The Mother and Sri Aurobindo : On Art - Addresses and Writings

Tagore in his Sādhanā writes: "Music is the highest of the arts because the singer has everything he requires within him. His idea and his expression are brother and sister; very often they are born as twins. In music the heart reveals itself immediately; it suffers not from any barrier of an alien material."

And then he expounds the Vedic idea : "This world^song is never for a moment separated from its singer. It is his joy itself taking neverending form."

But ours is not a world of harmony-much less of joy. In the very first chapter of The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo says : "All problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony." In the material world there is only "ordered, rhythmic slumber," not apparent harmony. Life is a dynamism full of disharmony and conflict. Man, the mental being, as an individual, is a divided being, the various parts of his being-the intellect, emotions, passions, desires-are in constant conflict. To bring about harmony within oneself and express it in life is the problem of the individual. To achieve harmony in collective life is the problem of human culture.

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The instruments of nature in man are not able to achieve this harmony. It is only by bringing forward the Soul, the psychic being, that real and lasting harmony can be established. Sri Aurobindo says: "Harmony is the natural rule of the Spirit, it is the inherent law and spontaneous consequence of unity in multiplicity" The Life Divine (p. 922).

Music is one of the arts that can help us in realising this harmony, as it is capable of bringing down the vibrations of the deeper Soul, or the Higher Self,—though, most often, the music that we hear comes from the vital plane. Outwardly, music is the harmony of sound vibrations, which corresponds to some vibration of consciousness. "Music too," says Sri Aurobindo, "is an essentially spiritual art and has always been associated with religious feeling and an inner life. But, here too, we have turned it into something independent and self-sufficient, a mushroom art." This turning away of music from its original aim and function has tended, perhaps, to a great advance in technique, and a widening of its range. But all true art must ultimately be for the spiritual development of man.

Music has an obviously soothing effect on animals and men; diseases have been known to be cured by music. A biologist of the Annamalai University has shown that music helps the growth of plants and increases the yield. Many people experience a lifting of the consciousness to a higher level by the power of music. Music tends to bring down some harmony from the higher planes and establish it here in life. At its highest it brings Eternity in fleeting Time.

While describing the growth of Savitri Sri Aurobindo refers to this art as follows :

Music brought down celestial yearnings, song Held the merged heart absorbed in rapturous depths, Linking the human with the cosmic cry.

Savitri, Book IV, Canto 2

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