Mysticism of Sound and Music (eBook)

FromChapter 3: TheMusic of the Spheres

Bythis title I do not wish to encourage any superstition, or any ideas that mightattract people into the fields of curiosity, but through this subject I wish todirect the attention of those who search for truth towards the law of music,which is working throughout the whole universe and which, in other words, maybe called the law of life, the sense of proportion, the law of harmony, the lawwhich brings about balance, the law which is hidden behind all aspects of life,which holds this universe intact, and works out its destiny throughout thewhole universe, fulfilling its purpose.

Musicas we know it in our everyday language is only a miniature: that which ourintelligence has grasped from that music or harmony of the whole universe whichis working behind us. The music of the universe is the background of the littlepicture which we call music. Our sense of music, our attraction to music, showsthat music is in the depth of our being. Music is behind the working of thewhole universe. Music is not only life's greatest object, but music is lifeitself.

Hafiz,our great and wonderful poet of Persia, says: 'Many say that life entered thehuman body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music'. Ishould like to tell you what made him say this. There exists in the East alegend which relates that God made a statue of clay in His own image, and askedthe soul to enter into it. But the soul refused to enter into this prison, forits nature is to fly about freely, and not be limited and bound to any sort ofcaptivity. The soul did not wish in the least to enter this prison. Then Godasked the angels to play their music and, as the angels played, the soul wasmoved to ecstasy. Through that ecstasy—,in order to make this music more clearto itself—,it entered this body.

Itis a beautiful legend, and much more so is its mystery. The interpretation ofthis legend explains to us two great laws. One is that freedom is the nature ofthe soul, and for the soul the whole tragedy of life is the absence of thatfreedom which belongs to its original nature. The next mystery that this legendreveals to us is that the only reason why the soul has entered the body of clayor matter is to experience the music of life, and to make this music clear toitself. And when we sum up these two great mysteries, the third mystery, whichis the mystery of all mysteries, comes to our mind: that the unlimited part ofourselves becomes limited and earthbound for the purpose of making this life,which is the outward life, more intelligible. Therefore there is one loss andone gain. The loss is the loss of freedom, and the gain is the experience oflife which is fully gained by coming to this limitation of life which we callthe life of an individual.

Whatmakes us feel drawn to music is that our whole being is music: our mind, ourbody, the nature in which we live, the nature that has made us, all that isbeneath and around us—,it is all music. As we are close to all this music andlive and move and have our being in music, it therefore interests us. Itattracts our attention and gives us pleasure, for it corresponds with therhythm and tone which are keeping the mechanism of our whole being intact. Whatpleases us in any of our arts, whether drawing, painting, carving,architecture, or sculpture, and what interests us in poetry, is the harmonybehind them which is music. It is music that poetry suggests to us: the rhythmin the poetry, or the harmony of ideas and phrases.

Besidesthis, in painting and in drawing...