Music is emotion (bhava). The ability to generate specific inner states is the primary purpose of music.
Light and Sound are that from which all existence arose. Sound can carry one anywhere. In its subtlest form, Sound and Word are Para, while the opposite, physical form of manifested sound and word is Vaikhari (the audible sound and speech we hear with our ears).
We use the mind to organize sounds into musical form. Form serves as a framework for the “musical,” yet form by itself is lifeless—just as the body is lifeless without life force (Prana) and Atma (the Soul). The spiritual mind fills form with meaning and experience. The intellectual mind creates form for the sake of form itself. Such a mind never finds rest; it is always searching for new and newer expressions. The intellectual mind has created various styles and directions in music. It seeks to diversify arrangements as much as possible, often even deliberately complicating them.
If one properly rendered note can evoke emotion, then let us remain with that note and enjoy the Divine that stands behind its sound. The intellectual mind will not accept such an approach. In essence, it would mean its defeat.
Music Beyond the Street is not only the title of a program, but also the core concept of Shakti Orchestra’s music. I have set aside almost everything that could be set aside and left only what is essential to express emotion in the music of Shakti Orchestra. I stepped beyond the noisy street. And only there, beyond it, can I freely express my thoughts and experiences and be myself. There I hear the Voice that exists beyond all sounds.
All springs, streams, and rivers flow toward the ocean in order to become one within its unity. In the same way, all sounds ultimately become the one sound from which all existence emerged. Every manifested sound, all music, every thought, word, idea, experience, and feeling arose from that primordial source, which the Vedas call Pranava, the sound OM. The One OM became many, becoming the diverse manifestation of existence. And therefore, in OM everything will return—back to its Truth of original Being.
