Carnatic Music and Spirituality

Did you know that Carnatic Music is essentially spiritual in nature? Did you know that Carnatic music has the potential to activate your Kundalini? This understanding has unfortunately been lost to a great extent, so this can come as a surprise to many of you.

If you have visited some of the great South Indian temples, you must have noticed gigantic pillars and carvings depicting characters from Puranas/Itihasas made of stone and metal in many of those temples, vibrating with musical notes.

Look at Hindu deities to see how our fine arts and culture are inextricably connected. While Lord Nataraja portrays the evolution of life through his cosmic dance, Lord Krishna captivates all creation with his flute whereas Goddess Saraswati carries a Veena in her arms.

Thanks to our great ancestors, Indian classical music was woven into the texture of Hindu culture, religion, and yoga sadhana. The great composers of Carnatic music were men and women of saintly character, mystics, Siddhas, and bhaktas.

The goal of every life is God realization/mukthi or moksha. Our ancestors knew this more than anyone else, and so all activities were dedicated to the service of God. In their search for efficient sadhana to achieve this objective, our ancestors discovered that music had great disciplinary value and power to sublimate passions and attune the mind.

They also found that music could kindle the various subtle forces in the human body like the Kundalini. Something as powerful as this, needed to be given an elevated status. Carnatic music, therefore, started being referred to as Upa Veda, Gandharva Nada Vidya, Nada Upasana, and so on. The learned men in ancient India developed Carnatic music as a tool to assist a man in his quest for Moksha.