By Elizabeth Herman | Posted: May 15, 2020

Do you spend time listening to music? How do you respond to different kinds of cultural content? Our opportunities to broaden our horizons abound, even in this time of the stay at home orders because of our global COVID-19 pandemic. 

Founder of Art of Living, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, advises us all that “This is the time for everyone at home to reflect. ‘Am I a good listener?’ So you switch on the music and then you talk.” In this video, a new approach to listening shows us how to feel enriched and enhanced while pushing our cultural boundaries:

A balanced brain

To overcome the constant overload of sensory input, Gurudev challenges his listeners with the question, “Tell me, how many people really switch on the music and intently listen?” 

He observes that such helpful listening happens rarely, “Very few. If you do it, it brings you relaxation. Otherwise, music is running, and you’re talking, and you’re engaged in so many other things. It’s only noise pollution. You don’t have to put on loud music, disturb everybody, and then not listen to it.” 

But the need for close attention to music can do more than simply keep the neighborhood quiet, as he asserts, “Listening to music itself balances your personality. We have two sides of our brain, the left and the right. The left is logic and the right is music. Those who only listen to music, their logical brains don’t work. Have you noticed this? They can’t think; they can’t calculate. They can’t foresee things. They become such emotional people. At the drop of a hat, they lose their temper. They start shouting, they start crying, they become miserable.” 

But overemphasizing the left brain activity also causes problems, as he states, “On the other hand, the left brain activists, they only talk! Only talk, only talk, only calculate, only think. People who are left brain oriented, they can’t make good friends. As a human being, they seem to lack something, a substance in them. I would recommend every lawyer, every auditor, every chartered accountant and all those whose work demands the left brain activity should and must listen to music for at least half an hour every day so that the right brain is also activated.”

Peace, listening, and creating interest

Gurudev continues, “When there’s balance between your left and right brain, you find peace. You find stability. You find centeredness, and people with that sort of balanced mind make a lot of sense. They can be more friendly. It’s nice to be with them. People find that they’re very good communicators.” 

“So, you all must make sure,” he emphasizes, “when you listen to music, just give it 10-15 minutes or half an hour and keep your mouth shut. Just listen to music. Can you do this? Try this and tell everybody else at home to do this also. Even put on guitar music, sitar music, or piano music of your choice or everybody’s choice. You sit and listen.” 

On the other hand, he recommends sports for more right brain, emotionally oriented people, contrasting the two types. “People who are logical, they should listen to music to balance their personality. But what do you do with people who are very emotional, very musical? I tell them to do exercise. Suppose you have no taste for classical music. You keep listening to it and start developing that. Just like the grandmothers at home. You know, they have nothing to do with cricket, but when they keep seeing everybody else watching cricket, at home, it’s amazing that they start taking interest in it too.

So, interest is something that you create. You can create interest in any sport. See, in India, we didn’t bother about soccer games. We didn’t know anything about the world cup that’s happening. We were only focused on cricket. But when, through media and television we started looking at it, started getting used to it, then you develop interest in it.” 

Boundaries to push and maintain

“That’s why I’d say, you can avoid saying ‘I have no interest in this or that. I don’t like this or that.’ Hey, come on, wake up!” urges Gurudev. “What is it you don’t like? When you say, ‘I don’t like this! I don’t like this!’ That means you’re limiting your ability. You’re bottling up your personality. If you want to be a shining personality, then you should be able to like everything.” 

He illustrates the need to be open to new experiences with the example of language. For instance, he says, “If you say, ‘I don’t like Tamil, that language.’ Come on! You can say that sitting in Delhi or Punjab or Bengal, but when you go to Tamil Nadu (where Tamil is spoken) you can’t say, ‘I don’t like Tamil.’ Or, you can’t say, ‘I don’t like Kerala’s food. It smells. The boiled rice they eat, I don’t like it.’ No! Just try it once!”

However, there must be exceptions to the need to push our boundaries: “I’m not saying you should say ‘Yes’ to those things, those habits, which are harmful for you, or the society or the world, no! You keep that dislike. For example, you should develop a dislike for drugs. However your pals or friends think it’s the in thing or ask or tempt you to do drugs, you say ‘No, I put my boundary here. I’m not going to do that.’ In the same way with violence, especially violence against women, or violence against anybody for that matter, say ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’”

In conclusion, he assures listeners that “Certain dislikes are good in life but many other dislikes can be done with. What do you say? Yes? When it comes to food, when it comes to language, when it comes to music, when it comes to wisdom, we should see how we can push our boundaries. The more you push your boundaries, the richer you become, the stronger you become, the more pleasant you become.” 

Unless a cultural habit harms yourself or others, freeing yourself of aversions to new experiences and forms of expression can open you up to a happier state of mind. But certainly, the damaging, dangerous actions should be kept apart, so you’ll avoid them consistently. 

By learning to push the boundaries of conditioned tastes, you can expand your perspective and make your personality more interesting and welcoming to others. Our new Beyond Breath: A Free Breath & Meditation Session - Online Session With a Live Instructor can help you do this. Enjoy listening!

Elizabeth Herman writes, offers writing support to clients, teaches, and volunteers for a better world. She has a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and Literature. Find her on Facebook or Twitter.