Music therapy and Harinaam Sankirtan

Transcript

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music therapy and Harinam Sankirtan music therapy refers to the system of therapy, of treatment by which music is used to heal people Neo Tolstoy said that music is a shorthand of emotion music is the universal language of humanity people whichever part of the world they may be in, they can appreciate and relish music when it is artistically performed music is the universal channelizer, expressor, activator of emotions ubiquitously, wherever we go it is music that can channelize emotions, it can express and invoke emotions in others music is a focal point of culture, music is a central part of human tradition now music can bring peace, it can bring joy it can elevate the human heart so now we know that music can pacify the mind but can it actually heal the healing potential of music is being increasingly discovered and tapped in modern and post modern times in the modern times we have seen an increase, an alarming increase in mental health problems and among such mental health problems the problems especially which are caused by traumatic events for example PTSD post traumatic stress disorder suffered by people who actually get who went into war and saw brutal violence that had permanent psychological effect and conventional medical therapy couldn’t help them much so it is found that especially after the second world war in the first world war also but especially after the second world war in America it was found that these people who is ex-servicemen who were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder when they were when they participated witnessed perform musical performances by community musicians that brought their stress down substantially it made them deeply peaceful in a way that pills and potions and prescriptions were not able to do so from that time the scientific research in scientific interest or other scientific approach to music that became more and more and now there is journal of music therapy music therapy perspective there is a American music therapy association which deals with these sort of with these sort of issues and it has been found that among the young, among the elderly, among those suffering from Alzheimer’s and other such diseases many people have been enormously benefited by music therapy and often ailments that were chronic, incurable according to conventional medicine they have been treated by music therapy so music therapy is thus getting more and more acceptance in the west now in India in the Vedic tradition music therapy is an integral part of the culture itself ragas are foundational to Indian systems of music and there are ragas which are customized for particular times and they are, when those ragas are sung or heard at those times it has been experientially found that people become peaceful, people get sublimely elevated and this sort of sublime elevation is substantially different from the superficial titillation that comes by rock, bang and dashing sort of music that is popular in today’s times so the healing that comes by the expression of human emotions in a moving way by the activation, channelization expression of emotions through ragas is actually a profound and subtle transformational science that addresses human emotions samaveda which is considered among the foundational literatures in the Indian tradition that is filled with beautiful songs and music in that sense is very important, in fact indispensable as a part of the culture so beyond the specifics of raga as a means for activation or pacification of emotions there is also the whole concept of spiritual or devotional music nowadays when we talk about spiritual music people often talk about people often think about sounds from nature, say the music of birds chirping or the music of the rivers flowing which itself can be peaceful but beyond that spiritual music just doesn’t refer in a hazy sense to something which makes our mind peaceful but spiritual music refers in substantial sense to our core, to our essence the soul and how that soul can become elevated can become liberated and how can this happen this actually happens when we become purified so normally in our lives we are unable to deal with emotions especially as modern society is becoming more and more stress filled, more and more agitated so the more agitating the mind becomes very agitated and we may tune into certain forms of music for entertainment and that may pacify the mind also but this pacification is more pain killing than actually therapeutic it just temporarily uses a numbering of the agitating senses that are there of the agitation that is there it doesn’t substantially transform us if you want substantial transformation, if you want purification of our emotions then we need spiritual music which is not just music of the sounds of nature but music that is connected with spiritual reality the highest spiritual reality is called Krishna and we are at our core spiritual beings we are souls so spiritual music is that music which connects us with our highest reality as souls and with existence’s highest reality that is God, Krishna so Harinam Sankirtan is a form of spiritual, is the top most form of spiritual theory, Harinam refers to the names of the supreme lord who is referred to here as Hari, the names of Hari Harinam Sankirtan Kirtan refers to the recitation, singing of his name Sankirtan is that which is done in group together so in Harinam Sankirtan the whole idea is that God who manifests as divine sound is accessed through the singing where music which we can easily connect with is used to connect with God with whom it is much more difficult to connect so the remote becomes accessible through the medium of music, in fact Ludwig van Beethoven stated that music is the mediator between the sensual and the spiritual realm so normally people think of spirituality as involving shutting down the senses shutting down the senses that means that we stop perceiving outwards, we don’t see with the eyes, we don’t hear with the ears and this is also one form of yoga or one stage in yoga called so Krishna talks about this in 5.27 he says so all sense objects we put them outside this is one way of doing spirituality but another way, a much deeper and stronger way of doing spirituality is by the practice of using the senses to connect with the spirit so normally the senses connect us with the material reality but we can use the senses to connect with the spiritual reality and that is what is done through music so especially when the music is coming from the spiritual realm Golokera Premadhana Harinama Sankirtana it is, Harinama Sankirtana is the treasure of love that is coming down from the spiritual world so when you participate in the singing of the holy names in with music, with dance that becomes a spiritual therapy that raises our consciousness upwards from the material level to the spiritual level actually Srila Prabhupada demonstrated the potency of the holy name in, of the singing of the holy names in transforming people in the in the generation that came after the post after the second world war in America one of the tragic social phenomena was the was the hippie culture that the youth embraced and these hippies got into drugs and it was very difficult for people to get off drugs so the way that people were able to get off the drugs was by the the government found it very difficult to get people de-addicted but Srila Prabhupada was able to do that and he was able to do that by the by administering music therapy, he did not give much philosophical classes, there were long kirtans and through those kirtans he attracted people’s hearts and he transformed them even now in America in Tompkins Square Park there is the place where Srila Prabhupada sitting under a tree started the first public Sankirtan and there is a under that tree there is a plaque in the Golden Gate Park which is being placed there by the New York administration saying that this is where the Hare Krishna movement began so Srila Prabhupada administered music therapy and transformed people all over the world so not just in America and music therapy is not just for people who are addicted to become free from addictions rather it is for everyone and everyone to break free from all self-defeating forms of emotions and to embrace and be energized by self-elevating spiritual emotions so we experience a flower of spiritual emotions of enriching, uplifting energizing spiritual emotions that drive out the material passions that are making us anxious, that are making us materially attached and keeping us bound and this music therapy by redirecting our heart’s emotions from the world to Krishna actually can tackle the problems of our existence at its root we suffer we may have various diseases that we are suffering from this world but the foundational the root disease that we suffer from is bhava roga is material existence where though we are souls, we are eternal spiritual beings but we are looking for pleasure in temporary material things and this is the cause of great misery so when we embrace music therapy then we can relish the liberating potency of devotional music as is manifest through Hainam, Sankirtan as is manifest through festivals like Kirtan Mela, as is manifested through the chanting of the holy names Thank you.