One steady tone, loud at first. It fades to nothing, the silence stays, and the tone grows back to where it began.
12, 20 or 30 minutes →खnothing is played; any placeDūr · distanceThe nearest sound, then one farther, then farther, the farthest. Past it, silence. Then back the same way, sound by sound, to the nearest.
any place, any length →गthe sounds of your own bodyBhītar · withinThe breath at the nostrils, in the throat, below it. The heart and its beat, and the gap between two beats. Then not a sound but a feeling, and in it, silence. Then back out.
any place, any length →घfor a quiet hourYātrā · the whole journeyOut as far as sound goes, and into the silence there. Then inward, through the breath to the heart and its silence. Then the whole way back.
a quiet hour →Where this comes from
Nādamaya Meditation was made at Jyotirgana and published by Megha KM, Arjun Ram Roj and Sanjib Patra in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (2026). Its root is the Nāda Bindu Upaniṣad. What is here is a new form of it: one journey, with a return.
This form has not been tested. We claim no result from it.
घनमुत्सृज्य वा सूक्ष्मे सूक्ष्ममुत्सृज्य वा घने ।
रममाणमपि क्षिप्तं मनो नान्यत्र चालयेत् ॥
Leaving the dense for the subtle, or leaving the subtle for the dense, the mind, though it delights and is thrown about, should not be moved elsewhere.
The way is both ways already: out to the subtle, and back to the dense.
मकरन्दं पिबन्भृङ्गो गन्धान्नापेक्षते तथा ।
नादासक्तं सदा चित्तं विषयं न हि काङ्क्षति ॥
As the bee drinking nectar does not care for the scent, so the mind ever held by the sound does not crave the objects of sense.
Not craving fought, but something sweeter found.
नादो यावन्मनस्तावन्नादान्तेऽपि मनोन्मनी ॥
As long as there is sound, there is mind; at the end of sound, the mind beyond mind.
The silence at the turn of every journey.
Nāda Bindu Upaniṣad, verses 37, 42 and the second half of 48, in the text of sanskritdocuments.org, typed by Sunder Hattangadi. The translations are ours.