09.14: Love is in the SOUND

The Bhagavad-gita (9.14) states that advanced spiritualists express their devotion by constantly speaking and singing about Krishna. This indicates that they plug in to the power of sacred sound to further their devotional advancement. In fact, sacred sound is one of the primary ways to express and experience divine love. Among all sacred sounds, the sound of the holy name is the most potent. The characteristics of the sound of the holy name can be expressed as the acronym SOUND:

S: Satisfying: Unlike material sounds that leave us bored if we repeat them too many times, the sound of the holy name makes us increasingly satisfied when we repeat it more and more.

O: Omnipotent: Krishna has invested all his supreme power in his holy name and thus it has the power to break what the most powerful nuclear bomb can’t break: the shell of ignorance and selfishness around our soul that obstructs our spiritual potential from unfolding.

U: Universal: The sound of the holy name can attract and transform the hearts of all people everywhere, because it acts at the universal level of the soul that transcends all sectarian barriers of language, culture, nationality and even religion.

N: Non-material: The holy name is itself spiritual and its chanting invokes and activates subtler, non-material energies that originate in the spiritual grace of Krishna.

D: Direct: As Krishna is non-different from his holy name, we directly contact Krishna through the sound of his holy name. That’s why the more we tune ourselves devotionally to the sound of the holy name, the more we realize and relish the direct presence and love of Krishna