The purpose of this course is to help us recover a holistic sense of the sacred in our lives and in our universe. For more than five consecutive millennia, Hindus have systematically studied the relationship between sound and consciousness; their theology and cosmology is essentially derived from their amazing understanding of the universe as vibrating structures of sound. The Divine too is construed as a dynamic, pulsating presence of energy and intelligence at the heart of it all and present everywhere and in everything. During this course we will explore numerous Hindu mystical texts to understand how they perceived the universe as an ordered harmony governed by unseen forces all emanating from a single source known as Brahman, from the root brh “to swell, to expand.” These texts will be explored through three distinct yet related traditions (Vedic, Tantric, Bhakti) that define the broad scope of Hinduism and its relevance today, its strong parallels to the discoveries of modern science and its resonance with the new cosmology of our times.

In the Vedic tradition, Hinduism’s Old Testament, spiritual practice was a means to recover an inner vision, a panoramic sense of the sacred in which all vibration, all existence, unified into a cosmic whole. In the Tantric tradition, the microcosm of the human body was viewed as a stepped down version of the energies of the universe, the chakras functioning as a sort of local solar system. Here too, an extraordinary understanding of sound and vibration underlies the theology and cosmological principles in which the part is transformed into the whole. Finally, in the Bhakti tradition, sound is the salvific vehicle that transports the individual soul to the highest realms of enlightened consciousness enabling one to bear witness to the deepest mystical realizations and to help others achieve the same. These three traditions offer us a holistic vision of the sacred in a time when our culture has banished all sense of the sacred from our lives.