How does the sound of the holy name penetrate beyond the universe – and other sounds don’t?

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Transcript

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how can I understand that the source of sound vibration, the holy name penetrates through the whole universe and goes to another state of existence and then other sound vibrations are generated so the theory of sound is itself a very complex subject and I will use some technical terminology you can see I hope I can make it understandable when I speak right now you understand something when I speak you understand something so I am speaking some words which are basically the movement of some vibrations in the atmosphere now the same word if I use different people may understand it differently depending on their upbringing, their cultural context so in philosophy of sound the question comes up are words the carriers of meaning or are words stimulators of meaning carriers of meaning means is our word like a pipeline I send the word out and then the pipeline carries water so like that the word carries meaning to you or is meaning not present in the words is meaning present in people’s head and words simply stimulate that these are two different philosophies and if we go into semantics then there is no clear answer to it they say that it’s a combination of both words are carriers of meaning to some extent but they are also stimulators of meaning and that’s why there is variety in understanding but there is also some commonality in the basics so now in Vedic context there are two theories of sound one is called as Sphotavada and the other is Varnavada Sphotavada means that the potency of sound is present in the meaning that it creates in its recipient so for example if sound is sent from here to there it’s like when somebody cracks a joke it is at a particular time that people understand the joke and then there is the fun somebody doesn’t understand the joke then there is no fun to it so as I said at a particular moment the meaning awakens in the person it’s like an explosion of illumination explosion of meaning so in the Sphotavada the important thing is that the meaning is understood so the real potency of the sound is in the meaning which is conveyed by it on the other hand the other theory of sound is called as Varnavada Varna means letters so Varnavada means it says that the potency does not depend on the meaning the potency is present in the letters itself just like the mathematical formula then you don’t need to know the understand the mathematical formula to apply it you just know the mathematical formula put in the right values you will get the result so Varnavada is the idea that the potency of sound comes not from comprehending the meaning but just replicating their patterns so if somebody knows e is equal to mc square even if that person doesn’t understand just replicate the pattern put in the right values results will come so Jigna Goswami analyzes both these and he explains that the potency of the holy name comes from both and comes from whom and comes from whom I’ll explain so Varnavada is that the letters contain the potency yes we do when we chant the holy names we do want to pronounce the holy name properly and intentionally pronouncing it improperly is not recommended at the same time if somebody is not able to pronounce properly in certain languages there is no ra sound that doesn’t make any difference Krishna is Bhavagraha so similarly mantra is usually thought of as non-semantic sound mantra itself does not have any meaning there is a mood in which the mantra is chanted but mantra itself is non-semantic so where is the potency of sound lying so it is not just in the arrangement of the letters nor is it in the meaning that is conveyed of course there can be a particular meaning in the sense that Krishna refers to a particular person and in that sense we can say this is the meaning of Krishna this is the meaning of Ram and there can be a mood associated with it but ultimately there are certain sound variations which connect with a higher reality so you know just as I just came from America I was studying so there they have a different currency in India we have a different currency now why is it that certain pieces of paper arranged in a certain pattern have extraordinary value and others don’t and in the middle the argument is made the government chose this will be the currency over there and that particular sets of paper are invested with a certain value which other sets of paper don’t have so similarly certain sound vibrations that is not that they intrinsically have potency it is rather that Krishna has arranged that they be invested in potency and that’s why it is not which is the mere repetition of the sound that will purify us it will purify but to get the fullest to access the fullest potency of spiritual sound what is required is the invocation of the Supreme naam akshar bhaaya hai naam anahya hai the mere repetition of sound is not necessarily the manifestation of God it is the repetition of sound along with the invocation with devotion pray to Krishna please manifest that is what leads to the manifestation of the divine so there is a particular meaning of the Mahamantra in the particular potency, in the particular sound vibration but most importantly it is that Krishna chooses to manifest through that sound and because he chooses to manifest through that sound therefore it has extraordinary potency just as other pieces of paper don’t have that same value as currency similarly other sound vibrations don’t have that potency so because this sound manifests God so that sound can take our can penetrate the universal coverings and transport our consciousness to the spiritual level of humanity the question is how does such a body