Religions 12 00743

religions
Article
The Breathing Body, Whistling Flute, and Sonic Divine:
Oneness and Distinction in Bengal Vaishnavism’s Devotional
Aesthetics
Sukanya Sarbadhikary
Department of Sociology, Presidency University, Kolkata 700073, West Bengal, India; sukanya.soc@presiuniv.ac.in
or sarbadhikary@gmail.com
Abstract: This paper studies complex narratives connecting the Hindu deity Krishna, his melodious
flute, and the porous, sonic human body in the popular devotional sect, Bengal Vaishnavism. From
the devotee–lover responding to Krishna’s flute call outside, envying the flute’s privileged position
on Krishna’s lips, to becoming the deity’s flute through yogic breath–sound fusions—texts abound
with nuanced relations of equivalence and differentiation among the devotee–flute–god. Based
primarily on readings of Hindu religious texts, and fieldwork in Bengal among makers/players of
the bamboo flute, the paper analyses theological constructions correlating body–flute–divinity. Lying
at the confluence of yogic, tantric, and devotional thought, the striking conceptual problem about
the flute in Bengal Vaishnavism is: are the body, flute and divinity distinct or the same? I argue that
the flute’s descriptions in both classical Sanskrit texts and popular oral lore and performances draw
together ostensibly opposed religious paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and passionate
devotion/bhakti (difference): its fine, airy feeling fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and

sweet melody producing a subservient temperament towards the lover–god outside. Flute sounds
Citation: Sarbadhikary, Sukanya.
embody the peculiar dialectic of difference-and-identity among devotee–flute–god, much like the
2021. The Breathing Body, Whistling flute–lip-lock itself, bringing to affective life the Bengal Vaishnava philosophical foundation of
Flute, and Sonic Divine: Oneness and achintya-bhed-abhed (inconceivability between principles of separation and indistinction).
Distinction in Bengal Vaishnavism’s
Devotional Aesthetics. Religions 12: Keywords: flute; Bengal Vaishnavism; yoga; tantra; devotion; aesthetics; sacred sound
743. https://doi.org/10.3390/
rel12090743
Academic Editor: Guy Beck 1. Introduction

1.1. The Conceptual Problem
Received: 28 July 2021
A large majority of Hindu Bengalis are worshippers of the deity Krishna, whose
Accepted: 4 September 2021
indispensable accompaniment is the sweetest-sounding bamboo flute, said to draw his
Published: 9 September 2021
lover–devotees’ hearts irresistibly towards him.1 This paper studies theological, aesthetic,
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
and devotional Hindu texts (and practices) dedicated to the flute, and analyses complicated
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
relationships posited among the devotee, flute, and Krishna. For instance, the instrument
published maps and institutional affil- is represented as indistinguishable from Krishna, sticking to his lower lip and passionately
iations. attracting his other, the devotee; similarly, the devotee, as envying the flute’s privileged
position and desiring to become it, and further, embodying its empty sounding through
yogic processes of ego relinquishment and cultivation of subtle sonorous interiority, Krishna
thus becoming the other of the devotee–flute; or the devotee—as feminine potential—
Copyright: © 2021 by the author.
uniting with Krishna—the cosmic male energy—and the body then resounding the flute
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
during these intense moments of erotic union. In all these varied instances, there are
This article is an open access article
most immediate embodied relations imagined between the devotee’s inner breath and
distributed under the terms and divine flute sounds, breath fusing into, and indeed, becoming sound. I shall explore the
conditions of the Creative Commons textual weavings of these body–flute, breath–sound, devotee–god imaginations, and study
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// discursive practices of constructing the yogic body as a singing mirror of Krishna’s breath-
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ instrument, flute. Such relatedness is constructed through different ideas of their material
4.0/). anatomical constitutions: varied classifications of number of holes in the body/flute, the
Religions 2021, 12, 743. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090743 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions

Religions 2021, 12, 743 2 of 23
phenomenology of airing inside, and the flute sound’s semblance with corporeal aurality
(produced through spinal energy centres or chakras), and the nasal vocal hum.
While Krishna playing the flute is an absolute mainstream and heavily represented
Hindu symbol, its possible esoteric/yogic dimensions of sonic divination, and their links
with popular devotion, have not been adequately studied. Natural, bodily, and instru-
mental sacralities are embroiled in this sound-universe, and ‘tuning in the sacred’, in this
context, thus has significant implications in imagining the body as flute. While develop-
ments in yogic thought shall be critical for the paper, its focus shall be on theories, practices,
and oral lore of a significant religious sect, the Bengal Vaishnavas, who worship Krishna in
the devotional mood of his women lovers in the cosmic abode, Vrindavan.
Bengal Vaishnavism began as one of the most significant collective devotional move-
ments of North India in the sixteenth century, with the ultimate aim of realising divine
erotic love between the deity couple Radha–Krishna. The intense religiosity was spear-
headed by the saint Chaitanya (1486–1533), himself worshipped as the dual incarnation
of Krishna and his lover–consort, Radha, in the same body. The philosophical import of
Bengal Vaishnavism lies in its mediation between the Advaita doctrine of pure monism,
where god and individual soul are the same, and the Dvaita precept of pure dualism, where
they are different. The sect rather cultivates the compelling idea of achintya-bhed-abhed,
or inconceivable difference and sameness, between the supreme divine, Krishna, and his
entire devotional world.
Body–flute resemblances begin with nature. The flute’s light nasal tonality viscerally
connects with the cuckoo-bird-like whistling hum of human voice, and this flesh continuum
between the body and flute has other images of origin too.2 Thus, a bamboo pipe with
insect-holes lies idly in a bamboo forest, its layered insides hissing empty and nasal sounds
in tune with variously paced wind gushes, a favourite image of the classical poet, Kalidasa
(Krishnaswamy 1965, p. 9; Deva 1977, p. 73), and a body breathes through its pores in
different pulses, and produces congruent sounds/speech. These are involuntary states
of air/sound, which can be honed through voluntary acts of controlled breathing. Such
cultivation involves a superintending consciousness: thus, the (divine) flutist knows how
to strike the right notes in the bamboo flute through the ideal balance of breath, fingering,
and tonal intuition. Similarly, yogic discourses assert that with correct bodily postures and
breathing patterns (pranayama), the yogi-subject attunes to an inner spiritual soundscape,
which when concentrating in the cranium, sounds the entire body as a porous, whistling
flute. The ghostly aloneness of rural nocturnal bamboo forests with their hollow sounds
of fresh bamboo leaves falling on dry ones, generated as if by divine breath-air, thus
essentially ties with the meditative deftness of solitary yogi flautists and their breathing
viscera. The devotee may either want to extend his inner sonic/devotional potential by
making/blowing on a flute, their air sounds merging in devotion to Krishna, or conversely,
to tune one’s own body as Krishna’s beloved flute, corporeal breath then culminating in
divine acoustics.
The body–flute notion generally follows the porosity and fluidity of dividual and
permeable Hindu bodies, identified by Mckim Marriott. Rather than the western individ-
ualist paradigm separating the subject from object, nature–culture, materiality–morality,
and mind–sensation are tied in a singular, ‘monist’ philosophical cosmos involving the
body and the instrument (Marriott 1976, p. 109; 1989, pp. 2–17). The yogic body and
flute’s sound thus flow into each other, and even as each other, in a ‘moving’ (jagat) and
‘flowing’ (samsara) devotional world, both perceptually and conceptually (see Marriott 1989,
pp. 18–22). Therefore, I follow Marriott’s strong suggestion of instituting productive eth-
nosociologies which seriously explore the monism of Hindu thought, or the incessant flows
between gross and subtle levels of inherently divisible bodies (Marriott 1976, pp. 110–38),
in this case, between corporeality, breath, and sound.
The striking conceptual problem in the discursive scheme of this particular religious
system, and paper, however, is: when the body becomes the flute, do their superintending
consciousness(es) merge or remain distinct? Is the yogi’s conscious breathing centre
Religions 2021, 12, 743 3 of 23
imagined as Krishna himself, or does the body–flute receive Krishna’s breath from outside?
If the body becomes the flute, and the flute adheres to Krishna, then does the body embody
the divine? Or does the body–flute draw towards the deity Krishna outside? Simply,
does the devotee become Krishna, or remain separate? Classical and popular devotional
songs are replete with references to Krishna’s flute as the ideal romantic icon pulling his
discrete lover–devotees close, while Yoga texts deem hearing inner flute sounds as signs of
achieving higher spiritual states. While both sameness and distinction between the devotee,
flute, and god are reflected amply in these textual representations, I argue that the flute’s
material constitution and timbre itself also draws together the ostensibly opposed religious
paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and devotion/bhakti (difference from divinity):
its lightweight experience fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and its sweet melody
producing a soft, subservient temperament in the listener, directed towards the lover–god
outside. These apparently diverse associations lead to a complex religious terrain in which
the yogic/devotional body is modeled after the flute, the flute is considered a body in its
own right, and further, the body–flute is both same/different as/from Krishna.
The body as flute idea stems from yogic and tantric understandings of sound (the
AUM buzz)—discussed below—as the primordial causal vibration, embodying divine
breath, and resulting from the union of cosmic male–female energies. AUM is believed
to constitute and materialise all sentient life: including a devotee’s breath interiors which
resonate divine instruments. More than any other such instrument, the flute is essentially
dependent on the flautist’s inner corporeal constitution: breath, and its conscious control
and release. Equally critical is the intuition involved in playing flute notes, involving the
balance of fingers and breath. The tune has to be literally sensed/seen/heard mentally
before being played physically. All these phenomenological dimensions bring together the
seemingly contrasting categories of mind and body, Yoga and bhakti, thought and feeling,
within the flute paradigm.
1.2. The Textual Matter

This paper is primarily based on textual readings ranging from classical religious–
aesthetic discourses in the Natya Sastra (2nd century CE), to understandings of bodily
regimens of sound meditation in Bhagavad Gita (3rd century CE), early Yoga Upanishads
(100–300 CE), later medieval Yoga texts, to devotional tracts of Bhagavata Purana (900 AD),
especially its tenth part, which describes Krishna’s childhood and youth spent with ardent
lovers in Vrindavan. With this background, the paper finally focuses on Bengal Vaishnava
texts and practices: to conceptualise flute acoustics as drawing the devotee and god in
relations of both yogic sameness and aesthetic difference, that is, breath becoming flute
sound, devotee becoming god, and/or the flute tunes attracting the devotee towards her
divine other, outside of herself. Natya Sastra’s/Bhagavat’s aesthetics, and yogic/tantric
worldviews, I argue, cohered in specific deployments of sonic theology, especially in
notions of AUM sound and the nasal tone with which it fades—as being Krishna’s flute
sound, and bearing specific relations with the religiously cultivated body.
The Bhagavat Purana serves as Bengal Vaishnavism’s discursive charter, itself influ-
enced by yogic, tantric, and aesthetic developments. This syncretic discursive milieu,
informing notions of an esoteric, yogic, yet devotionally aesthetic body, impacted Bengal
Vaishnavism’s rich textual heritage, including the 16th century productions: Bhaktirasam-
rita Sindhu, composed by the famous ascetic practitioner–theologian, Rupa Goswami, in
Sanskrit, and Chaitanya’s biography in Bengali, Chaitanya Charitamrita, by Krishnadas
Kaviraj. I analyse significant tracts on the flute prominent in this textual oeuvre, to argue
that flute metaphysics sensationally animates the Bengal Vaishnava theological paradigm
of achintya-bhed-abhed (inconceivable sameness and difference) between the god-instrument,
devotee–instrument, and devotee–god. This philosophical focus, I demonstrate, however,
brings together centuries-long developments of ideas on the flute, and divine sound in
general. I also analyse a few life narratives of makers and players of bamboo flutes in
Bengal, some Vaishnavas themselves, understanding their oral lore about the flute’s cosmic
Religions 2021, 12, 743 4 of 23
origins, and essential corporeal connections. Finally, I study religious imaginations of the
flute in devotional song narratives dedicated to Radha–Krishna (kirtan), extremely popular
in Bengal, which exemplify the textual interplay of monism and dualism between Krishna
and his lovers, experienced especially through the deity’s favourite accompaniment, the
melodious bamboo flute.
We shall therefore see, for instance, that combining classical aesthetic idioms of divine–
romantic love, yogic/tantric philosophies, and Bhagavad Gita’s description of Krishna
himself as AUM’s buzzing power (8: 9–13), flute sounds are described in Bengali oral
lore as driving Radha (feminine energy at the body’s base) to meet Krishna (cosmic male
energy in cranial region), and becoming indistinguishable from his AUM breath, within
the devotee’s own body. I also bring together, for the first time, Natya Sastra’s description
of flutes as mostly having nine perforations (Abhinavabharati 5.1), Bhaktirasamritasindhu’s
description of Krishna’s vamsika flute with nine pores (Southern quadrant, first wave,
368), Gita’s description of the human body as nine-doored (5.13),3 flautist practitioners’
explanations of the flute’s ‘transcendental note’ (anarsvar)—the fifth one—which can be
played only when all nine flute-holes are shut,4 and Bhagavatam and its popular vernacular
renditions describing the nine-holed vamsika played by Krishna to generate the most
enticing, sweetest-sounding fifth note to attract his lover–devotees in the quintessential
passionate encounter in Vrindavan during the autumnal Rasa dance (Ghosh 2018, p. 411).5
Indeed, Bhagavat’s aesthetic lover Krishna and Gita’s yogi Krishna cohere in my analysis,
since the fifth flute note is generated by shutting all nine vamsi-holes, which corresponds to
the yogic practice of closing what Gita describes as nine bodily pores, and pulling breath-air
inwards to resonate AUM, which blends into the finest bodily flute sound.
The body’s yogic transformation thus aims at realising Krishna’s flute hum within
oneself, rising through body-chakras, attuned to, and harmonised with the breathing
spacious cosmos both within and/or without. The question remains: is this flute played
inside the body, or receives Krishna’s breath and lip-nectar from outside; does the devotee
realise her lover–god as indistinct from herself, or separate? The paper indeed tries to
foreground a peculiar devotional aesthetics in which the devotee’s body sings as the flute,
to simultaneously become Krishna and remain discrete.
2. Aesthetic Context of Outer Flute Sounds

2.1. Nada
AUM sound has been identified as the first cosmic vibration in Vedic Hinduism,
venerated as the sacred syllable par excellence, and identified with the greatest divine
power, Sabda-Brahman. In later theistic traditions, and Tantras, Yoga, and musicological
texts influenced by them, this acoustic energy is referred to as Nada-Brahman. Nada-Brahman
gives life to both linguistic and non-linguistic sounds. It is an esoteric notion including
both ahata nada (struck sound) manifesting in musical instruments, and anahata nada (un-
struck, uncaused, primeval sound) revealing the same resonances in a meditator’s inner
body–mind, as discussed in yogic texts. The discursive tradition of sonic yogic practices,
Nada-Yoga, thus establishes an inner corporeal soundscape of subtle acoustics, including
instrument sounds, which are also replicated in the external world through making and
playing musical instruments (Beck 2013, p. 145). Krishna’s flute sound itself is termed nada
in bhakti poetry (Beck 1995, p. 96), which can thus be sensed both internally and externally.
Selina Thielemann refers to these two aural states—internal and external—as ‘received’
and ‘offered’ music, respectively (1999, pp. 333–34 cited in Beck 2013, p. 161).
How exactly the intuition of inner divine sounds translates to the external world of
(making and playing) religious musical instruments is an intriguing matter, and flutes
especially stand out in this regard, being the simplest yet most tuneful constructions.
2.2. Flutes
The classical Indian text of religious aesthetics, sage Bharata’s Natya Sastra, was the
first to discuss instruments and their worldly sound lives. Its twenty-eighth chapter is
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dedicated to four kinds of apparatuses: stringed (chordophones), covered/percussion

(membranophones), hollow (aerophones), and solid (idiophones). Of these, flutes belong
to the perforated or hollow (sushira), breath-dependent, aerophone variety (Pande 1996,
p. 278). Thirteen verses in Natya Sastra are dedicated to these aerophones, and some
further details are recorded in the 10th century CE Kashmiri Saivite saint–philosopher,
Abhinavagupta’s commentary on Natya Sastra, the Abhinavabharati.6
Flutes are mostly bamboo-reed cylindrical tubes, closed at one end, without any joints
or knots, and with varied lengths. These hollow bamboo instruments allow air passage
which excites resonators (Abhinavabharati 6.2–6.3). Longer flutes are deep sounding, and
smaller ones, high-pitched. Some flautist families in rural Bengal still cultivate bamboo
forests, to carve and sell flutes for a living.
The bamboo used to construct flutes must not be too old or young, thick or thin, not
overtly shaken by wind, and dried for more than a year so that it has less weather-related
fluctuations, before holes are bored in correct intervals on the flute pole, for mathematically
precise pitch and scale. The exact numbers of holes are dependent on philosophical
considerations (see below), music and religiosity being indistinguishable in Hindu sonic
practices. However, Abhinavabharati 5.1 states that the flute mostly has nine holes: seven
for the notes, a mouth hole (receiving and filling the pipe with breath) and an end hole
(obstructing breath with a small plank) (see also Pande 1996, p. 284).
The normal human voice range of seven notes and two and a half octaves—deep first
octave, smooth second, and sharp third—can be played on the essentially breath-dependent
flute through various manoeuvrings of finger coverings and trembling, cross-fingerings,
and mainly, manipulations of wind pressure—over- and under-blowing and air column
vibrations (Krishnaswamy 1965, p. 60; Pande 1996, p. 284, Abhinavabharati 6.4). Texts
mention the qualities of good blowing as steadiness, fullness, good intonation, etc., and bad
blowing, conversely, as over-breathiness, under-breathiness, inflexibility, and unsteadiness
(Sangitnarayana 2.125–6. See Bose 2009, p. 397).
The connection between the flute and human body are innate, both in classical aes-
thetic and yogic representations. Natya Sastra mentions that the flute’s (venu’s/vamsi’s)
main function was to follow vocal melodies in performance music dedicated to gods, ac-
companied by the veena, a sacred string instrument. Venu-veena thus served as the perfected
form of sonic synchrony (Natya Sastra 30.9–11 cited in Pande 1996, p. 284, Abhinavabharati
2.2, 6.5). However, the veena has explicitly been compared to the human body, since the
body’s vocal cord and breath rhythms attune it to the finest forms of acoustic vibrations
such as hyper-tuned stringed instruments (Natya Sastra 28.12 cited in Bandopadhyay 1995,
pp. 164–65). The venu-veena and body thus form an ideal harmonised expression of sonic
potential.
There is also a vibrant Bengali oral lore about the flute’s origin, which kirtan musicians
narrated to me. The episode is also recounted in Brihat-Krishnalila-Saravali. Composed in
the mid-19th century, it is a Bengali verse-form of Bhagavat Purana’s tenth chapter. The text
combines Bhagavatam’s classical narrative with stories from other Puranas, and innumerable
oral recollections transmitted over generations through oral songs, poems, folklore, and
theatre (Ghosh 2018, p. 10). The narratives are memorised by communities listening to
them during regular evening village sermons by gurus. According to the folklore, the flute
was obtained during the first churning of the ocean by gods. A 24 12 -node bamboo pole was
collected, and its various portions used for making gods’ weapons, and one half internode
constituted Krishna’s flute. Musicians add that Krishna has three kinds of flutes, and the
deity of speech and sound, Saraswati, resides in them, and obtains the passionate flavour
of Krishna’s kissing lips. This intimately associates sound, eros, and divinity. Bamboo,
the text says, performed several austerities in previous births (during Rama’s time), and
thus despite being an unconscious, lifeless entity, gained life, agency, and the most coveted
position on Krishna’s lips, as his flute (Ghosh 2018, p. 200–3).7
Parallel to classical texts such as Natya Sastra and Abhinavabharati describing aesthetic
potential as physical musical forms, were discursive developments in Yoga which spoke
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about Nada-Brahman constituting meditative inner worlds. I now turn to texts which
describe the body as throbbing with anahata nada, the unstruck, uncaused aural field, which
itself embodies in both the internal anahata breathing body–flute through its toned chakras,
as well as ahata physical flutes, externally struck with human breath. In turning from the
aesthetic world of outer gross sounds to the yogic world of subtle inner sounds, the question
looms about whether when the body resonates the flute, that sound is conceptualised as
arousing divine breath inside, or receiving it from god outside.
3. Spiritual Context of Inner Flute Sounds

3.1. The Yogic Tradition
The realisation of the body as flute germinates in notions of an incessant cosmic
breath flow inside corporeal interiors. Yogis become aware of this vibrating interiority,
and through practices of stilling breath flow, the body echoes AUM—cosmic breath and
sacred sound gradually becoming indistinguishable—its nasal tone tapering as the flute’s
adenoidal melody. Further, since the flute is considered to be Krishna’s essential symbol,
attached to his bodily being, thus AUM is also indistinguishable from Krishna, the devotee–
yogi’s body interior thus becoming the flute–flautist Krishna. From a phenomenological
perspective too, yogic practices result in breath becoming more lightweight, the inner
soundscape simultaneously becoming subtler, higher meditative stages then resounding
instruments such as the flute fused with whistling breath. These discursive thematics of
yogic ontology may be distilled from a variety of texts with distinctively evident and insis-
tent conceptual overlaps, compositions which although separated by centuries, institute
analytical parity, with connections posited between bodily and sonic imaginations.
Kaushitaki Upanishad is a part of the Rig Veda, dated around 1st century CE. The first
verse in its second chapter states that prana, or body’s vital air or breath force, is ultimate
divinity (Srimad 1992, p. 23). Prana is a sentient, conscious, sensing force, and thus in the
famous Upanishadic tale of competition among sense organs about who is most crucial
for life, prana emerges victorious. The one who is aware of prana’s superiority attains
gods’ immortal nectar (amrita) (2: 14 cited in Srimad 1992, p. 37). Additionally, following
Kaushitaki Upanishad, prana and vaak (sound/speech) are mirror reflections. Thus, it says
that when one talks, breath/god transforms to speech, and in silence, speech submits
to breath (2: 13 cited in ibid: 35). Therefore, the aware devotee–yogi realises one’s own
breathing/sounding capacity as divinity. When the divine flautist fills his breath into
the flute therefore, it sounds an external melody, while when he retains speech/air and
concentrates on inner breath/sound, the body reverberates the flute echo. While prana and
vak are reflections, vak also represents life’s fiery, feminine creative potential stemming from
the inert, silent male energy (Gita 10: 34). Vaak’s fire is kindled by breath-air, and the term
pranaagni (breath-fire) thus also refers to life vitality (Gita 4: 24–38). Prana/vak, male/female
thus reflect in the same corpus. These ideas of breath–sound–divinity correspondence
resonate quite directly with Bhagavad Gita’s theorisations.
Krishna declares in the Gita, that that he is akshara, the first syllable or cosmic vibration,
indistinct from eventual divinity—the sonic energy known as AUM (7: 8, 13; 8: 9, 10; 9:
17). Like silent breath stands behind all mortal activities as the vital overseer, Krishna is
the witnessing self (9: 18). Krishna as a breath-air–sound force thus resides within the
devotee’s consciousness, and he becomes aware of this divinity when through Yoga he stills
his prana in the middle of the eyebrows and concentrates fully on AUM resonance rising
from within (8: 9–10, 12–13). This AUM breath shining vibration is Krishna’s yogaishwarya
(yogic magnificence), knowable to any sincere meditator (11: 4, 8; 17: 75). Krishna calls this
becoming madbhavam, full of my thought, and therefore, same as me (14: 19). We will later
find the same sensibility echo in Krishna’s lover–devotees’ minds fusing completely with
his flute sounds in the Bhagavatam. The devotee thus becomes Krishna by focusing on his
own inner breath/sound potential. Gita asserts that such self-controlled embodied beings
then reside contented and enraptured in the city of ‘nine gates’, that is their bodies (5:
13). The notion of the nine gates (navadvara), dvara literally meaning an opening, potently
Religions 2021, 12, 743 7 of 23
resonates with Natya Sastra’s/Abhinavabharati’s description of the flute (vamsi) as having

nine orifices, the one Krishna blows on during Bhagavatam’s Rasa dance. The yogic body
and flute are thus similarly perforated, cosmic breath-air passing through their holes, and
their porous body surfaces booming with sound, since both bodies/flutes are expressions
of the same uncaused, unstruck divine sound energy (AUM/Krishna) residing within
every conscious existence.
The pre-Christian Indian epic, Mahabharata, of which the Bhagavad Gita is a part, also
refers to qualities (gunas) of akash or ether, the holder of cosmic sound, as ubiquity, un-
speakableness, eternity, being unstruck, and presence in the body’s perforations (chhidrata)
(Shanti Parva 255: 7 cited in Sinha 1987, p. 793). The Mahabharata/Gita thus unswervingly
pre-empts the understanding of body as flute. However, while Gita’s yogic temperament
unequivocally situates the divine with his flute within the meditative body, Bhagavatam has
a more ambivalent monist–dualist temper, unable to strictly posit whether Krishna plays
the body–flute from outside, or becomes the flautist inside.
The thought-structure of Kaushitaki Upanishad, Mahabharata, and Bhagavad Gita, about
breath-sound relations as constituting the primal embodied vibration in a person’s corpo-
real interiors, have intrinsic connections with notions of the throbbing AUM buzz analysed
in Yoga Upanishads. The Maitri Upanishad (6.22) indeed says that practices of ‘mystical au-
dition’ of Nada-Brahman have been especially emphasised in lineages of Yoga-Upanishads
and Hatha-Yoga texts (Beck 1995, p. 92).
Hamsopanisad is the fifteenth among 108 Upanishads and one of 20 Yoga Upanishads.
It discusses the involuntary nature of sacred breath and how it reveals divine knowledge.
It says that cosmic vibration (AUM) constituting all existence, including the core of human
bodies, is the result of divine male–female union.8 The male seed as Ham buzz and female
energy as Sah echo, unite, and flow continuously as the hamsa sound inside the body, fused
with automatic breath, which resounds 21,600 times spontaneously. This anahata nada,
unstruck and uncaused, is referred to as the ajapa, unchanted, mantra. The yogi learns
how to still the inspiration–expiration cycle in a middle resting point (kumbhak), and then
reverse breath flow, such that, hamsa then resounds soham, literally meaning ‘I am that’,
thus realising the self as divinity, or cosmic male–female energies united within (10–13 cited
in Ayyangar 1938, pp. 492–98). This hamsa buzz is conceptualised and felt as AUM sound,
and in the process of reversing breath–air and approaching soham (while
Religions 2021, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23
uttering AUM,
the M extending), ten different kinds of hums (nada) are heard in the meditator’s right ear,
rising from the inner body: cin, towards cini-cini,
a soundless state bell, conch,
(ashabda) (49a) whichwire of harp,
is Para-Brahman (47b–48a),cymbals,
ble akshara, attaining which the yogi no longer hears any sound (52b). Further, the yogi
the indestructi- sweet flute note,
kettledrum, tabor, and roaring himselfclouds

then becomes(16 cited
of the ‘form of thein ibid:
internal sound’,500). These
AUM. In this most subtle sounds
reading are associated
then, AUM is no longer conceptualised as sound, but as merging into ether vibration, im-
with different bodily reactions. agined The seventh
as soundless. There is thus level
a productiveorambivalence
hearing theultimate
between flute is asconcomitant with
divinity
sound (Nada-Brahman) and soundlessness (ashabda), in Nada Bindu Upanishad. Following
secret divine knowledge beginning the first strand of toimagination,
reveal itself.
Krishna plays theSacred
flute inside theexperience
body, and in the second,
Religions 2021, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW
thus begins exactly
goes beyond any physicality, towards emptiness.
with flute-echo,
and gradually, the yogi embodies the turiya9 of 23
(‘fourth’) or Para-Brahman state
3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy
(18–20 cited in ibid: 501). The 15th century text Hathayoga Pradipika is considered seminal for Yoga practition- towards
ble akshara,
a soundless state (ashabda) (49a) which is Para-Brahman (47
ers. Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga Upanishads, while attaining
also which the yogi no longer hears any sound (
The statebleof towards para or turiya
a soundless state (ashabda) is conceptualised
(49a)
integrating parallel tantric developments.as
which is Para-Brahman (47b–48a),
akshara, attaining which the yogi no longer hears any sound (52b). Further, the yogi
the both
I shall
indestructi- the after
briefly summarise in the
himself
some tantric then sense
becomes
ideas of of theof transcen-
‘form of the internal sound’, AUM. In t
sonic metaphysics, much overlapping with the yogic physiology described then, above.
AUM isSu- no longer conceptualised as sound, but as merging i
dence, and primal enabler of,preme
himself then becomes of the ‘formthedivinity
of the three
internal
(Parasyllables,
sound’, AUM. In this A-U-M,
most
Brahman) is conceptualised
subtle reading
as theand uniontantric
of the malespeech-states:
agined as soundless.
principle There is thus pasyanti
a productive ambivalence betwe
then, AUM is no longer conceptualised as sound, but as merging into ether vibration, im- sound (Nada-Brahman) and soundlessness (ashabda), in Nada Bindu
(purush)—Shiva’s seminal representation as a dot, bindu, seated in the cranium—with the
(in the navel,agined corresponding residing in madhyama vaikhari
as soundless. There is thus ato deep
productive sleep),
ambivalence between ultimate divinity as(chest, the dreaming),
first strand andKrishna
feminine energy, prakriti, the body’s base. Their fusion, Nada–Brahman, is theof imagination, plays the flute inside the b
sound (Nada-Brahman) and soundlessness (ashabda), in Nada Bindu Upanishad. Following goes beyond any physicality, towards emptiness.
first vibration, AUM, followed by
(tongue, wakefulness). Turiya
the first strand of imagination, is approached
Krishna plays the flute inside theliterally
body, and in thethrough
second, the nasal buzz after AUM’s
goes beyond any physicality, towards emptiness. 3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy
M, represented as the symbol ̐ , which gradually leads towards vacuous The 15th centuryemptiness,
text Hathayoga Pradipikaor is considered semin
3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy ers. Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga
the divine etherThewhich 15th centurythe meditator’s
text Hathayoga
, which buzzes intoconsciousness
the cosmos with a nasal droning
Pradipika is considered seminal for Yoga practition- merges
hum (nada). with in the cranium. This
integrating parallel tantric developments. I shall briefly summaris
ers. Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga Upanishads, while also sonic metaphysics, much overlapping with the yogic physiology
dimension ofintegrating the four parallel states ofAUM̐
tantric developments. sonic/consciousness
I shall briefly summarise some tantricdevelopmentideas of premecoincides withis conceptualised
divinity (Para Brahman) tantric as the union
sonic metaphysics, much overlapping with the yogic physiology described above. Su- (purush)—Shiva’s seminal representation as a dot, bindu, seated in
ideas of how preme the divinity
essential feminine
(Para Brahman)
thus energy,
signifies
is conceptualised
the theofcoiled
combination
as the union
of male Ham andserpentine feminine
the male principle
female Sah, which
the body’s right and left sides incessantly, and when through yogic methods, breath flow
power
together flow inprakriti,
in
energy, the residing
body’s in the anal
body’s base. Their fusion
(purush)—Shiva’s seminal representation as a dot, bindu, seated in the cranium—with the first vibration, AUM, followed by
base, kundalini, feminine rises
energy, along the
is
prakriti, residing spinal
reversed,
in the
it sounds cord
body’s base.
soham, the in
bodyan inverse
then becoming
Their fusion, Nada–Brahman, is the direction, finally uniting with
god (Omkarnathdev 1990, pp. 16–
19). When the otherwise sleeping feminine life-energy in the anal region, excited by the
̐ sound (nada) whose

the male principle in the cranium. She isutterance
practitioner’s continuous herself of AUM, the feelsessential
restless to unite withAUM her male counter-
part and reverses her flow upward, she embodies the same cosmic maleness in her being
fourth element, ̐ , unites with turiya-Krishna,
(pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During hernada merging
journey upward, a number ofwith prana
, which
sounds rebound (seeintoPadoux
inbuzzes
the the cosmos with 1992,
a nasal droning hum (na
body, as transformations of AUM, and stop in an empty sense of ether when she absorbs
pp. 20–22, 83–84, 130–31, 133, , which buzzes into the fully143,
cosmos with a 168,
nasal
in the male, 172–88,
droning
the fourth hum (nada).
state beyond A-U-M Hamsopanisad
201). (ibid: 44–45). These sounds and AUM̐
are tantric ideas taken
progres-
sively felt as subtler, and embody for instance, cini-cincini buzzes, bells, conch, veena, per-
together signal flute AUM̐ sound ascussions, the roaring
passionate
clouds, bees, and merge of corporeal
the flute (Omkarnathdev 1990, p. male–female
thus signifies
56). Among
the body’s
energies,
these, the combination of male and
Ham and female Sah,
venu-nada or flute sound is understood as revealing esoteric knowledge (ibid: 126). right and left sides incessantly, and when through yogi
the devotee-yogi thusbecoming
signifies the combinationthe ofdivine.
male Ham
Similarly, and female
Hathayoga Sah, which
Pradipika explains
together flow in senses are controlled
that physical is reversed, byitthe
sounds soham, the body then becoming god (Omka
19). When the otherwise sleeping feminine life-energy in the ana
mind, the mind by prana or vital breath, and prana further dissolved in void through yogic
is reversed, it sounds soham, the body then
precision, becoming
marking godstillness.
perfect (Omkarnathdev
The body1990, thenpp. 16–
experiences anahata practitioner’s
nada, or flow continuous
of utterance of AUM, feels restless to unite
19). When the otherwise sleepingAUM, feminine
which also life-energy in the
transforms to anal
otherregion,
sacred excited
sounds by the cited in Muktibodhananda
(4:29–30 part and reverses her flow upward, she embodies the same cosmic
practitioner’s continuous utterance of AUM, feels restless to unite with her male counter-
1993, p. 510). Mind and prana become still through the breath’s reverse flow to the cra- (pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During her journey upward, a number of
part and reverses her flow upward,
nium, shewhichembodies
holds thethe male
sameprinciple
cosmic maleness
(bindu). in her beingthe yogic–tantric
Following body, as transformations
anatomy, the of AUM, and stop in an empty sense of e
(pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During her journey upward, a number of sounds rebound in the
text says that bindu is seated at the head’s top back section (sahasrara chakra), fully inand
thewhen
male, the fourth state beyond A-U-M (ibid: 44–45). The
body, as transformations of AUM,breath and stop inthere,
is stilled an empty senseor
kundalini, ofthe
ether when shefeminine
serpentine absorbs energy, is deprived
sively felt as subtler, and embody for instance, cini-cincini buzzes,
of life-en-
fully in the male, the fourth state beyond
ergy, and she A-U-Mhisses(ibid:
and44–45). These sounds
rises angrily, are progres-
impatiently cussions,
travelling in the converse roaring clouds, bees, and the flute (Omkarnathdev 1990
direction
sively felt as subtler, and embody
alongfortheinstance,
chakrascini-cincini
towards the buzzes,
male,bells, conch,united
and when veena, per- venu-nada
with him, nectar-like nada isorpro-
flute sound is understood as revealing esoteric know
cussions, roaring clouds, bees,duced,
and the fluteflows
which (Omkarnathdev
down to the 1990,
middle p.of56).
theAmong
eyebrows these,
(ajna chakra) and boomsSimilarly,
through-Hathayoga Pradipika explains that physical senses
venu-nada or flute sound is understood as revealing esoteric knowledge
out the subtle body (4: 28 cited in ibid: 508). (ibid: 126). mind, the mind by prana or vital breath, and prana further dissolved
Similarly, Hathayoga PradipikaThe explains that physicalaspires
yogi desperately senses toareexperience
controlledthese
by the inner sounds, precision, marking perfect stillness. The body then experiences a
and his search
mind, the mind by prana or vital breath, and prana further dissolved in void through yogic AUM, which also transforms to other sacred sounds (4:29–30 cited
Religions 2021, 12, 743 8 of 23
These aspects are further developed in Amrta-Nadopanisad, another Yoga Upanishad,

the twenty-first among 108 Upanishads. Here too it is stated that following the practice
of A-U-M utterance, the yogi should tread M’s vowel-less echo path towards the subtle
state without any syllables or vowels, the empty ether of Brahman-ness. It says further that
AUM is the chariot which should eventually be abandoned at the end of the journey (2–3, 20
cited in Ayyangar 1938, pp. 9–10, 13). This end of journey, achieved through breath-stilling
(kumbhak), is the Para-Brahman state, when the yogi attains samadhi (transcendental union),
becomes divine, ‘same as that’ or Soham (inverse of hamsa) (7–8, 16 cited in ibid: 10, 12). In
a tantric idiom, he realises his body as the site of cosmic male–female union, characterised
by a distinct sonic hum. Interestingly, the Amrta-Nadopanisad mentions seven doors which
lead to divinity or the fourth state, turiya. One of them is known as susira (26 cited in
Ayyangar 1938, p. 14). It is instructive that the flute is characterised as a susira (perforated)
instrument in Natya Sastra, and we can again conceptualise the body–flute, perforated
with breath passages, and transforming to sacred sound, as the manifestation of ultimate
divinity.
The equivalence of breath/AUM/hamsa sound, transforming to subtle sacred sounds
including the flute hum, is most vividly described in the celebrated text, Nada Bindu
Upanishad.9 It is the oldest and most significant text among Yoga Upanishads on the precise
meditation of sound (nada) (Beck 1995, p. 93). AUM is here literally referred to as hamsa
(white swan) bird, with three distinct parts: A-U-M, and a half-metre, ardha-matra, the
nasal buzz after M, which embodies the bird’s most important head. This half-sound
fades into the echo of Para-Brahman, the eternal light-sound. When through Yoga, and
pulling up breath-air along the subtle spinal path, one glides into this state, he attains
Brahma-hood, and his illusions of difference with the divine vanishes (1, 5b–6a 8, 17, 20,
29b–30). Similar to the discursive thrust of other Yoga Upanishads, the text mentions that
in the process, the yogi hears internal sounds in the right ear (31). He may choose to focus
on any one of those sounds, and being concentratedly fixed on it, he gradually enters the
turiya, transcendental state (32). Like in the Gita, the sonic absorption, like milk mixing
with water, is understood as attaining the divine within the body (38, 41, 42–43a, 43b–44a).
These sounds are typically heard as loud ones in the beginning, becoming more and more
subtle (33) with time, practice, and correct yogic ascension of light breath through the
body’s spinal channel. Thus, lower meditative stages are associated with sounds of the
ocean, clouds, kettledrum, cataracts, bell, horn, etc., and higher stages with delicate echoes
of tinkling bells, veena, buzzing bees, and the flute (34–5).10
Thus, this text’s characterisation of flute sound as a higher meditative state is similar to
the Hamsopanisad. The flute’s acoustic, represented as an advanced spiritual auditory ex-
perience in all Yoga texts, is directly related to its breath dependence, and its subtle nasality
being indistinct from the adenoidal ‘M’ of AUM, which apprehends cosmic emptiness.
Nada Bindu Upanishad also suggests that one may shift concentration from gross
external sounds to subtle internal ones, remaining strictly loyal however to that sense of
sound (37). Thus, whether one is listening to the flute in a performative setting as described
in the Natya Sastra, or relishing its ravishing attraction inside the body, flute sound remains
the only conscious, sentient existence, fused with the yogi–listener, while he becomes
oblivious of everything else (43b–44a). Paradoxically, this sound is referred to as Vishnu’s
seat (46b–47a), while the text also talks about transcending all sounds to move towards a
soundless state (ashabda) (49a) which is Para-Brahman (47b–48a), the indestructible akshara,
attaining which the yogi no longer hears any sound (52b). Further, the yogi himself then
becomes of the ‘form of the internal sound’, AUM. In this most subtle reading then, AUM
is no longer conceptualised as sound, but as merging into ether vibration, imagined as
soundless. There is thus a productive ambivalence between ultimate divinity as sound
(Nada-Brahman) and soundlessness (ashabda), in Nada Bindu Upanishad. Following the first
strand of imagination, Krishna plays the flute inside the body, and in the second, goes
beyond any physicality, towards emptiness.
Religions 2021, 12, 743 Religions 2021, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23 9 of 23
towards a soundless state (ashabda) (49a) which is Para-Brahman (47b–48a), the indestructi-
towards a soundless state (ashabda)himself
(49a) which is Para-Brahman
then becomes (47b–48a),
of the ‘form of thethe indestructi-
internal sound’, AUM. In this most subtle reading
ble akshara, attaining which the yogi noAUM
then, longer is hears any conceptualised
no longer sound (52b). Further, thebut
as sound, yogi
as merging into ether vibration, im-
himself then becomes of the ‘form of the internal
agined sound’,There
as soundless. AUM.isInthus
thisamost subtle reading
productive ambivalence between ultimate divinity as
then, AUM is no longer conceptualised
soundas(Nada-Brahman)
sound, but as merging into ether vibration,
and soundlessness (ashabda),im-
in Nada Bindu Upanishad. Following
The 15th century text Hathayoga Pradipika is considered seminal for Yoga practitioners.
agined as soundless. There is thus athe
productive
first strandambivalence between
of imagination, ultimate
Krishna playsdivinity asinside the body, and in the second,
the flute
sound (Nada-Brahman) and soundlessness
goes beyond(ashabda), in Nada Bindu
any physicality, Upanishad.
towards Following
emptiness.
Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga Upanishads, while also
the first strand of imagination, Krishna plays the flute inside the body, and in the second,
goes beyond any physicality, towards3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy
emptiness.
integrating parallel tantric developments. The 15th century text Hathayoga I shall Pradipikabriefly
is consideredsummarise some tantric ideas of
seminal for Yoga practition-
3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy ers. Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga Upanishads, while also
sonic metaphysics,
The 15th centurymuch overlapping
text Hathayoga Pradipikaparallel
integrating is considered with
tantric seminalthe yogic
for Yoga
developments. physiology
practition-
I shall briefly summarise somedescribed
tantric ideas of above. Supreme
ers. Its auditory system utilises thesonic discursive framework
metaphysics, much of Yoga Upanishads,
overlapping with while
the yogicalso physiology described above. Su-
divinity (Para Brahman) is
integrating parallel tantric developments. conceptualised
preme divinity I shall briefly
(Para summarise
Brahman) issome as the union
tantric ideasas
conceptualised of the male
of the union of the male principle principle (purush)—
sonic metaphysics, much overlapping with the yogic
(purush)—Shiva’s physiology
seminal described
representation as above. Su- seated in the cranium—with the
a dot, bindu,
Shiva’s seminal representation
preme divinity (Para Brahman) isfeminine conceptualisedas a
energy, as dot,the union
prakriti, bindu,
residing of in seated
thethemalebody’s principle in the cranium—with
base. Their fusion, Nada–Brahman, is the the feminine
(purush)—Shiva’s seminal representation as a dot,AUM,
first vibration, bindu,followed
seated inby the cranium—with the
energy, prakriti,
feminine energy, residing
prakriti, residingin in the the body’sbody’sbase. Their fusion, base. Nada–Brahman, Their is thefusion, Nada–Brahman, is the first
vibration,firstAUM, followed by ̐ , which buzzes into the cosmos with a nasal droning hum
vibration, AUM, followed by
(nada). AUM ̐ thus signifies the , which combination

buzzes into the cosmos of with malea nasal droning Ham humand(nada). female Sah, which together
flow in the body’s right and left sides incessantly, and when through yogic methods, breath
, which buzzes into the cosmos with AUM̐ a nasal droning hum (nada).
flow is reversed,AUM̐ it soundsthe body’s soham,

thus signifies the bodyof then
the combination male Ham becoming and female Sah, which
right and left sides incessantly, and when through yogic methods, breath flow
god
together(Omkarnathdev
flow in 1990,
pp. 16–19). When
thus signifiesthe otherwise
the combination isof
the body’s right and left sides incessantly,
male Ham
reversed,
19). When andthe
sleeping
and female
it sounds
when
soham,
through
otherwise
Sah, feminine
the which
body together
yogic methods,
sleeping
then becoming
femininebreath
life-energy
flow ingod (Omkarnathdev in the
1990, pp.anal
flow in the anal region, excited by the
life-energy
16– region, excited
by the practitioner’s continuous
is reversed, it sounds soham, the body
19). When the otherwise sleeping part feminine
then becoming
practitioner’s utterance
continuous
life-energy
and reverses
god (Omkarnathdev
herin flow
utterance
theupward,
of
anal region,
AUM,
of AUM, 1990, feels
excited bythe
she embodies
feels
pp.restless
16– restless
to unite with her maleto unite with her male
counter-
thesame cosmic maleness in her being
counterpart and reverses hersheflow
practitioner’s continuous utterance
part and reverses her flow upward,
of AUM,
(pungsvarupini) feels upward,
restless
(ibid: to
35). unite
During she
with
her her embodies
journeymale counter-
upward, a the same cosmic
number of sounds rebound in the maleness in her
body,embodies the same cosmic
as transformations of AUM, maleness
and stopininher anbeing
empty sense of ether when she absorbs
being (pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During her journey upward, a number of sounds rebound
(pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During her
fullyjourney
in the upward,
male, the a number
fourth of
state sounds
beyond rebound
A-U-M in the
(ibid: 44–45). These sounds are progres-
body, as transformations of AUM,sively and stop felt in
as an emptyand
subtler, sense of ether
embody forwhen
instance,she cini-cincini
absorbs buzzes, bells, conch, veena, per-
in the body,
fully inas transformations
the male, the fourth state beyond
cussions, A-U-M of(ibid:
roaring AUM, 44–45).
clouds, bees, and
These the stop
andsounds in an empty
are(Omkarnathdev
flute progres- sense
1990, p. 56). Among these,of ether when she
sively felt as subtler, and embody for instance,
venu-nada or cini-cincini
flute soundbuzzes, bells, conch,
is understood veena, per-
as revealing esoteric knowledge (ibid: 126).
absorbs fully
cussions, in the
roaring male,
clouds, bees, andthe theSimilarly,
flute fourth
(Omkarnathdev
Hathayoga state 1990, p.
Pradipika beyond
56). Among
explains A-U-M
thatthese,
physical senses (ibid:
are controlled44–45).
by the These sounds
venu-nada or flute sound is understood mind,asthe revealing
mind byesotericprana orknowledge
vital breath, (ibid:
and126).
prana further dissolved in void through yogic
are progressively felt asPradipika
Similarly, Hathayoga subtler, explains marking
precision, and
that physical embody
perfect senses forbody
are controlled
stillness. The instance,
by the
then experiencescini-cincini
anahata nada, or flow buzzes,
of bells, conch,
mind, the mind by prana or vital breath, AUM,and prana
which further
also dissolved
transforms in void
to other through
sacred yogic
sounds (4:29–30 cited in Muktibodhananda
veena, percussions,
precision, markingroaring
perfect stillness.clouds,
1993,Thep.body 510).then bees,
Mind experiences
and pranaand anahata
becomethenada,stillflute
or flow (Omkarnathdev
through of breath’s reverse flow to the 1990,
the cra- p. 56). Among
AUM, which also transforms to other nium, sacred
which sounds
holds(4:29–30
the malecited in Muktibodhananda
principle (bindu). Following the yogic–tantric anatomy, the
these, venu-nada or flute
1993, p. 510). Mind and pranasound
become
text saysstill isthatunderstood
through bindu theis breath’s
seated atreverse as
the head’s flowrevealing
to the
top back cra- esoteric
section (sahasrara knowledge
chakra), and when (ibid: 126).
nium, which holds the male principle breath (bindu).
is stilledFollowing the yogic–tantric
there, kundalini, anatomy,feminine
or the serpentine the energy, is deprived of life-en-
Similarly, Hathayoga
text says that bindu is seated atPradipika
theergy,
head’s andtop shebackexplains
hissessection
and (sahasrara that
rises angrily, chakra),physical
and when
impatiently senses
travelling are controlled
in the converse direction by the mind,
breath is stilled there, kundalini, oralong
the serpentine
the chakras feminine
towardsenergy, the male,is deprived
and when of life-en-
united with him, nectar-like nada is pro-
the mindergy,byandprana she hisses or vital
and rises angrily,
duced,breath,
impatiently
which flowstravellingand
down to the prana
in the
middle offurther
converse thedirection
eyebrows (ajna dissolved
chakra) and boomsin void through yogic
through-
along the chakras towards the male, outand the when
subtleunited
body (4: with him, in
28 cited nectar-like
ibid: 508).nada is pro-
precision,duced,
marking
which flows downperfect
to the middlestillness.
of the
The eyebrows
yogi The
desperately body
(ajna chakra)
aspires and to booms then
experiencethrough- these inner sounds, andanahata
experiences his search nada, or flow of
out the subtle body (4: 28 cited in ibid: 508).
(nadaaanusandhan) rests when he completely absorbs in those acoustics (65 cited in Muk-
AUM, whichThealso transforms
yogi desperately to other
aspirestibodhananda
to experience 1993,thesep. sacred
innerThe
556). sounds, sounds
tantric and his search
grammarian (4:29–30
conception of four cited
levels ofin Muktibodhananda
emana-
(nadaaanusandhan) rests when he completely
tion of speech/wordabsorbs in (through
those acousticsthe anus (65 orcited
parain state
Muk-corresponding to still vibration of
1993, p. 510). Mind
tibodhananda p. 556). prana
1993,and The tantricbecomegrammarian conception still through
of four levels ofthe emana-breath’s reverse flow to the cranium,
tion of speech/word (through the anus or para state corresponding to still vibration of
which holds the male principle (bindu). Following the yogic–tantric anatomy, the text says
that bindu is seated at the head’s top back section (sahasrara chakra), and when breath is
stilled there, kundalini, or the serpentine feminine energy, is deprived of life-energy, and she
hisses and rises angrily, impatiently travelling in the converse direction along the chakras
towards the male, and when united with him, nectar-like nada is produced, which flows
down to the middle of the eyebrows (ajna chakra) and booms throughout the subtle body
(4: 28 cited in ibid: 508).
The yogi desperately aspires to experience these inner sounds, and his search (nadaaanu-
sandhan) rests when he completely absorbs in those acoustics (65 cited in Muktibod-
hananda 1993, p. 556). The tantric grammarian conception of four levels of emanation
of speech/word (through the anus or para state corresponding to still vibration of male–
female union, where creation has not commenced; pashyanti, navel, where although the
first sense of material differentiation has not yet begun, it may just be apprehended; mad-
hyama, chest, where differential concept formation about matter takes place, and vaikhari,
mouth from where gross speech springs) is relevant here (Padoux 1992, pp. 20–22, 83–
84, 172–88). Following Hathayoga Pradipika’s explanations, hearing a physical flute cor-
responds to: vaikhari/wakefulness state, the subtle ability to hear distant flute sounds:
madhyama/dreaming state, hearing the flute when none else does: pashyanti/deep sleep
state, and hearing the flute in transcendental states (para). The yogi’s aim is to gradually
subsume oneself in increasingly subtle audition states, from the struck towards the unstruck
sound-vibration, vaikhari to para, immanent to transcendental flute hum (Muktibodhananda
1993, pp. 556–59).
The transition between the third and fourth audition states is the most intimate,
esoteric, and absolutely crucial (also for our understanding of Bengal Vaishnava achintya-
bhed-abhed philosophy). The pashyanti stage corresponds to hearing Krishna playing his
flute inside the body itself, and none but the self then perceives it. Similarly, Iyer (1977)
describes the best music hearer as one who does not remain separate from the music, and
to characterise this ‘ceaseless utterance in eternity’, he refers to flute sounds as the most
Religions 2021, 12, 743 10 of 23
refined spiritual knowledge, the subtle echo in which all material sounds resolve. The
para stage, however, refers to a transcendental beyond (expressed simply as, nothing but,
Krishna playing his flute), which may be intuited during the bodily sense of complete
stillness, but may equally imply Krishna’s being outside the physical corpus altogether,
blowing on his flute independent of being heard. In this understanding, both pashyanti and
para are about soundful states, with/without being perceived. This reading also comes
closest to para being imagined as soundlessness in Nada Bindu Upanishad, since when
sound is unheard, it may be conceived as soundless or silent, though it is still definitely
vibrational.
In the state when the male–female, consciousness–energy principles unite in the yogi’s
body, he sits with this eyes, ears, nose, and mouth shut, and hears distinct sounds at the
back of the head and inner right ear. As the six chakras (anus, genital, navel, chest, throat,
middle of eyebrows) are gradually pierced with the yogi uttering AUM, inner sounds
reverberate and become subtler from being loud and voluminous (4: 67–68, 84, 86 cited in
Muktibodhananda 1993, pp. 561–63, 578, 581–83). In the arambhaavastha, anus void, the
unstruck sound assumes tinkling sensations, represented as transcendental Krishna playing
his flute. In the ghataavastha, chest-chakra, the kettledrum is heard, in parichayaavastha, throat-
chakra, drum, and in nishpattiavastha, eyebrow-chakra, breath approaches divinity, and again
the veena or flute echoes. Hearing the flute at this level of subtlest breath retention is
associated with nirvikalpa samadhi or becoming one with god (4: 70, 73, 74, 76 cited in ibid:
567–74).
Flute sounds thus characterise the two most significant perforation points of the yogic–
tantric anatomy which approach transcendental states: the anus and the middle of the
eyebrows. The first awakens and arouses kundalini upward towards her lover, and the
second vibrates when the lovers unite. The devotee-body thus becomes indistinct from
Krishna playing the flute. Once again however, such as in the earlier Yoga Upanishadic
tradition, there is the nuanced inside–outside dialectic in the closing verses. Thus, Hathayoga
Pradipika says that when the mind merges with anahata nada or flute sound, it embodies
Vishnu-hood, that is, the devotee becomes divine (4: 100). It then suggests however, that
anahata nada ultimately gives way to soundlessness, all feminine energy/vibration fusing
with the still cosmic formless purusha (4: 101–2. See Muktibodhananda 1993, pp. 587–88).
This dialectic, I argue, is resolved in the understanding of the transcendental state
as Krishna playing/vibrating the body–flute, irrespective of being heard/realised. While
yogic discourses of sound are thus overwhelmingly monist, situating the divine with his
flute inside the body, debating however about whether or not that sound is the ultimate
or gives way to soundlessness, the Hathayoga Pradipika, in my reading, opens up complex
possibilities. Here, the para state is about transcendental Krishna-with-his-flute. When
realised by the yogi, his body–flute sounds, and he becomes aware of Krishna as present
within himself, as also an independent transcendental existence. When not fully realised,
however, para remains akin to soundlessness, though vibrational still. However, the
potential always remains in this fourth state, to be sensed and embodied by the yogic
body. Krishna is thus also potentially outside the devotee-yogi’s body, a separate force in
himself. These subtleties in yogic thought pre-empt Bengal Vaishnavism’s position about
understanding the divine flautist as situated both in/outside the physical self.
4. Flautists’ Narratives
Flautists’ life-narratives and everyday instrument experiences resonate with senses
of yogic solitude, and cultivated relationships with their bodies, as detailed in texts of
religious sound. Therefore, I went searching for a flute-maker, but found a flautist in the
truest sense, in Anil Mitra: who loves, lives off, and lives for the flutes he makes and plays.
He stays alone in a quiet suburban Bengali neighbourhood. He was always fascinated by
the call of flute sound and left his home as an adolescent since he did not want a usual life
with a job and family; he could not however afford to pay flute-gurus, and thus learnt the
instrument on his own through attentive listening. He brings bamboo poles from Assam
Religions 2021, 12, 743 11 of 23
and carves flutes of varying sizes. After talking about the nuances of making flutes, he
chose to explain playing methods not by talking, but blowing variedly on the mouth-hole,
accompanied by deft movement of fingers. With no tune in one’s vocal cord at all, he
explained that one may still be an ace flautist through carefully cultivated intuitions of the
amounts of breath to be blown, and finger-manoeuvering. It is bamboo’s and the body-
mind’s materialities together, which render the flute’s melody, he softly demonstrated.
Bamboo’s lightweight and porous texture allow breath’s relaxed spontaneity to craftily
escape through its pores, and the body’s interior should be equally cleansed of cough, etc.,
and breath’s swift movement ascertained through yogic breathing exercises (pranayama),
along with clarity in tonal intuition. Anil prefers to stay indoors all day, and said that his
perfect companion is the flute, merged with his body, breath, and focused mind.
Subir Ray, with a Master’s degree in music, is a more accomplished flautist, prominent
in Bengal’s radio and TV shows, film background scores, and solo stage performances.
He is also a flute-collector, and has over a hundred varieties from over the world. His
effortless phenomenological blending of Yoga and flute affect is significant. He explained
that most meditation music is flute-based since its sounds come closest to silent breath.
He started Yoga practice in early adolescence, and has read voraciously on pranayama
techniques. He says that his physical senses have generally altered: he does not feel too
hot or cold, can sit in one place practising the flute for more than twelve hours, and his
mind has become as ‘pinpointed as an arrow’, through sustained pranayama regimens. In
playing the flute, the precise calculation of breath-and-finger-manoeuvering ‘opens up
the chakras’ and realises consciousness (bodh) he said. He described bodh as possessing
subtle breath-like (dom) qualities of expansiveness, clarity, and flexibility of traveling to
and sensitising different body parts. Unlike other instruments, he explained that unless a
note is achieved in the mind, it cannot be blown accurately in the flute, and thus more than
the health of lungs, lips, jaws, teeth, wrist, and nerves, the mind’s meditative state is most
crucial. Resonating with the tantric notion of fourfold speech emanation, Subir said that he
plays the low octave (udara) by pulling breath from the navel, middle (mudara) from the
chest, and high (tara) from the throat, and thus the air-passage needs to be clear and swift
in the body-interior.
Both Anil and Subir emphasised that the celebrated note in Krishna-aesthetics, the
fifth one, sounds strikingly beautiful, and is played by shutting all holes with fingers. Subir
said that it is an anar svar (transcendental note), which never changes, with reference to
which other notes are adjusted, and which impacts listeners with an unfailing sweetness,
just as pulling breath up while closing all body-pores generates sensitive quivers in the
yogic body.
Like Anil, Subir stays cooped up in his flute studio all day, dedicating his fullest
attention to tying the insides of his breath with the flute’s. He said, ‘Through years of
continuous practice and body–mind concentration, I realise that my body is a flute, singing
inside, and so when I stop playing the flute at the end of the day, my breath keeps the
melody through the night’.
However, Subir’s narrative takes most 9 of 23
nuanced ambivalent turns, when he says that
although the flute relationship for him is perfectly yogic, situated within his body-breath,
towards since the
a soundless state age
(ashabda)of
(49a)22,
whichit also generated
is Para-Brahman in him intense bhakti for a definite god. This Yoga–
(47b–48a), the indestructi-
himselfdevotion ambiguity
then becomes of the ‘form of the internalis ultimately
sound’, AUM. In this mostabout situating god within oneself, and also outside as a
subtle reading
aginedseparately
as soundless. There isidentifiable force.
thus a productive ambivalence These
between ultimatepopular
divinity as flautist narratives have strong reverberations
with
the first strand ofinherited
imagination, Krishnatextual traditions
plays the flute ofinBengal.
inside the body, and the second,

5. Towards the Inside–Outside Dialectic
The 15th century text Hathayoga Pradipika is considered seminal for Yoga practition-
ers. Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga Upanishads, while also
The dialectic of becoming the divine and remaining distinct, the flute being blown from
integrating parallel tantric developments. I shall briefly summarise some tantric ideas of
sonic metaphysics, much overlapping with the yogic physiology described above. Su-
inside or outside the body, is rooted in understandings of the transition from Vedic Shabda-
preme divinity (Para Brahman) is conceptualised as the union of the male principle
Brahman to yogic, theistic Nada-Brahman. In the yogic–tantric Nada-Brahman traditions,
feminine energy, prakriti, residing in the body’s base. Their fusion, Nada–Brahman, is the
the feminine merges with the male, nada with bindu, half-moon with the dot, the ultimate
̐ taking its position above the tripartite ontological expression of life: A-U-M. While in
, which buzzes into the cosmos with a nasal droning hum (nada).
AUM̐
thus signifies the combination of male Ham and female Sah, which together flow in
is reversed, it sounds soham, the body then becoming god (Omkarnathdev 1990, pp. 16–
practitioner’s continuous utterance of AUM, feels restless to unite with her male counter-
himself then becomes of the ‘form of the internal sound’, AUM. In this most subtle reading
agined as soundless. There is thus a productive ambivalence between ultimate divinity as
Religions 2021, 12, 743 3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy 12 of 23

The 15th century text Hathayoga Pradipika is considered seminal for Yoga practition-
integrating parallel tantric developments. I shall briefly summarise some tantric ideas of
monist Vedanta, the fourth (turiya) position after A-U-M is considered a formless, static,
ashabda (soundlessness) or amatra (with no temporal extension, and thus no sound) state,
the nasality of ̐ , the half-syllable, ardha-matra, rather takes on an embodied divine form in
Yoga, representing , which buzzes forintoinstance,
the cosmos with aKrishna nasal droning hum blowing
(nada). on his flute. The nasal sound embodies
the combination AUM̐of stillness (purusha) and vibration (prakriti), Yoga and devotion (Beck 1995,
pp. 81–91). theItbody’s generates

thus signifies the combinationa very of malesubtle Ham and mediation female Sah, which together
between flow in the fourth state understood as
sounding and is soundless.
reversed, it sounds soham, I interpreted
the body then becoming
this
god through
(Omkarnathdev 1990, Hathayoga
pp. 16– Pradipika’s understanding of
transcendental sound,
practitioner’s continuous or Krishna-with-his-flute,
utterance of AUM, feels restless to unite with her
as male thecounter- fourth ontological, vibrational state
of existence, with (soundfulness)
(pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During her journey upward, or without a number of sounds (soundlessness)
rebound in the being physically or subtly
perceived. However, fully in the male, the thefourth idea
state beyond of Nada-Brahman
A-U-M (ibid: 44–45). These sounds thusarecompletely progres- fuses with the Upanishadic
conception of AUM,
cussions, and bees,
roaring clouds, through and the flute fine tantric1990,developments,
(Omkarnathdev p. 56). Among these, situates itself also in the body’s
venu-nada or flute sound is understood as revealing esoteric knowledge (ibid: 126).
chakras (energy stations)
Similarly, and levels
Hathayoga Pradipika explains that ofphysicalspeech senses are manifestation
controlled by the (ibid: 97).
In a distinct tantric reading, feminine energy (Shakti) is understood as explicit, creative,
precision, marking perfect stillness. The body then experiences anahata nada, or flow of
AUM, which also transforms to other sacred sounds (4:29–30 cited in Muktibodhananda
the male (Shiva) 1993, p. 510).asMind implicit,
and prana become static, still throughformless; the breath’sand reverse their flow to theunion, cra- sound vibration, the unstruck
nium, which holds the male principle (bindu). Following the yogic–tantric anatomy, the
Nada-Brahman, text saysas Vishnu
that bindu is seated at himself
the head’s top(Omkarnathdev back section (sahasrara chakra), and 1990, when p. 28). Vishnu/Krishna is thus
breath is stilled there, kundalini, or the serpentine feminine energy, is deprived of life-en-
perfected vibration, ergy, and she hisses the andflute
rises angrily, sticking impatiently to his inlower
travelling the converse lipdirection
humming as idealised sacred sound.
along the chakras towards the male, and when united with him, nectar-like nada is pro-
Like in the Gita, duced, which Krishna
flows down todisclosesthe middle of the eyebrows himself as aandsacred
(ajna chakra) booms through- sound vibration in Bhagavat Purana
too, a tremor,Thelike fire resulting from
yogi desperately aspires to experience these inner sounds, and his search the friction of wood (11.12. 18 cited in Beck 1995,
p. 185). The(nadaaanusandhan) 900 AD rests when he completely absorbs in those acoustics (65 cited in Muk-
text, Bhagavat Purana,
tibodhananda 1993, p. 556). The tantric grammarian conception of four levels of emana- composed in the devotional setting of South
India, integrates aesthetic theories of Natya Sastra, and devotional philosophical modes,
with Upanishadic, yogic, and tantric conceptualisations, including about levels of the
body’s mystic
plexuses (ibid: 183–4). Thus, the idea
of the tantric 9 of 23
emanation of word
is also subsumed in Krishna manifesting as Nada-Brahman, within the acoustic human
body, transforming towards a soundlessvital
ble akshara, attaining whichble
breath,
state (ashabda)
towards
theakshara,
(49a)
a soundless
which
yogi noattaining
prana,
longer hears
isstate
Para-Brahman
which any
into
(ashabda)
thesound
(49a) subtle
(47b–48a),
yogi no
whichthe
(52b).
longer
nada.
is Para-Brahman
Further,
indestructi-
hearsthe anyyogi
Krishna thus claims to arise as the
sound (52b). Further, the yogi
fourfold sound himself thenenergybecomes of thehimself through
‘form ofthen the internal
becomes the sound’,
of theanus ‘form
AUM.ofIn (para),
the
thisinternal
most subtle navel
sound’, AUM.(pashyanti),
reading In this most subtle reading chest (madhyama), and
then, AUM is no longer conceptualised then, AUM is asno sound,
longer but conceptualised
as merging into as ether
sound, vibration,
but as merging im- into ether vibration, im-
throat (vaikhari) (Bhagavat
agined as soundless. There is thus11.
agined 12. 17
aasproductive
soundless. cited
ambivalence
There ain
is thusbetween Beck
productive ultimate 1995,
ambivalence
divinity asbetweenp. 186). ultimateBhagavata
divinity as asserts, therefore,
sound (Nada-Brahman) and sound soundlessness
(Nada-Brahman) (ashabda), andin soundlessness
Nada Bindu Upanishad. (ashabda),Following
in Nada Bindu Upanishad. Following
that Krishna the first can
strandbe perceived
of imagination, the Krishna
first strand asof esoteric
plays imagination,
the flute inside sound
Krishna
the body,
plays and thewithin
influte
the second,
inside the the body,worshipper’s
and in the second, body (11.27.23–24
goes beyond any physicality, goestowards
beyond emptiness.
any physicality, towards emptiness.
cited in ibid: 186–7). He is the fourth beyond A-U-M, and meditating on this form as
3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy 3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy
bhagavan, theThedevotee 15th century textdirectly HathayogaThe 15th attains
Pradipika
century is considered
text HathayogaKrishna
seminalPradipika
for Yoga (11.15.16
is considered
practition-seminal cited
for Yogain ibid: 187). As discussed
practition-
ers. Its auditory system utilises ers. the
Its auditory
discursive system
framework utilisesofthe Yogadiscursive
Upanishads, framework while alsoof Yoga Upanishads, while also
before, this yogic
integrating Nada-Brahman
parallel tantric developments.
integrating parallel is tantric
I shall therefore
briefly summarisethe
developments. some
I shall Krishna-flute’s
tantric
brieflyideassummarise
of nasal
some tantric ideas ofsound. Reminding of
sonic metaphysics, much overlapping sonic metaphysics, with themuch
the perforated preme divinity body (Para mentioned
Brahman)
premeis divinity
conceptualised inyogic
(Para Gita, overlapping
Brahman)
physiology with
as the union the
is
described
conceptualised
the yogic
ofMahabharata
the male as
above. physiology
principle
Su-
the union of
described above. Su-
alsothe maleadds that this hamsa/AUM
principle
(purush)—Shiva’s seminal representation (purush)—Shiva’s as a seminal
dot, bindu, representation
seated in theascranium—with
a dot, bindu, seated the in the cranium—with the
form of divine sound
feminine energy, prakriti, residingas Krishna’s
feminine in energy,
the body’s flute,
prakriti,
base.residing flows
Their fusion, within
in theNada–Brahman,
body’s base. Their the
is the fusion, Nada–Brahman, is the human body (Shanti
nine-doored
first vibration, AUM, followed firstbyvibration, AUM, followed by
Parva, 239), alerting again to Krishna’ vamsi with nine pores/doors. Simply, Krishna’s own
breath, AUM ̐ , congeals as ̐ , the flute hum, and flows through yogic bodies’ nine pores as
primordial sound. , which buzzes These
into the cosmos bodies
, which withbuzzes
a nasal themselves
into
droning
the cosmos withbecome
hum (nada). a nasal droning Krishna’s hum (nada). beloved flute.
Bengal Vaishnavism utilises the entire discursive corpus of Yoga, Tantra, devotion,
AUM̐ AUM̐
Upanishads, Gita, and

thus signifies
the body’s right and left sides
most
the combination thus heavily,
theincessantly,
ofsignifies
male Ham
body’s rightand
theand
andwhen
Bhagavat
combination
left sides
female Sah,
through
malePurana.
of which
incessantly,
yogic methods,
Hamtogether
and when
flowBeck
and female
breath
through
inSah, which together flow inthat the idea of Nada-
indicates
flow yogic methods, breath flow
Brahman impacted is reversed, it sounds Bengal
19). When the otherwise sleeping
soham,is the Vaishnava
reversed,
19). When
body then
feminine
it sounds
becoming
the otherwise
life-energy
soham,works
god
sleeping
body like
the(Omkarnathdev
in the feminine
then becoming
anal region,
the
1990, pp.
life-energy
excited by
15th
god16– century
(Omkarnathdev 1990,Sangit
in the anal region, excited by the
pp. 16– Damodara, and 18th
century Bhakti practitioner’sRatnakara
continuous utterance (5.2505–6)
practitioner’s of AUM, continuous (Beck
feels restless utterance 1995,
to uniteof AUM,
with her p.
feelsmale 109;
restless
counter- Beck
to unite 2013,
with her pp. 174–77). The critical
male counter-
part and reverses her flow upward, part and she reverses
embodies her flow the sameupward, cosmic
she maleness
embodiesin theher
samebeing cosmic maleness in her being
16th century Bengal
(pungsvarupini) (ibid: Vaishnava
35). During
(pungsvarupini)
her journey ritual
(ibid:
upward, atext,
35). During number her Haribhaktivilasa,
of
journey
sounds upward,
rebound a number
in the of sounds states rebound that
in the tantric knowledge is
body, as transformations ofbody, AUM,asand transformations
stop in an empty of AUM,sense andof ether
stopwhenin an emptyshe absorbssense of ether when she absorbs
most significant fully in the male, forthethe fourthsect.
fully
statein beyond
theThe male,
A-U-M tantric
the fourth stateseed-syllable
(ibid: 44–45). beyond
These A-U-Msounds (ibid: are progres-
44–45).forThese Krishna, for instance, is klim, and
sounds are progres-
sively felt as subtler, and embody sively feltfor instance,
as subtler,cini-cincini
and embody buzzes,
for instance,
bells, conch, cini-cincini
veena, per-buzzes, bells, conch, veena, per-
Radha, hrim. cussions, Dimock
roaring clouds, further
bees,
cussions,
and the explains
roaring
flute (Omkarnathdev
clouds, bees, that and1990,
thethere
flute
p. 56). are five
(Omkarnathdev
Among these, 1990, letters in Krishna’s
p. 56). Among these, seed: Ka, La, I,
venu-nada or flute sound is understood venu-nada orasflute revealing
soundesotericis understood knowledge as revealing
(ibid: 126). esoteric knowledge (ibid: 126).
M, followedSimilarly, by the signPradipika
Hathayoga ofSimilarly,
nasalisation
explains Hathayoga
that physical (1966:
Pradipika sensesexplains 82that cited
are controlled physical
by the in Beck
senses 1995,
are controlled by thep. 198), solidifying as
mind, the mind by prana or vital mind, breath,
the mind andby prana prana further
or vital dissolved
breath, and in voidprana through
furtheryogic dissolved in void through yogic
the soundprecision, of Krishna’smarking perfectflute. precision,
stillness. The marking
body perfect then experiences
stillness. The anahatabodynada, thenorexperiences
flow of anahata nada, or flow of
AUM, which also transforms AUM,to otherwhich sacred
also sounds
transforms (4:29–30to other
citedsacred
in Muktibodhananda
sounds (4:29–30 cited in Muktibodhananda
Nada-Brahman
1993, p. 510). Mind is about
and prana 1993,become
p. 510). divinity
still
Mind through and pranatheas definitely
breath’s
become reverse
still through
flow tothe sonic,
the breath’s
cra- and
reverse flowthis yogic temperament is
to the cra-
nium, which holds the male nium,
principle
which (bindu).
holds Following
the male principle the yogic–tantric
(bindu). Following
anatomy, the the yogic–tantric anatomy, the
actively embraced text says that bindu by Bengal
is seated textat says
the head’s Vaishnavism,
that bindu
top back is seatedsection at the which
(sahasrara
head’s chakra),
top backand does
section not subscribe
when(sahasrara chakra), and when to understandings of
breath is stilled there, kundalini, breath or isthe stilled
serpentine
there, kundalini,
feminine energy, or the serpentine
is deprived feminine
of life-en- energy, is deprived of life-en-
the sacredergy, asandabstract/empty//ashabda.
she hisses and rises ergy,angrily,
and sheimpatiently
hisses andtravelling rises angrily,However,
in the impatiently
converse direction unlike
travelling Yoga’s
in the converse unequivocal emphasis
direction
along the chakras towards the alongmale, theand chakras
when towards
unitedthe with male,
him,and nectar-like
when united nada is withpro-him, nectar-like nada is pro-
on the divine as absolutely
duced, which flows down toduced, the middle located
whichofflows the eyebrows within
down to the (ajnamiddle the
chakra)ofand theboomsbody,
eyebrows through- Bengal Vaishnavas,
(ajna chakra) and booms through- influenced both
out the subtle body (4: 28 cited out intheibid:subtle 508).
body (4: 28 cited in ibid: 508).
by monist Vedantic thought
The yogi desperately aspires The to and
yogiexperience
desperatelythe ecstatic
theseaspiresinner to sounds, devotion
experience and his thesesearch of rasa (aesthetic)
inner sounds, and his search theory, display
(nadaaanusandhan) rests when (nadaaanusandhan)
he completely absorbs rests when in thosehe completely
acoustics (65 absorbs
cited in those
Muk- acoustics (65 cited in Muk-
a refined ambiguity tibodhananda 1993, p.about 556).tibodhananda
The tantric whether grammarian
1993, p. 556). god
conception isof within,
The tantric four
grammarian or outside
levels ofconception
emana- of four levels(such
of emana- as in the suggestive
tion of speech/word (through tionthe of speech/word
anus or para state (through corresponding
the anus ortopara
readings of Hathayoga Pradipika) (Gupta 2007). still They state
vibration
corresponding
of
maintain to still vibration of
difference between divinity
and humanity, and the importance of an emotional being with a spiritually refined body
with which to worship god. Their ritual and affective corpus is thus also dedicated to
Krishna as a discretely distinguishable external god, with identifiable affective qualities.
Religions 2021, 12, 743 13 of 23
The complex towardsnarrative

a soundless state (ashabda)of the (49a)devotees’
which is Para-Brahman sameness
yet difference from Krishna/flute, the
flute beinghimself playedthen becomes inside

of the ‘formand outside
of the internal sound’, AUM. theIn this body,most subtle isreading
palpably evident in the sect’s dense
analyses. agined This is fitting
as soundless. of a its
There is thus theological
productive ambivalence between tenet, achintya-bhed-abhed,
ultimate divinity as or inconceivability
between union and
the first strand separation,
of imagination, Krishna plays monism
the flute insideand the body, dualism
and in the second, (Brahmachari 1994; Dimock 1963).
I shall now analyse several tracts dedicated to Krishna’s flute in Bengal Vaishnava
texts. Their narrative The 15th century text densities
Hathayoga Pradipika enrichis considered the ambivalence
seminal for Yoga practition- between Yoga and devotion: the
devotee feeling separated
integrating parallel fromI shall
tantric developments. both brieflythesummariseflute someand Krishna,
tantric ideas of becoming one with the flute
and remaining
Religions 2021, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW preme divinity distinct (Para Brahman) from Krishna,
is conceptualised as theone union
Religions
with
of912,of
2021, the
x 23
FOR
Krishna
male
PEERprinciple
REVIEW
and his flute, one with Krishna, 9 of 2
and then sounding the flute,
feminine energy, prakriti, residing inetc. the body’sAdditionally significant
base. Their fusion, Nada–Brahman, is the are implicit yogic understandings
of towards
the numbers of holes
a soundless state (ashabda) (49a) which inis Para-Brahman
Krishna’s flutes,
(47b–48a),
and esoteric
the indestructi- towards experiences
a soundless state (ashabda) of its
(49a) whichnasality.
is Para-Brahman This
(47b–48a), the indestructi
ble akshara, attaining which the yogi no longer hears any sound (52b). Further, the yog
involves the of̐ the
himself then becomes of‘form AUM, of the internalfusing
sound’, AUM. inInand this mostas subtleKrishna’s
reading flute
himself then sound,
becomes of the as‘formalso his sound’,
of the internal nasal AUM. voice.
In this most subtle reading
then, AUM is no longer conceptualised as sound, but as merging into ether vibration, im- then, AUM is no longer conceptualised as sound, but as merging into ether vibration, im
Further, the ,nasal
agined as soundless. whichisbuzzes
There thusflute
a into thetone
productivecosmos is asaid
with
ambivalence nasal toultimate
droning
between especially
hum (nada).
divinity as manifest in theThere
agined as soundless. fifth
is thus note,
a productive celebrated
ambivalence between asultimate divinity a
sound (Nada-Brahman) and soundlessness (ashabda), in Nada Bindu Upanishad. Following sound (Nada-Brahman) and soundlessness (ashabda), in Nada Bindu Upanishad. Following
particularly melodious, and passionately and irresistibly pulling his devotee-lovers’ hearts.and in the second
the first strand of AUM̐
imagination, Krishna plays the flute inside the body, and in the second, the first strand of imagination, Krishna plays the flute inside the body,
goes beyond any physicality, towards emptiness. goes beyond any physicality, towards emptiness.
This fifth-note thus signifiesmetaphysics
the body’s
the combination of maledraws Ham and female together
Sah, which together
aesthetic,
flow in devotional, and yogic paradigms.
3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy 3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy
Thus,TheNatya Sastra
is reversed,
15th century text Hathayogaplaces
it sounds soham, the
Pradipika the body erotic
then becoming
is considered experience
seminal
god (Omkarnathdev
for Yoga practition-
as foremost
1990, pp. 16–
Theamong eight
15th century text Hathayogaaesthetic emotional
Pradipika is considered seminal for Yoga practition
ers. Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga Upanishads, while also ers. Its auditory system utilises the discursive framework of Yoga Upanishads, while also
responses, andtantricexplicitly
practitioner’s
integrating parallel
continuous utterance
developments. I shall ties it
of AUM,
briefly to the
feels
summarise fifth
restless
some tantricnote
to unite
ideas of (pa) ofintegrating
with her male counter- the musical
parallel tantricoctave
developments. (6.15, 39–45
I shall briefly summariseand some tantric ideas o
sonic metaphysics, much overlapping with the yogic physiology described above. Su- sonic metaphysics, much overlapping with the yogic physiology described above. Su
19.38–40
preme divinity cited in Beck
(pungsvarupini)
(Para Brahman) 2013,
(ibid: 35). During her
is conceptualised p.asjourney
149).
the unionAgain,
upward, a numberthe of sounds
of the male principle fifth flute
rebound in the note is played by shutting all pores
(purush)—Shiva’s seminal representation as a dot, bindu, seated in the cranium—with the (purush)—Shiva’s seminal representation as a dot, bindu, seated in the cranium—with the
with theenergy,
feminine fingers, while
fully in the male,
prakriti, residing in theblowing
the fourth state beyond on
body’s base. Their
A-U-M the
fusion,
(ibid:mouth-hole.
44–45). These sounds areThis
Nada–Brahman, is the
progres-shutting of the nine-hole flute is the
first vibration, AUM, followed by first vibration, AUM, followed by
yogic/tantric cussions,counterpart
roaring clouds, bees, of and closing nine body
the flute (Omkarnathdev 1990, p. 56). poresAmong while
these, pulling breath up and sounding
AUM ̐ , its echoing Similarly, Hathayogafading Pradipikatone,explainsthe body’s
that physical senses nasal
are controlled drone,by the ,̐ then becoming Krishna’s flute
hum,, which thebuzzes
body
precision, becoming
into the cosmosperfect
marking flute
with a stillness.
nasal Theand
droning hum then
body yogi
(nada). becoming
experiences anahata nada, Krishna,
or flow of , which orbuzzes
theintosound-perfected
the cosmos with a nasal droning Krishna-
hum (nada).
devotee receiving
AUM̐ 1993, p. 510). Mind his and deep
prana become breath.
still throughWhat the breath’s therefore
reverse flow to the remains
cra- AUM̐ the quintessential symbol of
passionate devotion—devotee–lovers
thus signifies
text
the body’s rightbreath
the
says
and left
combination
that bindu is
sides incessantly,
ofseated
male Hamat the
and when
and female
head’s topSah,
back whichresponding
together
section flowchakra),
(sahasrara in with
and whentheir entire
thus signifies bodiesof male
the combination to Krishna’s
Ham and female Sah, fifth
which together flow in
is stilled there, kundalini, or thethrough
serpentine yogic methods,
feminine breath
energy, is flow
deprived of life-en- the body’s right and left sides incessantly, and when through yogic methods, breath flow
note fluteit sounds
is reversed, call
ergy, and
19). When the otherwise
insheVrindavan’s
soham, the body
hisses then
and becoming
rises angrily, autumn
god (Omkarnathdev
impatiently bowers—also
travelling 1990, pp. converse
in the 16– apprehends
is reversed, it soundsthe
direction soham,most significant
the body then yogic 1990, pp. 16–
becoming god (Omkarnathdev
along the sleeping feminine
chakras towards life-energy
the male, andinwhen the anal
unitedregion,
withexcited by the
him, nectar-like 19). When the otherwise sleeping feminine life-energy in the anal region, excited by the
nada is pro-
practice
practitioner’s of realising
continuous
duced, whichutterance sacrality
flows downof AUM, feels
to the middle within.
restless to unite
of the with her
eyebrows
(ajnamale counter-
chakra) and booms through- practitioner’s continuous utterance of AUM, feels restless to unite with her male counter
(pungsvarupini) (ibid:The
35). yogi
During her journeyaspires
desperately upward, to aexperience
number of sounds rebound
these inner in theand his search
sounds, (pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During her journey upward, a number of sounds rebound in the
body, as transformations of AUM,rests
and when
stop inhe
ancompletely
empty sense of ether
in when she absorbs body, as transformations of AUM, and stop in an empty sense of ether when she absorb
6. The Flute–Devotee–God Complex in Bengal Vaishnavism
(nadaaanusandhan)
fully in the male, state beyond A-U-M (ibid:
absorbs
44–45). These
those acoustics
sounds are progres-
(65 cited in Muk-
tibodhananda 1993, p. 556). The tantric grammarian conception of four levels of emana- in the male, the fourth state beyond A-U-M (ibid: 44–45). These sounds are progres
the fourth fully
sively felt as subtler,
tion ofand embody for(through
speech/word instance, the
cini-cincini
anus orbuzzes, bells,
para state conch, veena, to
corresponding per-still vibrationsively
of felt as subtler, and embody for instance, cini-cincini buzzes, bells, conch, veena, per
When Krishna shuts all pores of the simple lightweight bamboo vessel, completely
cussions, roaring clouds, bees, and the flute (Omkarnathdev 1990, p. 56). Among these, cussions, roaring clouds, bees, and the flute (Omkarnathdev 1990, p. 56). Among these
venu-nada or flute sound is understood as revealing esoteric knowledge (ibid: 126). venu-nada or flute sound is understood as revealing esoteric knowledge (ibid: 126).
empty inside, it sounds the nasal pancham (fifth) note, madly attracting his lovers. The
Similarly, Hathayoga Pradipika explains that physical senses are controlled by the Similarly, Hathayoga Pradipika explains that physical senses are controlled by the
mind, the mind by prana or vital breath, and prana further dissolved in void through yogic mind, the mind by prana or vital breath, and prana further dissolved in void through yogic
sound is able to entice at all, however, because there is the same sonic mirroring potential
precision, marking perfect stillness. The body then experiences anahata nada, or flow of precision, marking perfect stillness. The body then experiences anahata nada, or flow o
AUM, which also transforms to other sacred sounds (4:29–30 cited in Muktibodhananda AUM, which also transforms to other sacred sounds (4:29–30 cited in Muktibodhananda
in the listener. The body then desires complete absorption in the aural divinity, possible
1993, p. 510). Mind and prana become still through the breath’s reverse flow to the cra- 1993, p. 510). Mind and prana become still through the breath’s reverse flow to the cra
nium, which holds the male principle (bindu). Following the yogic–tantric anatomy, the nium, which holds the male principle (bindu). Following the yogic–tantric anatomy, the
only in becoming the flute. In yogic terms, this implies emptying the devotee-self’s ego,
text says that bindu is seated at the head’s top back section (sahasrara chakra), and when text says that bindu is seated at the head’s top back section (sahasrara chakra), and when
breath is stilled there, kundalini, or the serpentine feminine energy, is deprived of life-en- breath is stilled there, kundalini, or the serpentine feminine energy, is deprived of life-en
closing all bodily pores in a meditative gesture: shutting eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and
ergy, and she hisses and rises angrily, impatiently travelling in the converse direction ergy, and she hisses and rises angrily, impatiently travelling in the converse direction
along the chakras towards the male, and when united with him, nectar-like nada is pro- along the chakras towards the male, and when united with him, nectar-like nada is pro
then pulling up the rectum, genital, and other chakras, upwards along with life-breath. In
duced, which flows down to the middle of the eyebrows (ajna chakra) and booms through- duced, which flows down to the middle of the eyebrows (ajna chakra) and booms through
out the subtle body (4: 28 cited in ibid: 508). out the subtle body (4: 28 cited in ibid: 508).
tantric terms, expressed in a Vaishnava aesthetic idiom, the feminine devotee-self (anus-
The yogi desperately aspires to experience these inner sounds, and his search The yogi desperately aspires to experience these inner sounds, and his search
(nadaaanusandhan) rests when he completely absorbs in those acoustics (65 cited in Muk- (nadaaanusandhan) rests when he completely absorbs in those acoustics (65 cited in Muk
chakra/kundalini/Radha) rises upwards towards Krishna (cranium), all along, the body–
tibodhananda 1993, p. 556). The tantric grammarian conception of four levels of emana- tibodhananda 1993, p. 556). The tantric grammarian conception of four levels of emana
tion of speech/word (through the anus or para state corresponding to still vibration of tion of speech/word (through the anus or para state corresponding to still vibration o
flute sounding the fifth note.
Such yogic–tantric–devotional symbolic weavings are evident in Bengal Vaishnav-
ism’s textual corpus (both classical and popular), with ample ambiguities of achintya-bhed-
abhed between devotee–flute, flute–god, and devotee–god. Yoga deliberations about the
monism/dualism debate, or whether the transcendental para state is inside or outside
the body, often take on simple narrative forms in Bengal Vaishnava aesthetics-influenced
texts, where oneness and difference are understood as either union with Krishna or feeling
intensely separated from him.
Natya Sastra enlisted eight affects generated by the seven musical notes, the fifth one
denoting refined erotic sentiment (sringara), most valued by Bengal Vaishnavas as the
desired relational ethic between the devotee and Krishna. Such intense passion has two
aspects: union (sambhoga) and separation (vipralambha), and both are potentially experi-
enced through flute sounds. Abhinavagupta added a ninth rasa (cultivated affect): santa or
peaceful, as culminating all others. The formless impersonal god this rasa approximates is
analogous to an empty, abstract divine. But for the intensely affective community of Bengal
Vaishnavas, sringara remains the exalted essence of devotion (Beck 2013, pp. 151–52). I
argue however, that sringara itself—with dimensions of both union (sameness) and separa-
Religions 2021, 12, 743 14 of 23
tion (difference)—embodies peculiar articulations of Yoga and bhakti, monism and dualism,
abstraction and aesthetics.
Krishna played the enchanting fifth note (murali-nada-mohitam) during his Rasa dance
with gopis (women lovers), from which, Vaishnava music specialists imagine, all harmony
notations were born (Bhakti-Ratnakara 5.2738 cited in Beck 2013, p. 176). This notion of the
all-containing transcendental fifth note is congruent with the yogic understanding of all
speech, sounds, and mantras being created from AUM (=flute nada). I argue, therefore, that
the sonic aesthetic of Bengal Vaishnavism, centering on the idea of Nada-Brahman, is both
thoroughly yogic and devotional.
I shall now discuss Bengal Vaishnava flute metaphysics drawing from Bhagavata
Purana’s aesthetic theology, which was shadowed by centuries of developments in Yoga,
Tantra, and devotion, coming together in 16th century’s Bengal Vaishnava discursive
productions of Bhaktirasamrita Sindhu, Chaitanya Charitamrita, and also popular musical
performances such as Bongshi Shikkha (flute learning), and other oral lore and narratives.
Taken together, they animate the basic philosophy that devotees are and are not, the same
as, and different from, Krishna/flute.
6.1. Bhagavatam: Venu Gita

Venu Gita (Song of the Venu), chapter 21 of Bhagavatam’s tenth part (Saraswati 1975,
pp. 306–17; Schweig 2005, pp. 78–85),11 describes the passions churned in nature—women,
trees, birds, cows, clouds, bees, rivers, deer, peacocks, hills—on hearing Krishna’s flute.
Significantly, the women have not yet met Krishna; their romance has been kindled simply
by hearing his flute’s nada. Vrindavan’s forests are filled with an autumnal breeze mixed
with lotus smell, the perfect milieu to generate dalliance, when Krishna enters the bowers,
vibrating his flute with his warm breath. The women, enraptured by the sounds, then
begin discussing the flute-player, and some become still in silence (10.21.1–4). Breath and
sonic potential, as discussed in the Upanishadic tradition, are fused, and thus breathing
engenders both devotees’ verbal speech, as also interiorised meditation, as equivalent
states of Krishna-absorption.
Krishna fills the flute pores with the loving nectar of his lower lip, and the women
embrace one another (21.5–6). Such communal ecstasy is a yogic unison: all bodies
sensing the same meditative attraction to the deity–lover’s phonics. The trees whose
bamboo are used to make the flute relish the pride of their creation, and the rivers on
whose banks they stand spring flowers like goose bumps on stimulated skin; peacocks
think of the flute resonance as roaring clouds of passion and start dancing; the deer are
maddened; wives of demigods lustfully aroused; calves with milk-moist mouths soak
Krishna’s flute sounds with their teary eyes, ears, and hearts; birds sit still on branches with
shut eyes, unattached to everything else but the sweet flute vibrations; rivers desire him,
creating excited whirlpools, and then thoughtfully direct their waves towards and embrace
Krishna’s feet, and clouds make an umbrella of droplet-filled shade for him to continue
playing the flute in comfort, etc. (21.9–18). The text literally compares the birds’ meditative,
detached silence to sages’ concentrated focus on Krishna’s breath/sound (21.14), and
while the waves’ swirls personify vibrations of their intense sense of poignant separation
from Krishna, their eventual united flow towards his feet signifies a monist temperament
of divine merging (21.15). These whipping whirlpools are thus directly comparable to
devotees’ ambivalent feelings of differentiation and attentive union, together defining
aesthetic desire.
In the most suggestive gesture, the gopis lament that the flute enjoys those most
intimate pleasures (of kissing Krishna’s lips)—leaving only leftovers as flute’s sound for
them—while they actually deserve the erotic nectar to the fullest.12 This clearly expresses
gopis’ envy at feeling separated from Krishna, and at sensing the flute’s indistinction from
his body. They infer that the flute must have performed severe austerities to earn this
position (21.9). This indicates their desire and ability to embody a future path of meditative
rigours to impress Krishna, and become one with his flute, and thus him.
Religions 2021, 12, 743 15 of 23
The Venu Gita is thus replete with expressions of monist absorption (abhed): being
irresistibly pulled towards Krishna, cultivating silence, sage-like attention, unified devotion,
concentrated listening, etc., as also painful separateness (bhed). The text thus says that the
flute’s tunes both stun living forms of life and cause non-living things to quiver in joyous
passion (21.19). This dialectic of stillness in ecstasy and ecstasy in stillness ripples with the
same affect as bamboo trees’ feelings of simultaneous sameness and difference from the
flute, as also the rivers’ goosebumps—since goosebumps manifest in between the inside
and outside of the skin surface. All these descriptions attest to the same phenomenon of
indiscernibility (achintya) between identity and distinction of the devotee and flute, devotee
and Krishna, prototypical of Bengal Vaishnava thought. Such achintya-bhed-abhed about
whether the devotee–lover feels fused with Krishna through his flute sound, or the flute
hum intensifies her passionate pain of separateness, I argue, together define the emotion of
tat-mayatam (21.20), or the devotees’ becoming completely full of Krishna, and identifying
with him through ecstatic meditation. Being Krishna-absorbed can mean either total fusion
with him, therefore, or focused senses of passionate difference; both stimulated by flute
callings.
6.2. Bhagavatam: Gopi Gita

The same spirit of achintya-bhed-abhed is also deducible ten chapters later, in Gopi
Gita (Gopis’ song) (Saraswati 1975, pp. 430–41; Schweig 2005, pp. 51–7).13 This chapter is
part of Bhagavat’s Rasa-Panchadhyayi, five chapters dedicated to describing Krishna’s most
passionate encounter and dance with gopis in the autumnal Vrindavan forests (Rasa-lila),
where he invited them with his flute echoes. At the heart of this episode, Krishna suddenly
disappears, leaving his lovers in excruciating agony. It is then that gopis sing to remember
him. In the final chapter of Ras-Panchadhyayi however, Krishna returns, and devotees
ultimately realise that none can own him egotistically: he is the universal god, although
individually and passionately knowable by all.
While in Venu Gita only Krishna’s flute sound attracted his lovers, here their sense
of separation and distance from Krishna is much more intense, since they have already
tasted his romance. The gopis, missing Krishna deeply, sit together to discuss him, and so
penetrating is their feeling of absorption that they enact Krishna’s deeds, embodying the
perfect monist temperament of becoming the divine lover (Soham: I am he). They opine
that Krishna destroys vices such as lust and ego in his devotees, who realise that they are
essentially empty, while he is their witnessing, indwelling self, antaratma (10.31.4–7). Later,
the text compares this devotional realisation with a yogi’s body overcome by bliss (10.32.8).
In Bengal’s popular musical performances (kirtan), this narrative is interpreted as devotees’
bodies becoming flutes, by ‘emptying’ the bamboo pole and sounding Krishna’s nasal flute
tone in the breath-insides. The ‘witnessing self’ also reminds of Vishnu’s yogic fourth state
after A-U-M, or waking–dreaming–sleeping existences, within cultivated sonic bodies.
In Gopi Gita, the lovers desperately crave Krishna’s lip-nectar, which is manifest in his
sweet voice, healing words, and of course, piercing flute echoes (31.8–9). They complain to
Krishna that, dragged by his loud flute melody, the enticing fifth nasal note, they have left
behind their homes, husbands, children, and ancestors in the middle of the night, only to
unite with him, while being the notorious indifferent flirt, he has abandoned them (31.16).
They demand that he returns to them his lip-love which augments pleasures of union,
dispels anguish, and makes devotees forget material desires. They lament further that
all this is kissed away by the fortunate flute vibrating with his breath (31.14). While this
emotion expresses the same jealousy as felt in Venu Gita, the desire to absorb Krishna’s
words, voice, and flute sound equally further indicates the equivalence of knowledge and
affect, embodied by his flute. This reminds of the yogic idea that all aural expressions
derive from AUM, concentrating in the flute’s nasal tone.14
Devotional–aesthetic and yogic complexes thus cohere in Venu Gita and Gopi Gita.
The gopis envy the flute, wishing to understand the kind of asceticism it practices
to deserve Krishna’s affection; from that envy arises the desire to become the flute; such
Religions 2021, 12, 743 16 of 23
becoming involves yogic processes of emptying the ego, and realising the pored breathing
body as Krishna’s whistling flute. Krishna plays the flute’s fifth note in Rasa, and Vaishnava
devotees explained to me that his women lovers travel to meet him with their subtle bodies
(sukshma sharir), and god dances with their eternal souls (Schweig 2005, p. 65). Since the
fifth note is played by shutting all flute pores, this implies closing off all body-holes, senses,
vices, and then breath travelling up the corporeal subtle path, pulling up chakras towards
Krishna, while the body–flute’s mouth-hole receives his divine breath. This yogic sensibility
is perfectly expressed in Bhagavatam’s description of gopis’ Rasa dance as Krishna’s dalliance
with his own reflections (10.33.17).
We shall analyse further that there are different discursive possibilities of the flute–
god–devotee relation: the flute resonates till devotees unite with Krishna, devotees embody
the flute, the body-as-flute unites with Krishna and keeps buzzing, the body merges with
Krishna and his flute, or the body unites with Krishna through complete absorption in flute
sounds, and further, vibrates in ecstatic breath–flute reverberation when united with him.
Following earlier debates in Yoga/Tantra, the final stage of Krishna Yoga or Krishna-love
in Bengal Vaishnavism is thus not ashabda or soundless, but rather the fourth state of
Nada-Brahman’s nasal buzz, where the flute sound flows incessantly. Flute sound as Nada-
Brahman thus hums both when the devotee and Krishna are separate (bhed), and united in
the same body (abhed) as prakriti-purush, kundalini-Krishna. Thus, the theological meaning
discussed in kirtans about Gopi Gita says that the Rasa dance is about subtle individual souls
(jivatma) uniting with their ultimate divinity (paramatma), gopis while enjoying Krishna,
also realising that they are Krishna, kundalini-energy then completely identified with the
fourth, turiya, transcendental divine. However, they also remain distinct from Krishna, to
be able to taste and understand him.
6.3. Bhaktirasamrita Sindhu

The Chaitanyite sect, Bengal Vaishnavism, consolidated in a milieu when Indian aes-
thetic theory, and Yoga–Tantra with their distinct body-geography, were already developed,
and its devotional ethics integrated these currents. Its chief theologian, Rupa Goswami,
composed the magnum opus of bhakti emotional–religious aesthetics, Bhaktirasamrita Sindhu.
Its tracts on Krishna’s flute are influenced by the affective excess of Bhagavat Purana, aes-
thetic descriptions of Natya Sastra, as well as esotericism of yogic/tantric influence. In
its Southern Quadrant, first wave, Krishna’s characteristics and possessions which act as
excitants for lover–devotees are discussed, and nine verses dedicated to his flutes.
Krishna’s flute sound is described as able to penetrate saints’ meditative trances, and
containing all esoteric knowledge. The flutes are of three kinds: venu, murali, and vamsika.
The venu is twelve fingers long, with thumb-thickness, and six holes; the murali has a
pleasing sound, is of two hands length, with five holes including the blowing-pore; vamsika
has nine holes including the mouth-pore, and is seventeen fingers long. Depending on
the distance between the mouth-hole and first note—anything between ten and fourteen
fingers—the flutes are known as Mahananda (most joyous) or Sammohani (enchanter), made
of jewels, the golden Akarshani (attractor), and bamboo-based Anandani (blissful), especially
dear to cowherds (364–72 cited in Haberman 2003, p. 217).
Experienced kirtan musicians, including vocalists, percussionists, and flautists cited
these verses amply in my conversations with them, and unequivocally laid emphasis on
the esoteric connotations of flutes’ numbers of holes. Thus, venu’s six holes correspond to
the body’s chakras (anus, genitalia, navel, chest, throat, middle of eyebrows); murali’s five to
the body’s knowledge-acquiring sensory organs (jnanendriya): eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin
pores; and vamsika’s nine to Bhagavad Gita’s/Mahabharata’s famous nine-doors (navadvara)
or corporeal pores: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, genitalia, anus. In every sense, the flute thus
becomes the body’s mirror. The devotee wishing to imbibe, understand, and become one
with divine breath needs to first empty oneself of vices and ego. Some practitioners, such
as Subir Ray, thus explained that the venu’s six holes also correspond to the six human vices
(ripus): lust, anger, greed, attachment, ego, and envy, which must be emptied for devotional
himself then becomes of the ‘form of the internal sound’, AUM. In this most subtle reading
Religions 2021, 12, 743 then, AUM is no longer conceptualised as sound, but as merging into ether vibration, im- 17 of 23
agined as soundless. There is thus a productive ambivalence between ultimate divinity as

perfection. They should be burned The 15th century with yogic
text Hathayoga asceticism,
Pradipika is considered seminal asfor Yoga
holes are literally grafted
practition-
onto a flute’s bamboo poleintegrating
with sweltering iron Irods,
parallel tantric developments. he
shall briefly said.some
summarise The tantricdevote
ideas of yogi must then
shut all bodily pores and pull up vital life-breath (prana), and with
preme divinity (Para Brahman) is conceptualised as the union of the male principle it, all chakras, focusing
their sensory abilities on Krishna alone. Then, the inner breath-air
feminine energy, prakriti, residing in the body’s base. Their fusion, Nada–Brahman, is the fuses with anahata,
the unstruck, uncaused whirling AUM sound inside, which merges in the middle of the
eyebrows as the nasal drone, ̐ , and the body booms with its flute hum, the yet-unheard
anahata nada transforming into bongshi
, which buzzes intodhvoni (flute
the cosmos with sound).
a nasal droning hum (nada).
Such body–flute mirroring ties the two cultivated vessels as a single entity, fused as
AUM̐
Krishna-lovers, objects of his passionate

thus affection,
signifies the combination of male Ham and becoming
female Sah, which one
together
with
flow in his breath-sound.
Thus, in an instructive verse of itthe

is reversed, soundsSouthern
soham, the body then Quadrant’s second
becoming god (Omkarnathdev 1990,wave,
pp. 16– Bhaktirasamrita
Sindhu says that Krishna’s blowing on the
practitioner’s continuous flute
utterance causes
of AUM, a towhirlwind
feels restless of moist, warm breath
unite with her male counter-
inside the instrument, as also inside
(pungsvarupini) devotees’
(ibid: 35). During her journeyheart–ears, whorebound
upward, a number of sounds spin in thearound in ecstatic
anguish (19, cited in Haberman 2003, p. 239). This exact affective reflection is possible since
fully in the male, the fourth state beyond A-U-M (ibid: 44–45). These sounds are progres-
the devotees’ breath and flute’s
cussions,sound are
roaring clouds, bees,congruous in the1990,
and the flute (Omkarnathdev yogic body;
p. 56). Among in other words, the
these,
body is the flute, receiving divine
Similarly, breath. In the
Hathayoga Pradipika explainstypical
that physical Bengal Vaishnava
senses are controlled by the spirit, however,
it remains ambiguous whetherprecision,themarkingbody–flute
perfect stillness. Theis bodyindistinct
then experiences(abhed) orflowseparate
anahata nada, or of (bhed) from
Krishna; whether Krishna is 1993,inside orandoutside
p. 510). Mind prana becomethe devotee.
still through
15
the breath’s reverse flow to the cra-
text says that bindu is seated at the head’s top back section (sahasrara chakra), and when
6.4. Bongshi Shikkha ergy, and she hisses and rises angrily, impatiently travelling in the converse direction
Bengal Vaishnava oral musical traditions have internalised the textual–philosophical
duced, which flows down to the middle of the eyebrows (ajna chakra) and booms through-
discourses, and a very popular kirtan form is Bongshi Shikkha, or Krishna teaching Radha
The yogi desperately aspires to experience these inner sounds, and his search
how to play the flute. It craftily infuses the aesthetic–yogic theology of Bhagavata Purana’s
tibodhananda 1993, p. 556). The tantric grammarian conception of four levels of emana-
Venu Gita and Gopi Gita, and Bhaktirasamrita Sindhu’s notions of the variously pored flute(s).
I shall summarise the chief narrative structure of Bongshi Shikkha.16
Every Radha–Krishna kirtan-story is preceded by a corresponding episode from Chai-
tanya’s life, since the saint is believed to be the divine form of Radha and Krishna savouring
aesthetic sexual delight within the same body (Stewart 2010). Thus, a typical performance
of Bongshi Shikkha begins with Chaitanya making the fifth flute note’s sound with his
mouth. Radha–Krishna being situated in Chaitanya’s own person, their flute-romance is
fused with his breathing body.
In the kirtan’s second part, the flute is explicitly connected to Krishna’s persona,
indistinguishable from his erotic divinity. Radha curses the flute which has maddened her
auditory pleasures by singing her name, driving her out of home at night to the forest-
bowers, and whose sounds are like the lustful stings of a poisonous snake. She says that
the flute carries Krishna’s magic spell and bites away her worldly attachments. These are
erotic representations of the flute as Krishna’s lustful embodiment, whose passionate fifth
note sings for Radha. The licentious snake reminds of the body’s feminine, serpentine
power, awakened by Krishna-love, and hissing AUM nada. Radha further says that she
and Krishna are located on two banks of the Yamuna river, and the flute invites her to
swim across. Musicians explained that this again is reminiscent of kundalini as Radha
shakti, at one end of the body (anus), moving upward (cranium) to meet Krishna, when she
responds to the flute call. In tantric cosmology, during this reverse direction, the body’s
feminine force embodies spiritual maleness (pungsvarupini) or a transcendental mood away
from material life, in order to become him, or unite in absorption. From Radha’s temper
(paradigmatic for devotees) of intense separation from Krishna, when stimulated by his
flute sound, she gradually apprehends the sense of becoming one with the flute/Krishna.
Radha then asks Krishna the following questions in Bongshi Shikkha—what tune do
you fill in each pore; which pore-tune makes the river Yamuna flow in reverse; which
one attracts Radha like a mad lover; which makes flowers blossom, and which makes
Radha lose her virginity? Krishna asserts that to understand these, she must ‘become him’:
look and dress like him, and be male-(like). He first teaches her about the characteristics
of his three flutes (exactly as described in Bhaktirasamrita Sindhu), and then answers her
questions: the first pore-tune awakens gods; the second causes Yamuna’s reverse flow, its
waters washing Krishna’s feet with love; the third makes winds halt; the fourth drives
Religions 2021, 12, 743 18 of 23
all Vrindavan women crazy with passion; the fifth hole attracts cows; hearing the sixth
pore-note flowers blossom and all seasons assemble; the seventh is so sharp that it melts
stone, and the eighth pore pointedly addresses Radha. This eighth pore sounds the fifth
melody-note with Krishna shutting all holes with his fingers and blowing on the ninth
mouth-hole. This is the counterpart of the body shutting its outlets and turning breath
inward to sound Krishna’s flute-love. The Brihat-Krishnalila-Saravali adds that the flutes also
play according to times of the day. Therefore, the murali plays when Yashoda, Krishna’s
mother, cooks for him, the venu, when he grazes cows, and the nine-holed vamsi, when he
entices women lovers, especially Radha (Ghosh 2018, p. 411).
Krishna confesses to Radha that without understanding the flute, all knowledge
remains facile. After towards alearning the theory
soundless state (ashabda) (49a) which is from
Para-Brahmanhim, when
(47b–48a), Radha physically begins to play
the indestructi-
the flute, Krishna describes
himself then becomes ofhowthe ‘formshe fuses
of the internal exactly
sound’, AUM. In thiswith the
most subtle instrument, her golden fingers
reading
blending with the golden flute; and then as she blows on itsas pores, she literally becomes
agined as soundless. There is thus a productive ambivalence between ultimate divinity
Krishna, he says. Radha
the first then Krishna
strand of imagination, plays plays the fifth
the flute flute
inside the body, andnote, which in turn invites Krishna,
in the second,
as it initially captivated her. On Krishna’s lips it sings for Radha, and vice versa. This
is therefore a mostThenuanced 15th century textnarrative
Hathayoga Pradipikaabout
is consideredthe reflective
seminal equivalence of devotee–flute–
for Yoga practition-
Krishna, recognised integratingby cultivated
parallel tantric developments. bodies assummarise
I shall briefly male–female
some tantric ideas of energies united within itself,
and the flute calling out Radha’s and Krishna’s names
preme divinity (Para Brahman) is conceptualised as the union of the male principle through its fifth note implying
the passionate corporeal bliss within the devotee’s yogic
feminine energy, prakriti, residing in the body’s base. Their fusion, Nada–Brahman, is the body. In tantric terms, this is
essentially aboutfirstbodily vibration, AUM, followed by
male–female vitalities unitedly flowing upwards and throbbing
with breath/ AUM ̐ /flute nada. Radha–Krishna thus unite, and the flute sounds, within
the same corpus, signify complete
, which buzzes into the cosmos blending
with a nasal droning ofhumdevotee–instrument–god,
(nada). while without the
sense of their initial distinctness in the first instance, any aesthetic theology is impossible.
AUM̐
thus signifies the combination of male Ham and female Sah, which together flow in
6.5. Chaitanya Charitamrita
is reversed, it sounds soham, the body then becoming god (Omkarnathdev 1990, pp. 16–
The devotee–flute–divinity
practitioner’s continuous utterance complex of sameness
of AUM, feels restless to unite with her male
and difference also comes alive in
counter-
episodes of Chaitanya Charitamrita. In the fourteenth chapter of its Madhya Lila, an assemble
(pungsvarupini) (ibid: 35). During her journey upward, a number of sounds
rebound in the
of devotees thatfully in the male, the fourth stategopis’

commemorate beyond A-U-Mlove (ibid:for
44–45).Krishna. Chaitanya requests one of them,
These sounds are progres-
King Prataparudra,
cussions, to recite
roaring verses
clouds, bees, from
and the flute Gopi 1990,
(Omkarnathdev Gita (31:9)
p. 56). describing Krishna’s lower lip
Among these,
as filling meaningSimilarly,
in the world
Hathayoga ofexplains
Pradipika words, sound,
that physical senses are and eros,
controlled by thewhile blowing into his flute.
Hearing these verses, Chaitanya
precision, marking perfect stillness. and
The bodydevotees are caught
then experiences anahata nada, or flow ofin ecstasy, their skin oozing
goosebumps, and their
1993, p. 510). Mindeyes,
and pranatears (3–11
become still throughcited
the breath’sinreverse
Stewart 1999, pp. 534–35). In chapter
flow to the cra-
sixteen of Antya text
Lila,says Chaitanya
that bindu is seated at visits
the head’sthe deity
top back sectionJagannath/Krishna
(sahasrara chakra), and when in Puri, and has a vision
of him with a flute on his lips (80). The temple guards then
ergy, and she hisses and rises angrily, impatiently travelling in the converse direction offer him prasad, food offerings
tasted by the deity, and
duced, which flowsits
down nectar-like sweetness
to the middle of the eyebrows completely
(ajna chakra) and booms through- enamour Chaitanya, who
marvels at the taste The leftover
yogi desperately by Jagannath’s
aspires to experience these lips (81–94
inner sounds, and hiscited
search in ibid: 952–53). Returning
home, he keeps meditating
tibodhananda 1993, p.on 556). those
The tantriclips even
grammarian amidst
conception of four his emana- chores, and shares the prasad
daily
levels of
with all devotees, who collectively realise the intoxicating power of anything touched by
Krishna’s adhara (lower lip). Chaitanya then requests a devotee to recite verse 14 of Gopi
Gita, which describes Krishna’s lip-nectar kissed by the flute, thus producing the fifth note
which destroys all suffering and intensifies blissful desire (109 cited in Stewart 1999, p. 953).
Chaitanya also remembers a verse where Radha describes Krishna’s lips as arousing her
tongue’s desire (Govindalilamrta 8.8:10, cited in ibid: 954). Such an intense wish to taste the
taster subtly pre-empts the devotee–god’s dialectic of separation and union, longing and
fusion, since when the tongue locks the lip, the two are both distinct and not, their embrace
however amplifying the pleasures of both.
The devotees (in gopis’ mood) continue to praise Krishna’s lips, which cause everything
to become inverse (113 cited in Stewart 1999, p. 954). This reversal implies devotees’
turning away from material pleasures towards the divine, or the pulling up of breath-
energy within the body from the downward-facing feminine forces, upward towards
cerebral consciousness. Further, devotees sing, the lips make unconscious things conscious,
here referring to the flute, whose sound, Krishna’s breath, and all spiritual meaning fuse,
to constitute rasa (aesthetic essence). The flute thus gains life and sense (115 cited in ibid).
Religions 2021, 12, 743 19 of 23
Sound is thus direct divine eros, and knowledge, aesthetics, taste, and philosophy are
literally breathed through Krishna’s flute.
The text then takes complex turns. As in Gopi Gita and Venu Gita, the devotees are
envious of the flute, which drinks with passion the nectar that they deserve. However,
the flute also challenges them, saying that if they unite with Krishna, leaving their shame,
families, and worldly attachments, then it will give up its position to them. Certain
complications are noteworthy. The flute is literally described as a male entity here, and thus
taking up the flute’s position implies ‘becoming male’ to ‘become the flute’. As discussed
before, becoming male has yogic implications of breath’s reverse flow, carrying kundalini-
energy towards Krishna-cranium, responding to the flute’s call stuck to Krishna’s lip. In
this mood, a devotee recites Venu Gita, verse nine: asking, what kind of austerities, chanting
of mantras, etc. must the flute have performed, to become conscious from unconscious,
and despite being male, enjoy the nectar that women heatedly desire (130–34 cited in
Stewart 1999, pp. 956–57). This clearly directs towards ascetic practices devotees should
cultivate to become the flute, the ‘fruit of such asceticism’ (135 cited in ibid) being divine
erotic breath-sound. While devotees call the flute unworthy of Krishna’s love since it
is inanimate and masculine (134 cited in Stewart 1999, pp. 956–57), paradoxically, they
wish to ‘learn the flute’s ascesis’, in order to realise Krishna (139 cited in Stewart 1999,
p. 958). This contradiction is telling, since while in classical aesthetics, Bengal Vaishnava
devotees cultivate a feminine persona in the sringara (love)-mood to unite with Krishna,
its yogic-tantric temperament also implies the pung-svarupini (male-personified) direction
of one’s feminine identity, or turning from downward facing material energy (prakriti)
towards the upward eternal male consciousness (purush).
A lore recounted in Brihat-Krishnalila-Saravali, the compilation of Bhagavatam’s tenth
part narrative combined with oral traditions, also embodies the flute’s male–female di-
chotomy, through a popular belief. It says that, witnessing Krishna–Radha’s intense love,
the goddess Saraswati is jealous, and desires Krishna’s lip-rasa (taste/aesthetics). She
renounces the heavens to perform severe austerities to achieve this. All scriptures and
sages then lose their abilities of utterance, with the goddess of sound and speech hav-
ing disappeared. She is finally awakened from her concentrated meditation by Vishnu’s
conch-echo, and he promises to keep her within his very own flute. He tells her that she
would obtain his fullest lip-nectar, and only her leftovers shall be consumed by Radha
and other lovers. He adds that she would be present in Vrindavan’s bamboo trees on the
river Yamuna’s banks, from which the flute would be born, and thus always be closest to
Krishna, adorning his hands and mouth. Radha would indeed be bewitched by Saraswati’s
own sonic powers. He then requests her to return to the heavenly world of speech (Ghosh
2018, pp. 411–13). While this narrative may seem contradictory to Chaitanya Charitamrita’s
imagination of the flute as male, yogic imagination ties them. Sound-meditators thus
explained to me that Saraswati is directly representative of feminine kundalini energy,17 the
sleeping conch-like coiled force, who when awakened rises through the anus, navel, chest,
and throat (tantric centres of speech-emanation), sounding her powers, including as speech.
Her ‘rising up’ to Krishna however embodies her male-facedness. In other readings, Radha
herself is the kundalini/Saraswati divinity, deriving her powers from Krishna’s lips, and
sounding purush/transcendence (see below).
Chaitanya Charitamrita thus animates the nuanced interface of devotee–flute difference,
difference-led envy transforming to a yogic/monist sense of ascetic sameness, the body’s
desire to become the flute, and further, the devotee–flute’s intense embroilment with
the divine lips as both different and same (achintya-bhed-abhed), thus alternating between
Krishna as subject blowing on the body–flute, and body–flute as subject tasting Krishna.
This is further compelling since the entire theology is realised by Chaitanya, whose own
body houses the union of Radha–Krishna, and thus the flute–devotee–god. Additionally,
following the Brihat-Krishnalila-Saravali story, Saraswati cannot remain in silent meditation
(ashabda), since that would imply complete monist absorption and no vibration at all, and
thus Narayana requests her to return speech. The devotee/feminine energy must be in an
Religions 2021, 12, 743 20 of 23
always productive relation of sameness and difference with the divine/male energy—like
the flute–lip-lock—to be able to sound incessant cosmic love.
6.6. Oral Traditions

Oral traditions also preserve other direct references to Radha–Krishna–flute vibrations
within the devotee’s body. Therefore, a kirtan percussionist, and a Bengal Vaishnava
practitioner for over sixty years, narrated to me a very rare poem about the flute, which
he had received from his Vrindavan guru. The poem effectively combines yogic/tantric
thematics of sonic metaphysics with Vaishnava devotional affect, by correlating corporeal
locations with aesthetic descriptions about Vrindavan’s places, divinities, and their romance.
Here, kundalini (Radha) travelling up the reverse flow of Yamuna (from lower to upper body
chakras) to meet Krishna, essentially summarises the intense bodily affectivity informing
Bengal Vaishnava flute experiences and demonstrates the Yoga–Tantra-devotion ensemble
of popular thought.
The sharp flute is playing, calling out to Radha
Her eyes are lazy and sleepy (it is night)
On hearing Krishna’s sound, Rai (Radha)-Kundalini is awakened
At the tip of the sahasrara (cranium-chakra), on the banks of Yamuna, the flute plays on
Krishna’s lip-lotus
Attracted by the sound of his incomparable love, all three worlds are maddened
The buzz rushes down to muladhara (anus-chakra), and the yet-sleeping Kundalini-Rai
wakes up
Energised, excited, and with an anxious, awaiting heart, she dashes up towards
Krishna
Slowly, leaving ira on the left, and pingala on the right, and taking up the middle path
of sushumna, she roars in the muladhara18
She responds to nasal flute tones sounding like klim (Krishna’s seed-syllable)
...
Like buzzing bees over sweet flowers
Like the hamsa (AUM) bird in love
Rai passes through svadhishthana (genital-chakra) lotus
...
She comes to manipur (navel-chakra), at the ten-petalled lotus floating on the passion-
lake
...
She enters the heart (chakra) at the twelve-petalled lotus
...
And experiences ecstatic possession
...
She goes up to vishuddha (throat chakra) with other friends
Then reaches agya-pura (middle-of-eyebrows chakra), at the two-petalled lotus where
the tilak (Vaishnava religious sandalwood-mark made on forehead) is drawn
And finally rushes up to sahasrara
Where sitting under a beautiful tree on the river banks, Shyam (Krishna) plays his
bewitching flute
He is like a newly formed, dark, wet cloud, whom Rai embraces like lightning.19
7. Conclusions
Bengal Vaishnavism’s conceptualisation and experience of Krishna’s flute sound lies at
the confluence of yogic, tantric, and aesthetic devotional thought. Unlike yogic traditions of
sonic bodily cultivation in which full emptiness (ashabda)—beyond all sound—is the aspired
goal of the corporeal being, theistic Nada-Yoga traditions understand the ultimate spiritual
experience as transcendental sound. In Bengal Vaishnavism this translates as Krishna
playing his flute. Although Yoga unequivocally situates all levels of sacred experience
Religions 2021, 12, 743 21 of 23
within the body, there is a subtle transition in the final stages of acoustic apprehension. In
the penultimate stage, therefore, the flute is sensed as merged with one’s vital breath-air,
and thus Krishna may be imagined here as situated inside the body, fused with the devotee’s
self, and blowing his flute with/in the practitioner’s whistling breath, sonically tuned to the
fifth flute note. The fourth, transcendental stage, however, refers to perceived/unrealised
vibration, and may be thought of as Krishna, the shining witnessing self, including, though
surpassing levels of physical sensation and cognition, and incessantly blowing on his flute.
This level may thus be understood as within the body, as equally, a macrocosmic force
outside. It is precisely this dialectic of inside–outside, monism–dualism, which drives the
Bengal Vaishnava imaginations of relations among the devotee, flute, and Krishna; best
embodied by Krishna’s lip-lock with his beloved flute, since it is impossible to imagine
whether the entangled lip and flute are separate or indistinct.
Bengal Vaishnava texts thus make effective allusions to yogic notions of oneness:
between devotee–flute through breath-sound relations, devotee–god, and Krishna–flute;
as well as ideas of difference between devotee–flute–god, since for them, the ontology
of difference is most real, and without it, aesthetic relish is impossible. Thus, senses of
indistinction between the devotee and god are as critical as their affective distance. These
debates are recast in narrative forms, as stories of union between Krishna–devotee–flute,
or their intense separation. Classical and popular texts thus have references to Krishna
playing the flute, his inseparable body part, to invite Radha (devotee) to unite with him;
Radha being envious of the privileged flute, essentially separate from her, desiring to
comprehend its ascetic virtues, and then, however, becoming the flute to stick to Krishna’s
lip and receive his warm breath; devotee and flute vying for Krishna’s lip-love, as well as
oral narratives about Radha–Krishna uniting, and the flute then sounding. These varied
narrative instances are also implicit references to yogic practices of asceticism, unifying
cosmic male–female energies inside the body, realising breath-sound translations, the body
becoming the austere/emotive flute, becoming god, etc., as also realising real difference
from them. In yogic/tantric idioms, with the practitioner’s constant utterance of AUM, its
tapering nasal buzz becomes the flute hum (in the anus region) and arouses the body’s
feminine energy to unite with Krishna, and again, in uniting with him, the flute resounds
(in the cranial region). The Gita-described nine-pored body then fuses with the god–flute
(‘madbhavam’ state), and this yogic discourse ties up with Bhagavat’s devotional aesthetics of
the devotee-becoming-full-of-god (‘tat-mayatam’ state) through passionate absorption in his
thoughts, either in separation or union. Yoga and aesthetics, sameness and difference, thus
combine, in the peculiar Bengal Vaishnava theological imagination of achintya-bhed-abhed,
through sophisticated arousals of flute melody.
Funding: This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the
study.
Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.
Notes
1 This is attested by Krishna’s various names: Vamsidhar, Muralidhar, Venugopala, etc., vamsi, venu, murali being names of his
flutes; while names like Mohan (enchanter) and Krishna (all-attractor) embody his desirable flautist self.
2 One of Krishna’s flutes is known as nasajantra, the nose flute, and the 13th century Sanskrit text on music, Sangit Ratnakara, cites
flute-names which correspond to the body’s yogic chakras. See https://www.theosophytrust.org/728-flute (accessed on 27 July
2021).
3 The body’s nine openings are: pair of eyes, ears, nostrils, the mouth, anus, and genitals.
4 In Indian classical music, the fifth note, panchama, is the fifth position (svara) in an octave (saptak) of seven notes, and has a
singular tonal representation, unlike notes which may have different frequencies (komal/tivra).
Religions 2021, 12, 743 22 of 23
5 All references are given later. See also Rupa Goswami’s poem composition describing the flute’s fifth note. http://www.
purebhakti.com/teachers/bhakti-Yoga-masters/775-srila-rupa-gosvami-svarupasanatana (accessed on 27 July 2021).
6 See https://sreenivasaraos.com/2015/04/27/music-of-india-a-brief-outline-part-nine/ (accessed on 27 July 2021).
7 The story recounts that Ram’s bamboo bow became Krishna’s bamboo flute. Bamboo reported to Ram that sage Parashuram had
put up a challenge: the one who would be able to break his bamboo bow into half could marry the great princess of earth, Sita.
Bamboo allowed itself to be broken only by Ram however, and thus united him with Sita in marriage. Ram felt indebted, and so
granted him his wish of always being close to his eternal Narayan form: thus, in his next birth as Krishna, he promised that
bamboo would stick to his intimate lips, sucking divine nectar, and spreading divine pleasure to all (Ghosh 2018, pp. 200–3).
8 Such male–female union is often represented as Shiva–Shakti in later tantric traditions, and Krishna–Radha in Vaishnava ones.
9 See http://www.advaita.it/library/nadabindu.htm (accessed on 27 July 2021).
10 The flute is also mentioned as a higher sound experience in Kaulajnana-Nirnaya by Matsyendranath (14.85–6 cited in Beck 1995,
p. 99), to whose sect belongs the classic Yoga text, Hathayoga Pradipika, discussed below.
11 See also http://www.rupanuga.narod.ru/pdf/gitas_en.pdf (accessed on 27 July 2021).
12 Elsewhere in the text, the gopis express that the flute’s sound nectar has ignited the greatest passions in them (10: 29.34, 40 cited
in Schweig 2005, pp. 26, 35, 37).
13 See also http://www.harekrsna.de/artikel/gopi-gita.pdf (accessed on 27 July 2021).
14 Krishna Virudavali describes the two sparkling earrings on Krishna’s ears as bindu (purush) and visarga (prakriti), with an adenoidal
ring, and his indistinct sweet voice as also nasal in tone (Goswami 1944, p. 44). This denotes Krishna himself as the unified form
of purush-prakriti, and his immediate embodiment, the flute, as ringing anahata nada, or the AUM buzz fading with the nasal
drone.
15 Sahajiya Vaishnavism is a Bengal Vaishnava sect which utilises yogic–tantric methods directly. Their rare texts detailing practices
mention that during yogic pranayama, breath-air violently undulates in the chakra-region between genitals and middle of eyebrows,
since the feminine energy, snake kundalini, then responds to anahata nada sounding as Krishna’s flute in the cranium, and hisses
up to meet him. In Sahajiyas’ fourfold division of corporeal states with accompanying practices and bodily sensations, the final
one (siddhir desh) embodying male–female union and sexual–spiritual bliss, is characterised by the chief ‘excitant’ (uddipan),
bongshi dhvoni, flute-drone, humming in the head (Chakrabarti 1940, pp. 11, 21; Das n.d., p. 125).
16 An example of a Bongshi Shikkha episode may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtDP7j1Rbg (accessed on
27 July 2021).
17 The mantric seed-syllable corresponding to the worship of both kundalini and Saraswati is oing.
18 There are three main spinal channels in the yogic anatomy: ira, pingala, and the main central, purified nerve, sushumna, through
which the practitioner pulls up vital breath. All chakras along the spinal cord are imagined as lotuses with specific numbers of
petals.
19 Tantra texts like Guru Gita (part of Visvasara Tantra), also describe kundalini as the most subtle lightning-like illuminated serpentine
force, which coils at the spinal base, and shoots up through the body (Saraswatananda 2015, p. 52).
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religions

Academic Editor: Guy Beck 1. Introduction

Religions 2021, 12, 743. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090743 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions

1.2. The Textual Matter

2. Aesthetic Context of Outer Flute Sounds

dedicated to four kinds of apparatuses: stringed (chordophones), covered/percussion

3. Spiritual Context of Inner Flute Sounds

resonates with Natya Sastra’s/Abhinavabharati’s description of the flute (vamsi) as having

kettledrum, tabor, and roaring himselfclouds

̐ sound (nada) whose

These aspects are further developed in Amrta-Nadopanisad, another Yoga Upanishad,

(nada). AUM ̐ thus signifies the , which combination

flow is reversed,AUM̐ it soundsthe body’s soham,

3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy

Religions 2021, 12, 743 3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy 12 of 23

pp. 81–91). theItbody’s generates

Upanishads, Gita, and

Religions 2021, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 23

The complex towardsnarrative

flute beinghimself playedthen becomes inside

6.1. Bhagavatam: Venu Gita

6.2. Bhagavatam: Gopi Gita

6.3. Bhaktirasamrita Sindhu

3.2. The Yogic–Tantric Anatomy

Krishna-lovers, objects of his passionate

Thus, in an instructive verse of itthe

of devotees thatfully in the male, the fourth stategopis’

6.6. Oral Traditions

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Weblinks referred to (in order of appearance):

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