Naadalayasindhu

Preface to Naadalayasindhu
GURUKULAM AS I ENVISAGE
To become an educationist and to plan for the coming generations of people a way of life and education is no easy task to be done by people who never have thought about the problems of the society and of education and its goals.For this activity one may have to learn many arts and sciences ,should have a loving mind and a sharp extraordinarily receptive intellect and a love for nature and nurture.And one should have lead a life of purity as a model for the students to emulate.But ,these things are of the past,some people argue.And others think that a gurukula is the function of celibate nuns and sphincters or of swamins and sanyasins.I do not think that this is a correct view.In ancient India every gurukula had a guru and a gurupathni,and the guru lead an excemplary life of studies and austerities and a domestic life so that the students learnt even the way of a good householder.The religious institutions make a jail for the students and expect them to be sanyasins and even a small mistake is not tolerated .A Gurukula style of education which I envisage for the 21st century teachers and students is not one run by a sanyasi but by a normal human being living a householder’s life ,fulfilling all duties of the householder and achieving excellance in learning,and in duties .A place where the good citizens of the world and of the nation are created ,useful to society ,nation and world and above all to themselves ,to their family and to the institutions they work for.
Bharath is the cradle of civilizations and in this ancient land of rishis and sages Guru is equivalent to God.Guru and shishya makes a meaningful whole in generating vidya and upholding the traditions.Before they start a learning process they chant together.
Sahanou yasa:sahanou Brahmavarchasam(let us aquire fame and divine energy together).In the generation of Guruparampara for creation of knowledge ,Guru is the poorvaroopa,shishya is the uthararoopa and their sandhi is vidya and their offspring is prediction (pravachana).Medicine being a predictive science the teachers and students have to chant together “let me be filled with intellect(medha)and by that nectar of intelligence let us develop dhaarana(understanding).My body and mind are healthy.My words are sweet as honey.Let all the ears hear that sweet voice of love.God is hidden in the cells of intelligence .Let my knowledge be preserved for posterity and propagated by the coming generations (of shishyaas).”

Then the Guru continues to pray alone:”Let there be more and more students in my care.Let them come even from distant places .Let them be happy ,intelligent,disciplined and thirsty of knowledge.”
Whenever an educational institution is trying to draw more students to it,apart from the curriculum and the syllabus,a feeling of oneness between the teachers and students and a bond of love between them is essential.The student ,after leaving the institution nostalgically remembers the people who have given them love and a feeling of security.A good educational institution should be a home away from home,and good teachers should be giving parental(motherly/fatherly)affection ,love and care and advice (councelling)and should not be policemen and women making life difficult for them.Children are always good.The only thing that they need is proper love and care,not to turn to bad things and company.They are not criminals who needs constant vigil from the teachers.This is what happens in very strict gurukulaas run by religious institutions which I have seen in some of the professional institutions also.
We have to revive the old gurukula system of India where the guru is a father/mother figure and the student is the son/daughter and in such a situation only one can give security and a feeling of belonging to the students and by sharing their happiness and sorrows the teacher becomes part of his/her training programme and of life.
Only by creating such an atmosphere in the campus we can make it a happy place to live in and study and work.The happiness(aananda)or bliss is always associated with sath,chith (truth and energy of intelligence).Happy environment is the best for intellectual and physical work.Each and every faculty member should be able to understand this and create such an atmosphere in the college campus and each and every student should be able to respond to it by their natural instinct.For this the gurukula should have good and happy teachers,intelligent and free individuals leading a dutiful and pure domestic life.

FINDING A SOLUTION TO THE INEQUALITY OF ACCESS TO DISEASE PREVENTION ,THERAPY,AND INFORMATION TO RURAL POPULATION OF ECONOMICALLY BACKWARD COUNTRIES ,THROUGH A HEALTH VILLAGE SCHEME.
(Application sent from Amrita institute of medical scinces .Ref call for application ,strategic,social ,economic and behavioural research Jan 2003)
Statement and description of the problem and its priority.

India is a country rich in culture and its traditional ways of healthcare including ayurveda,yoga and music therapy.These are the ways of life topromote health and are preventive measures as well as curative.The villages in India at present lack proper healthcare and this is mainly due to lack of willing doctors to work in the villages,due to lack of proper watersupply ,lack of nutritious food and the environmental pollution and lack of awareness.The economically backward rural population do not get access to proper prevention ,therapy and information about diseases and healthrelated topics.The changing economic sociopolitical and civil structures and use of new drugs ,insecticides,pesticides and other chemicals also have contributed to spread of various types of diseases in rural population ,in tropical underdeveloped and developing countries.A better identification of such problems at a regional level and providing solutions to the problems for future needs is essential.The current proposal is such an innovative one for providing a solution to theproblems in a rural environment of kerala which belongs to the developing nation(India).Since this is for giving solutions to the problems of rural India ,the research is of national importance as perceived from the people’s perspective.

Background
To identify the problems faced by the nation(society)and to give a solution for that,one individual has to devote the entire lifetime in service of society and in touch with the rural common man.The principal investigator has done that and after years of contact with the common rural man ,has come up with a solution for the problems of rural India.But before accepting this solution at a national level (or for that matter at a global level)one has to prove that it will work out well at local ,regional levels.Hence implementation at a regional level is mandatory.Therefore the research becomes important from the point of view of the nation and the world.
Objectives and philosophy behind the proposal
Health according to the definition of the WHO is not merely the lack of physical disease.The mental ,spiritual,intellectual health also has to be taken into consideration .A multidisciplinery approach including ayurveda,yoga,classical music ,Indian philosophy will be implemented in the study period in selected villages so that there will be 100%participation from the public and their preferences and choices of therapy will given prime importance to have overall development of mental ,intellectual,spiritual and physical health.This will be in tune with the traditional sciences and customs of the Indian subcontinent.The aim of the adoption of the health village is to improve overall physical,mental,intellectual,spiritual development and improvement of the community in which holistic approach to health including alternative medicine will be tried.

The aim of the project is to improve the villages of India and to develop them in all fields and to make a model for the whole country to follow as a health village ,healthy not only physically but also mentally ,intellectually,spiritually.The gestalt field theory of educational psychology is defining human beings as dynamic systems within dynamic systems growing by the environment in the field in which they live,and stimulating the growth and development of the field they live in.

India’s amendment under Act 6 New Paragraph D,reads:
Ultimately higher education should aim at the creation of a new society ,nonviolent and nonexplorative,consisting of highly cultivated ,motivated and integrated individuals,inspired by love for humanity and guided by wisdom.(UNESCO World conference.Paris 5-9.October 1998)

In the Peramble:society currently undergoing a profound crisis of values ,can transcend mere economic considerations and incorporate deeper dimensions of morality and spirituality .Higher education is to ensure that.The values and ideals of a culture of peace prevail and that the intellectual community should be mobilized to that end.

This book,naadalayasindhu, was originally devised as a basic textbook and guidebook for students of music therapy in India, has this broad goal to achieve.. When I first started to talk about music therapy and its advantages to my colleagues,and to the public,I felt that I am a single tree ,trying to dance and make music and rhythm in a quiet forest where the other trees didn’t mind whether there is music or not.I had been used to a silence within which is akin to nothingness,death,or as an absolute existence of God which is bliss incarnate.That silence was a Bardo,and as a British saying,an angel’s time of passing by,the Ma of Japan,or the space between events .The silence between two lovers,between Radha and Krishna,the most intimate emotion unfathomable and sweetest,the Pralaya or deluge or timeless existence in the Present ..That silent phase had slowed down the pace of my music and emphasized the word (literature)in me,but those words even came from the silence ,highlighting the quiet intensity of the singer’s voice.Silence begins within the inner space before the first musical sound begins ,ends within the space after the last musical sound has finished resonating.The Indian sciences call the silence as Anahatha naada.Thanthra calls it the Para,Pasyanthi,and Madhyama stage before Vaikhari(heard sound).The visions,scenes ,dreams,Jungian archetypes in music and their healing properties has been much discussed in the west recently.The listener and the singer have two different personalities and different roles and just like that the therapist and the patient have two personalities.and two roles.Yet as human beings they are equal in many respects (Kimmo Lehtonen Healing metaphors on music.& 6th European music therapy conference in Finland July 19 2004.)That is like the Bhaktha and the Bhagavan in Bhakthisampradaya ,the jeeva and the Paramathma in vedantha.

Rika Ikuno (Voices vol 1 no:1 April 20 .2001 )says how in Japan the term Ongaku Rhyoho (music therapy)is used and how it is used for Fukushi(social care and welfare extending to every member of society regardless of economic status)and how this created an upsurge among the youth and old alike .When such a movement is created through musical awareness ,public,political and civil support is gained and educationists are attracted ,and music appreciation and culture enhanced and preservation of national heritage and values results along with welfare activities.In my music therapy programme which I call Raagachikitsa,this is exactly what had happened over the years,and now I find many trees around me reawakened and making their own dance to the breeze.The forest is no more silent .
Fukushi is social work ,social welfare,policy for handicapped,elderly etc.It is for alleviaton of povertyand misery around,using music as a tool for human growth,healthy and natural social change for total transformation of community and nation.It is for reducing the exploitation of society by undesirable elements,to search for an ethnic identity in modern society so that the diversities of religion,creeds,castes,political parties and sexes will be replaced by a national feeling(Indianness)and that of humanity.
Since Indian culture and valuesystems and concepts and the music systems are entirely different from the west ,it is not advisable to give Mozart or Beethoven to the common man for therapy.The Indian music (North Indian and South Indian)should be used and Raagachikitsa aims at such a programme.At the same time the Indian student of music therapy should know the developments happening in the west and in the medical research and hence literature survey ,sometimes quoting whole articles have become necessary.(as a textbook for music therapists and musicologists,and students of music therapy and for doctors).
If viewed in this sense as a transformative research ,music is not only a spiritual activity but also a sociopolitical activity.The world go round by love ,energy,materials and wisdom.The research scientist is therefore bound to provide a written document showing what he/she did,why he/she did it,how she/he did it,and what he/she learned from it and how it is useful to society and the world.For me life is the sum of all the research processes I have done and more than the sum of it ,enriching my experience and thought process.Whether it is astronomy,music,history,anthropology,poetry,veda and vedantha,Gita,Upanishad,medicine,literature,philosophy or sociology and psychology and yoga,I try to compare with the east and the west ,accept the good points from each of the branch of knowledge I come across.Each is a river enrichingmy mind’s fields with greenery and each confluence in the Blue ocean of my consciousness,which I call my Krishna.In my eternal waiting in silence for my Krishna,who is Love incarnate,my consciousness as a blue lotus of the valley blossomes,and my thoughts grow from an ugly duckling to a swan .My long and fruitful delay in merging with the golden blue ocean of Krishna is an experience sung and immortalized by Meera ,Tyagaraja and many other Bhakthy poets and seers of India..when I writ e this book,I have presented the recipes from all these branches of sciences and arts,which I have collected and experimented and tasted like a honeybee.But ultimately like the honey in the beehive,the rasa of the different sciences and arts have become one in a sweet advaitharasa,the rasa of musical experience.
The potential users of my observations,and my experiences can repeat the experiences in their life and surroundings,and evaluate their own experiences in comparison to mine.This book is both science and art.Logic,clarity and precision are needed for science.Originality,freshness of experience and sincerity of purpose with compassion are needed for artistic works.Raagachikitsa preserves or tries to preserve both,and introduces art into medical science,and medical science into the art of music for social change,and for creating employment opportunities for thousands of music students,and for healing the needy,and developing the younger generations of citizens,for world peace and preserving the heritage of India for the entire humanity.A pinch of salt(science)to humanities,and a pinch of sweet (music)to science makes samarasa(equalization of taste).
Human experiences (musical experiences called the MLP or musical life panorama ),creative thinking and language of love and peace act as positive communications to individuals and society.According to Claude Levistrauss if you know the consciousness of a musician ,you know everthing in the universe.In RSA lecture series(12April 2000,Paul Robertson)music is said to be the most intimate journey into another person’s personal world.When a panIndian collaborative research project for healing and alleviation of pain society through medium of music was planned ,I experienced this to be true.
Communication in Sanskrit is samvedana.,Vedana is pain.music takes away the pains through samvedana and is an anesthetic,but it is the most aesthetic of arts. It communicates at a transcendental level and superconscious states of aesthetics which we call the layayogam or naadalayayogam.The pun of samvedana/vedana and aesthetics/anesthetics is interesting.For this tohappen at least two people are needed,one singer and one listener(in music).One bhagwan and one bhaktha(in bhakthy sampradaya),one man and one woman (radhakrishna,sivasakthy).Veda calls this a mithuna.It could be a guru and shishya or a parent and child or anytwo people who love each other.Language and music has to convey an idea ,a message,an experience or an emotion.It has to touch a listener /several listeners/readers to attain the fruits of research.
Who is touched,by whom and by which(whose)music ?Is that a child or adult?literate or illiterate?expert or layman?intelligent or nonintelligent?healthy or unhealthy?scolar or not/?speaking the same language or not?All these questions and answers are important in music therapy.There are individual variations for selection of raga and music.
Creativity is like a flower ,natural to a plant.Every human being is creative.Only the degree os creativity differs.Flower is beautiful and natural to plant and bears fruits and seed for next generation.Even a poisonous plant has a beautiful flower.The outcome determines whether it was dangerous to society or not. Both the values and qualities I want to communicate to the society as a listener and the values and ideologies of the singer/musician are therefore important in the context of music therapy as far as I am concerned.Therefore,when I take Subbalaxmi and Jesudas as sheetangers this also is taken into consideration.
The sustained Jesudas effect he had made on Indian society for 44 years an d the MLP of mine are given in the book Without a stumble (Nalapat books 2003).MLP works with the emotional meanings of experiences ,events and memories that are connected with music in one’s biography and it can be used in in verbal form (talk about music)and in active form (conducting improvisations together).Mlp gives opportunity to pay proper regard to both aspects of how to combine psychotherapeutic and sociotherapeutic work.Life Panorama is a word which comes from the biographical work in integrative therapy.From the present we look back on the whole wide panorama of our life development ,back into the past and forward into the anticipated future,in order to understand ourselves in our identity,in our life in its entirety.In the course of that process we look at individual stages of life ,but always pay regard to the social context and the time we grew up.
MLP emphasizes experience with various kinds of music that have taken an emotional significance during our life.The effect of musi c is always dependent on context and mood.It is linked with emotional events and periods in our lives and releases the memory the feelingsthat were linked with specific situations and events in our lives at that time.Recollection of emotions in tranquility ,with the aid of musi c has an important role in music therapy.If a client remembers his/her musical life panorama,it inevitably brings her/his story to life.This helps us to recreate the awareness of musical healing experiences which had been forgotten to various life situations.In integrative music therapy it has an active improvising component also.The process is a theragnosis(therapeutics and diagnosis together)for the music therapist in an informal way.
Music as Naadabrahman is the key to my spiritualityListening(sruthy as veda synonym)memory(smrithy)cognition(bodha)science(sasthra)arts(kalaa)concentration(sradha,yoga)laya/samadhi(absolute bliss of ecstacy)darsana(perception)naada,naama and manthra(sound,name,chanting)prakaasha,roopa(light and form),varna and dwani(colour/pronounced letters )are studied with comparative eastern and western concepts ,scientifically/aesthetically,synthesizing ancient and modern thoughts and its natural powers(sakthy)merging in the shiva concept naturally.The balancing of sivasakthy,Radhakrishna,Brahmaprakrithy,yin yan or seemingly opposite ideologies for a peaceful and happy coexistence,in a physically,mentally,intellectually and spiritually healthy environment is my Mahaadwaitha of existence.

Though primarily devised as a textbook for music therapy students ,this is an interdisciplinary comparative study of both modern and ancient concepts of astronomy,yoga,psychology,medicine,music,philosophy and cultural heritage of humanity and is for the total human development and national integration and global peace through Indian philosophy and music.Because of this,it will be useful not only to music therapists and musicologists ,but also to every individual on earth who cares for a peaceful coexistence on earth and who values Love as God.

SYNOPSIS

The book is conceived in three parts.
PART 1. Has an introductory piece and is divided into 9 sections.The content in this part is the music and musical terms in the veda and 12 major Upanishads with comparisons of modern views wherever possible.Some of the original features of this part are,
1.The dwani and varna concept of Sankaracharya in his own words compared to the modern Doppler effect,redshift etc,and the modern theories of acoustics.
2.The suvarnaniyama or golden rule of beauty of the Thripurasundari as the sreechakra.
3.The historical/ethnomusicological and linguistic importance of some important musical/upanishadic terms explained.
4.The bliss of the saama singer Brighu in Thaithareeya Upanishad is analysed to find the protoraagam thaanam pallavi style during the vedic/upanishadic times.
5.Yoga and ayurveda in upanishadic times related to protomusic and protomusic therapy.
6.Linguistic/graphic mathematical representations of numbers and notations.
Interdisciplinery approach of mathematics,medicine,ethnomusicology,valuebased living and philosophy and aesthetics.
6.Musical instruments in India from the day of the Kathaupanishad and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.The concept of the sathathanthri yazh and its relation to the Madhava-Neelakantha series(Gregory series).The khandameru(Pascal’s triangle)drawn with the swaraas and to measure the aananda(bliss)of the music.
7.Importance of numbers 7,72 and 22.(saptharshimandala,melakartha number and sruthi number)in music ,cosmology,geometry and mathematics and in timespace calculations of the ancients(in India and other parts of world).The Mudumala inscription of saptharshi explained musically .
8.Peculiarities of human ear in hearing Can we touch sound waves?
9.Dalbhya the rishi and his prayer to Sirius A and B.The analysis of the prayer for rain and fertility of earth gives panchama,madhyama,dhaivatha,rrushabha and the concept of utpalabhatta and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad are compared to the falling gold coin effect.
10.Musical derivation of the vedic names themselves.
11.Definition of the word Gandharva according to Sankaracharya (visishtavignaana,sarvagna)and of Apsara as Medha,and Saraswathy as aDaiveemedha.
This gives the Gandharvaveda the wisdom,intellect and artistic experience (both left and right brain development).
12.The aesthetic rasa experience as compared toBrahma experience.The neuronal pathways and plexuses which carry the experience as kundalini of the naadalayayogin.
Angiras is the one who taught Madhuvidya to Aswins .Krishna also was a disciple of Angirasaghotra(gurukula).The Mithuna Aswins with heads of Vaaji(horse)stands for rejuvenation,medical and astronomical lore,voyages,wealths,vedic scholarship etc.and they are good musicians too.This mythical/scientific/artistic /interdisciplinary music therapists of the veda thus become important to any ethnomusicologist /Indologist concerned with protection of heritage of India.

CHAPTER 2
Explains the Archetypal/Historical/living singer effect in Indian Psyche
Archetype is a Jungian psychological concept
Two incarnations of Vishnu (Rama and Krishna )are taken as archetypes for analysis.The historical personalities of Meera and Tyagaraja and living singers yesudas and M.S.Subbalaxmi were taken up.(Rama-Tyagaraja-Yesudas effect and Krishna-Meera-Subbalaxmi effect)..
The number 72 is further elaborated upon .
Vedanthin,yogin,medical personnel,astronomers,cosmologists,mathematicians and musicians accept this as the basic number of their disciplines.It is the basic number of channels of honey(madhunaadi)in biological(body)and cosmic(universe)structures.
In section 1 melakartharaaga research,concept of vivadhi,the need of the hour for the expert senior musicians to understand the importance of the 72 melakartharaaga and to sing them for posterity and preservation of the art and science of music explained
The pattern analysis of Tyagaraja and the kutchery of Yesudas(melakartha raga)is used to study the Guru mind of Tyagaraja(apart from the Bhaktha mind)The vyuha concept of Raaga,how theNorth Indian Thath ragas were derived from the central raagaas of the melakartha,How the complex vivadhi raagaas are more beautiful than the simpler samvaadi raagaas and by not singing them how the musicians are destroying their own art are explained .
Section 2 deals with the geodesics of music.Khandameruprasthara given in chapter1 section 6 is explained in detail for the students of music therapy.Euler’s concepts compared with Indian concepts of beauty(soundarya)and bliss(aananda)The 16 sruthimandala and seven swaramandala with 22 sruthi forming electromagnetic spacetime field –cosmic/biological-and the LCM giving sweetness and softness and thereby beauty and bliss to Thripurasundari and music is shown.
Section 3 is the comparison of the Indian concepts with western concepts in history.For the western reference I have chosen the reprint of Spring 1992 issue of Fidelio magazine ,Lyndon H La Rouche Jr .
My MLP and Psi phenomenon and Esp are given .The difference between the creative and Analytical music therapy and how both has to be used for meeting the needs of the society is given in detail.The medical ethics,the gestalt psychology,how to improve the efficiency of profession and life situations by using music therapy etc are also given
Chapter 3 is an evaluation report of an awareness programme and workshop conducted at Pankajakasthury Ayurveda medical college at Thiruvananthapuram.Three project plans submitted by the participants with their literature survey is given (full text)for reference of music therapy research students who wants to conduct research on similar lines.

Part 2 Raagachikitsa an appraisal of eastern and western concepts ,literature survey,an innovative method for Indian context curriculum planning,a protocol for clinical settings,as an interdisciplinary wholistic approach is presented.
Introduction:Music is the biological .anthropological,neurological heritage of entire humanity.The 3 types of research on Music therapy,the concept of a gurukula system,are given.
Biologically cardiac rate,respiratory rate,and cosmically the yuga and the solar lunar eclipses and saros cycles are all following the same basic number 72 and thus the melakartha number is basic as Venkatamakhi claims it to be
Rasanubhava is based on 3 factors,the raga itself,the singer and the listener.goals of raagachikitsa are enumerated
My method is active qualitative transformative/innovative combining features of databased and evidencebased quantitative research proven statistically.

Chapter 1deals with Mathanga,the author of Brihaddesi,and Mathangi ,his daughter and Goddess saraswathy .The Ayurvedic concepts,swarodhara and manthrodhara as equivalent processes,comparison of Raaga and Vaastu styles of India ,types of listeners(rasika),The prasthaanathrayam of srividya ,yoga in India and in Jewish kabbala,the 9 covers in Deekshithar kamalaambha krithi,and the kundalini model in Swathi Thirunaal navarathri krithi ,meditation of sreechakra as one’s own self are some of the original features of this chapter.
Ch 2 is a literature surveyfor music therapy students.The importance of music being used as a toolof improving society,views of AAMT,New york uty researchers,Beth Abraham family,of health sciences,and importance of brain research are stressed.The Mozart effect in the west is much talked about.But what I callthe Tyagaraja-yesudas,Meera-subbalaxmi effect is not equivalent to that and it is a original concept of Psychological archetypes/historical legends and living musical legends of our times.A detailed educational programme accepted by a western uty is then given for comparison with the programme I have devised for Indian context. Various definitions of music therapy in the west also given for the sake of music therapy students.

Ch 3 .Music and great minds.The eastern and western philosophers view of love of music,the science and spirituality in India,as experienced by an observer/enquirer/researcher,the concept of ESP and realm of parapsychology are introduced and the value of hypnosis in certain healing techniques stressed.Positive and negative ESP scores in the tabular form is to help the students to assess themselves and their associates and patients and to understand the psyche better. ESP is not an unwanted element but is essential for any intelligent being since it is a part of precognition and memory.The practical application of it for self and improvement of society is stressed .The neuroethics of Kennedy is therefore given in entirety.Three journal references upon which the present researcher has based some of the observed data interpretations are also given.(susan Greenfield,Stige.B,Mary priestly and Gary Ansdell)Wittgenstein’s philosophy of intransitive understanding in music,the language and name games,and his concepts of aestetics are mentioned for comparison with eastern concepts.In ch 4,the updates of the international guidelines of biomedical research ethicsand further explanation of Priestly and Ansdell’s perspectives are dealt with.
Ch 6 deals with music therapy in ayurveda.The concept of one raga for one disease as given in the Ragmala is quoted but the author do not agree with that concept .Concepts of thridosha ,swara and its swabhava,the voice,visualization of music,brain research,cymatics,vibrations in energy cycles,the relation of mayan cosmology,Indian cosmology,human body and melakartha scheme of raga is mentioned and explained.Among the many melakartha charts available the Mukund melakartha chart is accepted since it is comprehensive and simple simultaneously.After discussing Bach,Reimanian concepts,Mozart and visualization of music,possibilities of research with Indian musicians suggested.Aamum and prasadam,niraamayam etc in ayurveda discussed and panchabhootha in Chinese system compared.Gate control and electrical theory of pain,proportions of beauty ,relation of beauty and love and bliss and Thripurasundari of the Indian psyche is discussed,since samatwa or balancing or equalizing of male and female principles and the guna and dhathu in healing art is important.
Ch 7 Knowing the transcendental self.
Indians transcended the world by their mystical experiences for which they used varying methods of yoga,and the most important and natural and easy one being naadalayayoga.This chapter deals with the westernphilosopher’s view of transcending the world for comparison of our methods for the Indian music therapy student whomay not be wellversed with the western ideas.The useful information from the net sources are given for the students since this is a guidebook for students of music therapy which is a comparatively infant science in Modern India.This chapter has nothing original in it except a trial t ocompare the west and the east.
Ch 8.The layayoga for supersensible body as the name indicates describes the principles of kundalini yoga .
Ch 9.This is an innovative project which I had given for an institute of human values in healthcare project.A Malayalam version of it as abstract appeared in a leading Malayalam daily(Madhyamam)and this was submitted with a project for health village scheme and sadbhavana lectures to be included in MBBS Curriculum ,with music therapy as a subject,for the Amritha deemed university.The project is given here since it aims at a national health policy and national integration through valuebased education ,and introducing music(art)into medicine(science)and vice versa,and assimilating the best of the eastern arts with the western medical science.
Ch 10 gives the pilot project done at Amritha institute of medical sciences and research center .It is a statistically studied project for recommending music therapy for educational,therapeutic purposes.The CD released with the 72 melakartharaagas conceived and written by me and composed and sung by Dr Bhuvaneswary is an original innovative research work.Because there are only very few attempts done to sing melakartharaagaas and in kerala this is first of its kind.
The other attempts made earlier are,
Muthuswamideekshithar in Sanskrit.
Mahavaidyanathan shivan in Sanskrit sung by M.S.Subbalaxmi
Kanthaganamutham by koteeswarayyar in Tamil sung by his grandson S.Rajam
Written,composed and sung by Balamurallekrishna in Telugu.
CH 11 AND 12 Deals with mental health and music therapy and the frequently asked questions about music therapy and are meant for students only.
Ch 13 Gender issues –a sociopolitical appraisal deals with the problems faced by a woman whether Meera in ancient times or Suvarna in modern times .A woman /probably a man too, has to be on her own and should not imitate any other person,if she wants to develop her full potential as an individual.The freedom of expression and free will and the ideology that one follows cannot be imitations.The very fact that one has to make one’s own model is a challenge in life and those who take up this challenge find the life rewarding in the end though the journey may not be smooth in the beginning.
Chapter 14 Upanishadam deals with the practical advaitha of Indian psyche where the entire nature is worshipped as Brahma or God and the science behind it.The value of music and nature ,of satwik food etc are important as well as the compassionate heart to see God/divine nature in all our fellowbeings,animals,birds and plants and natural resources and keep them pure and unpolluted for healthy existence on earth.
Ch 15 .The activities in music therapy gives a few projects donme at different centers and which can be repeated in India using our classical music in a hospital environment for data collection and further documentation and research.
It also gives the elements of the nature of music made use of in raagachikitsa project of ours.And the common belief that music therapy is just listening to music is not true.There are several other activities associated and some of them are given .
Ch 16 gives a few charts from medscape for measuring and recording pain .The gatecontrol theory of pain is discussed for the student’s benefit.
Ch 17 is the content of a lecture demonstration done at Amritha institute for an international seminar on sinonasal diseases.in October 2004.The lecture demonstration was done by Dr Suvarna and Dr Bhuvaneswary
Ch 18 is a few useful informations given as appendix as well as the bibliography of the pilot project at Amritha institute.
A common belief that those who know music knows music therapy also is not correct.Amusician like any other professional has stress and the selfhealing by music comes only to a few.Therefore,the matter has to be dealt with care.Music therapy for musicians is a topic dealt with all over the world among music therapists.Here I have just mentioned the prospects of it for further research.
The importance of music therapy course,research in hospitals and the career options are stressed since it will not only reduce the pain of society but also improve employment facilities for music students,musicologists and medical personnel who take up an additional music therapy training.
The author - Dr Suvarna Nalapat,Retd Prof and HOD Pathology (Amrita institute of medical sciences)has been focusing on music and cognition right from her early childhood and studying the impact of music on the mind and the body working in both educational and medical settings.,For her ,music therapy(raagachikitsa)is the keyword for physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual health,and gives peace to individuals,communities and nations and to the entire humanity