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Writer's pictureAishwarya Saigal

AUM – Nada Brahma

– The Cosmic Symphony and Sacred Geometry of

 Mystery Math and Magic

 


Painting created : 15 Sep - 21 Oct 2021.

In Hinduism and yogic philosophy, the cosmic sound is the auditory manifestation of Brahman, the Absolute Truth or Ultimate Reality. It is verbalized as the mantra, Om (also spelled Aum). According to the Bhagavad Gita, “God is the sound of Om.”

The cosmic sound is associated with the creation of the universe. It is believed that before creation, the humming of energy existed. That energy became the vibration of creation and so the universe was created out of the ever-present sound of Om. This cosmic sound and its vibration still exists around and inside everyone.


The following was one of my earlier attempts at writing about the simple yet endless saga of AUM. It's the background story that lead me to this Painting.

Written on 28th Oct and 2nd Nov 2023


I had become sensitive to sound and music somewhere in 2012 and distinctly so in 2013 after Inner Engineering with Sadhguru. I was always musically inclined, a little self taught and experimental on the instruments (manjira, harmonium) in reach and by 6 or 7 had taken out the melody of an old Hindi song- Kisiki Muskurahaton pe ho Nisaar. So my father encouraged me to learn the piano from class 9 to 10th. I studied Classical Vocal singing in school since class 6 and was always participating in the school choir, Christmas carols, musical plays throughout school. I love to sing and I wish to play all instruments.

My love and curiosity of music stems from my curiosity of how things work, how everything works.

 

I had gone through listening and loving many genres of music by the time I was 25. Starting from vinyl records of Western classical geniuses like Mozart, Chopin, Bach and the likes, waking me and my brothers up with their symphonies during the summer months as a child and adolescent. My father is very fond of music and has a collection of vinyls, turn table records, cds, and all the players and systems that go to run these things. In our ancestral home, he would put on music on a loud enough volume and we would slowly wake up, eat breakfast, get ready, fight over what should be played and carry on with our day. I had my favourites amongst his collection of Niel Diamond, ABBA, Bee Gees, Beatles, Beach Boys, Sam (“Goodbye my friend its time to Die”), my favorite being Nancy Sinatra – Bang Bang, which I would listen to in my alone time whenever I was in Aligarh without my brothers. Then came the cassettes and VHS which brought Genesis, Genesis and more Genesis. Pun intended!! My older brother now introduced us to contemporary songs, bands and artists like Genesis (Phil Collins), Prince, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Wham, the first being his favourite till date. I preferred softer more melodious type where I could sing along or alone. Popular Western and Indian music of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000, Jesus rock(when I was 7-10), Country- till the age of 22. Then on Jazz, Blues, R&B, Fado, World rythms, Ghazals, Qawwalli, Sufi, Instrumental, Alternative rock, Italian, African, Turkish, Greek, I have delved into all the sound forms and tested waters of the ones not mentioned above.

 

A peculiar thing happened to me in 2013. Whenever I heard an old movie song, which might have been my favorite, I started feeling the song to be out of place…. As if it didn’t belong to the current time anymore. It made me feel uneasy in my body and foggy eyed. I would get flashes of hills and valleys in a different light, or Delhi streets the way they used to be – a subdued warmer light than what I could see looking out of my windscreen while driving and listening to the radio. I could listen to current radio songs but the old ones threw me off.

From 36 years of age onwards I found my rest and power in Mantras, Chants, Sufi, Bhakti and Strotrams and spiritual music, from India and world over.

 

In 2016 I just had to and did move to Goa, to the Arabian Sea, for peace and solitude and healing. Setting up our newly acquired family holiday home in a gated community took 5 beautiful months filled with unforgettable experiences, lessons and moments – both happy and painful.

 

In the Monsoons I discovered that Goa gets covered with a boisterous Vine with Heart Shaped Leaves. The thrill and goosebumps that come when you look at nature’s love drawing itself up in such a in-your-face way made me laugh and cry at how blind(ed) we are. These vines cover everything from old wood/ houses to electric poles and transmitters and wires, to trunks of trees and certain rubbish. Hiding all the other colours behind its Love shaped Green. Emanating a healing that only HariHara - combination of the forces of Vishnu (creator) and Shiva (destroyer) - can give.



 

During this time I was Drawing into the silhouette of a wise old owl. Goa had peace from the sounds of ”construction” machinery and pollution (that I was facing in Delhi) but came with its own set of noises, noises that came with faces, cellphones, speakers and sometimes entitlement. The healing sounds of silence, the birds and the winds were interspersed by sudden chatter and laughter to crying and cussing, fighting, screaming, sex, or somebody’s choice of music ranging from old to current Bollywood, trance, bhangra, instrumental played on full volume, resonating from each corner of our pyramidal roofed villa. My yogic sadhana (discipline, usually called ‘practices’) was hard to keep up in its full glory, painting sessions were disturbed, almost everyday, I had to ask someone to lower their volumes because I couldn’t hear what I was watching on my own computer in the evening, or while talking on my phone inside my own house, or while I am sitting down to eat my meal in silence. In the process I made friends and enemies as is obvious. Visiting friends and family did not understand my uneasiness and said “You should be able to cut out the sounds”.

 

[ Getting stronger in your practices leads you to become an extra-sensitive ball of clay, and usually takes the practitioner to the mountain cave with a kamandal for water, renouncing the material world. Just so he can focus on the words that Mother Earth has started speaking to him. So he can soak in the wisdom of Father Sun, so he can learn how to take care himself and those around him in a more harmonious manner than what exists in our broken societies. To learn how to heal the Self and teach others the same.

This is now a metaphor for the modern day yogi. Now each yogi is flying from spot to spot to go trek, swim in the sea, explore ruins, mountains, villages, temples trying to find his resting spot and getting ignited more and more, including me :-). ]

 

 

I realized the faultiness of the architecture and the forceful nature of the ‘community’ layout. My old man was promised “a quiet Holiday Home, a villa for the family” by the construction company. He was also promised that in this property most of the owners will not be renting their place out. Then you are given a villa/ apartment where you are stuck to one another through 6inch thick walls and have 10 feet of space to walk between each other. 4 balconies opposite look into the only windows (which are bedroom and bathroom) that you have on the first floor. The pathway outside your kitchen, dining and living area hallway is used as a pacing ground for people having all kinds of conversations on their Speaker phones. I felt like I was having the experience of a middle class Chawl. (Shantis in Mumbai where Govinda grew up) I understand the need of the tourists checking in and out every 2-3 days of the villas/ apartments to unwind but I felt cheated of a Home and privacy.

 

Coming from living on the 1st floor of an 11 story building I was immune to building politics but never had sound/privacy issues. But it made me realise how binding a multistory building is. I realized that we all need our space, and space on the ground, or an open commune to be able to expand to our individual truest potential in nature and with nature. Neither in the building nor in this villa was I comfortable enough to chant loudly at 5:30am or even at Brahmamahuratam sometimes. Why? Because “I” did not want to disturb the neighbors, and I did not want to practice any kind of instrument playing or singing for the same reason! Do unto others as you want them to do to you!

 

 

 And then soon I had to come back to Delhi and re-construction, for the rest of life to flow. 

 

 

Till 2020, I found myself as a travelling yogi/budding artist who had 3 places to call home. I could only spend 3 to 4 months at a time in Goa before I flowed away or was ‘flown’ to other places of healing or dream fulfilling experiences within the country and abroad. (Coimbatore, Sikkim, Greece, Europe, America(2017, 18, 19), South India Pilgrimage)

 

Before starting this painting (in 2021, at 43+), I was tired and exhausted by loud sounds of construction, traffic, smart phones playing something or the other, television shows, and loud woofer parties of the night, specially construction in Delhi and Aligarh.

 

 

Sounds creates Visuals.

 

When you think of the word construction, you usually will get a far-away glimpse of a ‘construction site’ of tall buildings/ roads. But if you are someone who has working experience in one of these sites, your visuals will be more ground level and understanding of the word will also be based on your perspective. One sound can mean many things to different people, not only according to native tongue but also energetically.

 

CON Structure Shun - Think of the sound of grinding, that is basically the activity of de-structuring a slab or block of some metal or stone into desired shape and size, constant from 8am to 9pm if not longer sometimes. Think of the sound of Jack-hammers vibrating and drilling your bones for 5-6 hours a day (and the frail man who holds it). And all the other sounds making you feel bad for the poor skinny daily wagers (women and men) who live in metal containers hidden in the back gully with their family, washing and cooking and everything on the street. There is nothing that spells "coming together" either in the act of the above sounds or the sounds themselves.

 

Why are these machines used? Who made them and what hand tools did they replace? What was used to make the huge temples in India in 1200s-1300s ? Have you seen any modern day structure stand at par with any of the old temples in any aspect given the advancement in industrialisation, automation and technology? Why hasn’t anyone thought of making silent machines? Or gentler machines? Or why even have machines? Do they not know that these sounds are harmful even if you wear earmuffs (not in india)? Why are we all being put through these sounds?

 

There is also no fairness in this process of construction business, no justice, it is steeped in cruelty. Why should one man be SO RICH to afford a house ‘worth’ Crores constructed by the other SO POOR.... We have built our cities on the blood and tears of many poor souls who have been made poorer every day.

 

Who are we Human Beings? Or are we yet not Human? Or did we Fall yet lower than the forefathers of war and darkness and conquest and rape? Or has sin become too stealthy and is disguised as the “way of the world” to stop you in your tracks from putting your heart into the matter and follow it up with your brain, eyes, ears and all your modern tools and change things now!?

 

 

Overtime, I could also feel within me, the cutting, drilling and exploding into mother earth. Digging her body to get fossil fuels and gems and stones. Cutting her Lungs that are homes and life to all her creatures to make them into wood for furniture and fire and more flat lands called cities and expand the suffocating black roads of tar. Leaving abandoned ruins in the wake of ended civilizations.

 

The Sanatan Dharm, the most ancient tenets given to Man to live harmoniously on earth for eternity, teach one to live within needs, not greed. Then how did we get here?

What ‘legacy’ are we at this time if the world were to end tomorrow. Game over finished. All humans gone. No catastrophe, just change of address, Vanished. 40 years later some frozen embryos activate and take birth, what will they do? What will they know? From what will they learn about us, their forefathers? Earth and all other creatures will be flourishing for sure, but what do you think those new born fresh humans would need to survive and thrive? Question yourselves…

 

Over all this I am grateful that I can still hear all the eagles, crows, hornbills, bulbul, babblers and other birds and squirrels that live in the old trees that are still standing around my building. And as October ends my beloved Bulbul is also back in my terrace garden to greet me and cheer me up everyday.

 

 

On the other hand in Aligarh the harshness of sound is amplified since there is some open space from the road to our house. The main road is over congested and the decibel level on the squeaky horns of vehicles and DJ speakers has gone up all over the country. Old mansions serve as open air rave grounds for Weddings and Functions for the locals, shaking the doors and windows of our old house. The Gym across the road announces the morning at 6:30am with high energy music blasting out over the road, our garden, 20ft high house walls and into our aangan, into my temple room in the back of our house.

I have shown the Durga roop to a DJ, and Peace/Sound warrior to some others. Our emergency help lines have also heard me range from a victim, Prarthi (prayerful) , understanding, patient person, to Chamunda (the ferocious one) from 9:30 pm to 2am one night while my mother was sick with body breaking fever.


  

 

With inner peace and silence comes a vibration/sound – Anahata Nada as it originates in the

Anahata (Heart) Chakra. I had learnt this in Vocal Music classes in school along with the concept of karkasht dhwani. 

Nada is described as Shabd and Sound or Tone.

 

 

 VEDIC REFERENCE FOR SOUND

Yogapedia.com explains Nada


Nada, along with shastra (scripture), bhakti (devotion), ahimsa (non-violence) and dhyana (meditation) is one of the five central tenets of Jivamukti yoga.


It is said that there are four levels of nada, listed here from the grossest to the subtlest:

1. Vaikhari: Audible, struck sound that can be heard by the human ear. It is a sound of speech and song, the sound that is made when two objects strike each other. This is the grossest level of sound.


2. Madhyama: A mental sound that is a little more subtle than vaikhari. This is when the subtle nada begins to emerge.


3. Pashyanti: A visual sound, one that can be seen. A dream of music or a visualization of the quality of a sound.


4. Para nada: A transcendent sound with infinite wavelength, associated with the sound Om (or Aum). It is the final stage before samadhi, heard in a state of super consciousness. This is the anahata, the unstruck or silent sound. Hearing this sound is a goal of practicing Nada yoga.

 


So!!  I wanted to be in silence and in nature because I could hear Nada Brahma from within, my cells were singing and I wanted to sit quietly and listen to it clearly. So I started singing and practicing it out loud too, especially while painting.


 

Finally

After having gone through many spiritual and human transformations and journeys in the quest of finding a quiet place to sit and write and create and just Be in India, I have decided to make my own noise. And here it is. Hope you can hear it and hope that all can be harmonious. We need more people to create the harmony from inside out, join hands and raise the collective frequencies. Enjoy the transmissions of knowledge and love and activation of your latent DNA strands to connect to your best possible potential for the highest good the Self and The Higher Self. Observe your sensitivity or insensitivity and question it. Wake up your own Nada, own your Unique verse.


 

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Some portions of the Poem that are not used in the voice over


 

....In close construct

the White light that you can’t even see,

Has myriads of colours and hues

Millions of pinks, violets greens and blues

 

The 7 that you can see are the ones that vibrate

according to Your frequency

Your spectrum of colour comes

through the prisms in your eyes

If you half close them you can see

the rays of the sun reaching out to you directly.

Increasing the currents in your sea

Currency Of knowledge and energy

 

The toroidal spin within the atom

and the Param Atom create a symbol of love

Within which lies the symbol of Infinity

Emanating Unconditional Compassion Endlessly

The pure essence of Divinity

 

The Sound of the dance between each

Proton Electron and Neutron is Aum

The Symbol is 3 (Three)

The Description can be the fractal of a Tree

Ever replicating and growing itself silently

As above so below.

The Sound Ohm with H in the center

 is the measure of Electricity

When exhaled with the H in the beginning

It brings you to what you call Home.

Every stroke of the symbol i painted

There was so much more to see

From butterflies, dolphins, landscapes

Mountains, Suns cycles and lots of

Creation yet to be.

 


Aishwarya Saigal

Publish Date : 4th August 2024



These channelled paintings are Yantras that transmit energy. Be with them with an open heart and mind and let them do their bit. Observe with Eyes half closed. To start your journey with AUM, the best way is here

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Allen Justin
Allen Justin
17 ส.ค.

Dear Aishwarya, thank you for expressing yourself and your experiences here. Reading this post took me through the journey you went through as you created this artwork. I could feel your feelings through your words. Much love 🕉️

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