My Meditation Culture and Carnatic Music

“Inner Music is Meditation and

Outer meditation is music”

One of my cultures is Meditation. Meditation is an inwardly oriented, personal practice that originated from Asia. I meditate to turn all of my attention inward to the mind itself. I practice mudras to open my seven chakras.  Chakras are ach of the centers of spiritual power in the human body. There is, Root(pelvis), Sacral(above), Navel, Heart, Throat, Third Eye(between eyes) and Crown(top of head). There's also the hand test to see how long you have to meditate. When you hold your hand out still, don't move it. Some of your fingers will shake. If your thumb shakes, you need to meditate for five minutes. If it's your pointer, you need ten minutes. If it's your middle finger, it’s fifteen minutes. If its your ring finger you need twenty minutes, and pinky means twenty-five minutes. If all fingers tremble, it's best you meditate for an hour. 

My history with this song is that this song has been my favorite Carnatic musical performance for the past two years. There are multiple artists with very complicated names and I don’t listen to either of them on a basis, but I can say that Carnatic music in whole has been apart of my life since about sixth grade. What moves me about the song and the musical in whole is that when I am in a peaceful mood, I can play these songs or the simple instrumentals and find myself really relaxed. Also, this is the only music I listen to when I meditate.

This song is an important part of the Indian Hindi culture because it represents the spiritual and religious practices that the Southern Indians perform in their everyday lives. This song shows Indian culture by engaging in Indian language, attire, and musical instruments (vocalist, violin, mridangam, and tambura.) as well as religious and spiritual symbols and colors. It is important to my culture: Meditation because it sets me in a peaceful mood that relaxes everything inside of me and I feel at ease enough to have a stronger meditation practice or a more calmer yoga session.