Music is in every culture of the world; from the djembe drum circles in Africa, to the percussion street-bands in Brazil, Irish folk songs in the pubs, British rock gigs at the local clubs, buskers in the streets of New York, and the orchestras of cities throughout the globe. There are a million other examples of how it’s such a big part of everyone’s life in different ways, and how it accompanies each one of us through different stages.

Everyone likes to “get down” (dance) to their favorite jam, or blast their vocal chords singing a “blues”. Basically, pretty much everyone, loves music. Whether they’re playing it, dancing it, singing it, or simply letting the ears do the work; it’s a way to relax and put things aside, let go of emotions, forget problems, get motivated to do things, and the list goes on. But, music as we know can become redundant and dull over time. Our favourite song is no longer soothing to our ears or warm to our hearts after hearing it for the 100th time in-a-row. The magic simply does not happen anymore when we constantly play and practice our pieces or compositions, which used to make our hair stand and send chills down our spine.

So then we set out to find new music, new artists. We squeeze ourselves dry attempting to create a new riff or melody. We put ourselves in the most suitable environments for creativity. Search every corner of iTunes and the internet for a new, better, and more fulfilling “hit” of music to get our ear fix. This is satisfying at times, but often, we don’t get that satisfaction we’re looking for in a song. Actually looking at it on the long-end of things, we never get the fulfillment we want.

But we can, if we add the right element to the music we listen to or play.

Mantras.

A mantra is a spiritual sound vibration that transcends this material realm; it goes beyond the regular material sounds we hear every day and actually quenches our constant thirst we try to fill with many things, like music. It takes our mind off the mundane and places it on a spiritual platform, which is most natural to us and our real identity. Why?

Because we are spiritual in essence, therefore we need spiritual satisfaction. Spiritual food. As we are not essentially the biochemical in essence. To know the reality about ourselves, read here.

But what does meditation and mantras have to do with music or our desire to be happy and have fun? Everything!

Like stated above, we are spiritual in essence, therefore we need spiritual energy to really satisfy us. Material happiness is not enough and very fleeting. All the scriptures of the world state this in some way or another. And we derive  spiritual energy from this sound vibrations.

By nature we need and want to be active, that’s why we’re always trying to do something (sleeping and doing “nothing” are actions by the way) in every hour of the day. But more so than just doing something, we want to have fun. Lots of fun. As much fun as we can have; we just want to be happy chappies. And that’s perfectly normal, because that’s part of our nature as spiritual sparks.We must Know more  about the essential aspects of life i.e. about our real self and self realization

What we have to do now is take what we already know and like doing, and simply spiritualize those activities like singing and hearing. We can do this with mantra meditation.

Meditation is not about giving up everything and going in the forest to sit and try to think of nothing, or focus on a particular thing for a certain amount of time. Meditation is a way of life. So in the case of music, all we have to do is sing some mantras, or transcendental spiritual sound vibrations, along with the music we are playing or listening to. That is how a material activity becomes a spiritual activity. That is meditation.

So you like electronic dance music? That’s great! Just add some mantras like “Gauranga” to your beat or when the bass drops, and you’ll feel even more electrified and great inside. Or perhaps you’re into some hearty R&B and like to really sing as if there’s no tomorrow; perfect, but instead of normal lyrics that you’ll get tired of after a while, sing “Haribol Nitai-Gaur” and you’ll never want to stop. That is the beauty of spiritual sound vibrations.

Even rock n’ roll and blues can become spiritually potent with the addition of mantras. Even Justin Beiber’s sounds, lyrics removed and replaced with the wonderful and soothing spiritual sounds, can be beneficial to you and actually nice to play!

The point is to simply add this practice in our music, and also in our life. We don’t necessarily need music to do meditation. We can also just do deep breathing inhalation exercises, and exhale chanting the “Gauranga” mantra. This technique is called Gauranga breathing. It very simple, very easy, and very effective.

When we engage in singing and chanting mantras with others, accompanied by music, this is called Kirtan, and it is very wonderful. We can play any music we like, with any instrument, anywhere, in any position we want, and experience the most benefit and happiness simply by hearing and repeating these mantras.
So next time you’re at a party or a jam session, suggest this new idea, or don’t even bother suggesting, just start whistling a tune, and lay down some “Gauranga Nitai-Gaur” mantras to the beat. You will see that gradually, you will be grooving your way to bliss.