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Show Harmony in world consciousness is the goal of meditation believers India?Europe and the Middle East and also appears regularly on Indian Indi-an national radio and television. The sarode player, Biswajit Roy Chowdhury is also featured regularly regu-larly on Indian radio and television. Aside from the concept of world peace through music, attending the concert itself is a unique experience. experi-ence. The drogas, played on nonelectric, non-electric, un-enhanced instruments with chords and note patterns totally total-ly distinct from Western music were pleasing to hear and fascinating fascinat-ing to see performed. But according to Brad this music often referred to as "the way of all bliss" is more than just an enjoyable enjoy-able musical experience. "It's not necessary for everyone in a city to hear the music for the city to benefit," be-nefit," he says. "The music promotes prom-otes progress by promoting natural law. It is to normalize stress and place the world in harmony with nature rather than for enjoyment." The man behind the concept, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is also the founder of the Transcendental Meditation program which has over 1 200 centers across the country including in-cluding one in Salt Lake. The maharishi has taught TM for the past 25 years as another way to create world peace and eliminate suffering. Bob Bowser, director of the local TM Center, points to studies stu-dies that show a decrease in crime in cities where at least one percent of the population practice TM. Local TM centers offer frse introductory intro-ductory presentations on the practice prac-tice aiid benefits. Will Music for World Peace have any noticesJrie benefit? That will be hard to document because even the Maharishi predicts only an easing of tensions betwten various world powers and warring factious, but concerts wil? be held in many large cities including Washington, D.C. By CHERIE HUBER Many people have labeled much of the music that is popular today as music that corrupts the mind and promotes satanical cults. But if music might be a force for the dark side, could it also be a force in promoting good? Yes, says Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The founder of the Transcendental Transcen-dental Meditation program believes that music can promote world peace but not just any music but the melodies of Gandharva Veda, from ancient India. Following this line of thinking, Maharishi's International University Univer-sity sponsored six teams of Gandharva Gan-dharva musicians to perform at 300 a collection of much older hymns of an Aryan people who entered the Indian peninsula from the northwest.) north-west.) Not surprising, many of the special drogas have been lost through the centuries, as for example exam-ple the medicinal ones that were used to cure sickness. The four musicians who visited Salt Lake played the ancient Vedic music on traditional instruments: bamboo flutes, sarode, tanpura and tabla. The sarode is a stringed instrument in-strument simitar to a sitar which can produce a wide range of sounds. The teanpura is another stringed instrument. It produces a droning sound when the strings are plucked. The musician on the tan pura, Sunil Datt, plays the same chords over and over again throughout a droga without ever varying the pattern or changing the sound. However, the tabla player, Prem Kumar, changes the rhythm and pitch of the little drum by either hitting or caressing it with different parts of his hand. He can produce a remarkable range of sound. The tabla and the tanpura musicians are the accompanist for the major per-formtrs per-formtrs the flutist and the sarode player. Flutist for the performance was Niranjan Prasad, one of India's most well-known performers. He performs at music festivals across cuncens across me united states as part of the 1987 Maharishi Year of World Peace, the 13th year of the age of enlightenment. One of the six groups performed at a concert in Salt Lake City last month. Brad Mylett, assistant to the president at Maharishi International Internation-al University accompanies the musicians who do not speak English En-glish and acts as their spokesperson. spokesper-son. He explains the source of the music, "Gandharva Veda music is the classical music of the ancient Vedic civilization of India, which enjoyed heaven on earth. It is music that is in alliance with natural law. It upholds the natural rhythms that prevail at different times throughout the day and night. "Gandharva music makes a precious pre-cious contribution to the creation of world peace through the use of sound, melody and rhythm to restore res-tore balance and harmony to the mind, body, behavior and environment." environ-ment." Brad went on to say that in the ancient Vedic society music was the key to maintaining their "heaven on earth" and it was played play-ed around the clock with different drogas or melodies being played at certain times of day to match the rhythm and special consciousness of that hour. Each day is divided into eight segments and their three drogas for each time of day. The melodies that the group that visited Salt Lake played were reproductions re-productions of the ancient Vedic music. (Scientists have documented that in about 1500 B.C. the Rig-Veda was compiled as |
