Nada Yoga: Union Through Sound

Using music and sound to connect to a greater state of consciousness is typical in most spiritual traditions. This is specially accurate in India, exactly where several of the Hindu gods and goddesses are musicians: Krisha plays the flute, Saraswati holds a stringed veena, and Ganesha made the tabla drums. There is also a “yoga of sound,” called nāda yoga, described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika as a single of the most potent and fruitful meditation methods to nevertheless the thoughts.

What does Nada Yoga imply?

The Sanskrit word Nada translates as sound, tone, or vibration, so Nada Yoga normally suggests “union through sound,” or the “yoga of sound.” The ancient Vedic texts say the universe was made as pure vibration. They known as this cosmic sound Nada Brahman, and it is the similar sound vibration of the Om mantra. Nada Yoga is an Indian spiritual approach to turn your perception of hearing inwards to listen for the pure sound of your inner spirit. This sacred sound practice also utilizes chanting Sanskrit mantra and listening to meditative external music like Indian classical music.

The unstruck sound

Nada yoga is a practice of deep internal listening with the aim of hearing the sound of anahata nada, one’s personal inner, unstruck sound that is inaccessible to other people. This mystical sound ranges from loud drums, soft flutes, buzzing bees, and shimmering gongs to the “sound of clouds.”¹ The sounds of anahata are made and heard from within sushumna, the central power channel, and these sounds will be specially loud in the heart chakra or the “ear of the heart.”²

Nada yoga methods

The approach of nada yoga described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika is an sophisticated renunciate practice. To hear the sound of anahata nada, a practitioner have to dedicate years of preparation and practice to perfecting hatha yoga methods. The key stage of nada yoga is pratyahara, turning off the sense organs and tuning into the inner aliveness of getting. The two other preliminary yoga practices are dharana, a single-pointed concentration, and dhyana, sustaining dharana for quite a few minutes. Most importantly, the sushumna nadi, exactly where anahata is made, have to be purified with a committed pranayama practice.

Most modern day yogis will not have the time, dedication, or wish to attain this sophisticated stage of yoga, but there is an external (ahata) nada yoga practice that is accessible for any practitioner of yoga. To practice ahata nada yoga, choose some soft, calming music to listen to while sitting in a comfy meditation pose.  Focus all of your consideration on the sounds of the music, and when thoughts arise, bring your focus back to the music, or ahata nada. I advocate building a playlist of songs for the quantity of time you want to practice and applying headphones to seal your focus on the sounds of the music. Meditate on these external sounds for 10-15 minutes as soon as or twice a day applying the similar variety/style of music. Over time, you can gradually turn the volume down to strengthen your listening skills and concentration.

Music can be a potent spiritual tool. The potential to uncover, listen, and focus by way of ahata nada is an accessible way to hone your concentration and deepen your yoga practice. And when neither anahata nor ahata nada are specially uncomplicated, finding out to listen with your complete consideration when simultaneously quieting the thoughts is a useful and rewarding ability that will advantage you in several locations of your yoga practice and life.

1.  Hatha Yoga Pradipika 4:87. “Jimuta” is typically translated as “thunder,” but the direct translation is “sound of clouds,” which I discover to be far more poetic as effectively as more open to an experiential and subtle knowledge of this sound.
2. Hatha Yoga Pradipika 4:67. “Dakshine karne” is straight translated as “the right ear.” Right can also imply “true, correct, appropriate,” and in the context of the text, it makes more sense to use the “true, correct, appropriate ear,” which in this practice would be the “ear of the heart.”