My favorite “yoga” (yogi? yog? yogic?) music is the voice and sounds of Deva Premal and Miten. Though I am decidedly not an Osho follower (as they started out), I find their gift from God truly peaceful.
I typically don’t play their—or any other—music during a yoga class or therapy session. I’ve learned over the years that every song or type of music has a different effect on each individual.
(I do, however, use their music for myself when falling asleep, in savasana, or anytime during my own yoga practice, sometimes playing it all day long to keep a calm in the home; and I always use this music to relax myself before and after working with a client–it allows me to let go of any negative energy within so that I can completely focus on the client).
More than the music, though, it is the calm that comes after the music– the calm after the storm, so to speak. The calmness is a sense of silence.
Deva says,
“Without the silence that follows the chants, you get only half the story. It’s like the climax of a good story. The silence is there because it exists in the music. It just needs to be exposed and acknowledged. It’s so easy to overlook the silence inside the music… and it’s that which is healing us… if we allow it to be there. This is really one of the main reasons Miten and I sing – to bathe in Silence. It’s our nourishment. It’s what keeps us on the road. For me there is nothing more precious than having sung with an audience, ecstatic with bliss, and then entering the deep silence that the mantra brings… so deep, that with closed eyes you really feel there is ‘nobody’ there at all… all personalities dissolved for a tiny sacred moment.”
In some way, we all seek silence. Silence is not necessarily the absence an audible sound. Rather, it is the moment when our soul is completely still; when all beings dissolve and become one with our Self; when we can walk through life with equanimity, without being disturbed. In this moment of silence, we have a sense of detachment that allows us to stay in Samadhi.
The silence of detachment, however, does not mean that we are indifferent. As peace workers, we must still care about the causes we choose to carry. We continue to wage peace, knowing that we do not know the long-term (or even short-term) outcomes of our work.
It is said that if a butterfly in one part of the world flaps its wings just once, a hurricane can happen in another corner of the world.
Similarly, we do not know the results of our actions to the entire universe. We only do with devotion and dedication, and detach ourselves from the outcomes, knowing that we have tried our best to be silent.
With that, I offer now a day of silence—in completely peace—on November 30, the Day of Silence for those who cannot raise their voices. It is an opportunity to remember and recognize the suffering of children all over the world, who are abused, forced into labor and servitude, or stuck in positions without being able to fight for themselves.
Please join me in remembering the children, through Yoga for Children’s Issues, a part of Yoga for Peace.
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