Seminar on Mysteries of Sound | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | November 9, 2025 |
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, in Lord Caitanya’s movement, Nama Sankirtan is considered the main process for spiritual advancement. And many people will question why this sound is so important? If we examine the Vedic literature, we’ll see that sound is very important. Apart from what’s stated in the Vedic literatures, we find that sound is very important in this material world.
So sound, of course, is vibration of molecules. And if they vibrate different frequencies, we get different sounds. But if we examine matter, we’ll find that we have these little particles called atoms and whatever, and everything is vibrating. We cannot hear sound of these atoms vibrating, but actually [Laughs] they are vibrating.
So everything has its frequency of vibration. And we take molecules and bind them together, the molecules are also vibrating.
And if we get the molecules together and we form a human body, human body is also vibrating. So in the 1900s, some curious scientists began to measure the vibrations of the different organs of your body.
And they found that each organ had a very specific vibration if it was healthy. And they also found if the organ is unhealthy and it’s going through wrong vibration, if we put the right vibration back into the organ, then the organ heals itself. So, this is quite a different concept of health compared to most conventional medicine. In the modern world, generally we depend on pills and surgical knife [Laughs]. But these scientists found that vibration was very important for the health of an organ.
So since that time, many scientists have been investigating this idea of vibration as a cure. And with the advent of computers and more detailed measurements, then this type of detection of disease and also cure of diseases has become very advanced.
So without cutting up your body or even taking x-rays, they just have your body vibrate and they record the vibration so they can analyze any organ in your body [Laughs].
Not only organs of the body, but parts of the organs of the body and your veins and whatever, they can [Laughs] analyze those with vibration. And then, when they find out where the weak parts of your body, then they put the right vibration back in there to help cure. So, of course, this is not a real strange to some people who are into alternative medicine. So we see that there are many healings like Reiki and chronic healing, which basically put some vibration into your body to cure the organs.
So materially speaking, your body is vibration and it senses the vibration. That’s the conclusion [Laughs]. We know that the brain is full of brain waves. So brain wave is also a vibration. And they’ve analyzed it, different types of waves [Laughs]. So the beta state, that’s your waking state. And then we have these other states, which we can say are your sleep states [Laughs]. And you have to have all these states in your brain, otherwise your brain isn’t operating properly. And it’s all frequency, we see that the beta state is more frequency and then we get less and less frequency as we go to these more subtle waves in the brain. And there we see the second one, the alpha wave. This is quite important because this is the one that is used in meditation. So if people can get into the alpha state, they can meditate nicely. And many doctors nowadays, they also say if you can get into the alpha state, you can also put messages in there to cure your body [Laughs].
So anyway, brain is full of these vibrations. Apart from these different frequencies in your waking state, your thoughts are made up of vibrations also. And with the use of computers nowadays, they’ve been able to translate your brainwaves, so they know what you’re thinking [Laughs]. Of course, we also have the opposite. The computer can send thought waves into your brain and make you think things [Laughs]. So in other words, some computer could control your thoughts [Laughs]. So, we see this in many science and fiction movies, but it’s not actually fiction, it’s actually happening in this world. They have the techniques to make you think things [Laughs]. We often hear also certain yogis or what people doing black magic can also control your thoughts [Laughs].
Yeah, okay, so that’s our body and our brains are full of vibrations, etc. Earth also is vibrating. There’s a certain vibration of the Earth, 7.83 hertz. This is the Schumann resonance, and it’s scientifically recorded. And interestingly enough, this is the same frequency as your alpha wave frequency in your brain. So in other words, when you’re in a very meditative state, it’s actually you’re resonating with the Earth vibration. So in other words, the Earth and its natural state of vibration is conducive to meditative state, curing the body, etc.
Unfortunately, in the modern world, we also see that we have many scientific inventions and things like that, which kind of interfere with the natural vibration of the Earth. We have all sorts of electrical waves, we have all these cell phone towers, we’ve got these satellites up in space, putting vibrations everywhere. This also interferes with the natural vibration of the Earth.
Actually, in ancient times, even though we say that they were very primitive people, they were also very sensitive to the vibration of the Earth. At certain places around the Earth, they built these huge monuments. Even before they had tools and things, they were building these huge monuments at certain places. So these places were very sacred. So why were they sacred? Because they could sense that at these places, we have this natural vibration of the Earth. We also see in yoga, generally not there in the cities. So they go up to the forest, or they go to the Himalayas [Laughs]. And why? Because the cities are for all the wrong vibrations [Laughs]. It’s not conducive for meditation. And even in our devotional literature, like Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami recommends, you want to perform bhakti, you go to a sacred place like Vrindavan [Laughs].
Okay, so apart from the Earth, and apart from our body, and our brain, etc., all vibrating, the human being is very attracted to vibration, and therefore, even in ancient societies, they had music. Of course, any sound is a vibration. But music is very specific vibrations in relation to other vibrations, which make notes. So all these frequencies have mathematical relationships with each other. Notes, so we have the notes of the scale, and they’re mathematically related according to vibration. And if you don’t get the right vibration, then they’ll say, ah, you’re not singing properly.
So interestingly enough, these vibrations also resonate with your chakras. In the body, we have subtle energy, or subtle energy centers called the chakras. These are very well known in yoga. We cannot see them, but the yogis can see them [Laughs]. And these chakras are also vibrating at different frequencies.
And as we ascend from one chakra to the other, the frequency has become more and more subtle [Laughs]. Yeah, so those are the basic frequencies of the chakras, and they’re also associated with certain emotions. They’re also associated with certain organs of your body. For instance, we’ll have the fourth chakra, which is your heart chakra. So, on one level, if it is not resonating or vibrating, you don’t have good relationships with people. But it also is related to your physical heart, and if it’s not vibrating properly, your heart’s gonna have problems [Laughs]. So if we play the right vibration for the right chakra, we can get your chakra vibrating at the right rate, then we can cure your emotions and cure your heart problems [Laughs].
So this is using music to also cure the body, based on vibration. So this is an area which can be investigated in the future. But there are some people in alternative medicine using tones to adjust your chakras. When we take the musical notes and then we combine it in certain ways with rhythm, we get music. So scientists have found that music also has profound effects on living entities. Plants don’t have nervous systems, they don’t have ears, they don’t have brains. But they like certain types of music, and they don’t like other [Laughs] types of music [Laughs]. So, if they get some nice gentle classical music or ragas, they like it, which means they grow very nicely. And if they get very loud, dissonant music, then the plants don’t like it, they don’t grow. So logically speaking, if plants somehow detect different types of music and it affects their growth, etc., it should have an effect on animals also. So they do experiments on animals, and true, same thing, same effect.
So in Tokyo University, they got little mice [Laughs], and they played different types of music to them, and they found, yes, it affects the mice [Laughs]. And so if you play mozart music or classical music, if they have some problem, they get healed quickly. And if you play some loud dissonant music, they don’t heal. And they also found that the music affected their intelligence, their IQ. So simply by different types of music, you could affect the intelligence of the mice [Laughs].
So if you play all this loud, dissonant music, IQ went down. So in other words, if your children are struggling in school, better keep all the bad [Laughs] music away from them, give them some classical music [Laughs] maybe their IQ is gonna improve [Laughs]. And they also found, as they exposed the mice to this loud music continuously for like two weeks, the mice became completely unmanageable, and they began killing each other. So in other words, this music had a very strong influence on mice.
So human beings, of course, have more advanced brains, and we will expect that, again, music would affect them in different ways and that was true. They found that the soft, gentle music was good for healing.
And the loud music increased the cortisol hormone in your body, and this made healing more, more difficult. So fast music produces stress. And this, of course, is useful. It makes you very excited. And therefore, in military, they have a lot of marching bands and all this sort of stuff. In sports, they have a lot of this loud music to get everybody excited [Laughs]. However, if this is done constantly to the human being, we get all the stress, we get all this cortisol, it starts destroying the body. So if you have your children all stuck to the earphones and having all this loud music day and night, you be very careful [Laughs]. They’re going to destroy their minds and their bodies.
So, some countries have also used sound as a weapon. And with that sound weapon, they can make people panic, they can make them run away, they can paralyze people, make you sick. There was a article in the newspaper, I mean, half a year ago, there was demonstrations in Serbia. They didn’t like the government. Then suddenly, in the middle of demonstration, everybody panicked and ran away [Laughs]. So many bystanders were saying they were using a sound weapon [Laughs], because there was no, you know, no guns or anything, but the people panicked and they all ran away [Laughs].
So in Bhagavad Gita, we have a description of gunas, three modes of existence, sattva, rajas and tamas. And everything in the material world can be classified into these groups. And the result of tamasic things is, it’s destructive. Rajas produce passion. And sattva is healing. So in Bhagavad Gita, everything begins to be classified according to these gunas [Laughs].
So we can classify the music. The healing music is the sattvic music. The destructive music is the tamasic music [Laughs]. And similarly, for foods, the foods which heal and sustain your body, vegetarian foods, they are sattvic. And then the tamasic would be animal. And of course, we have all these artificial foods, chemical foods, preservatives, all of this stuff, very, very destructive to your body. So it’s all tamasic [Laughs].
Okay, so sound we think of course, is a vibration, but in the modern world, they’ve also discovered that sound is a form. So they have a little instrument like this and they put particles of sand on a vibrating plate, and it forms into patterns.
So each note of the scale has a specific pattern to go with it as well. So, sound is not only for the ear, but it also has a visual form as well. So in other words, it’s a little more complex than we think it is [Laughs].
Yeah, okay, so, sound has a form. And in India, of course, a mantra is the sound. But they also gave sound or the mantra a form. That’s called the yantra. So all the famous mantras also have yantras, forms to go with them. So, in this way, again, sound is not just sound, but it also has form [Laughs].
So, in India, they have a musical theory called raga. So they have the notes of the scale. And you choose a certain five, six, or seven notes, this becomes the raga. But you have to combine those notes in a certain way to get the right effect. So for each raga then, they give you a form. So this form is actually a person. Maybe Vishnu [Laughs]. Or maybe Krishna. May be some devata. They may be black or white or yellow or red or green, different colors [Laughs]. They may have two hands or four arms or six arms or eight arms or whatever. And they’re doing different types of activities. So when you learn the notes of the raga, you have to meditate on this particular form as well. So if you are able to sing or play those notes properly, then the form should manifest. So again, we see that the form and sound are related together.
So another aspect of sound is formation of words. In the modern world, we just say sound, of course, is air molecules vibrating and going into your ear [Laughs]. And certain combinations of vibration make words, and then we give that a meaning. And the word has been very important, it gives us knowledge. They did experiments on chimpanzees [Laughs]. So they raised a chimpanzee from birth with human beings, and they talked to the chimpanzee and tried to get him to speak [Laughs]. But the maximum words is like 25 words, that was the maximum. It’s like a two-year-old, three-year-old [Laughs], maybe two-year-old, 5, 10 words, 15 words like that. But adult human beings will have thousands and thousands of words. And we’ll see that more advanced civilizations have more words and complex combinations of words, and therefore they produce science and art etc.
However, in the Vedic literature, there is a different concept of words. Actually, the word for sound and word are the same in Sanskrit, sabda [Laughs]. And we use the word sabda, it’s not an any random sound. It’s sound with a meaning to it. And that sound does not go through air. It goes through ether, akash. So, it is a little more subtle than our modern concept of sound [Laughs].
And these words are very intimately associated with Supreme Lord and spiritual life. So we see that Hayagriva the horse avatar, breathes, and out of His breathing comes all the Vedas.
We see the word ‘Om’ is celebrated throughout the Vedas. So this is sound, it’s also a symbol of word.
And it actually represents Vishnu. It is one simple sound, but it contains all the sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet. And from that one sound, expands all the sounds, the syllables, and then the whole Vedas expands from one simple syllable. And it’s not material sound. It’s spiritual sound [Laughs].
So in other words, the Vedas recognize sound, but they’re talking about spiritual sound, non-different from the Supreme Lord. So, the spiritual sound permeates the spiritual world, but it also enters into and permeates the material world. So in other words, the syllable Om pervades all the material elements like earth, water, fire, air, ether, etc [Laughs].
Okay, so, the Vedas also say that ‘Om’ is the source, and of course the Supreme Lord is the source of material creation.
In Brahma Samhita it explains that Brahma, who’s trying to create the universe, could not do so, so he meditates on Supreme Lord. Brahma hears the sound of Krishna’s flute, which becomes the Gayatri mantra, which comes from ‘Om’ [Laughs].
And then by uttering this Gayatri mantra, Brahma was able to create the universe.
In other words, through that sound, he got the power of creating this universe.
Even in modern science, some scientists are saying that sound was also integral in the creation of the universe after the Big Bang [Laughs]. Of course, even Big Bang is controversial, because some scientists don’t agree there was a Big Bang [Laughs]. And of course, in Vedic literature, we find that creation is nothing, it’s a repeated attempt [Laughs]. Creation, destruction, creation, destruction, it goes on forever [Laughs].
So, anyway, we are interested in spiritual sound. And we call this mantra. The literal meaning of mantra is, man stands for manas, which means mind, tra for trayate, to deliver. So, mantra is a specific sound, spiritual sound, which takes the mind away from material world, takes you to the spiritual world.
So, the mantra is considered to be same as Supreme Lord, not different. And even if Lord is not here as avatar, we cannot see Him, still we have the mantra. So through the mantra, we can access the Supreme Lord. Of course, the question will arise, well, how can spiritual sound appear in the material world, and how can we hear it if we have only material ears?
So this is also explained in the scriptures. That spiritual sound is called para. But it becomes gradually accessible to us, first accessible to our mind. This is called the pasyanti level. And then when we begin to think about it with our intellect and analyze the sound means that or whatever, it’s called madhyama. And then when we can pronounce the actual word with our vocal cords, and then somebody can hear it, it’s called vaikhari. And it also goes through the different chakras [Laughs]. Yeah.
So anyway, the sound is originally spiritual, and then it becomes accessible to our mind, intelligence, and our voice, and our ear, but it remains spiritual. So we can hear with our material ear, we can say with our material vocal cords, but it’s still spiritual.
Okay, so, that mantra comes from the spiritual world, and gradually it’s accessible to us, so we can say it and hear it, but still, it maintains its spiritual quality, and then we become spiritualized.
So this para, spiritual side remains, even though we’re operating on this level and saying it and hearing it [Laughs].
Okay, so that mantra, of course, is spiritual, but it also has material effects. Now, it’s difficult for us to measure spiritual effects, because we don’t have spiritual scientific instruments [Laughs]. But we can measure material effects. So, different scientists have studied, you know, chanting Gayatri mantra and Sanskrit mantras and seeing the effect on your DNA, and they say, yes, it has some positive effect.
About 10 years ago, when studying chromosomes, then one scientist discovered what are called telomeres. So these are these little tips on your chromosomes here. So these are important, because by the size of the telomeres, they can measure your health. If you have long telomeres, then you’re in good health, and you can repair your body, and you don’t have diseases. Now, normally, as people get older, those telomeres get smaller and smaller, and consequently, you start losing your health as you get older, get more sickness.
So, therefore, by analyzing your telomeres, we can measure your health and how fast you are aging [Laughs]. So here we see the old person with the short telomeres [Laughs], and the younger person with the bigger telomeres [Laughs]. Yeah, so, then, the whole object of science would be to see, how we can, when your telomeres start getting smaller, how to make them bigger again. And this was, by looking at your telomeres, it’s very objective way of seeing if this particular diet had a good effect. So they tried vegetarian diet, okay, you get 4% increase in your telomeres. They tried exercise, walking every day for half an hour. And you could increase your telomeres by 5%. They tried yoga, okay, 5%. They tried some simple meditation techniques, okay, 5%. They tried soft music, again, you get about 5% [Laughs]. They tried weekly meetings, people get together, talk together, socialize a little bit, and again, 5%. And then they tried Kirtan, and they got 43% increase [Laughs]. Of course, it’s a nice combination, because we have music, we have mantra, which is spiritual, vegetarian food, we have people coming together, we have music, everything. So, they were very good [Laughs]. So, this is just a physical effect.
And of course, you can measure the effects on your mind also and they found, yes, it does affect the mind, you sleep better, etc, you know, you breathe better, etc.
Unfortunately, we cannot measure spiritual effect [Laughs]. So, we have to go by scripture. So, of course, the most significant effect of mantra is a spiritual effect [Laughs]. But the scriptures tell us that the mantra, that sound, and the form of the Lord are non-different. So, by chanting the mantra, you should realize the form of the Lord. The sound Krishna and Krishna are non-different.
Of course, we chant Hare Krishna and therefore we realize Radha and Krishna. So, why, what’s the significance of chanting Krishna? Of course, Krishna is form of the Supreme Lord.
But of all the names of the Lord, the name Krishna is considered to be the number one name. But why is it number one [Laughs]? So, that word has been analyzed. So, Krishna has two syllables, ‘Krish’ and ‘na’. So, the scriptures tell us that ‘Krish’ means He is the source of everything, spiritually and materially. And ‘na’ means He is the source of all bliss. And of course, everybody wants to be blissful eternally. So, if you realize Krishna, you get eternal bliss.
We also say Hare Rama. What does ‘Rama’ mean? So, Rama means the person who gives bliss. And we chant the name Hare, this represents Radha, who is Hladini shakti, the very embodiment of all bliss. So, by chanting Hare Krishna, we realize Radha and Krishna. How is it significant? We get the highest bliss.
So, therefore, mantra is sound, but it is spiritual sound. And we can study its physical effects or its mental effects, that we can see that.
But ultimately, we are interested in the spiritual effect on the atma.
So, through the mantra, we can get highest eternal spiritual bliss. We can get out of the material world and get into the spiritual world.
Okay, Hare Krishna!
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, as you explained every mantra has a yantra and a form, so how does Hare Krishna Maha mantra look like?
So, though mantras have yantras to them, when we say Hare Krishna mantra, it’s a little bit different. It’s mantra definitely, but a little different [Laughs]. So to distinguish, we call it Nama. So, we say Nama Sankirtan. So, though mantras have the Name of the Lord in them, Nama is just Name of the Lord. So, for the mantras, there are all sorts of rules you have to follow for those mantras to make them effective. And to help you concentrate, you have the yantras. However, when we just have the Name, all that’s not necessary. So, there’s minimum rules to follow. And through the Name, we can directly realize form of Krishna.
Devotee: Thank you Maharaj.
2.) Maharaj, in the abrahmanic culture, in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, we see a common word amen. Is it any way connected to OM?
[Laughs] I don’t know, from the scholar’s point of view, you know, how they derive the words and where it comes from, etc. But obviously, it looks like it’s similar. The word Om itself analyzes ah, uh and um which means all of the syllables, the vowels, all the vowels [Laughs], plus the nasal sound. So, it represents all sound. And then it represents Vishnu [Laughs]. So, I suppose, even in Christianity if they use that word, it ultimately, amen is equivalent with God.
3.) Maharaj another question is, we see novel writers, 50 years back, 70 years back, they wrote science fiction novels which is now happening we see. Are they coming from different worlds to just guide us?
So difficult to say about these authors, but some scientists, like Nikola Tesla, for instance, it looks like he got some [Laughs], he was a little eccentric character, and he would seem to be getting information from somewhere else [Laughs]. And even there’s a famous mathematician, Ramanujan in India. Very famous, he was just like a clerk [Laughs] working for the British. But somehow, he was a very, very profound mathematician, and he would have visions of Narasimha Dev [Laughs].
Of course, where does all knowledge come from? This is a big question. And many scientists, they also don’t know where they got their theory from. Somehow, it came in their head [Laughs]. So, now, of course, modern rational theory would just think that one, you know, civilization leads to another, and they borrow their ideas, and then they expand on that. So, we have gradual evolution of things, and we get discoveries that way. That’s one way of thinking. But then the other way is, it’s coming from somewhere else [Laughs]. And that, of course, is how knowledge is explained in the Vedas. Its origin is ultimately Supreme Lord, material knowledge and spiritual knowledge. And at certain periods, it’s revealed. Sometimes, it gets destroyed [Laughs].
4.) Maharaj ji, I have a small question here. Like, today, on social media what we have, you can see there is a positive and a negative impact. So, what do you see from the spiritual point of view? What is the impact on the society?
So, things in the material world, you can have positive aspects and negative aspects. Just like food could be positive or negative [Laughs]. Medicine could be positive or negative [Laughs]. So, internet could be positive or negative [Laughs]. We can use it constructively, very good. But it can also be used or manipulated in other way, and it becomes completely useless and maybe [Laughs] negative. And we cannot sacrifice our consciousness for mechanical devices. We cannot replace our intellect by AI [Laughs]. We give up thinking and let AI do everything for us, and then we can’t think anymore. So, that’s useless [Laughs].
5.) So, Maharaj, when we hear the mantra from youtube or some machine, does that have an effect?
Oh, interesting [Laughs]. So, mantras like you know, Gayatri mantra and Vedic mantras are very specific, so they will lose a lot of their power. Now, Name of the Lord, of course, is more powerful and whether you chant it with good conscious, bad conscious, or whatever [Laughs] it has some effect [Laughs]. At the same time, in different conditions, it will be strong or maybe weak.
And we know that, when we hear things over with microphones or with internet or whatever, actually it is not the original sound [Laughs]. It is some mechanical thing which is vibrating and giving us some sound which we can recognize. So, that is why, originally, Vedic knowledge was transmitted personally from one person to another. So, there is always an extra energy [Laughs] when it is heard directly. And then of course, it’s also people realize that. So, you can always hear music on it or buy some recording or mp3 and stick it in your ear. But if that person comes personally and you get a direct contact of that person, then you get much more excited [Laughs]. So, there is some other energy present when the person is personally present.
Hare Krsna !
Devotees: Thank you very much Maharaj for your wonderful class. HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!!