MUSIC AND SOCIETY

In India, music is believed to be as eternal as God. Before the creation of the world —it existed as the all-pervading sound of "Om" —ringing through space. Brahma, the Creator, revealed the four Vedas, the last of which was the Sama Veda —dealing with music. Vedic hymns were ritualistic chants of invocation to different nature gods. It is not strange therefore to find the beginnings of Hindu music associated with Gods and Goddesses. The mythological heaven of Indra, God of Rain, was inhabited by Gandharvas (singers), Apsaras (female dancers) and Kinnaras (instrumentalists). Saraswati, Goddess of Music and Learning, is represented as seated on a white lotus playing on the Veena. The great sage Narada first brought the art to earth and taught it to men. As late as the sixth century or thereabout, a sage, Bharata, was supposed to have received a revelation direct from Brahma who "entered into meditation and out of the depths of Divine Thought brought forth the Natya Sastra (science of dancing) for the joy of the Universe." Bharata preserved this knowledge in a detailed exposition of the theory of Hindu music and dancing. Music and religion were so intertwined with each other in the Vedic Age that the general term "Margi" (Destroyer of Births) was applied to the musical system then in use. Discipline of emotion and the creation of a state of meditative consciousness were the chief function of ancient Aryan music. The sublime state of consciousness was to be realized in the following manner:— "Music brings on a sudden concentration of the mind and directs it toward a given object. The music having concentrated the mind, and the words 'O God you are endless' used by the operator, constantly directing him toward God, is sure to bring on the salvation of the soul." It is said that Krishna once addressed Narada: —"O, Narada! I live not in Vaikuntha (heaven) Nor in the hearts of Yogis, Nor even in the region of the sun, But I stand there Where my Bhakthas (devotees) sing.