Hinduism Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for followers of the Hindu religion and those interested in learning more about Hinduism. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I heard several times of the word Vibrations what does it mean?
People say, some temples like Tirumala, Srikalahasthi etc are so powerful because of the vibrations present there. What does it mean?
What are vibrations and what is their significance?
Can vibrations be created by chanting mantras, realizing the self, thinking about God etc?
How can these vibrations protect us?
The great God-realized yogis place great emphasis on vibrations.
What are the vibrations?
Vibrations are some the manifestation of the supreme Sound of God (Aum). This Aum vibration exists at all times and is the seed of creation.
Sri Krishna says in the Gita (8:13) that it is one of the ways to attain the Ultimate Goal.
oḿ ity ekākṣaraḿ brahma
vyāharan mām anusmaran
yaḥ prayāti tyajan dehaḿ
sa yāti paramāḿ gatim
The one who chants the Eternal mono-syllable OM, the vibration of Brahman, constantly remembering Me, leave their body and attain the Supreme Goal.
From this Aum come all other vibrations.
Sri Madhvacharya states in his commentary for Gita verse 17:23:
In all creation His transcendental sound vibration OM is the root of all sounds and all pervasively always vibrating within and without.
This is what Swami Paramhansa Yogananda says about vibrations (Taken from Cosmic Chants by Paramahansa Yogananda):
Sound or vibration is the most powerful force in the universe. Music is a divine art, to be used not only for pleasure but as a path to God-realization. Vibrations resulting from devotional singing lead to attunement with the Cosmic Vibration
The fact that all vibrations link back to the Cosmic Vibration (AUM) gives it their supreme power.
Chanting sincerely naturally attunes one to the Real Self, by cleaning the senses and mind of unnecessary fears and thoughts!
Shri Adi Shankarcharya says this about chanting the Gayatri Mantra:
Sarvabudhi samgnanthah karana prkashakah sarva sakshi prethyagathma iti uccyathe
By praying, chanting the Gayatri, all the inner organs, Gnanedriyas, Mans, Buddhi, Chitta and the Para Brahman in the Form of Witness reveal themselves,the first four being cleaned by the Gayathri.
This is how chanting can be made powerful as said by Sri Yoganandaji (Taken from Cosmic Chants by Paramhansa Yogananda):
Holding the attention unbrokenly on the real Cosmic Vibration, Aum or Om, not on an imaginary or an outward sound, is the beginning of real superconscious chanting.
About how can these vibrations protect us, Yoganandaji says (Taken from Cosmic Chants by Paramhansa Yogananda):
Words that are saturated with sincerity, conviction, faith, and intuition are like highly explosive vibration bombs that have power to remove the rocks of difficulties and to create the change desired.
Basically saying that this superconscious attuning to the Divine Force or AUM causes removal of difficulties.
But how can a vibration remove difficulties or protect or guide or reach God? Sri Ramakrishna says (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, page 370-371 excerpts available):
The sound OM is Brahman. The rishis and sages practiced austerity to realize that Sound-Brahman. After attaining perfection one hears the sound of this eternal Word rising spontaneously from the navel. "'What will you gain', some sages ask, 'by merely hearing this sound?' You hear the roar of the ocean from a distance. By following the roar you can reach the ocean. As long as there is the roar, there must also be the ocean. By following the trail of OM you attain Brahman, of which the Word is the symbol. That Brahman has been described by the Vedas as the ultimate goal."
He is in other words saying it is like a trail. The sound allows you to naturally calm your mind, your restlessness (which is the root of all evil) and make it easy for you to listen to the voice of the Divine.
This might answer some of the questions:
Everything in this creation has certain vibrations. Each animal is connected to the macrocosm and brings down a particular type of cosmic ray into the planet, that manifests particular vibrations. The gods are all depicted as riding on different vahanas (vehicles) -- elephants attract the vibrations specific to Ganesha; tigers, the Devi vibrations; peacocks attract the vibrations of Lord Subramanya. Today scientists say, even if one animal species becomes extinct on the planet, the planet cannot survive. This is what our ancient people also said. So honour and respect every creature on the planet because God is present in every atom of creation. The whole creation is filled with consciousness, filled with knowledge. You are nothing but a particular vibration, a wave function, a frequency. Your body is emitting vibrations or energy all the time. You are losing energy and gaining energy from the cosmos. There is a continuous flow and every cell in your body is changing. You are exchanging energy all the time. Your consciousness is also a wave function and it has so many possibilities, so many avenues. It is like the sun. When the sun shines in your window, you can’t say, ‘Oh I have captured the sun!’ The same sun will be there in the neighbour’s window as well, and all over the world. So the sun is here totally and there also totally. And you are just a vibration. As the body you can’t be everywhere, but as consciousness you can be in many places. If you have touched a flower, your vibrations have gone into the flower. So the whole universe is a field of consciousness. Many times you meet someone and you feel that you should stay away from them. And with some other person, you feel like meeting them more frequently. Many times, you wonder why someone dislikes you. We are unable to understand this. This is because of our vibrations. Most of what we convey to people is simply by our presence. Through speech whatever is conveyed is on the next level, but first the vibrations in our presence influence others. We have to change our vibrations, make them more positive by doing meditation and pranayama. Vedanta and Buddhism talk about the same thing; both talk about that inner consciousness, only in a slightly different way. The emptiness in Buddhism is the fullness in Vedanta, that matter and everything is vibrations, and these vibrations keep changing, and it can change our life. It can bring what we desire or what we want for us. Every day, for ten minutes meditate and become hollow and empty. If someone is getting annoyed, just say, ‘Hey! Wave function! The frequency has changed.’ If someone is happy, they have a different frequency. If there is jealousy, ‘Oh, they have changed to third frequency.’ If someone is upset, or depressed, ‘frequency has changed again.’ Would anyone be upset about the changing frequencies? No. So see everybody as nothing but frequencies. Then nothing will touch you. Enjoy the variety, enjoy the diversity and don’t lose your smile.
From an article by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
