por Narayanashram Austria, sexta, 17 de Agosto de 2012 às 16:42 ·
Sri Sri Guru Gaurangau Jayatah!
Lack of education can turn good things into nightmares.
Lack of education about the effects of noise can turn worship into acoustic torture...
Over the years, most devotees must have personally and painfully encountered the brutal destructive force of loud noise. There are those individuals who are willing to "sacrifice" their hearing ability and there are those who aren´t. Without entering a fundamentalist discussion about the question to whom our bodies belong, let me assume that certainly there is no shastric evidence for the necessity to physically hurt oneself or others in order to come closer to Krishna.
Noise is noise, be it hellish or divine noise, the human ear does not discriminate if the sound pressure of 130dB comes from karatalas and wompers or from Heavy Metal guitars. In both cases, the physical organ is destroyed, often gradually over prolonged periods without the hearing loss being noticed.
Gauranga Mahaprabhu has left us the divine heritage of Sankirtan, but He did not leave us instructions about indiscriminate and ragged indoor use of instruments which were originally built for outdoors, nor any instructions about abusing the modern boon of PA systems by turning them up to maximum amplification to the point of distortion.
Let me state that this topic is NOT about personal preferences! Nobody would dare call it a "question of personal taste" if it is good or bad to knock down or stab others... Why then do so few devotees realize that loud noise IS physical assault? It is no LIKE physical assault, it IS assault. Abusing the ears of others with loud musical noise is one of the worst types of aggression, because it is so rarely recognized and categorized as such! Why? Because musical noise, from cradle to coffin, for most people simply is associated with joy and fun. And isn´t it fun to be in a group, ecstatically chanting the Holy Name to the point of exhaustion? Yes, we all give in to it, very often crossing the threshold and borders which nature has established for humans and their sense of hearing. But truly, many times the "ecstasy" experienced in this way is artificially induced, does not last, and for many devotees, old and young, simply serves as a substitute for sense gratification otherwise “forbidden” or suppressed. And we all know there is a down side to the joy of sense gratification, acoustic gratification included!
The fact that this important and frequently recurring theme is being carelessly wiped away by high authorities in many Vaishnava Sangas (in India and worldwide) with shrugging shoulders and pitiful smiles, should make us all think deep, VERY DEEP!!!
This problem certainly is not unique to Vaishnava circles. Acoustic pollution has grown into a global threat. It´s only the nonchalance with which the majority of people on this earth (including devotees) "deal" with it, that is scary. Instead of being part of the problem, spiritually awakening individuals should quickly find and thoroughly apply ways to be PART OF THE SOLUTION! Please make yourselves knowledgeable about this and spread the word widely, really widely. Here is an article from a 1994 (!!!) ISKCON magazine called "Hope This Meets You in Good Health". So obviously this issue is not new.
http://ebooks.iskcondesiretree.info/pdf/ISKCON_Health_and_Welfare_Ministry/ISKCON_Health_and_Welfare_Ministry_-_01.pdf
.
Lack of education can turn good things into nightmares.
Lack of education about the effects of noise can turn worship into acoustic torture...
Over the years, most devotees must have personally and painfully encountered the brutal destructive force of loud noise. There are those individuals who are willing to "sacrifice" their hearing ability and there are those who aren´t. Without entering a fundamentalist discussion about the question to whom our bodies belong, let me assume that certainly there is no shastric evidence for the necessity to physically hurt oneself or others in order to come closer to Krishna.
Noise is noise, be it hellish or divine noise, the human ear does not discriminate if the sound pressure of 130dB comes from karatalas and wompers or from Heavy Metal guitars. In both cases, the physical organ is destroyed, often gradually over prolonged periods without the hearing loss being noticed.
Gauranga Mahaprabhu has left us the divine heritage of Sankirtan, but He did not leave us instructions about indiscriminate and ragged indoor use of instruments which were originally built for outdoors, nor any instructions about abusing the modern boon of PA systems by turning them up to maximum amplification to the point of distortion.
Let me state that this topic is NOT about personal preferences! Nobody would dare call it a "question of personal taste" if it is good or bad to knock down or stab others... Why then do so few devotees realize that loud noise IS physical assault? It is no LIKE physical assault, it IS assault. Abusing the ears of others with loud musical noise is one of the worst types of aggression, because it is so rarely recognized and categorized as such! Why? Because musical noise, from cradle to coffin, for most people simply is associated with joy and fun. And isn´t it fun to be in a group, ecstatically chanting the Holy Name to the point of exhaustion? Yes, we all give in to it, very often crossing the threshold and borders which nature has established for humans and their sense of hearing. But truly, many times the "ecstasy" experienced in this way is artificially induced, does not last, and for many devotees, old and young, simply serves as a substitute for sense gratification otherwise “forbidden” or suppressed. And we all know there is a down side to the joy of sense gratification, acoustic gratification included!
The fact that this important and frequently recurring theme is being carelessly wiped away by high authorities in many Vaishnava Sangas (in India and worldwide) with shrugging shoulders and pitiful smiles, should make us all think deep, VERY DEEP!!!
This problem certainly is not unique to Vaishnava circles. Acoustic pollution has grown into a global threat. It´s only the nonchalance with which the majority of people on this earth (including devotees) "deal" with it, that is scary. Instead of being part of the problem, spiritually awakening individuals should quickly find and thoroughly apply ways to be PART OF THE SOLUTION! Please make yourselves knowledgeable about this and spread the word widely, really widely. Here is an article from a 1994 (!!!) ISKCON magazine called "Hope This Meets You in Good Health". So obviously this issue is not new.
http://ebooks.iskcondesiretree.info/pdf/ISKCON_Health_and_Welfare_Ministry/ISKCON_Health_and_Welfare_Ministry_-_01.pdf
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