Nada Brahma – Experiencing the World as Sound

“Nada” means “sound.” “Brahma” means “Divine,” the All. Fundamentally, there are three sounds in the existence. Any given sound can be created out of these three sounds. If you know something about a color television, there are only three color webs. Given these three color webs, any number of colors can be created. Similarly, given these three sounds, any number of sounds can be created. You can see this with a simple experiment: without the use of the tongue, there are only three sounds you can utter: “aaa”, “ouuu”, and “mmm”. Even if you cut off your tongue, you can still utter these three sounds. For any other sound, you need the use of the tongue. You are using the tongue only to mix these three sounds in many ways to produce all the other sounds. There are so many millions of sounds you can create with your mouth, but a person who is mute can only say “aaa”, “ouuu”, and “mmm”. He cannot say anything else because he is not able to use his tongue.

AUM – The Fundamental Sound

If you utter these three sounds together, what do you get? AUM. AUM is not some religion’s trademark. It is the fundamental sound in the existence. It is said that Shiva can create a whole new existence just by uttering three AUMs. This is not a fact, but it is a truth. What is the difference between a fact and a truth? Let us say you are a woman. Does that mean your father made no contribution towards you? Does that mean your father does not exist within you? No. So the fact is, you are either a man or a woman. The truth is you are both. It is not that Shiva is sitting somewhere and uttering AUMs. That is not the point. What is being said is that everything is just a vibration.

If you just give yourself to that song, there is a kind of power to it. It has a power to dissolve a person, if you really throw yourself into it.

There are many ways to look at this. Many years ago, I used to travel alone for a month or two every year in the Himalayas, and I happened to go to Kedarnath. Kedar is a very powerful and wonderful place. Above Kedar, there is a place called Kanti Sarovar, where people don’t generally go because it is a tricky climb. I trekked up to Kanti Sarovar and sat on one of the rocks there.

It is very difficult to put this into words, but after some time, everything turned into sound in my experience. My body, the mountain, the lake in front of me, everything had become sound. It had taken on sound form, and was just going on in me in a completely different way. My mouth was closed – I am very clear about that – but my own voice was going on loudly, as if it was on a microphone, singing a song, and it was in Sanskrit.

Nada Brahma Vishwaswaroopa
Nada Hi Sakala Jeevaroopa
Nada Hi Karma Nada Hi Dharma
Nada Hi Bandhana Nada Hi Mukti
Nada Hi Shankara Nada Hi Shakti
Nadam Nadam Sarvam Nadam
Nadam Nadam Nadam Nadam

Translation: Sound is Brahman, the manifestation of the universe, sound manifests itself in the form of all life, sound is bondage, sound is the means for liberation, sound is that which binds, sound is that which liberates, sound is the bestower of all, sound is the power behind everything, sound is everything.

If you just give yourself to that song, there is a kind of power to it. It has a power to dissolve a person, if you really throw yourself into it.