“Zindagi saat suron ka naam hai” – life consists of seven basic musical notes. The first stage of life or the first note of life consists of the childhood development where one is unconscious like an animal and knows nothing apart from eating, drinking, merry-making and sleeping. The first seven years of the child are spent in this way. At this juncture of life, man is blissfully unaware of his responsibilities and purpose. Thus he lives spontaneously, full of innocence and purity. Ambition has not yet tainted the innocent mind. Life is musical, paradise-like.
The next seven years are decisive because at the end of these, the emotional and sexual development will blossom. The first seven years of life are responsible for the physical development of the human life, the second are responsible for producing the reservoir of the most important part of the human life and that is the sexual fluid which, if properly used, will lead one to taste the seventh note of life which is union with the whole. Together with the sexual development, the emotional growth too takes place. Our emotions are closely connected to our second body, the etheric body, which is produced by our thought process, the breathing system, body electricity and the food we eat. If all these are not of a proper nature, then we create very negative emotions like hatred, jealousy, fear and the likes, though all are not necessarily the product of our food and the other above-mentioned factors.
At this stage of life, man is ready to reproduce, to love and to reason. Most people, though physically grown-up, have stopped further inner growth. What do we do apart from seeking comfort, pleasure, eating, drinking and reproducing? Our rationality hovers around finding the basic necessities of life. Whatever progress man has made provides him no more than food, clothing, shelter and sensual pleasure. However, one thing he has got more than the primitive stone-age man: he can invent more means for pleasure and auto-distraction. Where do drugs, armaments and other evil products lead one to? Therefore, the human development generally stops at the second body, the second note of life. At this stage, the hypnotisation process starts. The pull is towards the outer reality. The hypnotiser par excellence which the world is, does not let its grip off us easily. Hence I insist that most people are not more than fourteen years of age.
The third note is poetic on one side and intellectual on the other side. In fact, it is the start of the intellectual development. The apex of intellectual growth is twenty-eight, and it is at this stage of life that the mental body is fully developed. The human being is more poetic at this juncture of life because his emotions are fully developed and his sex energy is at an apex. One is more sexually aroused around this period of life. Sexual drive is at its top between seventeen to twenty-one years. Also, the third body, the astral body is already developed, hence the intellectual faculties start growing. If one inherits an intellectual tendency or an emotional tendency, then it will start manifesting at this period. The tendency may be inborn as it may have been hereditary or the result of past impressions from a former birth.
Being sexual, sensual and emotional is natural, but being carried away by these to such an extent that it blinds reason and thus further growth on the ladder of evolution is harmful. Here, at this point, the person should follow his natural tendency which will decide what type of work he can do according to his temperament. He will study and form his character according to his natural inclination which will show clear signs at this period of development. For example, scientifically-bent persons will choose subjects related to reason, mechanics and the like, while emotionally inclined persons will choose poetry, literature, art, craft and other things related to their personality. Unfortunately, most youngsters at this period are spoilt through wrong notions of life, thus destroying the possibility of natural development. An artificial person is then born. Drug, false knowledge, erroneous conceptions inculcated by mentally blind persons contribute to lead us to this sad state of affairs.
The emotional and rational powers which are cultivated lead to very gross and impure ends like competition, ambition and communalism. Therefore one of the most decisive musical notes of life is distorted, hence a corrupted, impure being is formed. In its real perspective, the emotional drive and the intellectual force could be used as tools to climb the ladder of spiritual evolution. Man, as we shall see further, is also a spiritual being, a spark of divinity is his essence. Cosmic love and spiritual knowledge can be acquired through the heart and by the use of reason or rationality. But once one has been given a wrong start, then it becomes difficult to begin the search for Truth. This is the reason why, in ancient India, children were sent to mystic schools at the age of thirteen.
The ripeness of the mental development happens at the age of twenty-eight. At this period, man is supposed to have attained mental maturity. The fourth body, that is the mental body is supposed to have attained its complete growth at this juncture of life. Unfortunately, the way we live and the wrong education we receive about life do not allow the complete and proper development of our psychic being. Sad as this may be, the poison to our spiritual growth enters our life at the very beginning of our journey on earth. We take a simple example to prove how our further psychic growth can be hampered at a later stage. Anger, which is a natural reaction, is thought to be a sin by the one who expresses it. Our moralists or parents teach us to suppress it and the result is that the suppressed force poisons the metabolism and the inner psychic bodies.
Suppressed emotions are the cause of more than seventy-five percent of illnesses. This does not mean that one should throw one’s anger or other evil qualities such as jealousy or hatred on others. On the contrary, we should be taught that these are inner forces that can be transformed for our own inner and outer spiritual evolution. Sex, maybe one of the most taboo subjects, has killed the development of human civilisation more than anything else. Has not the suppression of the sexual urge and sexual knowledge given birth to pornography, rape, homosexuality and other ugly things? In a sane and healthy sex-educated person, these things are inexistent. If the first three bodies have not been spoilt by improper food and an undisciplined life, then the fourth body becomes a blessing, because it is the door to the inner kingdom and the riches that it conceals.
The mind is a subtle sense through which one can have occult knowledge and psychic power. Mind-reading, clairvoyance, materialisation of objects from the air, knowledge of past, present and future and other powers are the result of a well-developed mental body. Its powers are even more astounding than these. However, these are not the aim of life; they are the by-products of an evolved and pure mind. Writers, philosophers and great thinkers have, to some extent, a glimpse of the powers of the mind. It is our right to possess and enjoy these occult knowledge and powers, but not to misuse them. Their wrong use have already been a barrier in the life of many seekers of Truth. The melody of this fourth note can be a blessing as well as a curse. Sound in harmony is music and can give pleasure and peace while distorted sound can become a curse and produce madness.
The fifth note is a state of blessedness. One experiences pure light, one’s whole being is filled with an indescribable light, the same light which is the essence of the whole existence. Immortality trenches one’s being, nectar flows from the fifth reservoir of energy. For such a blessed one, paradise is a ‘here-now’ state. His actions, nay! his every movement is a melody. He becomes the flute through which the Divine sings the melody of love. The flute of Krishna symbolises that state. Such a being cannot harm anybody even in a dream. The fifth note or the fifth body is localised as well as all-pervading, just as in physics, the elementary particle of matter is said to be both a particle and a wave. This is the reason why masters, mystics and yogis can appear in different places at the same time.
After having bathed in the melody of the fifth note, let us move forward on our journey to the sixth note. Normally, people enjoy the first two or three notes of life, that too in a wrong way. The notes are distorted through an undisciplined way of life. Very rarely someone reaches the fifth stage, though the fifth one is not the last stage. Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Vivekanand, Ramakrishna, Pythagoras, Eckhart and others have had the blessing of dancing with these notes of life. Everybody can do likewise. Are we ready to pay the price?
The sixth note is pure sound or pure energy, it is infinite, the source of all sound, the life of all forms of matter, be it organic or inorganic, it is the Lord! It is the unknown stuff which can be experienced but cannot be described. It is the essence. It is a sound and soundless music. In it, the drop merges and becomes the ocean; the hearer becomes the music. What is it to become sugar? Ramakrishna once asked a devotee, “Would you like to taste sugar or to become it?” – a strange question indeed!
The seventh stage is beyond all description. Let it awaken the curiosity of the reader. The scriptures have called the seventh note “TAT” which means THAT. Jesus used to call it the Kingdom of God, Buddha termed it Nirvana. All these terms do not give a least idea of what it may be. Life is a music with these seven notes. Fruitful living is the tasting of these seven notes. Do not waste your precious time, oh brother! Come, let us prepare the instrument so as to play and enjoy the sweetness of all music.
