From the Archives: The Perspective of Sound

1992 Brussels - Neela Srsvati (Blue Saraswati), Tape 3, Side 1

The mantras in this one are incredibly powerful. Wow.

I love how he says “from the perspective of sound.” In other tapes he says “from the 6th perspective.” It makes me realize you can really look at life through different lenses, and see different truths. In fact, we are probably drawn toward the philosophies and information that speak to the lens, mind, or chakra we view the world from. So when he says “from the perspective of sound,” it's such a fascinating way to look at the world.

Sri Shyamji Bhatnagar with Tambura

As with anything in the Microchakra system, what follows isn't about absolutes. Sri Shyamji always emphasized how unique each person's development is, and that everyone carries both masculine and feminine, solar and lunar energies within them. With that in mind, this is a teaching I found fascinating, where he discusses how men tend to be more oriented to the right ear, whereas women tend toward both, unless the man is a musician, since cultural pressure otherwise tends to push men into predominantly left-brain activities. He explains that the right ear hears the beat, while the left hears the melody.

https://youtu.be/fyLj6WqEFx0?si=yo5R3isAi1n1lpYx

Now, I know I've heard him say this before, but it made me laugh, because my partner is an excellent musician, and his ear intelligence is always correcting me, something I'm so grateful for as a growing musician, and so frustrated by as a human being! He hears so many things in music that I simply cannot hear. But the most difficult part between us is always the beat, the timing - he is literally a human metronome! And he is always right, no matter how much I resist it. Even though he clearly uses both ears well, that incredible right-ear accuracy for rhythm rings very true. This whole section had me chuckling.

Everyone holds both energies, masculine and feminine, solar and lunar, the entire system is built on that premise. He articulated this whole, incredibly deep and overarching theory with such poignancy, and he was so ahead of his time. His co-author, Dr. David Isaacs, once told him the world [and especially psychology] wouldn't be ready to embrace a theory this profound for another 300 years.

He always talked about conditioning, including the second chakra's role in shaping gender and gender roles, and how overwhelmed we are by it, just following what's been programmed in this lifetime or others. In later years he'd joke that we needed to find “a delete button” for it! But truly, we rarely sit and recognize how much of our identity, our opinions, the very content of our mind, is deeply conditioned. Technology has opened us to other people and other ways of being, which can offer a shift out of conditioning, but it's also created new conditioning of its own. The majority of a person's life is spent in the conditioned chakras, essentially unable to touch their own divinity; he says here that everything before the 5th chakra is the conditioned self, so to move beyond the elements is quite an attainment.

The mantras in this one are phenomenal. I am buzzing, releasing, truly moved by their strength and power. I knew how powerful they were in his older age, but hearing him from a time period when I was actually ten years old? Wow. How does he move other people's energy like this? It's phenomenal. I can understand using sound to move my own energy, but to move someone else's? I could literally feel him using sound to pull mine upward. It's extraordinary that a workshop recording from 1992 can move my energy like this. Sound does not have the barriers of the other elements. The Divine Self (Nada Brahman) is fully present in sound, as taught in Advaita philosophy.

This particular workshop is more advanced, and mantras this powerful need to be shared carefully, and after proper purification (which we offer).

A brief note on the details of editing and archiving: This cassette tape had heavy echo, which apparently can happen when tapes sit for a long time. I moved the volume down in between words where the echo was heavy and there was a lot of open space. I am not sure I like it, maybe the echo was actually better, I'm honestly not sure. Maybe it should just be turned down, not off , that contrast stands out to my ears. I am learning and growing with each pass, and I cannot go back and re-edit everything every time; I do need to set some limits and keep moving through these materials as we digitize this immense amount of work. However, for the technologically savvy: if you have thoughts, opinions, or recommendations, feel free to reach out. I'm always open to help and instruction! Just doing the best I can as the human I am.