Readers of Antiquity

"The mystery of sound is mysticism; the harmony of life is religion. The knowledge of vibrations is metaphysics, and the analysis of atoms is science; and their harmonious grouping is art. The rhythm of form is poetry, and the rhythm of sound is music."

"This shows that music is the art of arts and the science of all sciences; and it contains the fountain of all knowledge within itself. Every sacred scripture, holy picture, or spoken word produces the impression of its identity upon the marrow of the soul; but music stands before the soul without producing any impression of this objective world, in either name or form, thus preparing the soul to realize the Infinite."

Makes you want to get drunk and blow the dust off your old guitar, doesn't it? No. Good, because this book is about the often under appreciated spiritual aspects of music. The work is called The Mysticism of Sound and Music written by Hazrat Inayat Khan. Shambhala published it in 1923.

Mr. Khan explains the deep meaning music is given in Sufism, which is a branch of the religion Islam. The teachings begin with the idea that all things are made of music. God alone is the silent or unchanging One. Out of His silence comes vibration. These vibrations are varied. They produce atoms and atoms generate life. Vibrations that are alike group themselves together and become blood, brain, cells, skin, dirt, trees, and everything else that exists.

"All things being derived from and formed of vibrations have sound hidden within them, as fire is hidden in flint; each atom of the universe confesses by its tone, 'My sole origin is sound!' If any solid or hollow sonorous body is struck it answers back, 'I am sound!"

It is believed that there is a harmony in this musical universe. All famines, plagues, wars, and disasters, no matter how bad they seem to us, are a re-adjusting of this universal harmony. As a musician tunes his instrument, the universal harmony tunes our world. For example, for many births, there must also be many deaths. Wow, music is cold-blooded.

In this world of sound, the fundamental aspect of life is motion. The law of motion is rhythm. "There is a saying in Sanskrit that 'Tone' is the mother of nature, but 'Rhythm' is its father." As we see the men working on the roads, and the corn blowing in the wind, we see rhythm. The seasons come and go, the leaves fall and the sun rises, all in perfect rhythm.

Sir Laurens Vanderpost once said that he couldn't sleep the first few nights in Africa because the stars were buzzing too loudly. The Sufis say that there is one, original, all-pervasive sound. It is the sound from which all others derive. Behind the thunder, the roaring sea, the jingling bells, the whistling birds, behind all things, is the most sacred sound.

The Buddhist call this sound Om. The Sufis call it Hu. Interestingly, this is also the true name of God. This is not a made-up name. It is the eternal name that echoes throughout the universe. It was the first sound ever made. It is the sound of God, and the very essence of God. It is what the bible refers to in the scripture, 'In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.'

Mr. Hazrat states that Hindu music is based on spiritual intuition, and that a musician's life is consumed with religious thought. "To an Indian, music is not an amusement or only for entertainment, it is something more than that. It answers the deepest demands of the soul."

"The soul feels buried in the outer, material world, and the soul feels satisfied and living when it is touched with the fine vibrations. The finest matter is spirit and the grosser spirit is matter. Music, being the finest of the arts, helps the soul to rise above differences. It unites souls, because even the words are not necessary. Music is beyond words."

"Music, the word we use in our everyday language, is nothing less than the picture of our Beloved. It is because music is the picture of our Beloved that we love music. But the question is, what is our Beloved and where is our Beloved? If only we would listen to the voice of all the beauty that attracted us in any form, we would find that in every aspect it tells us that behind all manifestation is the perfect Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom."

Music has been central to almost every religion in the world. From the ancient sound of a lone drummer in Mexico to the giant stage-shows of churches today, it seems we have always instinctively reached for the Beloved with sound. I guess we now know why.