THE FOUR MODES of SOUND VIBRATION

Shiksha or the science of sound explains how vibratory processes create our holographic universe, and this is experienced and made known to us through nada yoga, the yoga of sound. For thousands of years the study of sound and the ever moving processes of vibration that create, sustain and unfold the universe in all its aspects and expressions has been a major part of all Vedic schools of learning. From yoga to grammar, from philosophy to sound yoga, from health and healing to meditation and Self-Realization, each school of learning had its own understanding of the four modes of sound, leading to a rich and varied tapestry of wisdom about how sound and vibration works across the entire gamut of human experience. In the Rk Veda Hymn of Creation, the foundation of Vedic creation wisdom, it is said: “Speech is measured out in four worlds. Three hidden in the deepest cavern cause no motion. Mankind gives utterance to the fourth.” 
We use the fourth mode through our speech and all audible sounds we make and hear, including words and writing. This is what we normally think of as sound, but in reality is just one of the four modes of sound vibration. 
The other three modes of sound are ‘hidden’ from our everyday mind-set and waking state of consciousness, beyond audible sound and words. These three modes of sound are found in Nada Yoga and shiksha (the science of sound), where sound is understood to be both the source of matter, and the key to become free from it. 
As the Bhagavad Gita says: ‘One who thoroughly understands the four modes of sound can utilize this science to become free from the bondage of matter.’  
This becoming ‘free from the bondage of matter,’ means we are not limited to the body and the laws of our space-time universe. When we experience how matter is made of vibrations, and the four different modes of vibration that underpin this, we have the ability to change the vibratory rate of any object, including ourselves. 
As we do this, we vibrate in and out of different dimensions of existence, as many stories about evolved beings in many traditions have showed us. This freedom to escape our bodily limits is commonly experienced today in the practices of astral travel and remote viewing, and in technology through virtual reality. 
As the Bhagavad Gita continues, "Sound conveys the idea of an object, indicates the presence of a speaker, and constitutes the subtle form of space." Quantum physics now confirms that it is from vibrating waves that all objects appear; waves vibrate objects into existence. Objects are actually waves, and it is not matter vibrating but the wave itself that is vibrating. 
We can understand this through the four modes of sound. Without sound vibration, there are no objects. Sound vibration gives rise to the form of every object. Every sound has a form and every form has a sound. As the Vedic texts tell us, when one is mentally clear and in a state of silence, and then looks at any form, the sound vibration of that form will become clear to you. This is called ritambhara pragna, which means you perceive forms as sounds.’   
Sound conveys the idea of an object by bringing many sounds together in groups, known as a harmonic cluster of frequencies. These groups naturally form through waves meeting each other in their different wave planes, and reflecting off each other. These points of intersection are where the harmonic clusters congregate, and then our senses perceive objects from these clusters. 
Everything in creation passes through the four stages of sound vibration, and some of these vibrational patterns then manifest into the third dimension to become a physical object.  As the Bhagavad Gita continues, ‘sound ..... indicates the presence of a speaker,” which arises through the element of space. Space is the foundational and fluid element in which sound first arises, which forms our capacity to hear and speak. Space is the medium for all waves to move through, and waves are the medium for sound vibration. 
All good composers know that the ‘space’ between notes and musical phrases creates a certain atmosphere and feeling, and is as important as the notes of the music itself. This is mirrored in meditation and mindfulness practices, where one rests in the space between thoughts and where one rests in the space between breaths, in order to enter a deep peaceful state ‘no mind’ state of Theta brainwaves. 
Similarly, mantras used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide everyday focus on the space after completing the mantra, resting in this space (and the energy generated by the mantra) in order to enter a deeper spaciousness and access the next higher mode of vibration. 
THE FOUR MODES IN THE VEDIC TRADITION
The four modes of vibration all arise from Para, the Supreme or ‘the beyond.’ This first soundless, silent being gives rise to and generates all other vibrational states, sounds, qualities and movements of creation. It is the Source of Creation. 
This is known as the ‘Word’, as called by St John in the Bible, or Para-vak: the Voice Beyond or Supreme Voice. This first ‘Word’ or First Speaker of the Creator is from where all forms, sounds and functions unfold as Para Vak-the Supreme Speech and ultimate creative power. Para Vak is a telepathic transmission from the Voice of the Creator, an imprint of Supreme Consciousness, a beginning-less and endless state of being that is the basis of creation. 
Para births the three other modes of vibration through Para-spanda (the supreme pulse wave) the constant humming vibration within all life, a vibratory wave flowing through everything in creation, including our bodies and minds, as the Word borne from Silence. 
As Para expresses into manifestation, Pasyanti, literally meaning “Seeing,’ ‘Pure Perceiving’ or ‘Visual Sound’ is birthed. Pasyanti is the first perception or seeing of creation, where you can perceive anything and everything in creation instantly for what it is and what it could be, as well as its true form, its true sound vibration and its true function. When you Know this about any form or object in creation, you have the ability to summon it, change it, and bend it to your will. 
Pasyanti also occurs when you instantly Know something that transforms you, that changes your perceptions, beliefs and life, in a Lightning Flash of Insight and revelation. Pasyanti is where the Vedas, Kabbalah, and many Buddhist sutras were transcribed from Para in a holographic revelation. In Greece Pasyanti was known as hesychia, where messages from the gods were revealed to humans known as heroes. In esoteric Christianity, this seeing is known as Gnosis. 
Pasyanti is visual sound, beyond what the eyes and senses can perceive. It is an instantaneous holographic communication where whole volumes of wisdom are downloaded into a person in a few seconds.  Thus, the hymns and mantras of the Vedas were ‘seen’ by the Rishis, and placed into collections of mandalas that are the visual sounds of the Vedas. 
Pasyanti is the mode of vibration where word and object are identical, and where any apparent division between subject and object does not exist. Pasyanti is a blissfully ecstatic consciousness in its peak state. When it flows through us, it can produce sounds that come out of Para. When this happens, it transforms ourselves and the people around us. 
Pasyanti is a laser like coherent perception of pure consciousness exquisitely and precisely focused, clear and potent. One way it has been traditionally accessed in India is by generating the inner fire of tapas in tapasya –deep one pointed meditations over periods of time. This concentrated, focused, harnessed fire of one pointed will, desire and intention is a subtle inner fire that becomes refined to such a degree that it can penetrate anything, see anything and know anything. In pasyanti you come to penetrate and understand something so totally you become it, or you Become something instantly, so you then come to totally understand it. 
As Pasyanti steps down its vibration, madhyama, the bridge, interface or translator, is birthed. Madhyama translates vibrational waves into forms accessible and usable to us. It is the bridge between the 95% of reality beyond the senses and the 5% of reality we see, hear, touch, taste and smell.  
It is a bridge between the waking state of consciousness we normally operate on, and the 90% we use in altered states of consciousness. It is a bridge between the 5% of DNA we normally operate with, and the 95% that lies buried in the twisted loops of our ‘junk’ DNA. Madhyama is a ‘mediator   that converts vibrations into objects in time and space through the image-making power of the mind. The objective time/space world, the dreamy subjective world of dreams, hallucinations and visions . . . are examples of the ability of the mind to convert vibrations into wriggles into patterns we call images.  In madhyama, we communicate through the image making power of pictures, shapes, symbols, geometry, optical illusions, Reiki chi symbols, vivid poetry and metaphors, all of which convert vibrations into wriggles into patterns we call images. One picture is worth a thousand words, or as Aristotle shares, ‘the soul thinks in pictures.’
The capacity to do this bridges different levels of consciousness. Madhyama is where the true medicine of sound healing lies, as do many other modalities of vibrational medicine and energy healing. 
Madhyama is known in cognitive psychology as the adaptive unconscious, “an interface between the 5% of our brains that act mainly from habit, and the vast pool of unconscious power within us.”  This interface, according to Gerald Zaltman of Harvard Business School, is mythological and metaphorical in nature, responding to interior images and symbols rather than rational thought.
The fourth mode of Vaikhari is the final expression of Para that is now moving through our speech and words. Our speech is designed to act as a conduit for the ‘Word’ of Para, to be an echo of the Word in human form of Source expressing itself. 
Speech and words are our most widely used mode of communication through audible sounds and written words, relying on the senses for their communication, and are our most powerful tool to create with, our very first instrument of expression and the origin of all music. 
Vaikhari completes the universal hologram by bringing the soundless sound of Para into manifestation through us. We are the end result of the universal creative process, and we are designed to express this totally. 
Excerpt taken from ‘The Science of Sound’’ by Padma Prakasha. (O Books 2023).