The Mantra Varnamala
Every vibration in this universe has colour and sound.
Every vibration also represents a particular idea, and hence
each idea has a vibrational sound and vibrational colour.
Many vibrational waves are too longer too short to be
perceived by human beings - we cannot hear their sound or
see their colour - but they do exist. We can speak of them as
causal matrices in the realm of vibrational colour; and con-
sider them as the bUja mantras [acoustic roots] of the ideas
with which they are concerned.
A
The sound a is the acoustic root of creation, and thus is the
controller of the seven notes ofIndo-Aryan music [the suras-
aptaka or "seven notes" - in Western music, the "octave"],
which are as follows: sya oikhya (s'ad'aja [peacock] -the
Yajurvedic pronunciation khad'aja is also permissible, but in
that case kha should be pronounced with the mind concen-
trated on the front part of the palate and not like the second
consonant of the ka vargo),re or r (rs'abha [ox] - the
pronunciation rkhabha is also permissible, but kha should
not be pronounced like the second consonant of the ka group);
ga' (ga'ndha'ra [goat]); ma' (madbyama [deer]); pa' (pain-
cama [cuckoo]); dha' (dhaevata [donkey]); and ni (nis'a'da
[elephant] - it can also be pronounced nikha'da, but again
kha is not pronounced like the second consonant of the ka
group.)
Although a indirectly controls the seven musical notes, it
chiefly controls the first note, s'ad'aja. This note is repre-
sented in the surasaptaka or sargam [gamut of notes] by its
initial letter, sya. Remember that in the vilambita {prolonged]
technique of pronunciation of this note, the vowel sound a'
isnotemployed; ratherthe.MWi'vrto [lengthened]** pronun-
ciation of a is employed. That is, the vowel here will not be
pronounced a'-a'-a'-a'-a'-a'-a'-a', but will be pronounced
somewhat like aya, as they do in northern India. (More
precisely, the pronunciation will be intermediate between aya
and a"). If singers were to pay more attention to proper
pronunciation, they would benefit.
As the sound a is the acoustic root of the note s'ad'aja, the
letter a is the first step in the learning of music. In Occidental
music, the octave (do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do) has evolved in a
similar way.
The difference between Occidental and Oriental music is
that in the former the first note, s'ad'aja [or "do"], is repeated
at the end to form an octave. Thus in Oriental music we say
surasaptaka or musical "septave" ("collection of seven not-
es") whereas in Occidental music we say "octave" ("collec-
tion of eight notes").
Sada'shiva arranged sounds in the form of the surasaptaka,
which contributed on the one hand to the acoustics of science,
and on the other hand to the rhythmic phonetics of music.
Hence in the study of music we cannot afford to forget his
unique contribution.
A little while ago I said that every sound has colour too.
Alternative words for ram' ["colour"] are varn'a [which also
means "letter"] and ra'ga. The word ra'ga is derived from
the root-verb ran'j plus the suffix ghain, and means "to
colour" something. By permutating and combining different
sounds, Shiva created various ra'gas and arranged them in a
perfect orderly sequence. In this way He created six ra'gas
and thirty-six ra'giniis. This was an immense contribution to
the world of music and earned him the epithet Na'datanu
[Embodiment of Divine Sound] in the Vedas. Of course it was
Mahars'i Bharata who popularized these ra 'gas and ra 'giniis
amongst intellectuals.
These ra 'gas and ra 'giniis are subject to changes according
to the shortening or lengthening of their notes. Following this
system, Indian music is divided into two main branches:
northern Indian music (colloquially "Hindustani music"),
which is popular to the north of the Vindhya Hills, and Deccan
music (or "Kamatak music"), which is popular to the south
of the Vindhya Hills. Many new ra'gas and ra'giniis are
being evolved today and will be evolved in the future. There
can be no end to this process of evolution. In Prabha'ta
Sam'giita* also, a few new ra'gas and ra'giniis have been
evolved, but they have not vet been given names.
A'
The sound a' is the acoustic root of rs'abha, the second
musical note. This acoustic root directly controls rs'abha and
indirectly controls ga 'ndha 'ra (ga '), madhyama (ma '),pain-
cama (pa'), dhaevata (dha') and nis'a'da (ni). In the Vedas
other than the Rgveda, we usually come across komala [soft]
ni and sa 'dha 'ran 'a [ordinary] ni. In the older portions of the
Rgveda, kad'U [hard or high-pitched] ni was used. It could be
uttered with both sides of the uvula. The seven Vedic and
Tantric notes, the seven Vedic metres and the two
bha'va'tmaka svara [spiritual sounds] constitute the sixteen
prominent sounds which in Indo-Aryan phonetics are known
as s'od'asha dhvanikala' [the "sixteen sounds" of
Brahmavidya ' - intuitional science -g,d gandharvavidya ' -
the science of music]. These musical notes were used in music
and incantation in different combinations according to the
waxing and waning of the moon and according to the time of
day or night. Accordingly, a specific period of the month and
time of the day was fixed for the performance of each ra 'ga
and ra 'ginii.
Each of the letters of the Indo-Aryan alphabet, from a to
ks'a, is an acoustic root. That is, these fifty sounds are the
vibrations corresponding to the colours of the fifty propensi-
ties. The third letter of the alphabet, i, is the acoustic root of
ga'ndha'ra (ga'). It directly controls ga'ndha'ra and indi-
rectly controls madhyama (ma'),paincama (pa'), dhaevata
(dha') and nis'a'da (ni).
II
The sound ii is the acoustic root of the fourth note of the
surasaptaka, madhyama (ma'). This sound directly controls
madhyama, and indirectly conttospaincama (pa '), dhaetiata
(dha '), and nis'a'da (ni). In ancient times, the very prolonged
pluta ii was used in musical notation to denote kad'ii [hard
or high-pitched] ma', but in modem languages there is no
separate letter hi pluta ii.
U
The short u sound is the acoustic root ofpaincama (pa'),
the fifth musical note. This sound directly contiolspaincama
(pa'), and indirectly controls dhaevata (dha') and nis'a'da
(ni)-
U'
The long u' sound is the acoustic root of the sixth musical
note, dhaevata (dha'). It directly controls dhaevata (dha'),
and indirectly controls nis'a'da (ni).
R
The r sound is the seventh letter and seventh vowel of
Southeast Asian alphabets, as well as of the Indo-Aryan
alphabet. It is the acoustic root of the seventh musical note
nis'a 'da (ni). Nis'a 'da is derived as follows: ni - sad + ghain.
A sa sound occurring in any root-verb after the prefix ni may
be changed into the letter s 'a, that is, nisa 'da and nis 'a 'da are
both permissible. Similarly, upanis'ad and upanisad are
equally correct. But in Bengali there is a convention of using
s 'a in such spellings. Now, itnis 'a 'da is written with s 'a, then
both the Rgvedic and Yajurvedic pronunciations must be
accepted.* Of course singers singing scales need not utter the
complete word nis'a'da, but only ni.
The sound r directly controls the seventh musical note,
nis'a'da. As it is a half-letter [has no vowel sound],** desig-
nated as such [in the Bengali alphabet] with a hasanta dia-
critical mark ( ),*** it does not directly control any other
soung.
RR
The rr sound is the acoustic root of own. You may say,
Since own is the acoustic root of creation, preservation and
destruction, and the acoustic root ofSagun'a andNirgun'a
[it is used to symbolize Nirgun 'a}, how can rr be the acoustic
root of onm 'ka 'ra?
What is onm ( sq , ~saq)?
Onm consists of five symbols: a, the acoustic root of
creation; a, the acoustic root of preservation; ma, the acoustic
root of destruction; ('), the symbol of the unmanifested
universe; and ( -), the symbol which signifies the process of
manifestation.
A is not only the acoustic root of s'ad'aja, it is also the
acoustic root of the force of creation. When the idea to create
something arises in the mind of ParamaPurus'a, or in the
microcosmic mind, its acoustic root is the sound a. Since a
is the acoustic root of creation, from which everything else
proceeds, a is the first letter of the alphabet.
The sound u is the acoustic root of the fifth musical note,
and is also the acoustic root of a few other factors, the force
of preservation being one of them. When the desire to
maintain the created entities arises in the mind of Parama
Purus 'a, or in the individual microcosmic mind, then the
acoustic root of that sort of desire is u.
The sound m with hasant [indicating that its pronunciation
is m rather than ma], as well as being the acoustic root of
the tendency prashraya vrtti to treat someone or something
indulgently, is the acoustic root of the vim'sha [destruction]
that occurs in the course of time. When people feel that
something has become monotonous, they want to change it.
It should be remembered that vina'sha does not mean
complete annihilation, but transformation or metamorpho-
sis. Complete annihilation is called prana'sha. (In fact,
nothing in this physical universe is subject to prana 'sha or
complete annihilation. But philosophically, prana 'sha means
that change which takes an entity back to its original form.
If sugar made from sugar cane is transformed back into sugar
cane, that will be the prana'sha of the sugar. Thus from a
philosophical point of view, if a microcosm, through
sa'dhana', merges into that Parama Purus 'a from whom it
originated, that will be the prana'sha of that microcosm.)
This m sound is the acoustic root of annihilation.
The manifested universe is constituted of creation, preserva-
tion and destruction (a-u-m). A + u = o, hence a + u + m
= om. But that is not the end of the story; the dot ( ') and
the crescent (~) that form part of own 'ha 'ra are also important.
The former represents the unmanifested universe; the latter
represents the principle of transmutation from the unmani-
fested to the manifested.* Hence, onm is the acoustic root of
creation, preservation and destruction, plus the principle of
transmutation from the unmanifested to the manifested.
The source of most acoustic roots is Tantra, although some
of them already existed in the Vedas and were later accepted
by Tantra. Onm is one of the latter. Those Daks'in'a'ca'ra
Tantrics who do not want to accept annihilation as the last
word, and thus do not want to place the acoustic root of
destruction as the last sound, utilize the full letter ma as
opposed to the half-letter m, and place the letters in the
following order: a + ma + a = wna'. According to
Daks'in'a'ca'ra Tantra, "Uma"' is another name otParama'
Prakrti.
Onm'ka'ra is also called pran 'ava (pra + nu + at), which
literally means "that which helps tremendously in attaining
the supreme stance". In the Tripa'davibhu'tina'ra'yan'a
Shruti it has been said, Pran 'ava 'tmakam ' Brahma {'Brahma
is in the form ofpran'ava"]. Elsewhere it has been said,
Etaddhyeva 'ks 'aram ' Brahma etadeva 'ks 'aram ' param
Etadeva 'ks 'aram ' jina 'tva ' Brahmaloke mahUyate.
[This is the immutable Brahma, this is the supreme sound.
After knowing this supreme sound, one attains the divine
realm oiBrahma.}
Now even though onm (which includes the dot and cres-
cent) can serve as the acoustic root of this expressed universe,
since 0/1771 is nevertheless a combination of sounds, it requires
an acoustic root of its own. The acoustic root of another root
is called atibiija or maha'biija. So rr is the maha'bUja of
onm 'ka 'ra. This rr sound is necessary from the viewpoint of
phonetics and of sandhi [the science of combining sounds].
Since it is an important acoustic root, it is imperative to
decide whether such a letter should be deleted from the
alphabet [as some linguists have suggested].
The Indo-Aryan alphabet consists of fifty letters from a to
ks 'a. If any of these fifty letters is deleted, the entire alphabet
will become defective and the acoustic importance of the
letter concerned will be jeopardized. It is up to you to think
over and decide whether rr should be retained in the alphabet
or not.progress in Tantra.