Saute Surmadi

by Bhadra Sena

Hazrat Inayat, a Muslim Divine of the Mystic Order called Sufis, tells us that this creation is nothing but the Music of God for it is the outcome or manifestation of His Power. He calls it Saute Surmadi or the intoxicating vintage from the Garden of Allah – God – and has given an elaborate description of it, as would appear from the following account.

All space is filled with Saute Surmadi or the Abstract Sound. The vibrations of this Sound are too fine to be either audible or visible to the material ears or eyes, since it is even difficult for the eyes to see the form and colour of the ethereal vibrations on the external plane. It was the Saute Surmadi, the Sound of the Abstract, which Mohammed heard in the cave of Ghare-Hira when He became lost in His ideal.

The Qur’an refers to this Sound in the words:

Kun-feu-Kun. – Be and all became.

Moses heard this very Sound on Mount Sinnai – Koh-i-Toor –, when in communion with God. The same Word was audible to Christ when absorbed in His Heavenly Father in the wilderness. Shiva heard the same Anhad Nad during his Samadhi in the Himalayas. The flute of Krishna is symbolic of the same Sound allegorically explained. This Sound is the source of all revelation to the Masters to Whom It is revealed from within and it is therefore that They know and teach the one and the same Truth …

The knower of the mystery of the Sound knows the mystery of the whole universe. Whosoever has followed the strains of this Sound has forgotten all earthly distinctions and differences; and has reached the same goal of Truth in which all the Blessed Ones of God unite.

This being the case, the Sound of the Abstract is always going on within, around and about man. Man does not hear It as a rule, because his consciousness is entirely centred in his material existence. Man becomes so absorbed in his experiences in the external world through the medium of the physical body that space, with all its wonders of Light and Sound, appears to him blank. When the Abstract Sound is audible all other sounds become indistinct to the mystic.

The Sound of the Abstract is called Anhad in the Vedas, meaning unlimited Sound. The Sufis name It Surmad, which suggests the idea of intoxication. The word intoxication is here used to signify upliftment, the freedom of the soul from its earthly bondage. Those who are able to hear the Saute Sarmadi and meditate on It are relieved from all worries, anxieties, sorrows, fears and diseases; and the soul is freed from captivity in the senses and in the physical body.

This Sound develops through ten different aspects because of its manifestation through the different tubes of the body – Nadis; It sounds like thunder, the roaring of the sea, the jingling of bells, running water, the buzzing of bees. the twittering of sparrows, the Vina, the whistle, or the Sound of Shankha – conch – until It finally becomes Hu the most sacred of all sounds. This sound Hu is the beginning and end of all sound, be they from man, bird, beast or a thing.