There was a time in Indian culture when everything was directed towards spiritual development and healing, including dance and music. In Indian culture, dance and music were not just for entertainment but spiritual progress. The Indian classical tunes, ragas, and the way they sound brought meditativeness and were considered as meditative tools. They helped you reach a higher level of consciousness.
Ramtanu Pandey, strolling on the garden of Emperor Akbar’s kingdom, heard the musical sound of a creature. That sound changed the history of classical music.
Later he was known as Tansen, transformed this sound into raagas. Till now people who are familiar with Indian classical music say that hearing those raagas brings the feeling of rainfall alive in their minds and spirit. It is such a deep link between our mind, nature, and classical music.
Many people have started to understand the power of music to invoke emotional transformations.
Real-life healing experiences of Indian classical music
Many powerful testaments show the ability of classical music used to transform people.
‘A chain smoker was able to give up smoking at a classical music concert’.
‘A person who was suffering from extreme migraines transformed into a calm and relaxed corporate executive. All this happened miraculously and effortlessly with the willful participation of persons concerned’. They explained their transformation as stepping into new realities.
‘When Mussolini, an Italian dictator was suffering from insomnia and nobody could cure him, Pt. Omkarnath Thakur, a shastric musician performed remedial musical to help him. He performed Raga Puriya and Mussolini went into a deep sleep within half-an-hour’.
As explained by Dr. Jhankhana Hakani, (founder of mind help clinic, Mumbai, India), Classical Indian music has the capacity to start the motor areas of your brain, releases the ‘feel-good’ chemicals(like dopamine), and activates your memory center. He calls music, the complete brain workout.
Classical Music and chakras
In ancient times, Ayurvedic doctors used to study Samaveda, the book of Indian classical music, to heal patients. Raagas have sound vibrations that have a huge impact on physiology. They connect the different chakras of the body.
The swaras of Indian classical music are linked with each chakra of our body.
- The Muladhara chakra is linked with the swara ‘sa’.
- Similarly, the chakras like swadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, etc are linked to the rest of the swaras in order, i.e. ‘re’, ‘ga’, ‘ma’, etc.
Chanting these swaras in Aroha that is ascending order and then in Avaroha that is descending order will help the energy flow in both directions. It has such organic origins that the emotive powers of raagas are no surprise.
The Shastric raagas enhance the vital energy of our body. This in turn rejuvenates the immune system and the auto-healing system of our body. It can also cure our digestive system and liver diseases like jaundice.
The rhythms vibrate the tissue membrane of the ear, relaxes the muscles and nerves beneath the brain. Thus our motor systems and sensory organs are activated.