Spandana

▵ The Four Kinds of Sound
Sadhguru: Approximately 6000 years ago, a certain yogi declared that there is a sound that travels through pure space, and unless you hear that sound, your life is not fulfilled. This was picked up a few years ago by the scientists of the day, who laughed at the whole thing, saying that this yogi needed some basic science lessons because sound cannot travel through space. Sound needs a medium through which to travel.

When you speak, the sound of your speech is conducted because of the air. If there was only a vacuum, sound would not travel. No sound can travel through space. So the yogi needs some fundamental high school science lessons, they said. But today, modern physicists are changing their opinion.

▵ The Four Kinds of Sound
There are four kinds of sounds. The first type of sound is vaikari. This is the sound that I speak and you hear – the physical sound. The second form of sound is madhyama, which means “the middle one.” Suppose I say “chocolate” or if I show you something that looks like it, and your mind thinks, “Oh, chocolate.” It is a sound that comes from a dimension of your mind. It is not just an abstraction or a vibration of thought. “Hot chocolate” is a voice, a sound. This is the middle sound.

The third dimension of sound is referred to as pashyanthi. Pashyanthi is your mind’s ability to think it up. Suppose I did not show you anything or shout “Chocolate,” but without any input from outside, from within, from some deep recess in your mind – “Chocolate.” It is not a reflection or rebound of what I said; somewhere from within, your mind can create it. This is the pashyanthi dimension of sound. The fourth dimension of sound is referred to as para vak. “Vak” means “voice,” “para” means “the divine” or the source of creation. You hear the voice of the Creator.

▵ Sounds of the Creator (Isha)