Music is Life Itself
All the religions have taught that the origin of the whole of creation
is sound. No doubt the way in which this word is used in our everyday
language is a limitation of that sound which is suggested by the
scriptures. Language deals with comparative objects, but that which
cannot be compared has no name. Truth is that which can never be
spoken; and what the wise of all ages have spoken is what they have
tried their best to express, little as they were able to do so.
The music of the universe is the background of the small picture
which we call music. Our sense of music, our attraction to music,
shows that there is music in the depth of our being. Music is behind
the working of the whole universe. Music is not only life’s
greatest object, but it is life itself. Hafiz, the great and wonderful
Sufi poet of Persia, says, ‘Many say that life entered the
human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself
is music.’ What made him say this? He referred to a legend
which exists in the East and which tells how God made a statue of
clay in His own image, and asked the soul to enter into it; but
the soul refused to be imprisoned, for its nature is to fly about
freely and not to be limited and bound to any sort of capacity.
The soul did not wish in the least to enter this prison. Then God
asked the angels to play their music, and as the angels played the
soul was moved to ecstasy, and through that ecstasy, in order to
make the music more clear to itself, it entered this body. And it
is told that Hafiz said, ‘People say that the soul, on hearing
that song, entered the body; but in reality the soul itself was
song!’
It is a beautiful legend, and much more so is its mystery. The interpretation
of this legend explains to us two great laws. One is that freedom
is the nature of the soul, and for the soul the whole tragedy of
life is the absence of that freedom which belongs to its original
nature; and the next mystery that this legend reveals to us is that
the only reason why the soul has entered the body of clay or matter
is to experience the music of life, and to make this music clear
to itself. And when we sum up these two great mysteries, the third
mystery, which is the mystery of all mysteries, comes to our mind.
This is that the unlimited part of ourselves becomes limited and
earthbound for the purpose of making this life, which is the outward
life, more intelligible.
Therefore there is a loss and a gain. The loss is the loss of freedom,
and the gain is the experience of life, which is fully gained by
coming into this limited life which we call the life of an individual.
What makes us feel drawn to music is that our whole being is music;
our mind and our body, the nature in which we live, the nature which
has made us, all that is beneath and around us, it is all music;
and we are close to all this music, and live and move and have our
being in music.
Therefore music interests us and attracts our attention and gives
us pleasure, because it corresponds, with the rhythm and tone which
are keeping the mechanism of our whole being intact. What pleases
us in any of our arts, whether drawing, painting, carving, architecture,
sculpture, or poetry, is the harmony behind them, the music. What
poetry suggests to us is music, the rhythm in painting and drawing.
It is our sense of proportion and our sense of harmony which give
us all the pleasure we gain in admiring art.
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