In a chat with KAITY CAMA, a well-known energy healer, REENA SINGH learnt about how to appreciate music and how different forms of music can help the mind heal
Can music be a tool to find peace? I asked this question of Kaity Cama, a trained clinical hypnotherapist and Reiki grandmaster and an expert in both numerology and the meaning of names and their vibrations. Kaity gave me the example of a person who is medically fit, yet is always lazy and lethargic and described how such a person responds to fast-moving, high-pitched music. “Where the tone and sound of the music is higher and faster, it engenders better circulation and activity within such a person,” she said.
Similarly, if a person wants to sleep, but sleep evades him, then listening to slow music in a lower pitch can be very helpful. Classical music is especially helpful, she suggested. And if one has a deeper understanding of music, then she suggested one must listen to different types of music that is in keeping with the cycles of the universe — earth cycle and the lunar cycle.
But the trouble is that most of us are not too fond of classical music and cannot identify with this kind of music. This can be set right by attending music appreciation classes or lectures. Try udemy.com. For a reasonable sum of money, usually less than Rs 500, you can watch a series of videos that will give you all the learning you want at your pace and at your convenience. And for someone looking for a quick soundbite, free videos on YouTube can provide respite.
Whatever kind of music you listen to, whether Hindi pop or some sweet English pop with lyrics that seem perfect for moonstruck teenagers, or if you have deeper tastes in music and prefer ragas or western classical music, you can pick your music according to the time of day.
For instance, there are ragas especially made for different times of the day. Kaity recounted reading a story that described Tansen’s talent as so mighty that when he would sing a song, even a stone could melt.
“But,” Kaity lamented, “all that ancient knowledge has been lost to us and for most, music is quite literally just plain ‘timepass’,” she added, borrowing a common Indian phrase. She continued, “There is Malhar raga, and there were other ragas to create fire or to bring rain.” But she said the ragas were now not in perfection any more as they were in the olden days.
Listening to good music or reading a good book can quite definitely change people. The process is slower than direct learning under a guru, but quite definitely, the change will happen, albeit slowly. Kaity said, that if people take to listening to Sufi music, they will change. The change would be slow — but when you are exposed to such music, you can learn to love the universe and become more spiritual.
The message is clear. Take to listening to Sufi music or to other forms of music that leads one towards tranquillity, and automatically, there will be more peace in the universe.
And finally, Kaity spoke about popular music and lyrics that the young listen to. She said that if a person is spiritual, he will listen to a love song and think naturally about God. But if he or she is enmeshed in materiality, then one will listen to the same song and will think only of a girlfriend or boyfriend.
As I finished with her interview, she left me with something to think about: Kaity said that even songs like Choli ke peeche kya hai can be perceived as spiritual. For what is behind the choli or body? The heart! And within the heart lies deep love for God in all spiritual persons.
So, it all depends on a person’s consciousness, and how he or she looks at something or at a situation.
Reena Singh has more than 37 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent nine years.
Indeed, we are influenced by what we see and hear, and our cognitive organs open up to those aspects of the reality which as such are already grown in us or are in a nascent state of growth in all of us. This is the beauty of the finest factors in us which like soft tendrils of a creeper silently seek avenues for gratification and grow further to touch every aspects of the universe. According to the height and depth of our consciousness, we celebrate with the height and depth of the realities, as the universe offers us.
The most evolved souls say everything is music with a mystical sense of delight. Scholars of advanced physics too say so as they talk about the tiniest thing of the universe. They are vibrating strings which keep vibrating on different notes and according to the vibration they create different particles.
Not at all a surprise, the tapestry of the universe and the chemistry in us is built in such a way that we are made such that we resonate with different tone, tune and tenor of music.
Accordingly our mind, heart, soul and spirit gets fine tuned with ‘it’.
Amidst this grand symphony and orchestra, some of the very evolved universal souls like Kabir Ji says, there is only one beautiful music that resonates in the entire universe. One who has evolved to the state of Oneness can only hear that symphony. He says:
सुनता है गुरु ज्ञानी ज्ञानी ज्ञानी…गगन मण्डल में आवाज हो रही झीनी-झीनी झीनी-झीनी…
As Dr Kaity so succinctly said it: if a person is spiritual, he will listen to a love song and think naturally about God, and so also a lover will listen as he or she is aligned!
As is the feel, so is the thrill…and of course, so can one heal…all that can be said about it.
Thank you Reena ji, for this encouraging post.
Very well expressed n written Reena Music brings peace to mind heart n soul. Loved the article