THE POWER OF SOUND🔗

Let me narrate a few incidents (from childhood days) which describe the power of sound :

One day, we were all sitting and chatting outside on the steps of a temple tank. One bird picked up a fish from the temple tank. The Arunachala temple has a beautiful, huge water tank. In India, temples are not just worship places. They are the place to store grains, water for famine periods, where the rich culture like art and dance are preserved etc... They are like libraries, like practical universities, spiritual universities.

The fish was dying and it was trying to save itself. The bird had caught the fish firmly. One of the boys, of course, I don't know how to justify what he did, I can only show you the power of sound...I don't know what he did or why he did it... He just looked into the eyes of the bird and made one small sound through the tongue as if a stone is thrown at the bird. If you throw a stone towards the bird, what sound will come? The same way he made a sound through his tongue! I saw very clearly, the bird just fell and died. Sorry if I am not able to connect to your logic. But I saw it with my own eyes. You all have the right not to believe. But I saw it.

Not once or twice, at least twenty, thirty times I have seen him playing with sound and creating that effect in the outer world. Just one sound as if a stone had been thrown, aimed at the bird and thrown, and the bird just dropped the fish and fell. It died as if a stone had hit it. It was too much!

In the same way, once I brought coconuts from the temple. Usually they bring coconuts to the temple for worship and break them. The only work for the young boys there is to run and collect these broken coconuts. I used to run for the coconuts that they broke in front of the temple. I brought the coconut for this boy to eat. This boy was a poor eater. He used to eat once in maybe three or four days. So I collected some coconuts and brought it. He wanted to break it into smaller pieces, so I tried to find some stones to break it. But all the stones were too big. He just took the coconut in his hand and made a sound as if it was hit by a hammer. Just a hammer sound! Please understand, he took the coconut in his hand, looked at it and made a sound with his tongue, 'TUK!' The coconut broke into pieces! Just pieces!

Just understand these three things: through the power of sound you can be transported to a different plane of existence, and it is possible, and many have lived it.

Live consciously

Put simply, matter always lives the energy; energy does not live the matter. There are two things in you: your being / energy, and your outer life / matter. If you consciously decide, if your energy decides to live without being affected by the outer situations, without being touched by outer things, you start living. Your consciousness shines. Otherwise, matter lives through you, you don't live through matter. Life can be living or a paralysis. It can be either way.

Understand this small thing: if matter lives your life, your importance will grow when matter grows. Your importance is nothing but your wealth. If you have more cars, more bungalows, more bank balance, you feel more important. Your value increases by matter, by the things you possess.

On the other hand, your being is energy. The energy gets value through matter. For example, if you go to Ramana Ashram, you will find small and old coconut shells, a piece of furniture and a small staff, being worshipped by thousands of people. That small staff, the old coconut shell, the small piece of furniture - all these have been touched by Bhagavan Ramana - an enlightened person. So they get worshipped.

This is the second thing you need to understand. In Bhagavan's case, small matter, these things which have no value ordinarily, just because they have been touched by his energy, have great value! Here, energy adds value to matter. Having lived consciously, these conscious beings add value to these things. In normal life, matter adds value to you. Normally you weigh yourself or society weighs you according to the matter that is around you; your property, your bank balance, your vehicle, your house, only these things matter . . . not you.

A small story: An old, rich widow got married a second time. One day the husband made some mistake and she started shouting, 'But for my money, this furniture would not have been here. But for my money, this house would not have been here. But for my money, you would not be having such a big car. But for my money, you would not have all these comforts. You are misbehaving with me,' she shouted. The man very coolly replied, 'But for your money, I would not have been here. Your value is nothing but your money.'

You are weighed by the paraphernalia. Because of the paraphernalia you get your value. Matter adds value to energy. With people who live consciously, people who have become enlightened, value is added to matter by energy. Whether matter should get value by energy, or energy should get value by matter is your choice.

The man who is paralyzed is always weighed by matter. The man who lives, even his matter is valued by his energy. You can see, when a conscious man touches anything, it becomes holy. Even small things like an old coconut shell, a piece of wooden furniture or a staff, even those things become objects of worship. These items receive respect. Because they lived consciously, energy guided their lives. When you actually decide to live, when you consciously decide to live, life starts happening to you.