Message from the Siddha Ashram (Swami Nardanand). Music and meditation

 MUSIC AND MEDITATION: Music is meditation if it can touch the mind and heart. Music was once part of meditation for mahatmas, but today it became a business and a form of public entertainment. The saints and devotes sang not for entertainment, but for humble longing, to scream their pain of separating from God, to seek God's help. His song came from the heart, but the mind cried, the tears flowed from his eyes. This was his meditation. If music is an inner expression, only then can it affect the mind. The mind becomes more restless and selfish if music is an outer expression. Meditation with music is not practicing notes, rhythms, melodies, ragas, etc. When you lose yourself in the deep feelings of the heart while singing that's meditation. The foundation of musical practice are vocal chords and head, but the foundation of meditation is the heart. Music practice doesn't affect the mind and heart, but meditation squeezes the heart. The limit of practicing music is art, but the limit of meditation is God without limits, which is free of art. Musicians should be respected because they keep art alive, which is part of meditation. But not all musicians are sadhaks. For a spiritual aspirant, the study of music can be a meditation, a spiritual practice. It's a tool for your spiritual pursuit, not the goal. An artist is definitely a practitioner. Swami Shivom Tirth Churning of the Heart.

Thank you Swami Nardanand for sharing

K. Gabriel