👨🏻🎤 Hazrat Inayat Khan speaks:
“Why is music called the divine art, while all other arts are not so called? Every thought, every word has its form. Sound alone is free from form. Every word of poetry forms a picture in our mind. Sound alone does not make any object appear before us.
What do we see as the principle expression of life in the beauty visible before us? It is movement. In line, in color, in the changes of the seasons, in the rising and falling of the waves, in the wind, in the storm, in all the beauty of nature there is constant movement. It is this movement which has caused day and night, and the changing seasons. This movement has given us the comprehension of what we call time. Otherwise there would be no time - for it is eternity. This teaches us that all we love and admire, observe and comprehend, is the life hidden behind, and that life is our being.
When we trace what attracts us in this beauty that we see in all forms, we shall find that it is the movement of beauty: the music. All forms of nature, the flowers so perfectly formed and colored, the planets and stars, the earth — all give the idea of harmony, of music. The whole of nature is breathing, not only living creatures, but all nature. It is only our tendency to compare that which seems more living with that which to us seems not so living which makes us forget that all things and all beings are living one perfect life. And the signs of life that this living beauty gives is music.
What makes the soul of the poet dance? Music. What makes the painter paint beautiful pictures, the musician sing beautiful songs? It is the inspiration that beauty gives. The Sufi has called this beauty Saqi, the divine Giver, who gives the wine of life to all. What is the wine of the Sufi? All beauty: in form, line and color, in imagination, in sentiment, in manners - in all this he sees the one Beauty. All these different forms are part of the Spirit of beauty which is the life behind, always blessing.
As to what we call music in everyday language - to me architecture is music, gardening is music, farming is music, painting is music, poetry is music. In all the occupations of life where beauty has been the inspiration, where the divine wine has been poured out, there is music. But among all the different arts, the art of music has been especially considered divine, because it is the exact miniature of the law working through the whole universe.
Music inspires not only the soul of the great musician, but every infant, the instant it comes into the world, begins to move its little arms and legs with the rhythm of music.
That is why in ancient times the greatest prophets were great musicians. For instance, in the lives of the Hindu prophets one finds Narada, the great prophet who was at the same time a great musician, and Shiva, a godlike prophet who was the inventor of the sacred vina. *Krishna is always pictured with a flute.
The Hindu goddess of learning, of knowledge, whose name is Sarasvati, is always pictured with the* vina*. What does this suggest? It suggests that all learning has its essence in music.*
There is a well known legend of the life of Moses which tells how Moses heard a divine command on Mount Sinai in the words ‘Musa ke!’ - Moses hear, or Moses ponder - and the revelation that thus came to him was one of tone and rhythm. He called it by the same name: musake. Words such as ‘music,’ or ‘musik’ have come from that word.
*David whose song whose voice have been known for ages, gave his message to the world in the form of music.
Orpheus of the Greek legends, the knower of the mystery of tone and rhythm, had through this knowledge power over the hidden forces of nature.
Besides the natural charm that music has, it has a magical power, a power that can be experienced even now. It seems that the human race has lost a great deal of the ancient science of magic, but if there remains any magic it is music.*
Music, besides power, is intoxication. When it intoxicates those who hear it, how much more must it intoxicate those who play or sing it themselves! And how much more must it intoxicate those who have touched the perfection of music, and those who have contemplated upon it for years and years! It gives them an even greater joy and exaltation than a king feels sitting on his throne.
*According to the thinkers of the East there are four different intoxications: the intoxication of beauty, youth and strength; then the intoxication of wealth; the third intoxication is of power, of command, the power of ruling; and the fourth is the intoxication of learning, of knowledge. But all these four intoxications fade away just like stars before the sun in the presence of the intoxication of music.
The reason is that it touches the deepest part of man’s being. Music reaches farther than any other impression from the external world can reach.*
The effect that dancers experience is the unfoldment of the soul, the opening of the intuitive faculties. Their heart, so to speak, opens to all the beauty that is within and without, uplifting them and at the same time bringing them that perfection for which every soul years.
Speaking of the harmony of music, I should like to say that the true harmony of music comes from the harmony of the soul. That music alone can be called real which comes from the harmony of the soul, its true source, and when it comes from there it must appeal to all souls.
Every soul differs in its choice in life, in its choice of the path it should follow. This is owing to the difference of minds, for souls, in their essence, do not differ. Therefore, whatever means be chosen to bring the different minds of people together, there cannot be a better means of harmonizing them than music.
One need not be a trained, to become a musician or dancer... No! By playing, loving and hearing music, you develop music in your personality. The true use of music is to become musical in one’s thoughts, words and actions. One should be able to give the harmony for which the soul years and longs every moment. All the tragedy in the world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of harmony, and harmony is best given by producing it in one’s own life.
When meeting musicians... One can feel the harmony which is the real test of perfection not only in their music, but in their lives.