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Namah Editorial

must be an open-ended incommensurable develop musical sense in a striking way when
matrix of sonorous energies (2). Levin talks they grow up!
about that matrix in a psychological sense
but hits the periphery of a vast spiritual Lewis laments: “In the process of socialization,
realisation which regards that cosmic matrix we inevitably lose touch with this pre-ontological
of sonorous energies as not a stand-alone relationship….. and as we mature, the utterly
S
phenomenon but a projection of the Sabda open dimensionality of our hearing is increasingly
Brahman which is the transcendental sound repressed — sometimes getting psychotically
vibration. Indeed. Indian rsis named objects by split off (3).”
r
using sounds that tuned in to the vibrations of
the objects and this intuitive endeavour led to While this repression is temporarily useful
the correct naming of myriad objects in nature in the development of our unique auditory
— flowers, plants, rivers, mountains, birds capacity, our unwillingness to relive the
and animals. The fundamental perspective primal experience can be problematic in adult
of Indian classical music, art and poetry are life.
grounded in the paradigm of the cosmic matrix
of SSabda Brahman. The second stage

The trajectory of the listening Self In the second stage of development, that spans
from later infancy to adolescence or adulthood,
Levin himself has mapped unique stages of hearing becomes personal and skilled, buoyed
Self-development where the art of listening by biological and social conditioning so as
can be progressively perfected and viewed to meet the challenges of interpersonal living,
in a vast spiritual gestalt. while the emergent ego structures the milieu
in terms of subject and object. Though now
The first stage cut off from the sonorous matrix, echoes of
the primeval stage can persist and resonate.
Levin explains that the first stage of developing This is how even in adult life, one can return
the listening Self involves a free and fluid to live that primordial ecstasy so that it can be
connection of the baby with the sonorous integrated in life.
matrix in the cosmos. It seems that the infant
hears with the whole body. This is a striking It seems that in some children, there can be a
intuitive realisation that corroborates with the regression back to the primordial state so that
mystical experience, where the foetus in the listening per se does not get organised around
womb exposed to classical music during their the emergent ego. One can speculate that
mothers’ pregnancy later seem to develop such a regression can lead to the appearance
affinity to the music played. In exceptional of communication disorders with autistic
cases, they could also respond to sounds of features (4).
languages played during that period which
were alien to their mother-tongue. And infants The third stage
who have been exposed to classical music
after birth, even while they merrily slept, There is a third stage of development of the

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