What role can music play in uplifting consciousness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Music is harmonious sound. If there is harmony inside then music is a burden, but when there is no harmony on the inside then definitely the outer harmony of the music can create inner peace and harmony.
For a meditator, for a yogi, music feels a little jarring because he or she has tasted something more finer than the harmony of the music -- that is the rhythm of silence. That is what the ancient yogis called the one hand clapping. The cosmic resonance, the primordial sound, all these names are given to that harmony deep within which is essentially silence.