Blown away by conch therapy

They are assembled at the Kasimedu beach - children, middle-aged, the elderly - to puff out their chests and blow conches. Siva and Jagasundari Balamurugan are trying to promote conch-blowing as a health and fitness regimen with benefits that go beyond the well known spiritual ones. Most people know of it traditionally as an atmospheric ritual performed at temples. “When the sound of the conch is heard there resides Goddess Lakshmi,” says the book, Symbolism in Hinduism (Chinmaya Mission Trust Publications, 1972). It also mentions how water sprinkled from it has the power to expiate sin.

“The Omkara sound that emanates from it is very powerful and it is well documented in our Vedas. Saivite saint Manickavasagar has spoken about its benefits in his songs - there are more than 100 songs devoted to its power,” says Balamurugan. It was also used in war, each warrior having his own conch. “But blowing the conch or sanganatham can also bring about a meditative state of mind. People with wheezing or other breathing difficulties or heart ailments, smokers and alcoholics, find relief. It helps us inhale fresh air,” he adds. It has a psychological impact too, enabling a timid person grow more confident besides improving his or her concentration, explains his wife, Jagasundari, an advocate at the Madras High Court, adding, “Now we are both taking the activity to people through our trust, the Vadivudaimanikkam Sanganatha Trust.”

Their enthusiasm and determination notwithstanding, they met with resistance from all quarters. “In 2012, we filed an RTI, seeking information about any law or rule that prevented the blowing of the conch. But there is none. It is a custom and a religious belief, no one can prevent us from practising it. People think a conch is blown only during funerals. That’s not entirely true, it is a way to ward off negative energy as the soul is trying to enter the body through one of the nine dwarams, or gates. That’s just one of its powers,” says Jagasundari. But this notion has perhaps eclipsed all its other benefits. 

Once the couple started the trust they began training a number of people at the beach. Balamurugan says, “We begin with meditation and pranayama before teaching them how to blow a conch. We have trained people from all communities who take it up for the health benefits. People from Vellore, Tirunelveli and Thanjavur have come here to learn from us, and later carry it out at temples there. Such a group activity has not been organised since the Chola period. We look for occasions at temples to blow the conch in groups. Most often, we wait long hours outside temples to get the permission, but then, we persist as we are doing something good – even though there is very little encouragement.” 

Recently, they organised a group of 200 people to blow the conch at the Thyagaraja Temple in Tiruvottiyur, where they had intitially experience a lot of opposition. Jagasundari says, “We originally planned for a group of 108 people, but that number increased when we gathered there.” Now, the couple is aiming to bring together 1,008 people. “At the Bahamas, a group of 260 people set a world record. We want to break that record.” The couple is now coming up with a variety of tunes to play on the conch and want to bring out a CD soon.