Remain as you are and enjoy this arising of sound from within your own Being. Without effort, naturally resting and being, allow the sound of this raga Gambheera Nattai to flood your awareness resulting in total ease and absorption in sound.
With all thoughts, sensations and concepts about what you are dissolving in sound, quickly and with no reference or idea, return to your own Silence, the simple awareness from which all arises. The Field of no coming and going. Here we live free in a wide open endless beginning.
Prasant Radhakrishnan shares natural peace and freedom through the sound of the saxophone leading to our own innate Silence that we have never lost. For more information about his music, often stemming from the Indian Classical Carnatic style, or to attend Musical Satsang gatherings online, please visit http://www.prasantmusic.com.
In this video, Prasant discusses the truth of Sound being not different from Silence. Simply by noticing Prasant’s music and voice in the video, it is easy to see that first there is a background of silence, then the sound arises. Finally, the sound again dissolves into the silence.
The Source of every sound is the Silence from which it came.
The field of the entire manifestation is happening in a similar way. Sound is an infinitely subtle vibration that manifests from silence and it is quite commonly known that all that exists is nothing but varying intensities of sound vibrations.
If we feel and awaken this insight by beginning with the realm of sound and music, we can easily recognize the Reality, the Silence that is the ultimate Source of all that is, and rest in That as what we have always been. This allows for permanent freedom in Being.
For us to experience this, Prasant also goes into the example of the ocean and waves as a way to intuitively grasp this understanding. There is also an opening and closing of raga Mohanam on the saxophone to facilitate returning and resting in our own Silence and Peace.
The last section focuses only on sound with Arunachala as a visual.
We are back in 2019 with new sharing on Music and Self Realization. In this video, Prasant touches upon what is coming up and reaffirms how Music is special as a path for Realization thanks to it’s natural enjoyment and ease. The process of realizing what we are and seeing the end of confusion in the mind is made relaxing and easy through the power of music and sound. Simply experience the sound, feel it fill your awareness and then notice that what is experiencing the fullness is itself the Silence, the unlimited Reality.
There is no need to go into the mind and pontificate and debate on things. This alone is enough and is the easiest way. The Self will automatically free up the mental content that was there before due to mental identification. Prasant ends the video with a little bit of sound and music from a toy recorder. 🙂
In this video Prasant shares an easy technique to Self Realization through the power of fully experiencing just one note of music. Music is an extremely powerful medium that can instantly and irreversibly lead us back into our own natural state, the stateless and free Self. This is the true Peace and Freedom that we have always been searching for.
In the video, Prasant plays a sequence of one sustained note with silence on the saxophone to allow you to experience This.
Simply feel and allow the sound to completely fill the awareness and when the naturally arising enjoyment is reaching its peak, it will naturally lead you to it’s own Source. Where the sound came from is where you came from. Realizing this you will instantly be free. This is instant realization.
Resting deep in the Source, enjoy this expression of raga Kapi on the saxophone.
Being yourself is effortless. Whatever happens actually happens effortlessly. Does it take effort to hear? Does it take effort to see, feel, smell etc? These all happen automatically. It is the same with activities like walking and digestion, provided the body is without ailments. The arising of the feeling of effort, doing difficult work, sadhana etc, itself arises without effort. Leaving all these as they are, just being itself is the original, ultimate ease.
Enjoying the sound and soon resting in the Silence that you are, it is seen and felt that you are already being and always have been. With that, nothing more is needed. The remainder of the manifestation is already taken care of.
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You can support the artist by downloading an album and offering a contribution at http://music.prasantmusic.com/. The meditation albums are free.
I’m glad to share a new brief raga meditation and inquiry series with you for abidance in and as complete peace and freedom.
Realization of truth and the dissolving of the mind in its Source can happen at any time and it does not have to take long. It is always here and waiting for your recognition of It as yourself.
What is important is to feel and experience this for yourself, beyond words and concepts.
In this series, Instant Peace, you are invited to dissolve into the sound and silence of the music to instantly melt into the Peace that you already are. The videos are only a minute long.
Here are some posts from the series so far. Follow me on Instagram to see these posts as soon as they are made.
The following is a transcript of a brief 5 minute intro talk given during a Sangeetha Satsang (Music Satsang or music meditation). You can use this to guide you into meditating with any of Prasant’s saxophone meditation tracks on this website or youtube.
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I would like to invite you to join me in this meditation. It’s not really a separate meditation. My understanding, my feeling is that your natural state is meditation.
What we’re going to do now is not something I’m asking you to do differently than you are already doing. So just be the same way that you already are. Part of your feeling that you can explore… So now we’re sitting basically in silence. And from the feeling that you have in silence you hear the sound arising from that. So what you could try… as you hear the sound, first relax into just being how you already are. Just relax.
Then as you hear the sound, just feel the sound. Initially, when you hear the sound it sounds like a sound coming from a separate external source, from somewhere else, right? When you hear the sound you first think I’m playing the sound and sending you the sound…yes? [Audience: Yes] So that’s mostly how people feel regularly.
But in this I’d like to invite you to forget about the idea that there’s a sound coming separately from some other source. Initially, even if you feel that the sound is coming from another place, just forget about that and let the sound come into your awareness. Forget about any feeling you have in the body, just notice the sensations. The sound will start to wash over you and it will take over the awareness. So relaxing in that sound, you become comfortable feeling only the sound so there is nothing else except the sound. And alternating that with silence, you go deeper and deeper into the pure sound. Underneath that sound, as you get comfortable in that sound, you can let go more and more. Just basically relax is all. You’ll go deeper into the Silence that’s beneath the sound. So if there’s sound, there has to be Silence supporting the sound, right? So that Silence is your natural, real nature.
So whenever we wake up in the morning, as soon as you wake up before anything arises, you have this perfect Silence. There’s this perfect Being. That doesn’t have anything in it. And, it has everything in it, of course. If there’s nothing in it, there’s everything in it.
For just this moment, you can always pick it back up later, forget about any and all ideas and definitions you have…what something is, what something is not, what your name is, what your family is, what you’re doing here, what you are going to meditate on, how am I going to meditate, all of that just forget it. Completely drop it, right now, right this instant.
So whatever you’re trying to attain is already here. There’s nothing else to get. That’s your inherent nature. The moment you try to leave, attain something, you’ve left your real nature. This idea is just an opportunity to return back to your real nature. And it’s already here, it’s not that you have to return back to it. It’s already here, but you think it’s somewhere else. So for the time being, maybe you can adopt my idea that everything you need is already here, not anywhere else outside. And just let the music, the sound current of the music…You’ve all heard the sound “Om.” Everyone’s heard of Om. So they say that’s the sound of the entire manifestation. So feel this sound as the Om arising within you. And not only within you, everywhere. Not within, not without. Forget about within and without. Just be exactly as you are right now. Not something else…or a body or anything. Just relax into that sound and eventually relax into the Silence, that’s all. So there’s nothing really to do, just enjoy. Thank you.
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Please enter into silence for a few minutes. If you would like you can sit with one of Prasant’s tracks by utilizing the players below. For more about Satsangs, visit the Satsang page.
As a supplement to Prasant’s new series of videos on discovering your real nature through music, here is a video of Prasant (saxophone) and his student and friend, Venkat (trumpet). In this video, Prasant and Venkat explore sound together through spontaneous sustained notes. You are encouraged to go through the simple approach to enjoy the sound, dissolve into the sound and finally discover the source of sound, the Silence itself. This is essentially a form of self inquiry using sound as an aid to dissolve the I-thought, the ego, and recognize the already perfect, ever present Being.
As you meet and enjoy the sound, please note that this does not have to do with musical correctness of pitch or tuning or any concept of musical perfection, but with investigating, feeling and riding the sound itself back to your real nature, that is ever free of all concepts and suffering.
Please also note that this is not an intellectual exercise of observing sound or anything like that. This is a visceral experience of the actual feeling of completely dissolving everything that has ever limited you and awakening to your real nature.
The next few videos will go into more detail on the dissolving step and the recognition of silent awareness or Being. This video is a brief overview. You can use these guidelines while practicing or listening to music. You may find it helpful to do this with Prasant’s other meditation videos here on YouTube. Here is the playlist.
Here is another new video for you, the second video in the series I am doing on YouTube called Naada Yoga for Total Liberation. Please check the blog or my youtube channel to see the other videos. Here is a convenient playlist to watch the series continuously.
Prasant begins this exploration of our experience with a spontaneous brief raga Sriranjani on the saxophone. Then he continues this video series with the first part of exploring your experience through sound: enjoyment. When you first hear the sound of music, or any sound, there is an instant meeting or union with that sound. This meeting allows you to establish yourself in the present moment and begin staying there with the help of music. This is very simple, but if you have many thoughts it is usually difficult. Music and sound help in this situation by giving the mind something to occupy itself, so to speak.
As you stay there and really enjoy the sound, you will melt or dissolve into the sound, which is the next step. This will be covered in the next video. Now the mind is beginning its journey back to its Source. It can happen very quick, so be watchful, be alert, but relax relax relax. This kind of relaxed alertness is easily felt listening to a song you enjoy, as an example.
You can practice the first step or the second if you are comfortable by using Prasant’s other videos for meditation, self inquiry, awakening, enlightenment and Self Realization.
I’m glad to share something new for you today. Naada Yoga for Total Liberation is a fresh approach to spiritual freedom, peace and happiness through music. This is especially suitable for those who are music practitioners, or anyone who simply enjoys music or sound. As I have emphasized in the various videos I have posted in the last several months, it is possible to rediscover and realize your real nature through the ever subtle medium of sound and music.
Many people are aware that Om, the primordial sound, arises from the Self. All sounds are of the nature of Om. Seeing this, it makes perfect sense that if you trace the experience of any sound back to its source and abide there, the Self is revealed. I feel it helps that music usually has deep enjoyment as part of its nature. This approach fully embraces the effortless purity of Being here and now, the Heart. The emphasis is on discovery and abidance in Beingness as there nothing to strive for that is away from your Being.
In future videos, I will go into more detail regarding the various steps in this approach. If you have seen my previous blog posts and videos, I have already given the steps. They are incredibly simple. So, I will give more context and details on this. I feel strongly that this approach is available to all.
Prasant Radhakrishnan 