It’s always all the music was in the praise of God. And that’s why Mohammed Sahib said that all the music should be in the praise of God and should not be…” So we had other things like Ras and all that. But you find even at the time of Shri Krishna all the music was to be just done for Ras. Ra, ‘Ra’ is ‘energy’. Sa means ‘with’. With Radha they were playing together, playing Rasa and that’s how they were doing the circulation of the energy to integrate themselves and singing the music. It is for that but you find that people don’t understand. They use music for sensuousness: is anti-God. This music force has come to us to praise God, that’s all, for nothing else, ..

Music which is not in the praise of God is not music. …Our classical music in India was based on AUM. Even at Kundalini when it reaches here at the Vishuddhi Chakra it makes all the sounds, “am, aam, em, eem, um, oom, rim, reem, lrim, lreem, aye, ayee, ao, aou, ang, ah” All these sixteen vowels are coming from the sixteen chakras or the sub-chakras or the petals of this Vishuddhi Chakra. These are Bija mantras of the Vishuddhi Chakra. All the vowels come from here and when we sing dirty songs we spoil this chakra Vishuddhi.

…..Only for hymns to be sung in the praise of God. All music should be in the praise of God. All ragas should be in the praise of God. [In India] we had no namaz system of different times, but we have a system of music in different times. At different time, a certain music should be played where you describe a mood. And all the moods that are described have to relate themselves to God. There is no other mood that is enjoyable to the Spirit that does not relate to God. There’s no mood which one can enjoy. Even bibhatsa, the mood of bibhatsa is grotesque; even that mood one enjoyed, one can listen to when they see the filth and dirt, the left side.

It’s so scientific; our music system is extremely scientific because it was taken in the form of this music with actually the Kundalini moving into different these sapta swaras (meaning: 7 notes). These seven swaras are built in our seven chakras: It start with sa, then, re, ga, ma – Mother, pa, dha, ni. My name also starts with ni. These seven swaras are built in with seven notes and there are vrikrutis, vrikrut swaras, which are the other, what you call, chakras [so] that we have to make about twelve swaras. But nobody understood the real meaning of music.

Sharada the Goddess of Saraswati is the one who carries the message of Viraata within and tells us how to sing. She tells us what is appealing to God. How these ragas were made also? Just think of it. Because first they chose the notes the aroha and avrohas, the going up and down (ascending melody and descending melody), which was appealing to God. So the melodies were created. Melodies are fixed. You cannot change the melodies the notes because they found out that, at this point, the Spirit awakened; on the vibrations they found out. They found out that, when they sang this way it worked out. The Veena (primordial instrument of Shri Saraswati) they played and they found out the exact swaras. Exact swaras which would really make you feel nice. …

The sense of music – this depiction of music was done by Shri Krishna. It is He the One who taught taala. Of course we can say that Shiva is the One who dances the taala, but the One who depicted it for human beings who gave the message to the world how the taala should be is Shri Krishna, through His dancing movements. He kept the taala all the time. Like the way He stands itself suggests how He kept the taala. And He played the murli (flute) also, to suggest that music is what God’s love is. His music is suggesting of God’s love, that soothes you, that clears you, that makes you happy, that gives you joy. And that’s what He suggested through His singing, through His music. He never wrote any poetry did He? He never wrote any poetry as such but when He spoke, when He spoke in gudria in the prose it became Gita. Just when He spoke it became Gita. Of course, people have tried to spoil quite a lot of it, the rhythm, which I feel sometimes when people recite it. But still we must say when He really created it, it was for human beings to create poetry out of prose. Out of prose He made it communicable. Because people could, first, only understand the music, the rhythm of the music. They didn’t understand much words and things. But He made it possible.

Even in Koran, if you read, the few words before starting every chapter nobody understands. They are all nothing but mantra bijas. But they put it there. They knew people won’t understand, but He put it there because people would understand. All these things you may not understand. You may not understand Me either, possibly, but whatever they did was for your hitha (benevolence). This is what happened, at the time of Shri Krishna that He established the concept of hitha; because it was said that you must speak the Truth and you must speak the thing that is sweet, priya (‘satyam vade, priyam vade’). It was the message of Shri Krishna that you must speak sweetly. Those people who have got a proper Vishuddhi Chakra speak very sweetly. Their voice has that enchanting method of capturing the hearts of people and not debasing them, but elevating them. So He said you must do it sweetly. That was His main theme. Everything He did so sweetly that He created a leela out of His doings. It was a leela that he made. He said this world is not a place where you should be serious, you should be sharp, you should be tense, but it’s a leela. Just see the leela, the drama. The whole is a drama….
H H Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Delhi (India), Public Programme, 2 February 1983.