Anahat Nād; Anahat Naad Unstruck Sound:
Cosmic Sound (अनहत नाद)
Anahat Nād (अनहत नाद): A lot of Guru Siyag's disciples experience the Anahat Nād. We have been asked a number of times what it is and what its experience implies. Below is a brief note on this topic (courtesy GSY disciple Jui Pagedar).
Nād (नाद) in the ordinary sense means sound of any kind. It is created when one object touches, strikes, ruffles or hits another object. Thunder in the sky, rustling of the wind, chirping of birds, strains of instrumental vocal music, whirring of machines, blast of guns, and many other natural or man-made sounds fall in this category of physical sound.
The term Nād however has a different and special connotation in Yogic literature and practice. Nād in spiritual sense is an unstruck sound — a sound which has not been created by the friction between any objects. It is a ceaseless sound which pervades the entire universe. According to ancient scriptures like the Vedas and the Upanishads, it is from this Anahat (eternal / endless) sound that the entire universe came into being. In fact it is also said that Nād is the manifestation of the divine absolute itself in the form of sound, ‘Om’. It is this divine sound that connects the seeker with higher planes of consciousness. 
Many Guru Siyag’s Yoga practitioners, after experiencing the Ajapā Jāpa (involuntary chanting) stage begin to hear a peculiar non-stop sound in one of the ears. This sound resembles any one of the limitless varieties of natural or manmade sounds. Some of the commonly experienced sounds are: chirping of crickets, buzzing of bumble-bees, notes of a flute, strumming of Veena (a stringed Indian musical instrument), pealing of bells, clash of cymbals etc. This sound that the practitioner hears is called the Anahat Nād (endless sound).
Though this Nād resembles sounds commonly heard in our physical world, it is actually a subtle version of the divine sound that the mantra given by Gurudev represents (Vaikhari Vāni वैखरी वाणी or the articulated word is the grossest form of divine sound energy). So the practitioner actually becomes aware of (or senses) rather than hears the Nād.
As the Nād is a subtler form of Gurudev’s mantra, and it is always the seeker’s endeavor to ascend to subtler planes of consciousness,the practitioner must stop chanting once the Anahat Nād begins. Before one stops chanting, it is important to ensure that the Nād can indeed be heard ceaselessly and is not a brief experience. Listen to the sound carefully for a couple of days. If the intensity of sound grows and can be even in a noisy environment, then know that what you hear is the Anahat Nād. Gurudev advises disciples to listen to this Nād intently as much as possible.
By listening to the Nād with concentration for long periods, the practitioner’s wavering mind gets attuned to the divine sound and eventually becomes one with it. During meditation, the human body acts as the medium for receiving and experiencing vibrations from subtle planes that lie far beyond our physical world. Therefore, Nād that a seeker hears in his ear is not a physical sound but a subtle sound emanating from its original divine source.
The significance of Nād can be seen in the context of Gurudev’s lucid explanation of how an individual’s spiritual evolution is directly linked to the descent of the divine into matter when the universe was created through ‘Om’, the unstruck sound. The creation of the physical universe happened through five sequential stages when Om, the divine itself, descended from Ākāsh (sky/ ether), the highest plane, through Vāyu (wind), Agni (fire) and Jal (water) onto Prithvi (earth). Each one of the five descending elements represented a grosser form of the divine than the previous one. Prithvi represents the grossest form of matter where the divine settles down and assumes myriad forms — from human to the tiniest of insects and germs.
There is a subtle element called Tanmātra behind each natural element. These Tanmatras give us our five physical senses. Thus sky has Shabd (speech), the divine word or sound as a subtle element; wind has Sparsh (touch); fire has perception (seeing); water has Swād (taste) and earth has Gandh (smell). These physical senses tie us down to the material plane as a result of which we forget our true divine self and get mired in the illusion of joys and sorrows.
May you live a long and healthy life!
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