Excerpts from the book ‘Your Child is Your Parent!’ by Manoj J Lekhi (Amrut Vivek).

Music can do in minutes what weeks of meditative practice strives towards. 

Colin Rose

Music is one of the most beautiful ways of expression. It brings one into a state of relaxed alertness. Music must necessarily be an integral part of education.

Music is classified as sur (vocal), taal (beat) and dhun (tune). Music in itself is an entire subject to which a child must be exposed. In fact one of the four Vedas is all about music. Personally, I am very passionate about music and have been learning the subject for the last 23 years. We have developed countless rhymes for children aged 0–6 years. 

A number of experiments have proved that even plants and animals react to the different kinds of music. The Indian classical vocal music is the highest form of stimulation to the brain, and exposure to the same will naturally produce more intelligent children.

The priority of exposure to different types of music should thus be, first, the Indian classical vocal, second, the western classical and, thereafter, other kinds of music. 

Music reduces stress, Relieves anxiety, Increases energy, Improves recall. Music makes people smarter. 

Jeannette Vos

Exposing the child to various forms of shlokas and mantras is even better and is the most beneficial. Music like hard rock and metal stimulate the lower chakras like the muladhara and the swadhisthan chakras (sexual area). 

Classical music stimulates the anahata chakra (heart chakra). Mantras and shlokas stimulate the vishudhhi chakra (throat chakra). Every parent must have the awareness about what music he or she listens to and what music he or she exposes the child to. When the baby is small, he sleeps most of the time. Ideally, then you should play Indian classical vocal music (one raag for 30 days). Then switch to a new raag the next month. 

Newborn babies, and those yet to be born, when continuously exposed to music, develop an ear for music as they grow up, even if nobody in the family has a musical background, which is contrary to the popular belief that only a musician’s child can grow up to be a musician.

“After knowing the importance of music through ISP, while I was pregnant, I immediately grabbed the opportunity of re-entering into Indian classical music which I had quit sometime when I was much younger. When Veer was three months old, I started going for my classes with the hope that he will stay there for an hour without getting cranky. Also, I didn’t know whether he would enjoy it or would get uneasy. I and my guru were shocked in the first class itself. Veer didn’t move from his bouncer even once. He was staring at us for an hour without even blinking his eyes! It was apparent that not only did he love the music but could also relate to it, as he could recollect the same from when he was in the womb.” 

Ketki Shah, Director, Curlz & Cuts 

I was always passionate about singing. In fact, my favourite hobby is singing. In my endeavour to impart this beautiful gift to my child, I would play music to her all day long when she was small. Our ears soaked in Indian classical and western classical. We developed a sense of listening — listening not just to music and musical notes, but to people, in general. This gift came to me because of my child, Vedoci. I thank you, Vedoci, for giving me this gift. I thank you for being my mentor once again.