Spiritual Awakening Radio/Sant Mat Satsang Podcast

“Practice the repetition of the True Name, which alone is of value (sumiru Sat Naam niju kam hai jahi te)……Have kindness in your heart, look with compassion……Being detached, brush aside all worldly delusions, and take refuge under the Satguru’s holy feet, which is the kingdom of eternal bliss…..Be firmly absorbed in contemplation, which alone is of value. Thereby the inner Lotus will blossom, Nectar will flow, and the inner Sky will resound with Melody, hearing which, Kal [illusion, god of time and death] will flee away. There the dazzling Light will shine and the true Sound will resound, which will destroy heavy sins [karma], and place a divine canopy over your head.” (Shabd/Hymn/Mystic-Verses of Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar)

Buddhism and the Sound Current — Inner Sound Meditation

“Ananda and all you who listen here
Should inward turn your faculty
Of hearing to hear your own nature
Which alone achieves Supreme Bodhi.
That is how enlightenment is won.
Buddhas as many as the Ganges’ sand
Entered this one gateway to Nirvana.
All past Tathagathatas
Have achieved this method.”
(The Surangama Sutra: Selections from the
Upasaka Lu K’uan Yu Translation,
Published by Rider and Company, London)

It is easiest to hear this Sound when it is quiet, particularly at nighttime. Once you have identified this Sound, then you place your awareness on it without wavering. Resting your mind in the Sound, you continue to listen, going further and further into the Sound itself. (Mind Beyond Death, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Snow Lion Publications)

Listening to the inner Sound brings the heart into a position of acute inner awareness. It is not that the inner Sound has some magical property. Rather, it is that bringing of the alert mind, bringing openness and receptivity to Sound, is symbolic of the presence of Ultimate Truth. The Sound is always there. We don’t have to create it. It is featureless. It is ever present. So it is a good symbol for Ultimate Reality itself. (Ajahn Amaro)

‎”It was the Saut-i Sarmad, the sound of the abstract plane, which Muhammad heard in the cave of Ghar-i Hira when he became lost in his divine ideal. The Quran refers to this sound in the words, ‘Be! and all became.’ Moses heard this very sound on Mount Sinai, when in communion with God; and the same word was audible to Christ when absorbed in his Heavenly Father in the wilderness. Shiva heard thesame Anahad Nada during his Samadhi in the cave of the Himalayas. The flute of Krishna is symbolic of the same sound. This sound is the source of all revelation to the Masters, to whom it is revealed from within; it is because of this that they know and teach one and the same truth.” (Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Mysticism of Sound)

Sweet Melodies Which Attract the Soul, By Shri Shivbrat Lal

“The human body is a kin to a radio broadcasting station (transmitting point). It transmits into the ethers subtle and mental waves of what the mind thinks. Mental thought-forces and spiritual currents go out in the atmosphere according to the disposition of one’s mental and spiritual make up. The human body system is also a radio receiver. A powerful broadcasting station is more effective. Likewise, the receiving set has to be tuned to listen to such broadcasts. The mind can be made receptive to the Guru’s solace-giving thought and spiritual Currents. This can be achieved by the quality of attention. One’s attention is the number one tool which can do and undo things. The magnetic force of the Guru’s holy touch is the guiding principle. If the initiate fixes their attention properly, there is no question of failure in meditation.

“Various sorts of Sound Currents reverberate in the human system from which the initiate has to pick up the right one and listen to it, otherwise he will go astray and lose his equipoise. The practical Guru forewarns his disciple and directs which Sound to listen to and which one to discard. A variety of Sound Currents are of a lower order which have to be rejected. The experienced practitioner [of Surat Shabd Yoga] knows that some of these low order Sound Currents can become audible. Therefore the initiate his to be very careful and avoid then in entirety. If not, they are bound to create a sort of roadblock in the ascension process.

“As aspirant must first get the know-how, this is what initiation means and implies. It is fruitless to make an effort independently. It is bound to fail. Unless one gets the name and address of a person’s house in a large city, he cannot find the residence he wants to go to. The same law operates in the pursuit of Satsang. The Guru there is the living divine guide in the person of a living Master. One needs help from such a living source to acquaint himself and then start practice. The discourses of the Master are very instructive. The very presence of the Guru is a suggestive and corrective phenomena. The atmosphere is serene, calm and peaceful. The spiritual Current of the Guru plays its own role. All this produces a sobering and purifying effect on the mind. The law of association with the Guru works wonders. So let him be the guiding light of life. In this way alone would the initiate cast away ignorance and dispel all obscurities and failings. The devotee receives the required knowledge. Then he needs to commence his spiritual journey internally. No doubt the devotee gains knowledge, receives Naam Dan (initiation) and gets happily engaged in his practice.

“The devotee in his spiritual journey upwards hears sweet Melodies which attract him. The Melodies are a powerful magnetic force which draws the attention inwards and makes it fully attuned to proceed up and up. We hear external instrumental music like the sitar, sarangi, violin, harmonium, fiddle, flute and veena. We become attracted by them and almost acquire a semi-rapturous condition. One can well imagine how charming the Dhun-Atmic Shabda (internal Music) emanating from both subtle and causal regions can be. It is a thousand times more enchanting and absorbing! All one needs is to get the know-how of this simple method of the Saints. A Sufi of note has described this condition thus:

‘If I were to reveal
a little of the Heavenly Music
that is heard within,
even the dead
will rise from their graves.’”
(from the Radhasoami book, “Dayal Yoga”)

“Music is religion for me. There’ll be music in the hereafter, too.” — Jimi Hendrix

Kabir: Where else have you heard a Sound like this?

The flute of interior time is played whether we

 hear it or not,

 What we mean by “love” is its sound coming in.

 When love hits the farthest edge of excess. it reaches

          a wisdom.

 And the fragrance of that knowledge!

It penetrates our thick bodies,

 it goes through walls —

 Its network of notes has a structure as if a million

          suns were arranged inside.

This tune has Truth [Sat] in it.

 Where else have you heard a sound like this?

— Kabir