get confused with heart and head. At the beginning you have to use your head, to use all your attention, but once you have established the foundations, spontaneity and creativity will take over.
For that reason, in my courses here, my intention is to give you a good foundation in the different aspects of yoga: Hatha, Raja, Bhakti, Nana, Karma and Nada yoga. From there on you can see the limitless potential of yoga and explore it. Whatever you will build from that foundation, will be within the confines of the rules and the laws.Extract from Yogi Hari's book "Sampoorna Yoga"
Back to Nada Yoga Back to Paths of Yoga About Mantras About Bhajans