Beyond Owwwww: Primordial Sounds to Address Everyday Ills
by Janet Aschkenasy
Location Text Here - were automatically producing the sort of sustained, open-throated vowel sound that helps us unclench where we've tightened? The ancient practices of yoga and its holistic healing counterpart, Ayurveda, hold that sound and space are intimately connected.
Reciting certain Sanskrit seed syllables such as "om" can have life-changing effects on mind and body, observes David Frawley, O.M.D., author of several books interpreting the wisdom of the body of Indian scripture known collectively as the Vedas, and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies. "Just as hot or cold weather affects our body in a certain way, so do different sounds and how we repeat them."
According to these teachings, sounds corresponding to every vowel, consonant, and semi-vowel in the Sanskrit alphabet stimulate various chakras. Chakras are wheels of energy believed to affect not only the physical body but also the subtle or astral body, an aura-like field said to be the source of all physical disease.
It so happens that the throat center relates to vowel sounds such as "ah," "ee," "oh," "oo," and "aw." By vocalizing through the throat chakra, known as vishuda ("the pure"), we get in touch with the element of space, which can help to relieve pain and tightness.
The system in question describes how each chakra relates to one of five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and space), and is linked to a half-dozen "seed" syllables (see below).
By singing to the tailbone, for instance, you might come into fuller relationship with your earth element and gain a sharper sense of grounding and security. Chanting "yam" may elicit compassion for someone who's angered you, or move you to tears. Your own experience of the seed sounds, known as bija sounds in Sanskrit, may also be quite different. Experiment by chanting the sounds on your own. As an investigative exercise, the next time you have back or neck pain or similar discomfort, try humming and see where the sound goes. When new mother Stephanie Rose was in labor, she says she felt a series of fluid open sounds resonating in the lower chakras below the navel.
People who work with sound warn not to use it haphazardly. For instance,"om" is a sound of affirmation that allows us to accept who we are and open up to the positive forces in the universe, says Frawley. But he cautions that for people with a nervous, mobile, airy constitution, too much "om" can make matters worse by creating too much space in the mind.
The human voice carries something in its vibration that makes it more powerful than any musical instrument — consciousness.
OM — The place between the eyebrows corresponds to the supreme element, mahat, or cosmic intelligence, and resonates with the sound of "om."
HAM — The throat relates to the element of space and the sound "ham."
YAM — The heart relates to the air element and the sound "yam."
RAM — The navel corresponds to the fire element and the sound "ram."
VAM — The reproductive organs correspond to water and the sound "vam."
LAM — The area near the tailbone relates to the earth element and the sound of "lam."
MORE INFORMATION
This article first was published in Spirituality & Health Magazine in July/August, 2003.
Janet Aschkenasy teaches yoga as a volunteer at the Momentum AIDS Project and the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City. She continues to practice and train at Rasa Yoga (www.rasayoga.com) and can be reached at editor@janeta.com.
Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind the mind is meditation.
Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is sound. — Kabir
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