Auroville OM Choir

During our recent trip to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville, I had a few experiences especially at the march-pass before the mass display in the sports ground and with the OM Choir and visiting Sri Aurobindo's room on 5 Dec Darshan.

I was at fist skeptical about the OM Choir. I believe in the power of OM but why it is called a choir. The answer was revealed to me during the OM Choir session held at Savitri Bhavan.

The OM Choir of about one hundred people who were mostly non-professional singers began with the singing of the first five notes of the western music major key as warming up exercises. This is to prepare our voice for singing the OM like and other athletes or singers who need warming up.

I was able to recognise the five notes of the warming up exercises because there is a structure. But when the choir started to sing, there was no structure. There was total freedom.

In western and eastern music, musicians try to achieve freedom with improvisation. However what they achieve is improvisation within a structure. There is no total freedom.

Because there is no structure, each member is free to sing the OM in any pitch and no one is able to sing "out of tune". Yet, there is harmony. This is the mystery of the OM Choir.

Another mystery that I discovered, the sound I heard that evening is more beautiful than the music produced by Sunil from Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Ravi Shankar and the western or eastern musicians and singers.

My wife asked me, "Is the music from the CD player?"

I had another strange experience. After listening to the music I chose a pitch to sing the OM but the OM I produced is different from what I had prepared mentally to sing. This made me realise that the OM Choir produces music that is beyond the mind.

In Singapore we have started the OM Choir. It will be great if we can have an annual international OM Choir meeting where one thousand people from all over the world gather under the Banyan tree in Auroville to sing the OM.

Regards

KS Lok