Saturday, September 4, 2010

GURUDINAM

Today is Teacher's day.The day of the Teachers and students.And of the most learned president India had ever seen.
Therefore I thought ,in honour of Him as well all the teachers and students of the world I should share a chapter of my new book on ancient education in Vedic and Budhist India and how Nalanda and Valabhi universities functioned and who were the vicxe chancellors and teachers of these universities who helped in spreading knowledge nationally and internationally.
Visit this link for reading the article:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9cll1hb77445h

I receive 3 newspapers daily.When I opened the Hindu I saw a message from IGNOU ON PAGE 18 LOWER PART OF PAGE WITH 2 BEAUTIFUL QUOTATIONS.
ONE SAYS: a LIFE OF JOY AND HAPPINESS IS POSSIBLE ONLY ON THE BASIS OF KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE. FROM DR SARVEPALLY RADHAKRISHNAN HIMSELF.
THEN A MESAGE FROM IGNOU.
Great teachers dont just teach,they are mentors,advisors,role models,guides,and above all,shapers of great human beings.

Opening The Times of India I find page 10 entirely devoted to teachers and student and changing patterns of relationship of Guru and shishya.

Then I open the Malayalam daily and find no message related to teachers or to education.
What had happened ?Have the Malayalam media forgotten that today is teacher's day and a message of love,compassion,and importance of learning is needed for today's society ? It is sad that people forget the most important things in life and give importance to that which is least important .Education and values are the most important things in life.Without that all other things are wasted .

Friday, September 3, 2010

Yesudas effect

Everybody thinks of Mozart effect when they hear about Music therapy .They have read about it in internet and therefore are familiar with that term. But what is Mozart effect and how did that term come to stay? Tomatis, a Medical professional tried Mozart in autistic spectrum disorders and found that the children show better response than to other types of western musical forms. And the method is called Tomatis method and the effect as Mozart effect .The greatest blame on this method and effect has been that it does not help develop or improve language in autistic children.
Probably the reason for this is the lack of vocal part in the music he used.

My method is Yesudas effect .It is vocal music based on Indian Ragas I use for my patients/aquaintances/friends/myself.. And it is a whole range of healthy and unhealthy people of extremes of age groups and adults, of both sexes and of at least four different languages affected over four decades that I have at my disposal for demonstration/proof of Yesudas effect . And ,the effect of music is not just for curing an illness ,but for a self healing process of the entire society ,and for being at peace with oneself and the world-the internal and external miliue-the biofield and cosmic field of energy that Indian classical Raaga music is devised. And I use it in such a way .I don’t know whether this can be called Suvarna’s method just as Mozart effect is called Tomatis method who did research and therapy with Mozart effect (If we adopt modern medicine standards.) But ,though I propagate the method ,it had been there for millennia used by our ancestors ,and I know that it cannot be called either my method or Yesudas effect but it is the effect of music ,of raga,of swara rendered in a specific way and utilized in a specific way. That is the Indian way of discoveries and practices in Sruthi.And music is always Sruthi.

What I did and how this started is important because it gives an idea of my method and its evolution over four decades that is ever since Yesudas started his singing career. I have been a born music lover from age 3 as far as I can remember and my first listenings were of M.S.Subbalakshmy,Chembai VaidyanathaBhagavathar, that proceeded to P.Suseela, Latha Mangeshkar and Mohammad Raffi ,not to speak of P.B.Sreenivas,A,M.Raja ,and other stalwarts of the time. .The experiments with music started on me and my study patterns (on concentration, memory) and then on the children (normal) of my own family like my brother, and kids who were given in my care by my cousins and sisters to put to sleep with lullabies. Then when I became a medical student and knew something about the peculiarities of human ear and of acoustics, and the physiology of nervous system I could understand some reasons for the effects of music on me and on children and adults .This became a real research protocol when my son was born and I studied it systematically.

Why people hear music?
The purpose of music listening is many and it is subjective.
1. Timepass
2. use as a background music while doing household chores
3. Hobby
4. Relaxation
5. Professional musicians critically hear to learn and improve
6. Out of genuine love for music.
7. as a research

In my case it started as a music Rasika (music lover) by birth and then evolved as a research due to my inherent nature of questioning and search for truth, and then as a medical professional and a medical teacher and researcher it evolved as a system of music therapy .When you are a doctor naturally the effects of music on physiology and anatomy and neuropsychoimmunology etc will be thought of and understood and experimented with. All these in a teaching profession made me think of a curriculum and syllabus and research protocols for study and treatment and this evolved through my method of Yesudas effect.

I have given these details in four of my books on music.

1. Music therapy for administration, management and education.Readworthy publications
2. Ragachikitsa.Readworthy publications New Delhi.
3. Naadalayasindhu (Raagachikitsaamritham) D C Books Kottayam
4. without a stumble. A book on spirituality of music .Nalapat books

What is important with Yesudas that helped my research protocol: _

One is the range of music he has produced.
Second is the range of languages in which they are produced so that I can do a national level protocol.
Third is that he has popular music, devotional music (in all religions), nonfilm light music and classical Hindustani as well as Karnatic music for use in any range of population speaking any Indian languages .Among the popular music itself I could find people with a range of interests like Romantic, philosophical, poetical, humourous, children songs and devotionals and all these ranges from Yesudas alone. And for autistic children the use of Yesudas music has been of use to language recognition and improving language and communication skills most of the case histories from parents themselves.
The research on Yesudas’ classical music and live kutcheris evolved out of these preliminary studies and free association surveys over several decades. The prospective research on kutcheris started in 1998 (since 12 years) and I have listened to 150 and odd live kutcheris of just this one singer for the sake of a research project on his music in these 12 years. I have a collection of many other stalwarts in classical music on several ragas along with that of Yesudas for this purpose. The reason for hearing live kutcheris of a single musician as many times as possible is that it is essential for any researcher who wants to know about the many aspects of music and certain nuances of a kutchery which one learns not from books .For a person who spent time for time pass or for hearing music as a hobby and relaxation this may not be necessary. But for a researcher who uses the vocal music of a single person and do research on its effect on health of individuals and on society this is mandatory. To follow a musician’s music is to follow his kutcherys and his recorded music as far as possible and have a rapport with him .An almost similar protocol was done on sufi music(khawali) of India and Pakistan by Regula Berkhardt as explained in her book “Sufi music of India and Pakistan”.


The journey started first by understanding how my habit of hearing music for five minutes and then studying for 15 minutes and repeating the cycles regularly helped me to concentrate more and memorise more and what type of music helped me to do so.Later on I understood that the method is actually giving me five minutes alpha waves and then allow my brain to be more receptive again to what I learn in next 15 minutes when my beta waves work .
The use of 72 melakartharaaga for therapy, I base on its mathematical, astrophysical, musical, sine cosine wave functions and also on the philosophy of ayurveda, and yoga in Indian way of life. Thus it is an integration of several sciences and arts. It depends on sine wave and harmonics which is common to music, biocycles like cardiac cycles (which is also 72/mt incidentally) and astronomical cycles. The Doppler effect as described by Sankaracharya and the other scientist/philosophers before him in India had helped them to develop the harmonics of sine waves of music to control sine waves of blood circulation and to develop Naadalayayoga.To prove this a pilot project was done at Amrita hospital and it was successful statistically .
Hence my method use the principles of medicine like:
1. Doppler effect in cardiovascular system flow
2. Principle of EEG in transforming beta waves to alpha waves or meditational waves
3. All stress and strains and tensions of life-professional, domestic and others- cause several disorders which are somatic. All these can be treated and prevented by music which reduce stress and strain
4. Psychoneuroimmunology
5. Immunological parameters
6. Both prevention and cure of disorders
7. At extremes of life and in people with and without mental retardation and with or without memory loss one can use music but the principles of use is different in each
8. In narrative medicine and family medicine
9. In cancer and heart disease and also obstetrics and gynecology
10. in surgical wards
11. in traumatic head injury and coma
12. in educational institutions
13. in professional life
14 In integration of all branches of medicine for proper healthcare of society
15. for world peace
16. in therapy for rapport
17. I think that this can also be used in agriculture for better food production and in animal husbandry since music has no boundaries between anything and anyone. I haven’t done research in that field but assume that it is possible and if anyone from these fields can start a programme of research it would be good.

It is not just an adjunct therapy but a golden thread which integrates all branches of sciences and arts, especially for integration of all branches of medical care
Thus the use is from lullaby to deathbed and the method is cost-effective and without side effects if used judiciously

I understand that God had made me an eternal music lover by birth, and a medical teacher by profession, just for doing good for society, for humanity and for the discipline of music therapy so that I am made to develop this method for education, health and integrated approach for all sciences and arts for peace of individuals, society, nation and the world. In that research protocol of God, my birth at a time when Yesudas lived and sang was probably inevitable.

Measurements in psychological field and mind space

Measurements in psychological field and mind space

Since homosapiens evolved, we have been observing, comparing, seeking to classify what we observed, recording these observations as memory of generations of human’s races .The concept of these measurements we can see in every civilization. The mathematical precision achieved by Indians, the archeological and literary evidences for it is extensive as we all know. These ancient concepts have gradually lead to human values, conditions, lifestyles, culture and development of evolution as a whole for millennia. Therefore, negation of such values and sciences and arts of our legacy is like a suicidal action which will kill our own culture, heritage as well as self-awareness.

Truth or reality is objective and can be measured or verified by methods which involve a unit of measurement. This was learned by human beings (our ancestral homosapiens) living in India from very ancient prehistoric times. They understood that knowledge for transference to next generation has to be reduced to objective dimensions for easy understanding and verification and later on integrated .For this there should be subjective experience of truth by each one verifiable by the objective measurements of truth. It is this method which we see in the Upanishad traditions.
The student who study the culture of a people is studying the stored memories ,the cognitive processes and the methods used for it ,perfected through millennia .When we speak of Indian classical music as a tool for healing individual mind, and thus the entire society and the world through principle of integration we should not forget this fact.

Meditation with chanting musically increase the coherence, harmony in our brain waves which give great synchronization of the two hemispheres .This allows a higher order to be achieved spontaneously (without effort) from a lower order .The higher order imply a higher quantum of energy potential also .Communication through music thus gives both shakthi (strength) and shanthi (peace) for individual and society.

We know the uniqueness of man is his power of communication. The symbols man created for communication are many. The language and literature, arts, sculptures, paintings, music and dance-drama, various sciences etc are such symbols of communication. The intellectual description of these as jargons like logic; semantics, lingustics, metalinguistics etc are there.
Analysis of words related to things, processes, events, meanings are guidance to the fundamental problem of relation of man in his psychosocial totality. The naama(name)roopa(form) of prakrithi(nature) is thus known by the knower(Athman/Brahman/Jeeva) or cogniser,the creator and transmitter of the symbol and his/her successors is a very ancient concept .The observation (darsana) the data (forms and details of it) stored as a symbol(naama in language with a picture as symbol drawn in caves of ancient man) started as early as human race itself .So science is not a new thing but the oldest human activity. This is the most nonviolent communication through a holistic, wholistic, scientific and artistic integrated way which was known to our ancestors of India .There had been violent communications of power and separatist tendencies in that history, but such violent actions were kept well under control by the supremacy of the nonviolent teacher (Guru) lineages who had academic, valuebased training. Even the nonverbal communication of a Guru observing silence was considered the best communication to reduce and transform the violent one-the kshathriya warrior class.

If we consider the modern schematic diagram of the spectrum of mind-brain system we know how this ancient concept is correct.


Qep=quantum energy potential possible on vertical axis
Ch time is chronological time on horizontal axis
V=violent communications (at. minimal level)
Nonv=non violent communications
Ituiti=intuitional level
Nonverb=non verbal communication (silence) or shaanthi (at maximal level)


Also see the diagram of mind states with 6 quantum jumps below which explains the maximum energy potential of mind and maximum expression of consciousness:-




Consc= consciousness
Epote=energy potential
P=physical
Psy=psychological
1= the first quantum jump of scientific thoughts
2. The second jump of discoveries
3. Observation for verification of what others say
4. Pays attention to values
5. Awareness and selfrefferal .self-analysis
6. Meditational /universal consciousness .Oneness of creation

Both violent and nonviolent communications are functions of quantum energy potential or hierarchical expression of consciousness as functions of chronological time. (That is in two developmental stages ).Violent communication is at a lower level and constructs a false duality or dwaitha(separatist feeling).Nonviolent communication is at a slightly higher level and the mind starts to comprehend the truth of oneness(advaitha) which enhance awareness of values.
Intuition is at much higher level and it works along with nonviolent communication and moves to the maximum communication even in silence as in dhyaana of a Buddha .There the timeless message between two souls happen without language (between Guru and shishya).The Bhakthi to Guru is thus at the nondual frame of mind where compassion and love are most for entire creation.
Albert Schweitzer said: - Be reverent towards life.” Because life is valuable in itself. Man’s psychological evolution is unique and it is beyond the biological evolution of Darwin. The quantum jumps happen when love for all happen and it is not an evolutionary ladder but actually a wheel that self perpetuate by repetition.
This is where the spirituality and science meet at the practical side of life as well as at the logical, analytical theoretical levels .At the right and left brain levels they merge in harmony. Whatever dissonance is there will be nullified for a total integration of personality for welfare of entire life and survival of all races of life forms, from a tiny unicellular to the complex multicultural human.
Thus the modern science and ancient spirituality are not contradictory to one another but has to be known in the proper perspective and integrated. The universal language of music is the best for integration of everyone and all branches of knowledge for healing to happen.


There is interdependency of all branches of knowledge ,since there is interdependency of our brain parts which occur between cortex,hippocampus,and between numerous nerve channels and plexuses .If an electric current is given to hippocampus, the changes will be seen in cortex though it is not getting the electric current .Brain is an integrative organ by nature. It is not hierarchical as the mosaic patternists would claim. It is what distinguishes brain from a computer. Computer is synchronous and totally regulated while brain is asynchronous. Human mind is flexible while computer is not. At the synapses lie the choice point which converts the human brain system from a dull one into an uncertain dynamic interesting functional one.
Computer Human brain
solid Animated
Programmable Defy formalities and programming
Not flexible Flexible
No free will Free will
Predictable probabilities
Synchronous Asynchronous
Hierarchical Integrative
Machine Nonmachine
Artificial Natural
Cannot comprehend natural language Comprehend natural language

How does the human mind work?
How are our intelligent thoughts propagated?
In what form memories are stored?

The first door to unbolt and find answers is the research with languages.
The second door is the research on thoughts and how our brain produce a thought. The third is to penetrate a human mind at its highest functioning order (not at clinical psychiatry and clinical psychology of deranged mind function).Then we find that our languages are only the tips of an iceberg .The expression of a thought by a specific symbol is language. It is an efficient method of communication or expression of our mind, our thoughts. The thought and language are thus intimately weaved. Language is the way to secrets of human mind. A natural language is developed by natural thinking of humanity and generates a wider universe of thoughts, concepts, and inferences from each structure it understands.

Music is another symbol which communicates very effectively and used by all our ancestors and is universal to homosapiens. The silence of tropical forests and the musical birdsongs have been suggested as the first development of saaman chanting in Indian subcontinent by researchers. Thus the first natural language a human ancestor developed is music. The human larynx and vocal cords could sing before the human thumb was developed to make him a tool-making animal. That means even before tool-making stage human ancestors sang. This is the most natural faculty and the first and best developed in a child too. Integration at this universal level is therefore most rewarding and practical.

Computer as an artificial intelligence has several important functions and impacts in current society.
1Potential impact on healthcare. The diagnostic expert systems complementing the knowledge of the physicians
2. Education:-Through computer one can set up individual tutorial lesson plans based on each student’s need and ability to learn. The vistas of educational field with computer is ever-expanding
3. Social welfare: For the isolated, the disabled, the intelligent machines as companions and as physical therapists
4. Policies:-Assess the ebb and flow of public opinion, presents reports to influence decision makers at a quick pace
5. Quality and organization of life has improved.



With all these a computer is still inferior to the human brain. And it is just another technological tool and an improvement in the tool making potential of human beings which has evolved over millions of years. It cannot replace the human brain and cannot sing the same way as a human being (even a small child) sings. Therefore to measure the child and its potential computer is not enough. A living loving person with a dynamic brain –a parent, teacher etc- is the best judge of even a child. This is true of every relationship and every judgment made by a data processing machine and a judgment made by a loving living brain.

Bharthruhari has rightly put:
To judge a jewel a goldsmith is best.
To judge Krishna only a Krishna devotee is best.
Like that to judge music a music lover is the best.

But do not forget! There are different modalities of music and types of music and each one has subjective likings. The best is to be decided by the joined effort of the client and therapist to suit the needs of each person and it is an interpersonal intrapersonal relationship based integrated approach in medicine .It needs some specific training for the therapist to choose what is best for another individual and to make it work wonders too .Compassion, love for entire creation is the message of this new discipline but it is done in the most scientific possible way using protocols of research accepted by medical science.

Solving challenges for a healthy survival

Solving challenges for a healthy survival
Music Therapy:-

MahaathmaaGandhi said: Truth and love Is Ahimsa .They are the only things that count.
Science is a human activity. Therefore to think that science need not have virtues and values and should be separated from ethics is a misunderstanding. Science depends upon observation, enquiry, recording data in orderly fashion, and thus after analysis and discussion (using both own experiences and the experiences of others as references) systematically arranging knowledge and then believing them. When the same procedure is done for self-enquiry and self acquaintance of total psychological movement of our own mind-brain system in action, that also is science. This process leads us to a self-surrender of ego which leads to a perception of wholeness of life .The benevolent nature of our intellect and intuition together views the situation, and guides us to harmony, justice, love and compassion.

Life, if considered as a stream of river, on one shore we have modern technological development, chaos and entropy created by erosion of values, unequal economical planning and its disasters. The other shore has peace, harmony, justice, love, compassion, surrender of ego and selfishness, and as Gandhi said truth and Ahimsa.A balance of these have to be struck by the 21st century human being. This is a great challenge humanity is taking up at present.
The “ Value,Education,peace and modern physics –USA Townsend letters for Doctors April 1992 pp 281-83 last paragraph reads thus:-“The breakthrough in mind-brain research proposed the first model of human psyche .Let this model be examined by world physicists,scientists,physiologists,psychologists,social scientists ,educators and mystics. Such a dialogue will lead to a second model of the human psyche. This is the only way to “heal the planet”and”healing ourselves” which is called the Humanist Technology. This will save humanity from annihilation”.

Arthur Schopenhauer:-All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is vehemently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident.”

When I started a process of Grand Unification of all sciences and arts and sciences and the integration of both west and east (science, and philosophies) I was made to remember the famous words of Arthur Schopenhauer because I was passing through the first two stages which he mentioned for truth. My unification is through the golden thread of music for peace and self-healing which will heal all separatisms in the long run.

Challenges:
1. Restructuring science .The outer objective field and inner subjective field (physics and psyche) is a single dynamic harmonious flow. They are interrelated, interpenetrated and inseparable. The objective sciences have to restructure themselves to take subjective sciences in its fold .Because true science is the dynamic interplay of objective as well as subjective sciences. It explores all co-ordinate systems, to borrow the words of Einstein, of our mind spectrum. It implies to investigate the unit of perception, the cartography of a unified inner space, transcending all psychological imbalances, the fields of human self-awareness called realm of consciousness and his being the subject and not the object.
2. Holistic education: This is for the cultivation of the total human being. The educating the educator introduces the psychodynamics of the mind-brain system in science faculty and transpersonal psychology in art faculty at all levels. This should lead to perception of wholeness.
3. Valuebased education:-When the external perceptual –conceptual image blurs and the internal perceptual image is activated, it gives us values. Values are not mere subjective nature of thoughts .Without cultivating values education becomes a farce.
4. Integration:-The reasoning logical thinking mode and the creative value perception mode have to be integrated in human personality for character building. We have to nourish intuition –insight mode and explain it at the intellectual level. This will lead to integration of the two hemispherical functions of brain and integration of all arts and sciences.
5.Holistic health: The subjective is verified at an objective science level .The cost of medical treatment in the Developed countries, its lack of cost-effectiveness, the new diseases developing as a challenge to modern medicine causing panic among people, the stress-related major diseases (including cardiac disease, digestive disorders and cancer)on the increase etc have given awareness to levels of quantum healing and holistic health .How to regenerate and self-fortify and self-heal our own immune system (instead of killing the outside forces as pathogens) and heal the mind –brain-body complex as a single whole (by psycho-neuro-immunology principles) has become more important now .6.Ecological problems and how to solve them is another major challenge .
It is detrimental to life on earth and is causing major health problems and effective handling of it is mandatory for existence of our nature and its life forms in a healthy co-exisence.
7.Violence is another problem we see around. There are three types of violence. The physical, mental ,and intellectual level violence .All violence and crime is an expression of the inner fragmentation and separatisms .It is the sign of suppressed psychological imbalance of the person who commit it and hence of a society.
We have a fragmentaryReductionistic society.The social sciences have several branches like economics, politics ,social laws etc.The healing sciences have several branches –western and eastern- foreign and indigenous to be integrated. Similarly there are opposing ideas of religions which has to be integrated .The inner dynamic revolution is never violent but nonviolent as Gandhi pointed out .This inner revolution which is a psychological transformation from violence to nonviolence has to happen by proper educational system innovations which requires integration ,not separatist slogans.
8.Peace: Peace is related to inner space of human beings. It is a state of mind that does not create entropy .chaos/stress to the system. For this to achieve we need an inner freedom.Shaanthi is the word used by ancient Indians for peace. The search for shanthi in oneself and thus create it in society for the prosperity of entire living things is the oldest way to know a new dimension of human consciousness and remains to be so.

All these challenges have to be met by a method which is universally applicable. That method is my music therapy. It is the golden thread on which all the pearls,corals,and jewels of sciences, arts and ideologies can be strewn in a beautiful integrated way so that physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual health can be achieved for a better future.