Abstract

In Sanskrit, ragas mean ‘to colour’, so, ragas color the mind with feelings, moods, and emotions. Every raag creates a unique sound which soothes and pleases the mind and soul. It is important to use Indian Classical music for therapy in such a manner, that the common man finds it rejuvenating after an entire day of hard work and helps them to regain the lost energy after a good night’s sleep. This research paper addresses the issue whether listening to raags before sleeping at night has an impact on the quality of sleep as well as on the subconscious mind because the root cause of many psychosomatic diseases lies in the subconscious. This research paper studies the therapeutic effects of listening to raags before sleeping in a qualitative experimental study format for ten subjects between the age group of 25 to 40 years. These subjects were asked some questions, on the basis of which, they were suggested to listen to a particular raag before sleeping for eleven days for any particular mental or physical health ailment they were experiencing. Almost all the subjects experienced better sleep and renewed energy and some of them also experienced the impact of listening to raags before sleep on their subconscious mind in the form of dreams they had during sleep.

Introduction:

A raag is a unique set of notes that create a sound which soothes and pleases the mind and soul (Patwardhan, 2017). Raags have this unique characteristic that every raag is a different set of musical notes which create a particular emotion in the mind and a change in even a single note makes a change in the emotion, feeling or passion of the raga. Ever since the 5^th century, this unique relationship between sound and emotion has been explored. There are certain raags which are sung during a particular season, for e.g. Raag Bahar is sung during the spring season. There are raags which are sung at a certain time of the day or night for e.g. Raag Darbari Kanhada is sung during midnight, because of the emotions associated with this raag (Sanivarapu, 2015).

In Sanskrit, ragas mean ‘to colour’, so, ragas color the mind with feelings, moods, and emotions. The mood of each raag and the time/ season linked with it, is mentioned in the ancient text of Natya Shastra by BharatMuni. Initially eight emotions were proposed by Bharat Muni namely love, fear, anger, laughter, pathos, enthusiasm, disgust, and wonder. In the tenth century AD, a new emotion was added by Abhinav Gupta, the ‘shantaras’ or the emotion of calmness or peacefulness (Nizamie, 2014).Each raag is primarily dominated by one rasa or emotion. Ragas depicting devotional or sad moods use more flat notes, whereas, ragas with a happier and joyous nature use more natural notes. There is a primary and secondary note used while singing/ playing every raag. The primary and secondary note along with the ornamentation of the raga (notes that are skipped, or shadow notes), is what gives the raga its emotional character (Mathur, 2020).

Similarly, in seasonal raags like Raag Bahar and Raag Malhar, notes of both the raags are the same; however they depict different seasons and sound different. The spring season sets in after the winter season (which is a dull season, without any sunlight and the weather is also very cold), and brings with it some mild sunlight, and new flowers also start blooming. This creates enthusiasm and a new kind of energy. So, Raag Bahar is sung on higher notes and sentences will be quick. Raag Malhar depicting the monsoon season comes after summers, when sunlight is very sharp, wind is very warm and the weather is extremely hot). So, the monsoon season after the hot summer season brings in alot of relief and calmness. So, Raag Malhar, which is sung during the monsoon season, is mostly sung on lower notes and thus gives a sense of calmness that one feels when it rains. (Kamat, 2024)

Research Problem:

Indian Classical Music in present times is confined to Music scholars and families where music is being learnt since generations. It is important to use Indian Classical music for therapy in such a manner, that the common man finds it rejuvenating after an entire day of hard work and helps them to regain the lost energy after a good night’s sleep. The rasa of a raag is its soul. This can be clearly described with the help of the difference between certain raags. For example, in Raag bhairavi, flat or komal notes gradually unfold depicting the freshness of the early morning sun that creates freshness in the mind of a person who has just woken up. Raag Poorvi, showcases the enfolding of flat notes in such a manner that it creates a feeling that one usually feels during evening time, when the sun is setting and the mind is tired. (Ghosh, 2018). Thus, this research paper puts forward certain research problems like the therapeutic aspect of Indian Classical Music is purposeful in everyday life. Indian Classical Music needs to be used in a manner that is beneficial to every person irrespective of their background in Classical music. This research paper also addresses the issue whether listening to raags has an impact on the subconscious mind as the root cause of many psychosomatic diseases lies in the subconscious.

Objectives of the Study:

This research paper aims to study the effect of listening to Indian Classical Music raags before sleeping on the sleep quality and subconscious mind of people between the age group of 25 to 40 years.

Relevance of the Study:

There is no word in English language that is the exact equivalent of the word ‘rasa’. Whenever we do some activity in our life, we do it with an intention to get something, for example, we eat food to enjoy its taste. However, Rasa in Indian Classical music can be best described as ‘a feeling par excellence’ or is something that gives the listener a flavour or emotion without any loss of mental or physical well- being.  For example, if eating junk food gives us joy, it also gives us pain later on in the form of health ailments. However, listening, singing or playing Classical music has several therapeutic benefits and no side- effects at all.

Bharat mentioned four basic rasas in his book ‘Natyashastra’ and those were – Sringara, Raudra, Vira and Bibhatsa. There are four other rasas which are dependent on or derived from these fundamental rasas. The derivative rasas are Hasya, Karuna, Adbhuta and Bhayanaka. Later on, a ninth rasa was also discovered by Abhinav Gupta, called the shanta rasa. Shanta ras is the highest stage at which man reaches his identification with a self- luminous spiritual joy where all other rasas coincide in a transformed and transmuted form. (Govindarajan, 1992)

The rasa theory is extensively explained in the Alankarshastra along with its significance in the various performing arts, particularly Indian Classical dance and music. Rasa forms the basis of every art form. When singing/playing of music rises above the level of mere presentation of skills and becomes a meaningful creative expression of one’s art, it results in the evocation of rasa. (Bagchee, 2017)

Music has been used to deliver emotional impact in storytelling by the media industry since decades. By adding the right music in the background, music scenes and advertisements showcase the right emotion. Music operates directly on the subconscious, and therefore, it is the most effective way to modulate emotions. Sound, especially classical music, can emotionally affect us without our approval (Dutton, 2022).

Research has shown that when we sleep, our conscious brain shuts down, but our subconscious brain never stops working. The reason for this is that the subconscious brain is responsible for several functions like breathing and heartbeat which go on even while we are asleep. When we are somewhere in the middle of wakefulness and sleep, the brain shifts from alpha waves to theta waves, and thus, no particular wave is active and whatever we listen to or think about, goes in our subconscious mind. (Richmond, 2021)

One of the best and safest ways to reach the deeper part of the brain or subconscious mind is through listening to raags at the time when the brain is shifting from a wakeful state to the sleep state. It is only during sleep that our body and mind heals the most, and thus, this is the best time to make the most of the therapeutic effect of most of the raags in Indian Classical music. (Giri, 2024)

Quantum Physics states that every particle has a frequency and everything in this creation is vibrating at a certain frequency. Every note in music is also at a certain frequency. (Domuschiev, 2024)

Thus, raags are at a certain frequency and so is our mind or thoughts. When we listen to a raag just before sleeping, our mind is tuned to that exact frequency of the raag we are listening to and our sub- conscious mind will show us solutions to some of the problems we are facing in life, in terms of past- life regression in the form of dreams. So, this research paper studies the therapeutic effects of listening to raags before sleeping in a qualitative experimental research format.

Research Methodology:

This research paper studies the therapeutic effects of listening to raags before sleeping in a qualitative experimental study format. Ten subjects were asked some questions, on the basis of which, they were suggested to listen to a particular raag, following the given table which suggests raags to listen before sleep for any mental or physical health ailment:

1. Raag Darbari Kanhada: for problems related to children, relationship with father and government, for getting a position in life
2. Raag Jaunpuri: Profession related issues, long term chronic diseases
3. Raag Poorvi: Fights with siblings, communication issues, hormonal imbalance
4. Raag Yaman and Raag Hamsdhwani: Mental peace and calmness, family atmosphere (Giri, 2022)

The subjects were asked to listen to a raag before they sleep, for 11 days, based on the problem they are currently facing in life and accordingly, report their experience.

Results

After a period of 11 days, the subjects gave the following report on their experience after listening to the raags:

• Out of the ten subjects, nine felt that the quality of their sleep had significantly improved every time they listened to the raag before sleeping. They also reported that they felt more energetic the next day.
• One of the subjects who listened to Raag Hansdhwani claimed that she felt as if she was in a deep meditative state before sleeping and her mental health issues reduced to some extent after a period of 11 days.
• Three other subjects who were listening to Raag Yaman claimed that deeper sleep at night led to lesser anxiety and better mental health conditions.
• One of the subjects who listened to Raag Darbari claimed that earlier he used to wake up 3-4 times during the night, but after listening to this raag, he slept incessantly till the next morning.
• Another subject who listened to Raag Darbari, claimed that the raag was so mesmerising that she could feel it resonating in her ears all throughout her sleep.
• Six out ten subjects claimed that they had dreams during the night, but only one of them could recall the dreams.
• Only one subject claimed to have dreams of a past life after listening to Raag Poorvi, because she had problems related to communicating her feelings with others. The dream was very chaotic and there was too much noise of people talking to each other. She realised that too many chaotic thoughts are there in her mind all throughout the day which hamper her ability to communicate freely. Listening to the raag, helped her in reducing the chaotic thoughts in her mind and she communicate better. However, she felt that she will have to give it some more time inorder to further improve her communication skills.
• All the subjects felt that listening to raags during the night was an excellent experience as earlier; they felt that Indian Classical Music was boring. But, during this experiment, everyday, they looked forward to listening to the raag before sleeping.
• One of the subjects who was listening to Raag Jaunpuri because she was going through profession related issues, had several dreams during her sleep after listening to the raag, though she could not recall any of them. However, she felt that earlier, she never felt like waking up and going to work, but after 2-3 days of this experiment, she felt more positive in the morning and eager to attend office.
• Another subject had an amazing experience. She was scared of dogs. But, she just listened to Raag Yaman for mental peace and calmness. She had a dream of a dog bite, which could be an incident of a previous lifetime. She felt like the bite was so real she could feel the pain so badly. She instantly felt less scared of dogs after the dream.

Discussion:

The above experiment was conducted for a limited time period on a limited sample, still, interesting findings have been noted on the therapeutic effects of Indian Classical Raags. The best part of this experiment is that even if it has no impact on the listener, still it improves the quality of their sleep by relaxing their mind. Also, this therapy has no side- effects at all and can be readily experimented on a larger audience. Further research can be made on past- life regression through dreams after listening to raags before sleep in detail for a longer duration and its impact on the subconscious mind.

Conclusion:

When the listeners of a musical performance witness an effective presentation of the art, the aesthetic feeling that they experience can be termed as rasa. The rasa actually becomes a medium through which the listener identifies himself with the theme that is presented. For every art, the medium utilized for creating rasa is different. For Indian Classical raags, rasa is an experience given to the listener by singing or playing a raag. It is believed that raags have an impact on our subconscious mind, and thus, the best way to experience its therapeutic effects is through listening to raags before sleeping. Further research can also be made particularly on singing or playing night-time raags before sleeping and its effect on our well-being.

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