The sounds of Divine Harmony

“When I first heard the Bells, I was frozen to the spot and started seeing images of ancient Russia,” says Vera. “I was fascinated by the sound of this instrument that gave me the experience of plunging deep within and soaring high above at the same time, almost transporting me to another dimension. It was ‘love from the first sound’.”

Vera invited Alexander to come to Auroville to create a set of plates here. They were presented to the Auroville community on the 22nd of December 2007. Since then, Vera has been giving many public concerts at different places in and around Auroville and, in the last few years, in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and the USA.

“To learn to play them properly was a big challenge. Since the instrument is unique, there is no school for it. I had to discover everything on my own. I learned to enter a state of inner silence first, and afterwards to start playing. It was not easy. But I got a lot of encouragement from Aurovilians.”

Since then, the Bells have been used on many collective occasions, such as at the Dawn bonfire on the 40th anniversary of Auroville, for the re-dedication ceremony of the International Zone, and for the opening ceremony of the Hall of Peace.

Vera feels that this instrument can contribute immensely to collective harmony. Over the last three years she has been researching this subject in her ‘Tuning to Harmony with the Russian Singing Bells’ workshops. She distributes one plate to each participant, and suggests they create harmonious music together, following their inner sense of beauty.

“We focus on exploring the feeling of being ‘in concert’. We first learn to tune to something deep within and then express it through sound. And gradually joining these inner sounds, we come to a musical interaction. Each one is intuitively finding a proper place for his sound, according to his inner feeling of beauty. This adds to the totality of harmony.”

The experience, she says, is overwhelming each time. “It brings a very joyful widening of consciousness, as one needs to play and listen at the same time, to be true to one’s own tone as well as to accept, appreciate and provide space for the tones of other fellow beings. We tangibly experience what it is to be truly One Human Instrument.” For her, this is the message this instrument brings to the collective experiment of Auroville: “Each one of us vibrates with a special tone, and however soft or loud, delicate or prominent, high or deep, each is indispensable for the total harmony. We just need to remember a few simple things to let the Harmony manifest through us.”

There is a passage in Sri Aurobindo’s The Life Divine which describes the experience, says Vera. “He writes how the divine soul, conscious of its oneness with the Supreme and with other souls, would experience life: ‘all these selves and their relations will play consciously into each other’s hands; they will part and melt into each other as the numberless notes of an eternal harmony.’”

Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother said that music is one of the important means for spiritual education. Vera recalls the Mother’s wish for an auditorium in Auroville with a grand organ, where music is constantly played for anybody to come and listen. As She said to Satprem, “And this music was like a Consciousness coming down and exerting a Pressure on people to make itself understood. It was very beautiful l – I hope it will be like that! Much better than words.”

Vera now has started two projects. One is the creation of a Bell of Peace for the International Zone, which Alexander Zhikharev has agreed to make. “It is much needed in the actual world situation,” says Vera. The other project is more ambitious: to create a proper place in Auroville for the Russian Singing Bells, “a specially designed acoustic theatre, a Sacred Sound Space, where listeners would be immersed in harmonious and healing musical vibrations. And not only to receive passively a special musical experience, but also to get a chance to participate in the creation of Harmony, to learn to play and be together in Harmony, with the help of these sounds that are so conducive to inner silence, meditation, contemplation and expression of deep inner feelings.” These projects are gradually developing. A fundraising campaign for the Bell of Peace has already taken off.

For more information about this project and the Sacred Sound Space visit www.Russian-Singing-Bells.com