Jan 31, 2004, 12.00am IST
In most religious scriptures, Shabd or the Word is referred to as the creator of the universe. It is a current from the ocean of pure consciousness that is characterised by ethereal and sublime sound vibration .
It is the all-pervading manifestation of God, the radiant sound current, and it is the connecting link between God and His creation . All the powers of nature depend on and work through Shabd.
The Vedas speak of it as Nad or Akash Bani, the ''voice from heaven''. In Buddhist scriptures it is known as the flaming sound. The Qur'an mentions it as Kalma, that created the 14 divisions of the universe.
The Gospel according to St John says that the Word is the root cause of all creation. In the Upanishadic age it was known as Udgit or Songs of the Beyond.
The Sufis call it the Saute Sarmad or intoxication from sound. Vedic Shabd alludes to the power of God that sustains the entire universe.
It is this Anhat naam, the unstruck melody, that supports the various planes of creation ranging from pure spirit to gross matter. The strains of Shabd pervade every realm like a flowing river.
The seeker, who is inspired by the love of this river, is drawn upwards by its beatific power until he arrives at the very source from where the unmanifested comes into manifestation, and the formless assumes form.
It was this completeness of the inner journey made possible by the ''yoga of the sound current'' that made saint-poet Kabir to declare: ''All holy ones are worthy of reverence,/ But I adore only the one who has mastered the Word''.
The sound current undoubtedly offers the surest way to enable us to reach the formless from the form. Tuning into this beautiful, self-sustaining, self-supporting, eternal, ethereal sound would lead to the liberation of soul from human bondage.
The soul of the listener becomes all-pervading consciousness. When directly connected with this energy we rise in consciousness and then we enjoy love, peace, contentment and inner joy.
However, this wonderful sound is too subtle for us. We don't hear it normally as our consciousness is centred in the physical realm.
We tend to be so absorbed in material existence that we remain totally unaware of the space within and around us with all its wonders of beautiful light and sound.
It is the quality of Sehaj, of naturalness and ease, that makes Surat Shabd Yoga accessible to all.
The music of the divine word is vibrating in all and it flows through the Nadis in the body. By contacting the sound principle, the sensory currents are automatically drawn upwards.
The transcendence of physical consciousness — that the yogin pursuing the path of the pranas achieves only after a long and arduous discipline — is something attained by practitioners of the Surat Shabd Yoga even at the first sitting, during initiation.
To tune our consciousness to this wonderful energy, we need to seek the help of a Satguru, a master soul who can trigger a quantum leap in our consciousness; someone who can help refine our awareness to tune in to the eternal sound vibrations, the cosmic engine and source of all creation.
He can help us merge our soul with the oversoul or God, the source of love, life, wisdom, peace and contentment.
One such guru is Sant Thakar Singh Ji Maharaj, who has devoted his efforts entirely in this direction, to help seekers open their spiritual eye from the time of initiation.
Hridai Somani
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