What is Nada Yoga ?
- Nikita Ierisov
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Yoga is a philosophical, spiritual, and practical system that originated in ancient India. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning “to yoke,” “to unite,” or “to bring into harmony.”
At its deepest level, yoga is about the integration of different dimensions of human experience:
body
breath
mind
emotions
awareness
Most people in the modern West first encounter yoga through physical postures (asanas), but historically yoga is much broader than exercise.
One of the most famous definitions comes from Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:
“Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ”
“Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.”
In this view, yoga is a method for calming mental turbulence so awareness and insight becomes clear.
There are many paths and different traditions emphasize different approaches:
Raja Yoga - the “royal path,” focused on meditation and mastery of the mind. Associated with Patanjali.
Hatha Yoga - uses the body, breath, cleansing practices, and energy work to prepare for higher states of consciousness. Modern postural yoga mostly comes from this stream.
Karma Yoga - the yoga of action and selfless service.
Bhakti Yoga - the yoga of devotion, love, chanting, and surrender.
Jnana Yoga - the yoga of wisdom and inquiry into the nature of reality and self.
Tantra Yoga - works with energy, symbolism, mantra, ritual, and embodiment rather than rejecting worldly experience.
It's worth to mention here that philosophy of Raja Yoga and Tantra Yoga are different, where former is based on philosophy of Sāmkhya which is essentially the philosophy of duality separating the consciousnesses (Purusha) and nature-matter (Prakriti), thus emphasising renunciation of worldly life. Tantra on other hand has the worldview of non-duality, where Shiva (Consciousness, Awareness) and Shakti (Energy, Vibration) differ conceptually, but in fact cannot be separated, which is communicated through many scriptures and myths.
The famous saying:
"Shiva without Shakti is only a shava (corpse)"
Nada Brahma - The World is Sound
One thought is woven across all Vedanta and Hindu philosophy, that the Universe is the Ocean of Sound. According to the latest discoveries of modern theoretical physics and M-theory, every so-called ‘indivisible’ particle, when examined closely, unravels into a dance of vibration.The Universe, especially in Tantric texts, is called the Ocean of Energy.
Nada is a Sanskrit word meaning "sound"The term nadi is also used to mean "stream of consciousness," a meaning that goes back four thousand years to the oldest of Inida's four sacred scriptures, the Rig-Veda. Thus the relationship between sound and consciousness has long been documented in language.
Brahma comes from the Sanskrit root bṛh- (or bṛṃh-) which means: to grow, to swell, to expand, to increase, to burst forth. So etymologically, Brahma - “the great expanding one,” or “the principle of growth/expansion.”.
In the Rig Veda , the word Brahman appears often, but not yet as a deity. There it means sacred word, prayer, hymn, formula - especially the spiritual power of mantra. Brahman is the force in sound and speech that makes rituals effective. Over time, this creative power of the word (Brahman) was personified as a god: Brahmā (the Creator ) In the Upanishads ( 'End of the Vedas' ) , Brahman becomes the term for the supreme, all-encompassing reality, beyond gods, forms, or rituals. The etymology - expansion, vastness - made it the perfect word for the infinite ground of existence. Brahmā the god is then a secondary figure, a mythological personification of creation, while Brahman is metaphysical.
Because Brahma/Brahman is rooted in “expansion,” the phrase Nada Brahma literally says:“Sound is that which expands into the universe.
”It is also can be translated as:
"The Sound is Creator"
"The God is Sound"
"The Flow of Creation"
"The Expansion of Consciousness"
Nada Yoga - Your Inner Resonance with the Universe
Traditionally Nada Yoga is referred as a Tantric branch of yoga, since it deals with vibration and energy, and these are the manifestations of the Devi (Goddess) - Shakti.
Nada Yoga is the practice of using sound and deep listening to transform awareness and reconnect your essence.
But here is also one important notice - in my exploration I have found similarities and inspired by such traditions as shamanism, taoism, sufism - since this traditions (or most of them) are based on the worldview of non-duality and their practices involve work with energy and sound.
Alsoo tantric pandit Swami Satyananda Saraswati says that:"Tantra is not an Indian philosophy. There was a time when tantra was the spiritual practice of men and women of every continent. Evidence exists that prior to the Atlantean civilisation, tantra was practiced in order to gain a greater vision and experience of reality. Tantra is the ancient spiritual heritage of mankind."
Traditionally all Indian philosophies stem from the Vedas, but many tantrics believe that tantra was taught before the Vedas. Since tantra has many similarities with shamanism and taoism it indeed seems like these are the pieces of one knowledge system once available for all mankind.
Again, striking similarities with ideas expressed by tantra are found in quantum physics, that matter is essentially a vibration and that consciousness of the observer (awareness) has the direct influence on the nature of the reality.
George Feurestein in his book "Tantra. Path to Ecstasy" writes about another major discovery and achievement of Tantra alongside with that in microcosm of our body reflected all macrocosm of the Universe:"The tantric scriptures also hammer on what may be the most important discovery of ancient spirituality, namely, that we are the world. The world is our true body. Therefore we are truly ageless, for according to Hindu cosmology the Big Bang that gives birth to the world is, after the demise of our present universe, followed by another Big Bang, ad infinitum. Cosmic existence unfolds and enfolds itself perpetually. Moreover, since body and mind are only conceptually separate and in actuality form aspects of the same world process, our mind is timeless as well. This profound finding is articulated in the archaic teaching of the identity of microcosm and macrocosm. "
Traditional Nada Yoga often distinguishes between:
Ahata Nada (“Struck Sound” ) - sound produced by voice and instruments and Anahata Nada - “Unstruck Sound”
This described in famous Zen koan:
"What is the sound of one hand clapping ?"
The main practices of Nada Yoga are:
Mantra repetitions
The repetition of bija-mantras - Sanskrit syllables without a particular meaning, but the vibration itself is considered transformative, since it influence our energetic nodes - chakras, which if working on full capacity open our intuitive faculties and we can live life more fully.
Listening Meditation and Music
Deep receptive listening to ambient sound, drones, singing bowls, tanpura, veena etc -attention becomes absorbed into vibration.
Kirtan & Devotional Chanting
Call-and-response chanting common in Bhakti Yoga.
Breath and Sound
Our voice is essentially an audible breath, so vocal practice it is a pranayama as well. Toning is the practice allowing to express sensation and feeling of the body, thus through in the throat centre our head and our body unite. Voice is the bridge to unite our mind and our heart and here lies the secret of all manifestation.
Raga & Consciousnessn Indian classical music, certain ragas are believed to shape emotional and energetic states. Traditions connect sound with:
chakras
time of day
rasa (emotional flavor)
subtle states of consciousness.
"Who knows the secret of sound, knows the secret of all manifestation" - Hazrat Inayat Khan
— Nikita Ierisov
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