(based on a talk by Osho)
The Sound Unheard
The musicians get busy, twanging and tonking their instruments oblivious to the restive audience-as they tune strings and drums into unison so that the music may arise presently.
The musicians only tune in. It’s the music that descends into the air - the grace of the Sound Unheard that is the source of all music.
Theologies east and west stake their positions irreconcilably but all agree on the primordial source of life - the one truth. That is the Sound Unheard.
Temples and churches have a welcome bell. The bell rings truly not to waken the One within - but to beckon us to journey to the beyond, stepping through that sound of the ringing bell to the music beyond hearing. And who is unmoved by the music coming from beyond?
Of all things, music alone stirs us beyond our senses and is the substratum of life, of breath and being. Science says all matter is but vibration- but in truth it is the Sound Unheard.
Thereby hangs a fable. Once Wajid Ali of Oudh was bent on bringing a famed singer to his court. The singer had his own mad condition. He said he would sing only to those who did not move at all, not even shake their heads to his music. Wajid Ali was true to his reputation. Out went the drum roll around town calling only those to court who could hear the music without any physical sign of being moved at all. The town was bemused to hear that strange call to court - any one who showed any sign of being swayed by the music was courting death - That was the punishment proclaimed by Wajid Ali.
This is no pointless tale. So a handful did come.
Perhaps they were those stoics and mendicants who had hardened all their senses into frigid obedience. But when the music started –
None could resist its eternal charms. Heads swayed, hands moved, bodies showed sheer enjoyment.
Wajid Ali was chagrined. He stopped the singer and asked, “Sir, must I accept defeat and have these wretched ones beheaded?”
The musician laughed - “Of course not! I have been waiting all along to sing to such as these who dared death to court music! These intrepid ones are truly worthy of partaking with me of that grace of primordial Sound!”
How should one reach the Sound Unheard? By being still- still within and not running about looking for true bliss in the world of the senses. Only stillness prepares us - the guru then wakens within you that Primordial Sound. And then you see - it was, is and will always be everywhere! You did not hear it so far- like a fish feeling thirsty in water!
There is only one true prayer that is neither begging nor bribery. It’s that ever-eager wait in the stillness for the Music to descend - to become one with it. The musician merely tunes in- its that Music that then flows.
