SABAD/ SOUND/ WORD

We speak Languages. One is English, one is Hindi, one is Panjabi, or Tamil, Kanada, Maliyalam or something else. We speak language, systems of thought, and they have become so important that we can die for them. Man can die for words, for mere words. Someone calls his language useless—then man can fight, for a mere word he can kill other. The word has become so important. This is nonsense, but this is history and this is how we are still behaving.

As single word can create such a disturbance in you that are ready to kill or to die for it. We speak languages, systems of thought. What are languages? Thoughts arranged logically, systematically, in a pattern. And what are thoughts? Words arranged in a system, meaningfully. And what are words? Sounds, upon which it is agreed that they mean either this or that. So sounds are basic; they are the basic structure of the mind. Languages are the peak, but the bricks by which the whole structure is raised are sounds.

What is wrong? A sound is just a sound, and the meaning is given by us, agreed upon by us; otherwise it has no meaning. The meaning is invested by us, projected by us; otherwise “a aa” is just a sound—it is meaningless. We give it a meaning, and then we create a system of thought around it. Then this word becomes very significant, and then we make a language around it. Then you can do something, anything, for it. You can die or you can live for it. If someone insults this sound “a aa,” you can become infuriated. And what is this/ just an agreement, a legal agreement that “this word means this.” No word means anything in itself, it is simply a sound.

Bold sentences above says to go in the reverse order—go backwards. Come to the sounds, then, more basic than sounds, a feeling is somewhere hidden. This has to be understood. Man uses words. Words mean sounds with meanings that are agreed upon. But animals, birds use sounds without any linguistic meanings. They do not have any language, but they use sound with feeling. A bird is singing: it has a “feeling” meaning in it, it is indicating something. It may be a call for the partner, for the beloved, or it may be a call for the mother, or the child may be feeling hungry and just showing his distress. It is indicating a feeling.

Above sounds there are words, thoughts, languages; below sounds are feelings. And unless you can get below feelings, you cannot get below mind. The whole world is filled with sounds, only the human world is filled with words. And even a child who cannot use language uses sounds. Really, the whole language developed because of particular sounds that every child is using all over the word.

For example, in any language the word ‘mother’ is somehow related with ‘ma’. It may be ‘amma’, it may be ‘Mummy’, it may be ‘mata’, it may be ‘ma’,-- anything—but somewhere it is related with the sound “ma” in all the languages, more or less. The child can utter “ma” most easily. The first sound which the child can utter is “ma”, then the whole structure is based on this “ma”. A child utters “ma” because it is the first sound which is for the child to utter. This is the case anywhere, in any part of the World, in any time. Just because of the structure of the throat and the body. “ma” is the easiest sound to utter.

And the mother is the nearest and the first person who is meaningful. So the first sound becomes associated with the first person who is meaningful, and from this mother, matter, mata, ma, all the other words are derived. But when the child for the first time utters “ma”, he has no linguistic meaning for it, but a feeling is there. And because of that feeling the word becomes associated with the mother. That feeling is more basic than the sound.