gaavat, jivat kabir

Posting for the year end 2011

2011-12-19T19:25:00.000+05:30

December is slowly casting its cold wintry spell. Today is by far the coldest day so far- maybe the following days will be colder. I cannot say. I am looking back at all these past years, not that I have a clear picture of all the time, but yes ...Kabir has very much been a part of the road for me.

On the last count I had nearly 40 odd Kabir bhajans in my repertoire. It seems to be such a bias. But it is a fact. This month, in fact the last one, I composed that much sung Kabir bhajan - man mast hua tab kyon bole. I was never convinced whenever anyone sang it, because I never understood the lyrics of it. But when I composed it myself and sang a few times I could make out the meaning.

I thought and thought that if the heart was so 'mast' then why would it not communicate. Then I remember the sufi song- dama dum mast qalandar...Why would a happy heart not want to communicate? Or is the outer expression of happiness only a superficial expression. Even in another of Kabir bhajans I recall the lines...

याहू रस पीवे गूंगा गहिला
ताकि कोई ना बूझे सार रे

Ah! which meas that Kabir is saying that once you have really understood what the essence of Ram/Brahman is- you will not need to communicate it and you shall be so much in your own ecstasy that the outer expression will cease. Understood now, why when the heart is 'mast'..it will not speak any further.

मन मस्त हुआ तब क्यों बोले
हीरा पाया गाँठ गथिआयो
बार बार वा को क्यों खोले...

समझे????

Of course the picture does not fit here. But Nikki the lab, who has her snout on Ginger the retriever is actually one of those dogs who refuses to bark too much . AM wondering if she is the one who is truly in her own masti!

November 2011

2011-11-30T22:06:00.003+05:30

This November proved to be an active month- कबीर-wise for me. For now what I call as 'active' does not have to do with anything except my own riyaaz, compositions and writing. But this month I also had a little program, in the house of a recently made friend; who happens to be a senior professor in Lady Irwin College of Delhi University. Meeting her had been another accident and an interesting tale too.

Her mother met me a few weeks after I met her and upon hearing that I sang Kabir expressed the desire to hear me sing. Looking at her and the way I usually am with the elderly I said I would come down to her home and sing it! And a few weeks later, her daughter arranged it for her mother's pleasure; to have an evening of Kabir bhajans; in a little gathering that comprised a few of her friends and fewer of mine. Since I was venturing into singing out after a long time I thought at least one or two who really wanted to hear me sing ought to be invited. I invited one professor from the CIE and one from Psychology. The former came and the latter apologized later, but invited me to sing at another place later!

(I have to write more on this blogpost , but tis a bit late and I have to go right now. Edit later)

So on the said evening-13th Nov 2011, I sang Kabir bhajans for the longest till yet- approx two hours and a quarter, to a group of about 12-15 people. Tansen played the tabla with me, Karim provided the humour for the evening, Murad pitched in with his poetry, his mother invited me to sing in another program, Poonam-ji invited me to sing also, something she wanted for some time now...and of course there is an invitation to sing somewhere in the mountains too. Whenever more of those singing programs happen I shall note them down here.

But for this prog I must note here that I sang one bhajan of Smt Veena Saharabuddhe (ghat ghat mein panchhi bolta) taught to me by my guru, Smt Madhuri Dandage, one by Kumar Gandharva- jhini jhini (and even shared the meaning of it) one by Madhup Mudgal -haman hai ishq mastana. The rest about 12-13 were my own compositions. The last one that I sang was aaoonga na jaaoonga -

आऊँगा न जाऊंगा ना मारूंगा न जिऊंगा
गुरु के सबद मैं रमी रमी रहूँगा

29th Dec 2000- The release of Kahe Kabir Album

2011-11-27T21:37:00.000+05:30

these are a few pictures from the day, my Kabir Album was released. It was released by the older of the Singh Bandhus- Sardar Surinder Pal Singh-ji at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi. I have shared here a news item that appeared in the Hindu paper of 29th Dec 2000.

Below, in this picture I am standing with my guru, Smt Madhuri Dandage.

This third picture is of me singing with the other musicians on the occasion of the release. It is so long back, that memories are really faint for me- but when I look back today...I can only reconfigure it in my mind with the word, "Oh, so this also happened in my life!!"

Another story about the Kabir album that I dug out

2011-11-26T08:24:00.000+05:30

This is from September 2001

This October

2011-10-22T22:33:00.001+05:30

This October

A young woman who is doing research in Kabir and performance in music and sociology came home and we talked on two occasions; several hours of discussions actually. A very bright young woman. Always inspiring to meet such young people for there is many a one who is on a different quest- and you realize that even if your music or your thought touches one more person in the world somewhere it is worth it. Her study is part of her MPhil work at the Jadavpur University, Kolkata. I am still not clear why she chose me among scores of other singers who sing Kabir. But yes, it is me and Neela Bhagwat who she is working on for her present study. Maybe for Phd it would be more senior performers.

Thanks to her for getting Kabir out of my long ago creased folds of the brain- I sat down afresh after long years...and the change that I wanted in my compositions finally started to show. This time I could work on compositions in pure ragas; unlike the manner of the past when I had made musical compositions and they were not necessarily within ragas.

So the new compositions are in three distinct ragas...and i am really thrilled that I have worked in something completely unprecedented for me- Durga, Shuddh Kalyan and Vibhas (with a shuddh dhaivat, not Komal)
I am happy because before this I have never worked in this manner, not that I have not tried, it has not happened for me that I could work in three uncorrelated scales this way.

Oh yes! this October on 2nd - I sang Kabir in the Deer Park Institute, Bir, Himachal Pradesh- on the concluding day of a conference in Education/Shiksha- it was extremely well received. I am grateful for the opportunity - either ways. It was a great conference, with scholars from scores of schools of thought and traditions. In this picture we see a Jain nun giving a talk, while in the audience there are scholars of every hue and shade sitting there. I was fortunate for such an august gathering. IT was the Director of the Krishnamoorty schools, Bangalore who coaxed and egged me on to sing so that he could hear me:) But everyone else did too by the end of it...including the Rev Samdhong Rinpoche.

Okay here are the starting lines of each

पानी में मीन प्यासी मोहे सुन सुन आवत हांसी (Durga)

मन रे तू करी ले साहिब सों प्रीत (Shuddh Kalyan)

जीवन मुक्त सोही मुक्ता हो (Vibhas)

I do want to say this here- that at the conference there were a number of international audiences. And it was so touching to receive mails from at least three of them (2 who did not understand the lyrics of Kabir) that they felt touched by the music. I am utterly grateful to god for their kindness and giving me the hope that my music is worth the effort I make- for it touches. These two were from Sweden and Australia- two separate individuals actually. The third who acknowledged that in a public email to me is a Buddhist monk.

the posts on this blog

2010-11-15T16:29:00.001+05:30

for some reason some of the entries on the blogs appear in Hindi. I have not yet figured how why or how it happened. But I hope for those of you who are interested in what I occasionally share here, this is not a big problem. If it is please let me know, I will try to work things out a little better.
thanks and regards

days when life is too much to bear

2010-11-15T15:50:00.000+05:30

On days when life gets too much to bear
I just want to look within, without and withdraw
And then the din gets so much that the din becomes an ocean
A time when only a single word of wisdom is needed to quell the surge
The word doesn't come, the inspiration does not dawn

But the guru is never faraway
And for today I am picking up something to inspire myself,
Let's see what Kabir says for today-
सुमिरन से सुख होत है, सुमिरन से दुःख जाय
कह कबीर सुमिरन किये, साईं माहि समाए

perhaps I should just be with this thought for today-
(oh, this blog entry is not meant to be a poem, though the format is poetic)

media report sent from Bhubaneshwar

2010-10-17T17:05:00.000+05:30

A friend from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa sent me this via the internet...I thought I could share it here. In any case the program that I sang in I had already posted the following picture from that evening. If you notice carefully, the sari I am wearing in the newspaper photo and the one in the following blog entry is the same:). That means they were taken on the same day, but by two different people.

its ten years and more....

2010-10-16T11:36:00.001+05:30

My journey in Kabir started over ten years ago- when I was a 27 year old...oh well! that makes its at least 11 actually. So finally, the road now brings me to that point where I am singing only Kabir in this program, as a little contribution towards peace, democracy.
At the start of the program someone commented, "why should artists be a part of a democratic struggle and lend their support to anything social?" I was surprised with the ignorance of the question. People do not realise perhaps that the mind of a person is a reflection of the predominant consciousness of the times. Those people who are at the helm of the artistic expression are not always the ones who are expressing anything different from the dominant themes.
In every time in society there are people who oppose the norms that prevail in those times. Kabir opposed a lot of things in the times he lived in- including Hindu-Muslim divide over religion, forms of worship, ignorance, patriarchy, greed, casteism and so much more. In his spirit I find my own spirit reflected. That is why I say that I live Kabir, not just sing. In so many of his verses my own soul finds an expression.
This photo was taken in a program in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa- the first where I sang only Kabir, no other poets. The new things I sang here included this doha-
मन मैला तन उजला बगुला कपटी अंग
तासों तो कौवा भला तन मन एक ही ढंग
this was sung as a prelude to my very favourite bhajan
मन न रंगाये रंगाये जोगी कपडा
आसन मारी मंदिर में बैठे, ब्रह्म छाडी पूजन लागे पथरा*
मथवा मुंडाए जोगी कपडा रंगों ले, दाढ़ी बढाए जोगी होई गैले बकरा
मन ना रंगाये...

( the irony of this is that while Kabir himself laughs at those who grows their beards and he says they become like male-goats...he himself has been innumerably shown with a beard. I was careful of this thought when I designed my own album cover of Kahe Kabir, my kabir album and my Kabir did not have a beard, the way I thought he would have been himself:))
( I do not remember if this is already an entry in my blog)
जंगल जाए जोगी धुनिया रमों ले, काम जराए जोगी होई गैले हिज्र
मन ना रंगाये ...
(Kabir says by escaping into the forest and controlling Kama- lust, the god-fearing hermit thinks he can please god; if only he soaked his soul, not just his mere garment)

This bhajan has an interesting story behind it. This was recommended to me by a colleague of my father from Zakir Hussain College, who said to papa that maybe I should be singing this particular bhajan. Some of them even sent me a rudimentary tune. So I took the suggestion, without communicating with anyone of them myself, I composed the bhajan, from the lyrics they sent to me. Anyways, by the end of it, it became a very good, strong voice of protest from Kabir and me- to poke fun at all the sham that goes on in the name of GOD all over the world.

* that brings to mind another Kabir doha
पत्थर पूजें हरी मिले, तो मैं पूजूं पहाड़
तासों तो चक्की भली, पीस खाए संसार
my simple translation: In this doha Kabir is laughing at those who worship god in the form of idols and says that "if by worshipping a piece of stone I can get GOD then I would be willing to worship a mountain. Then illustrating the significance of the stone, he says it is better that the stone have a better utility, like a grindstone- at least it serves better by letting people grind their flour and fill their hunger." I have never yet sung this doha but I do have a tune in mind to sing it when there is a scope.
This program, from which I have put the foto here, was on 9th October 2010.

guru...an unending song...guru se lagan kathin hai bhai

2010-09-12T23:34:00.001+05:30


there is so much that Kabir has left behind on the subject of the 'guru' and also at least some of the songs I have sung myself that it is not possible to make different posts out of them, so I will write most of them down here itself. Nature to me seems like the first guru- especially flowers when they bloom for a short while, enliven the soul and die...

koi sunta hai

2010-05-03T14:46:00.001+05:30

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/2833

This is a link for the movie made by Shabnam Virmani, which talks about the life of Pt.Kumar Gandharva. Now this documentary is available for viewing on the internet itself. Someone just sent me a link. I thought I could share it here. I appear in a very brief part here, singing one of my Kabir pad, which brought a number of people to me asking me about the lyrics of the song, till I finally decided to make a blog out of all the Kabir work that I have done and will continue to do. The very first entry of my blog contains the lyrics of that song, that I have sung in this film- Jaag Piyaari. To go to it, you will have to go to the 'older posts' section which appears at the right hand bottom of the blogposts, till you reach the last page of the blog. I hope to soon someday, put the song here itself for you to hear. I do not have the means to execute that desire of mine, but I am sure it will work out soon someday.

cassette release function of kahe kabir album

2010-05-01T12:22:00.000+05:30

I am just trying to get the old website here, before the next website of the Foundation is put in order. This website was online from 2004, till I wound it up in 2009.
In this foto you can see me with the tanpura. The year was Jan or Feb of 2001. Towards my right hand is seated Sher Khan or Anees Bhai; who was a most affable tabla player I was to ever meet in my life. Sadly, he is no more with us in his body form: had a very sudden demise in his early fifties.
Next to him, is the most faithful tabla accompanist anyone could have-Mishraji, who has been with me since March 2000- so much like an elder brother. Always dedicated, always ready to play to make me do my riyaaz-till date.
This program was inaugurated by Sardar Surinder Pal Singh, the older of the duo of Singh Bandhus, the singing brothers' duo. It was an early lesson about what all should not be done in organising a program!!!! ha ha ha!!

Language and Music I use in compositions

2010-04-22T12:07:00.000+05:30

Kabir has lived in an age where language was slightly different from the manner we use it today. So in my choice of pada, doha or saakhi (पद, दोहा, साखी) I have deliberately tried to use those poetic pieces which are clear in meaning even to the modern man. I have not tried to things whose meanings are not clear to me myself. But sometimes I must admit that when I did start the singing the meanings were not as clear as they became much later as I sang them over years and the many layers of thoughts came to me.

I am sure, knowing Kabir for what he was, he never tried to make things difficult to understand. Sometimes when I hear from people from the countrysides of UP and Bihar speak with one another I find those same sounds and I am so happy to see that language is still being spoken in its sweetness and melody. Its another matter I hardly understand most of it!!

Moreso, my music. Though I have had a long training with a number of gurus, in at least two different gharanas of singing, my bhakti music is devoid of any affectations of classical styles. This is for two reasons. Firstly, when I started to compose music (at 27 years) I did not have such a grasp of composition and ragas. Secondly, I started to sing Kabir as an answer to my inner quest- not as a thing which was an extension of my singing. So for me bhakti came first, not the raga. The raga is a tool, not the paramount thing in singing Kabir.

Before, I started to sing Kabir of my own sort, the only other person whose Kabir singing I had heard was Pt.Kumar Gandharva. Having heard him, there was no way I wanted to sing Kabir in that manner. His style was the acme of his singing and established him as a singing Nirguni singer, made him popular among the educated, middle class audiences and created a new wave of bringing Kabir into the mainstream consciousness of India. His classical music was a different story altogether. And yet, it was not a style that could be easily emulated.

I certainly can sing a few bhajan in the manner he sang them, but I do not want to compose music like that (not that I can either) I wanted to have such a simple musical expression that anyone who heard them could learn them easily and my Kabir (merakabir) could become a part of day-to-day lives. The additional deliberation I did in this case was I did not record the albums in any other format than a solitary voice. I could easily have got a chorus together...but I chose to remain singular, so that it could be the scenario anyone could be in - alone by themselves and singing.

Much later, I heard a lot of styles of singing Kabir. Some of it also came from the movies Shabnam (Virmani) made. But I realised all the more that these are not the styles that most people can sing by themselves, unless they are trained in a certain way. All the more I am comfortable within me about what I made out of my Kabir consciousness. It is an offering out of my deepest love for that man, who had the highest philosophy to offer to the world- love. Since then my whole quest has been to become more and more simple, at peace within (though life is as difficult and heart-breaking as it could get) and grounded in music and service rather than aggrandizement of the Self.

पोथी पढ़ पढ़ जग मुआ, पंडित भया न कोय
ढाई आखर प्रेम का, पढ़े सो पंडित होय
pothi padh padh jag muva, pandit bhayaa na koy
dhai aakhar prem ka, padhe so pandit hoy

My simple interpretation-
with all its scholarly searching and reading numerous books, nobody became learned- a scholar (in the true sense). He alone is learned who has learnt the meaning of the simple word 'love'

Mera Kabir, whether as my writing, my singing or my lecturing is a part of that simplicity of Kabir as I see reflected within and borne out of that same small word love.

financial express article

2010-02-17T18:23:00.004+05:30

I think this article had appeared in 2003! not a recent one...so funny that a 30-31 year old is saying that i am at peace. is it possible? i should have taken to the Himalayas then. the journey is very much on, and peace is a process that goes along as you go along. It shows up in little specks here and there, you get there at times, once in awhile and reminds you of the possibility of getting there finally. But as long as there are commitments, there are responsibilities, there is love (for anything, whether human, divine or intellectual) you continue to be in that churning, you remain in that dance of maya. Of course, it is better on days when you can watch the dance like an outsider.

mann laago mero yaar fakiri mein

2009-08-13T20:30:00.005+05:30

मन लागो मेरो यार फकीरी में
जो सुख पावो नाम भजन में, सो सुख नाही अमीरी में
भला बुरा सब को सुन लीजो, कर गुजरान गरीबी में;
प्रेम नगर में रहनी हमारी, भली बनी आई सबूरी में;
हाथ में कुण्डी, बगल में सोट्टा, चारों दिशा जागीरी में;
आखिर ये तन ख़ाक मिलेगा, कहा फिरत मगरूरी में
कहें कबीर सुनो भाई साधो, साहेब मिलें सबूरी में.

mann laago mero yaar fakiri mein

jo sukh paavo naam bhajan mein, so sukh naahi ameeri mein;

bhalaa buraa sab ko sun leejo, kar gujraan garibi mein;

prem nagar mein rahni hamaari, bhalli banni aayi saboori mein;

haath mein kundi, bagal mein sotaa, chaaron disha jagiri mein;

akhir yeh tann khaak milega, kahaa firat magroori mein;

kahein Kabir suno bhai Sadho, Saheb milae saboori mein.

( you will soon be able to hear this recorded song from my Kabir album here. still learning to change format to mp3)

about alms or begging

2009-08-04T10:49:00.003+05:30

maangan maran samaan hai, mat maango koi bheekh

maagan se to maribo bhalaa, yeh hai satguru ki seekh
मांगन मरण सामान है, मत मांगो कोई भीख
मागन से तो मरिबो भला, यह है सतगुरु की सीख

Poetic translation-

Begging is akin to dying, do not ask for alms

Tis better to die than beg, this is the view of the Satguru (Kabir)

My own interpretation-

Kabir says that to beg of another is to amount to killing your own self, for you lower yourself and kill the divine element within when you do so. Saying that he says to the listener that do not ask for alms. It is better to die than beg, for don't you kill your conscience when you ask for alms and choke your own Self? This is the teaching of the Satguru, meaning himself-Kabir.

doha about anger

2009-08-04T10:45:00.004+05:30

क्रोध अग्नि घर घर बैठी, जरे सकल संसार
दीं लीं निज भक्त जो, तिन के निकट उबार

krodha agni ghar ghar baithi, jarae sakal sansaar

deen leen nij bhakt jo, tin ke nikkat ubaar

poetic transliteration

the fire of anger sits in every home, burning the entire world down

he that is humble and who surrenders, is the only who shall be saved from burning

My interpretation-

the fire of anger resides in the home of each and every- the home of the soul (body) and the home of the individual (where he lives with family) And the flames of this fire are so potent that the human burns in anger, as well as the home burns due to anger...the whole world burns down in anger- inside the home and outside.

(Repeatedly the motif of ghar or ghatt occurs in Kabir's poetry and it refers to both the home of the soul- the body as well as the home of the body- the house with four walls)

Only s/he will be saved from this anger burning him down who surrenders him/herself; so that they will be rescued from the fire.( am not too happy with this way of explaining this!)

a doha i shared with hema

2009-07-29T19:09:00.008+05:30

सावन केरा सेहरा, बूंद पड़ा आस्मां
साड़ी दुनिया विष्णव भाई, गुरु नहीं लगा कान

saawan kaera sehra, bund paraa asmaan

saari duniya vaishnava bhayee, guru nahi lagaa kaan

Twice a day this little girl used to come to my house (in 2009 for a few months, till August) to help me with the chores. Hearing me talk so much about Kabir, her own curiosity is roused now and she wishes to know better; and I am the happier for this. She borrowed a book from me- the Bijak and took it home. Then I asked her what she understood...

Instead, I proposed, why not I choose a doha for her everyday and she learn it and also understand the meaning of it everyday and then let me occasionally check how much you remembered? That way in a week she would learn seven dohae and in a month, at least 30?!

Doha is a couplet and Kabir's language is full of them, explaining simple things in simple ways succintly.

Starting out as we did in this rainy, monsoon season...this is the doha my eyes fell upon and i chose it for her to absorb and explained the meaning too. I roughly translate the meaning here, though I am unable to do a poetic translation myself.

Translation-

Rainy clouds have come and cluster around in the sky. Just like a groom wearing a sehra* looks so beautiful and majestic, so does this formation in the sky and then raindrops come pouring down. Similarly says Kabir, the world is suddenly full of so many teachers and preachers and the entire world is filled with folks who are vaishanavas (meaning devotees- technically, bhaktas of the Hindu god Vishnu). But they have yet to find the true master whose truth will reach them instantly, and free them of their ignorance.

a view of the chakki and my passing thoughts on the matter

2009-07-11T07:31:00.006+05:30

Chakki Hath
Originally uploaded by shane5ab

this is a foto of the chakki. call it grindstone or flour-mill . This was meant to go with the blog post about churning and the kabir doha there.( but taking permissions from the photographer makes it another post)

चलती चक्की देख के दिया कबीरा रोये
दो पाटन के बीच में, बाकी बचा न कोए
chalti chakki dekh ke, diya kabira roye

do paatan ke beech mmain, baaki bacha na koye.

In this context; though I have interpreted the lines differently in the previous blogpost, one would be reminded that according to tradition in India, the path of the householder is considered the highest for any human being. Kabir himself chose to be a householder and not just a jogi with no family.

Reason?

A householder is always split between opposites- in demands on his/her time or energy. For eg. a son may be split between the love of his parents or his children, a woman maybe torn between the love of her own parents or parents-in-law (I am deliberately taking the patriarchal view here, because tradition demands that a woman leave her parents' home to go into her husband's. In reality, this is a journey of the individual soul where it is split from the supreme. As this is a longer discussion I cannot do it here. The home of the 'beloved'/husband is union with divine- the original meaning of yoga. Marriage is the union of the opposites within the same human being- the merger of polarities, into a unified Self)

So according the social tradition, those who have been through the grindstone of life, come and bless the ones who are newly getting in there (this foto is showing festivities surrounding marriage in a neighbourhood. click the foto link to read the explanation offered by the photographer) Implying, that now you are ready to be pounded by life, but when you do get crushed at least something useful will come out of it. You will be more useful as flour than as grain and you will be of use to someone: to fulfill some of their needs. So we who have been through the grind ourselves welcome you and bless you to come into the highest that a human being could be- a householder.

So why does Kabir have to weep over the subject?

I guess he says so because the process of grinding is a very painful exercise, where every second of time you are repeatedly being crushed from here- there and you are being annhilated by the world around you: to fit you from your singular self to a self which is more integrated and better suited for the needs of society, starting from the smallest unit of it- the family. What else could it be? (I am sure, the scholars in Hindi or Philosophy would have something more to say. Cannot be entirely different here)

the mythology behind 'churning' and what kabir says about it!

2009-07-09T07:24:00.013+05:30

Life churns each one of us...do you realise that? Few would be spared that. When I look at everything around, can I forget even for a moment that every one suffers. So while one suffers in health, the other in finances, one in relationships, another in family affairs and yet another in the emptiness of his soul. We are all constantly churned by life. And funnily enough, each one of us believes that my suffering is the greatest and nothing can come close to it. Only the wise ones would be spared this ignorance. We all have our own axes to grind and most would do it with a scowl on their face. Yet, when you ask them how they are doing, the most oft heard sentence is,

"I am doing quite well!!!" or even the hyperbole, TOP OF THE WORLD!!!

Kabir says about this (which most who know a little about Kabir would know anyways)

chalti chakki dekh ke, diya kabira roye

do paatan ke beech mein, baaki bachaa na koye

I translate this in verse

watching the grindstone grind, kabir weeps in anguish

for in this world, nothing can bypass the process of being crushed.

my interpretation

Grindstone is a metaphor for two sides of life which are always together, inseparable and any who meets one Has To meet the other too- a symbol of the play of opposites in life: light and darkness, joy and sorrow, birth and death, failure and success, agony and ecstasy...you name it. The list can go on and on. So, when we see the face of one, the other is in-built! Isn't the sun accompanied by the darkness of the night, the head by the tail? But the ignorant one shall weep about this polarity. For, the mind only wants the easier option or the body only wants that situation where it is comfortable, happy and prospering! Purely my view.

Decoding the Myth of the Ocean Churning

http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Stories/Mythology/Churning_of_the_Ocean_in_Hindu_Mythology.htm

this is a link- please click and connect to see the beautiful interpretation this website gives

In Hindu mythology, we know the story of the churning of ocean, when the devas combat the asuras- the gods, the demons. Mythology is nothing but stories coded to show us our own hidden propensities. The godly qualities are within us, as well as the demonic. Each one of us will constantly be dangling between the two and there is an entire spectrum...from pure good to pure evil...When you become purely good, you become like god and the opposite makes you the devil.

In the story of the churning, the warring sides use the sheshnaag- the serpent as the rope with which they would go about the churning process. The serpent symbol is also another significant symbol here as the serpent is seen as a being who is strong enough to be pulled on opposite sides in this play of maya- the mind or the psyche. According to me, this serpent is the viveka- or the ability of discernment OR reason within each OR even the higher Self. In mythological traditions the serpent is seen as a symbol of healing (coiled serpent on logo-es of doctors and hospitals) wisdom and the fluidity of life.( today, 31st January 2011, I have understood the symbolism of the serpent a bit more deeply. but now I am not ready to revise this text about the reason why serpent appears so frequently in myths, dreams and stories)

Significantly enough, the myth of churning also gives the solution (which is why the myth is coded; so that it is not easily understood!) When such a one who is already established within himself, the one who is at peace with himself- a Shiva*, comes forth he can drink the poison the ocean churns out first of all- by transcending the dance of the opposites. Poison is the ugliness or the froth that comes out when the mind goes into the play of opposites- the doubts, the fears, the schisms, the hurt, the failures, the repressed memories, the abuses; not only for an individual but an entire species**...as they rise to the surface first. In this churning of the unconscious, the Shiva as one's own higher Self has to drink it first, so that the process of unearthing or enlightenment should go ahead to its logical culmination.

That is how it is in human life. To look at your own self is a most difficult task. Instead one preferes to chase this or that outside- a job, a partner, a prospect, a dream...anything to escape oneself. And every time you are inspired to look at yourself, the poison that rises to the surface scares the hell out of you!! You seek refuge in liquor, in the disco, in pubs and in parties, in shopping, in loud calling out to god in the temple or your home- to deafen yourself from all the noise the inner withdrawl will bring...for who can look at one's ugliness and accept that you can be ugly, weak or extinguishable too (Remember Oscar Wilde's The Story of Dorian Gray?) I hope that says it all about the churning.

Only the brave, the fearless, the one who is anchored within him/her-Self, the one who has bridged that duality and sees the Oneness in everything-the Shiva- shall taste the nectar which all desire- the elixir of immortality. For then, you realise you can never be born and never will you die, for though the body may perish, you are not just the body:) You will live on in trees and birds, in children and in insects and in smiles that you leave behind on the lips of another, in the hearts of all who you touch as your own Self.

Meanwhile, switching back to the mundane world and the foolishness that all is well. Masking the truth behind saying, I am well and wasn't better ever, to tell yourself and not the other that you are all broken up within and shattered really, Kabir says in one of his saakhis

कुसल कुसल ही पूछते, कुसल भाया न कोए
ज़रा मुई न जग मुआ, कुसल कहाँ से होए.

kusal kusal hi poochhte, jag mein raha na koye

jaraa mui na bhay mua, kusal kahaan se hoye

my poetic translation and interpretation

enquiring about the wellness of each, nobody remained well;

neither their delusion went, nor the multitude of fears-

(so how can they be well at all?! )

The commonest thing you ask on meeting another is, 'how are you?' or how do you do? In modern lingo, Howdee? And yet, nobody who is here in the world is going to last forever. So how can you be good all the time? For, all the time you are disintegrating and breaking down. It is another matter you cannot see this or admit it to yourself! Can a machine go out of use, if it is functioning perfectly well? Then who are you hoodwinking by saying you are perfectly well? Your delusion, that you are perfect remains, because you keep reminding yourself all the time that all is well, when nothing really is. Until you get over this duality and see the truth, overcome the fear of facing your Self. Everything is changing- but you wish to be permanent! So says me the 21st century Kabir!! :)

*Shiva- the legend of shiva- do read the last line of this piece to understand what i have to say http://www.holymtn.com/gods/shiva.htm

** This is the reason why we dislike, fear or hate what we do not comprehend and we wish to exterminate it, for it brings our fears out- whether it is the fear of another religion, region, language, caste, gender (gays etc) nationality or a racial stock of people.

a lyre to the master

2009-07-08T19:35:00.000+05:30

master, contain me
at the feet of thine form,
in the spark of thine eyes,
on the palms of thine stretched hands
in the heart of thine emotive soul…

for my disintegrative body crumbles and whithers
my ego ebbs and rises
my eyes vacant’n tongue parched
waits for thee
waits for thee
master contain me-

27th feb 2000

madhmaad sarang

2009-07-08T16:45:00.007+05:30

This is the first raga of my life, that I learnt with the blessings of my inner guru. And who else's words would I use to awaken the raga within me, except for my own resident-guru Kabir.

The beauty of this raga is that it is a simple pentatonic melody- meaning a raga of five notes - sa ri ma pa ni, where all notes are pure ones except for a komal ni. The same notes are the ones we use for raga Megh- immortalised by Amir Khan Saheb, the main guru who awoke the Khyal within my soul. I can almost never stop singing his bandish- barkha rut aayi, boondan jhar lai (taught to me by yet another of my gurus, Amarjeet didi, in the Indore gharana tradition of Khan saheb) ...in vilambit tempo.

The guru of music for me, in most of my adult times for a lot of reasons, who i have time and again returned back to for little doubts and querries is Madhuri aunty (Smt.Madhuri Dandage, now based in Pune) For the last several years, I have been discussing ragas with her over the phone itself and when I touched this raga (imagine my fear, trying to dare to learn something by myself, when the tradition instills in you a need for a live teacher) I was unsure how to tread between Megh and Madhmaad Sarang. Aunty told me, with the crystal clarity she has...in one sentence how the usage of notes is different in ragas of the Malhar (Megh is an abbreviated name for Megh Malhar) family and Sarang family. That was it...viola! I sing Madhmaad Sarang with the blessings of both of these gurus...

in vilambit tempo, ektal-
हरी हीरा जन जौहरी, ले ले मांडी हात
जब रे मिलेगा पारखी, तब हीरा का saat

hari heera jan jauhari, lae lae maandi haat

jab re milega paarakhi, tab heera ka saat

(Kabir Saakhi)

As Drut- in Punjabi taal
जो साँचा सो केवल राम
औं देव सों नाही काम

Jo saancha so kewal ram

Aan dev soan naahi kaam.

after all these inputs can i really claim that i learnt this raga by myself!!!

btw, i did this composition in the summer of 2008- march or april.

hai koi ram naam bataawe

2009-07-08T13:54:00.006+05:30

है कोई राम नाम बतावे
बस्तु अगोचर मोहें लखावै
राम नाम सब कोई बखाने
राम नाम का मर्म न जाने;

ऊपर की मोहें बात न भावे
देखे गावे तो सुख पावे
कहे कबीर कछु कहत न आवे
परिचय बिना मर्म को पावे.

hai koi ram naam bataawae

bastu agochar mohein lakhaawae

ram naam sab koi bakhaanae

ram naam ka maram na jaanae;

upar ki mohein baat na bhaavae

dekhe gavae so sukh paavae

kahae kabir kachhu kahat naa aawae

parachai bina maram ko paawae.

my poetic translation-

Can anyone tell me the Name of my god?

Show me the one who cannot be seen

Everyone calls Him out loud

Yet none know the depth of what It is!

The superficial doesn't interest me

Until i see for myself, I don't believe and only then I sing His name

Says Kabir, mere calling out a Name is not enough

To him who has to know It shall be revealed, even if he doesn't know a single loud syllable.

my interpretation:

This is a voice of challenge. Kabir challenges anyone to tell him, to show him, what is the nature of God, Ram as he calls him (not the Ram of the Ramayana, mind you). He says, 'everyone is calling out the name of ram, and so many are making so much noise about it too. but few knew what it takes to know the lord' In other words he is taking a dig at the ones who are making money out of the name of the Lord. And then he says, that the more you talk about it the more you turn me off, becuase your talk is nothing more than babble; until i see it I won't believe it. Just saying on surface is no sign you know anything really. For that whom the Lord chooses to grace with knowledge of Him (the Lord) it shall be revealed without so much talk, and the rest can make the noise!

In this context there is many a connected bhajan where Kabir laughs or mocks such people who make noise in the name of calling to the Lord (how contextual it is in the modern times with the booming industry of spirituality!!) and I have rendered them in my Kahe Kabir album. They are-

naa jaane tera sahib kaisa hai
koi peevae re ras ram naam ka, jo peevae so jogi re
munn na rangaaye, rangaaye jogi kapda

In some more time I will put all these lyrics up here.

Music and the Muse- An Identity for Kumar Gandharva

2009-07-08T13:18:00.005+05:30

The Music and the Muse: An Identity for Kumar Gandharva: Psychological Studies, Journal of the National Academy of Psychology, India, Vol. 50., No. 2 &3, 2005. ( this is a published article and these are the details of the publication)

Prateeksha Sharma, New Delhi

This paper is an attempt to trace two aspects of creative artists: ‘Bildungsroman’ (novel of formation) and ‘Künstlerroman’ (novel of the artist). The subject of the former is the development of the protagonist’s mind and character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences- and often through spiritual crisis-into maturity, which usually involves recognition of one’s identity and role in the world. The latter, the ‘artist novel’ represents the growth of an artist from childhood into the stage of maturity that signalizes the recognition of the protagonist’s artistic destiny and mastery of an artistic craft.

KEW WORDS: Identity, Kabir, Kumar Gandharva, Music,

Generations of Indians, for hundreds of years, have grown up singing Kabir, from oral traditions to classical traditions, from rustic village mandalis to sounds polished and honed through years of riyaaz and sadhana. Among the classical sounds one of the most prominent and far reaching voices is that of Pandit Kumar Gandharva (KG) (1924-1992) a voice both rich in its classical understanding of ragas, a voice imbued with the meaning of the text it attempts to deliver, and a voice capable of creating mystery and a reverence about the depth and colossus of the literature it has set out to explore. This paper tries to trace the sojourn of Shivaputra Komkali to the iconic Kumar Gandharva: the crisis of identity and the development of the artist from the prosaic to the poetic, from the mundane to the spiritual.

------------------------

Prateeksha Sharma is a classical musician and a researcher/consultant in music therapy. She works in music therapy with various populations of individuals and is actively involved in advocacy of psychotherapy based music therapy issues.

Email: prateeksha_sharma@yahoo.co.uk

At the outset it may be noted that the present attempt is not an exercise in voice analysis as much as to understand why is it that KG’s voice stands out on the firmament of Indian music in its rendition of Kabir, while numerous others sing the poet saint, equally well, if not better? Why is it that generations of people seem touched to their inner core by his singing more than that of any other musician of the tradition (of classical music) or training? What is it, that makes Kumar Gandharva a mystery and an enigma that reaches a peak during his Kabir bhajans?

The above concerns are explored on the basis of observation and logical reasoning. It relies on the observations of some people who had learnt with Kumarji himself, reading about him, working on Kabir in my own musical journey and interacting with a number of people who associated with Kabir’s thought and philosophy and KG, people who had heard KG in person, people who learnt his music with his students, critics and admirers, his own students and followers. KG is an enigma that not only haunts but also continues to grow right in front of us. “Time”, according to Van der Post (1975), “has a knack of putting the truly great…well ahead of us, rather than in the past darkening so fast behind.”KG today looms larger on the scene of the human spirit than he did in his own lifetime.

Kumarji belongs to the class of artists whose echoes linger on in the aural memories of millions all over India, a formidable legacy for anyone to carry forward and a giant task to comprehend. Much like Kabir, he grew up in a manner never experienced before him; he was a man detached from his times, the institutions of his times and the sensibilities attached to those institutional structures. If Kabir was a weaver who simply and irreverently composed verses that shook the frame of all tradition and authority; KG equally powerfully shook the tradition of music and stepped aside from the main current of being ‘certified’ by any one gharana( school of music). Given his extraordinary ability to sing any and all of them with equal facility- the choice to not affiliate him to any one gharana was a great act of rebellion, an act unheard of in his time, a radical breakaway from the prevalent order and injecting a new level of thought into the entire gamut of Hindustani music’s exploratory process.

“Sunta hai guru gyani, gagan mein awaaj ho rahi jhini jhini…” (meaning, the one anointed by the guru, hears…hears an inaudible, imperceptible cosmic sound) is a very popular bhajan of Kabir sung by KG. This song alone can be an initiation for one into the world of both Kabir and Kumarji and numerous listeners venture unsuspectingly near KG and Kabir, coming with the quest for enquiry aflame in their minds about the nature of everything and perhaps the most significant being WHO AM I? Those questions of philosophy, which have haunted the human mind eternally, assume a new light when put forth by Kabir and when KG spoke in that voice, says Raghava Menon (2001), “The Kabir Bhajans on the other hand are laden with the monochrome of timelessness.”

How did KG become what he became is a question that one wishes to examine in this piece- the voice, the identity, the expression, the intensity, the depth and so on. Though Kumarji is a subject worthy of many studies that have been carried out and no doubt will be carried out in future too, I will restrict this presentation to the psychological aspects alone and the process of ‘individuation’ within the theoretical framework developed by C.G. Jung.

The Child: A Crisis in Identity

It is very well known about Kumar ji that he was a child prodigy. A prodigy is always a challenge for society to understand, for s/he confuses everyone with his/her prowess and ability. It seems uncanny and is given various connotations depending upon the arena where the prodigy has appeared. In the field of music prodigies are not only found once every few years, their method also remains similar. Society down the ages has largely been based on conformity; and individuality is frowned upon for it is perceived as a threat to the prevailing institutions. In such a situation reports Menon(2001),

Kumar was born with a supernatural memory…He could…reproduce a three-minute record of any of the well-established musicians of the day with a fidelity that made his singing of them seem like musical photographs. Considering the number of years that these musicians had spent in mastering their art, this eerie facility of a seven-year-old lad seemed miraculous…People who had no interest nor understanding of music came in hordes to hear him and look upon him…(p.40)

Literature abounds about KG telling us about his genius and the fact that how while he was just a little boy he had become the cynosure of all eyes, a crowd puller and a musician par excellence. “But what surprised Kumar …was not his ability to sing but the response he had on those who heard him. For that he was not prepared. All he thought he was doing was…he sang it (a song that he heard) the best way he could”(Menon, 2001, p. 49).

When a small boy of seven comes under public gaze what could be the possible effect on the developing ego of the child? What would he have thought about himself and about his admirers? How would he have dealt with all the adulation or to that extent not only him, how do all ‘celebrity’ children handle an invasion into their lives by effusive adults who they do not understand?

From the viewpoint of the child whose developing concept of self is subject to the kind of exposure that KG was receiving at that point in his life and he was being celebrated for his singing, his ‘voice’ was paradoxically was not his own- he was an accurate imitator, an excellent mimic and the world was adulating his ability to mimic; not necessarily his musicianship. Like a small boat that is tossed in the giant sea of careless waves Kumar’s ego had been laid bare for the world to examine, study, wonder about and comment upon. A child was in the ‘limelight’ without knowing why, or assimilating in the true sense the reason for being there. Psychologically, all children who are in the ‘public eye’ undergo this phenomenon of ‘premature exposure’ without having the ego strength to deal with the impact of it and someday face the possibility of a neurosis or hopelessness.

When the ego is sufficiently developed it can handle success and failure, criticism and appreciation with a fair degree of equanimity. But a child imitating an adult, and being adulated for that ability will sooner or later only come to feel confused about his/her own identity*.

*Another famous and celebrated artist currently on the world music scene is Michael Jackson, also considered a child prodigy. Much later as the whole world now witnesses a lot of his childhood pain surfaces in the form of abnormalities which showed up in adult life, to the confusion and surprise of the world. If we extend the analysis about the lack of ego strength in the child, whose concept of self is not well defined it appears to be true in this case too.

The Personality

Author, voice instructor, and singer Carolyn Sloan (1999), reflecting on the process of self-discovery through the voice says,

“I have learned that singing is about self-examination and observation, though not self-criticism…. Along with courage and ability to question, experiment, and observe, a singer also must have an unfailing persistence and desire to solve what may seem to be unsolvable mysteries…. A singer must become become his or her own ally, searching for clues and solving these mysteries for him or herself. A singer needs to become a detective…. We must balance our need to control with a necessity to let go so our true voices can surface. We do not create the voice. The voice is and creates us. It teaches us that we must be open to being stimulated and to experiencing our lives without inhibition. As a singer, it is imperative to be a spiritual master (p.5).”

A voice is like an identity. Every human being needs a ‘voice’. In effect voice is the expression of the individuality of a person. It is not necessarily a speaking voice alone, it is an expression of the soul of the individual- it can be a ‘voice’ that expresses itself through speech, through writing, painting, gardening, cooking, cleaning, teaching, farming, or any other vocation. A ‘voice’ is not limited to the function of the larynx alone. It is a multifaceted, multi-hued, aesthetic expression of the inner life of a person. As many roles a person perform in life or society, at least that many are the visible expressions of his/her individuality or ‘voices’.

Voice is the fundamental aspect of a singer. When a singer is appreciated for excellent rendition of another’s singing, in a sensitive individual it may produce confusion about who actually is being celebrated- the original voice or the cover-version. In such a state, it becomes urgent and necessary for the child to search himself out, for it is evident that he is not being celebrated for himself but because he can be somebody else. This search for identity, when it is felt becomes the struggle.

In discussing about primal therapy, Arthur Janov (1970) talks about development from the point of view of a child, “Struggle is what keeps a child from feeling his hopelessness. It lies in being the performer...Instead of being himself he struggles to become another version of himself. Sooner or later the child comes to believe that this version is the real him…. It is that moment of icy, cosmic loneliness, the bitterest of all epiphanies. It is the time when he begins to discover that he is not loved for what he is and will not be (p. 29).”⁷

KG was not known to be neurotic as a child or as an adult but one is wont to believe that precocity had its internal roots in a troubled spirit. Raghava Menon (2001) sheds light on this aspect too, “He merely puzzled over these issues inwardly…merely suffered quietly…. The problem was what to do, (p.64)…”

So, a search for his own inner expression would have begun long ago in the soul of the child. It would no longer be enough to merely ape another great artist, because the inward restlessness demanded an original release, an outlet- not merely a borrowed identity. Kumar Gandharva had set out on the path of “ ‘individuation’- a process referred to by Swiss psychologist C.G.Jung as a search for self; an expression of that biological process by which every living thing becomes what it is destined to become from the beginning" (Gandhi, 2001, p. 20).

At a later point in his life when he came in touch with Anjani Bai Malpekar, who took him into the realm of the science of sound, or Nada Yoga, did he for the first time have a real glimpse of what he had sought all along? Before that, he was seeking without knowing. The inability to ask anyone or ask the exact questions for want of a facilitating environment (both then and now) produced suffering. These experiences of pain, the beginning of the individuation is in fact transformative experiences that may be viewed as “… the dark and bitter night of the soul…” shares Raghava Menon (2001, p64). And interestingly, this is the view of transpersonal psychology too.

Experience of change, transformation or transition is in fact a point of crisis in the life of an individual. How the human encounters and deals with the process, assimilates the change and transforms himself and his destiny is the essence of transpersonal experiences. Stanislav Grof and Cristina Grof (1990), the former being among the pioneering figures in the transpersonal psychology movement say, “One can also encounter experiences of fear, loneliness, insanity, or death during transpersonal sequences originating from collective or universal domains. The transpersonal realms contain both light and dark elements, and both the ‘positive’ and the ‘negative’ can inspire fear…However, the fact that fear sometimes arises when an individual moves into the realms of light and beauty is somewhat perplexing" (p. 48)

When the artist began to question the environment around him it became imperative for him to understand who he was himself, what was the singing that he needed to do and what was the way ahead of him? Kumar needed to find his own face and distinguish it from the numerous faces that were being mirrored within him in his day-to-day quest. His struggle became introverted and was not limited to a search for voice and identity alone; it became a quest for affiliating the soul. Even when he went to study music at the house of his guru Professor Deodhar, he remained aloof about affiliating himself to any gharana; chronicles Menon (2001) “…while there was a flexibility with respect to Kumar on the characteristics of Gharana, he was inflexible in his vision of what music should be, boundless, beyond frontiers and paradigms (p. 89).”

Kumar Gandharva was a musician first and he, had already examined the structures of the gharanas while still a child, so now the need was to find his own voice, his own identity from within the musical tapestry he had seen, studied and examined all his young days. At this point perhaps, his Guru gave him a teaching assignment “Kumar was designated to teach all those students who did not have too clear a picture of what style they wanted most to follow. In a certain sense this was a wise technique to adopt for Kumar himself was not still quite decided on what contour he himself was to give his art”^{(Menon, 2001, p. 89)}

As yet, he had not found a way out for himself. He was troubled and occasionally happy. Troubled, because of the restlessness that gnawed at his heartstrings constantly and making him unsure where his precocity and genius were headed after all. The hero who is on the path of inner transformation has to face all his demons and fears when they come face-to-face with him. Few are moments of passing joy for an individual who cannot share the pain of his quest with anyone. But fortunate are those who do not give up in spite of the uncertainty.

Janov (1970) further elaborates on the need for authenticity, “Because we were unified human beings, the real self will constantly press to surface and make those mental connections. If there were no intrinsic need to be whole, then the real self could be put away for good; it would lie peacefully within us and never make any attempt to intrude into our behaviour. What drives neurosis is the need to be whole again, the need to be our natural selves. The unreal self is the barrier, the enemy which must finally be destroyed (p. 41).”

The unconscious in us is always pressing to express itself, mostly through dreams and fantasies, sometimes through experiences of illness too. When a young man seeks himself from all the haze that surrounds him, in some voices he finds a resonance of his own inner calling. The search had started finding results. While discussing about self-realization of the unconscious, Anthony Stevens (1982) notes that, “everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions to experience itself as a whole…It is not I who create myself, rather I who happen to myself (p. 140).”

A Break from Tradition

From the child who apes every audible sound in its environment to its nearest degree possible to becoming an artiste par excellence was a singular journey. Often in the musical tradition one is taught that the lyrics or the poetry of the work is subservient to the mood of the raga. That means every ‘khayal’ or ‘bandish’ of a raga should sound like the raga from which it is born and not have a distinct identity of its own. Kumarji was among one of the few people who dared to challenge this fixity. For him every lyrical form had its own life and needed to be honored for its own sake, and not alone the sake of the raga. “This quality is one of the principal characteristics of the Kumar Gandharva Gayaki,” points out Menon (2001), further elaborating, “Kumar sang out of the Bandish and not out of the Raga. He subordinated the Raga to the Bandish, never letting the Raga take priority over the Bandish. This was a unique turnaround in the culture of the Hindustani classical musical heritage. This was the cause of the passion and intensity with which Kumar invested his performance. His Raga Vistara took on the lineaments of the Bandish on account of which the Raga has come to exist. So he showed the possibilities the Raga in that particular embodiment of the Bandish he had chosen to sing. This was the consequence of a highly developed and delicate literary grasp of the nature of the words of a language and the way they are spoken while being sung ( P. 86-87).

There is one significant point in the biography of KG, which many ascribe as the reason for maturity of his musical thought. That was a six-year long, near fatal illness that he faced, in the course of which he was forbidden from singing. The only voices that he could hear were the folk singers of his neighbouring areas. This prolonged absence from active singing was a return to the inner environs for KG, and that is where he honed his art in a new way “This is a well-understood practice and is often called Mauna Sadhana, which irrigates and fertilizes the unconscious mind of the Sadhak (Menon, 2001, p. 84)”

Though Kumar had reached heights in his musicianship early enough, this period of forced withdrawl and a near brush with death, deepened his insights into the world of the ‘swara’. Possibly this was also the time when he became more inclined towards the bhakti tradition in poetry.

Illness and Transformation

A life of seeking becomes a life of pain, questions and uncertainty. Since many do not tread this path the seeker is usually left alone to look for answers till the next person can come and point out a little of the way ahead. Illness is usually a time that leaves many a person alone with not much else except their inner reservoirs to fall back on- as it did Kumarji. It was an experience of silence, an experience of using the ear to a new end, an experience of growing from the soil of, Dewas, Malwa, “Dewas was a singing country…. The folk do not sing in the strict sense. They are telling things to each other and this speech sounds like song…. A folk tune does not have Raga, what it has are the seeds of feeling…. Lying in bed he discovered this simple truth" (Menon, 2001 P. 93).

In finding out this simple truth maybe Kumar Gandharva found himself out. And now it was a new journey that stared ahead of him-the internal journey having borne fruition but the world outside much the same. This is not an unknown phenomenon for the Grofs’ having experienced an entire gamut of transpersonal experiences share, for example, someone who returns to a familiar situation may find the culture and the individuals within it unreceptive to his or her new capacities.

The reborn hero must enter the long-forgotten atmosphere where men who are fractions imagine themselves to be complete. He has to confront society with his ego-shattering, life-redeeming elixir, and take the return blow of reasonable queries, hard resentment, and good people at a loss to comprehend. Because of the magnitude of their transformative experiences… they may also face the very real problem that the everyday world around them is often not very receptive to their newfound discoveries" (C. Grof & S. Grof, 1990, p. 214).

After having completed a long journey (though visibly in a short span of time) in classical music, inverting it within himself- moving away from the realm of ragas to the kingdom of the swara, becoming fully musically quiet, except for the aural input of the folk singers that went into him, Kumarji brought about a most extraordinary change in his life through a lateral technique of riyaaz- simply through his ear and silent practice. It was as if he fought the tuberculosis by dint of sheer willpower- a triumph of the spirit. In terms of therapy this is termed as psychoneuroimmunology- where the immune system gets an impetus from the mind to fight illness and combat the disease. Music therapy and a lot of holistic practices these days are increasingly orienting themselves towards this multimodal approach.

Poetic Underpinings of Kumar Gandharva’s Gayaki

Though bhakti singing in the form of bhajan has been practiced long before KG appeared, he seems to have established a new method in the tradition- not for him a bhajan where the facial expressions of the singers “…have to show any devotion or faith in the syrupy fashion of our inheritance"…(Menon, 2001, p. 100). Kumar Gandharva brought Kabir (and the bhajan) to life simply because of his fusion of the folk and classical forms of music with poetry. Placing the poetry into the rustic countryside ambience it had grown out of, his songs acquired a new root, never before seen in bhajan singing. One sometimes wonders what made him choose Kabir’s Nirgun bhakti as his ‘voice’ over the sagun bhakti (Not that he limited his repertoire of bhajans to Nirgun bhakti alone) As in the Nirgun tradition, the deity is a formless, divine entity, Kumarji ascribed that same formlessness to the ‘swara’. Kabir’s poetry is an ocean of spiritual philosophy.

Concluding Comments

Kumar Gandharva brings to life his words with new meanings, because for the first time a singer explores the swara in the same objectivity as the poet who utters the syllables. In other words the soul of the artist becomes the voice of the man. So there is no separation between the two identities. When one man sees within him another completely reflected, automatically the former’s poetry becomes the latter’s expression. There is a merger. “Thus does the Self accord itself recognition through that organ of consciousness-the ego- which it has given rise to. In one place Jung defines ego as a ‘relatively constant personificantion of the unconscious itself, or as the Schopenhauerian mirror in which the unconscious becomes aware of its own face” (Anthony, 1982,P.140)

In triumphing over illness, Kumarji rewrote the script of his life. He used his own music to heal himself out of a near death situation and gave succour to innumerable others after that. The myth of the wounded healer came alive once again for the world. Thus Kumarji, demonstrated in his own lifetime the power of healing that music offers, opened out new avenues. Possibly without realizing he became one of the most eminent case studies for music therapy in India, rendering both the lyrical content of Kabir to its full glory and his own musical improvisation to carve out a hitherto unknown, unforeseen, uncharted path for all those who dare to follow; in the process literally and figuratively becoming the ‘voice’ of Kabir for the times we live in.

References

Gandhy, Rashna Imhasly (2001). The psychology of love: Wisdom of Indian mythology. New Delhi: Roli Books.

Grof, Cristina & Grof, Stanislav, (1990). The stormy search for the self-A guide to personal growth through transformational crisis.  New York: Penguin.

Janov, Arthur (1970). The primal scream, primal therapy: The cure for                 neurosis. London: Abacus.

Menon, Raghava R. (2001). The musical journey of Kumar Gandharva. New Delhi: Vision Books.

Sloan, Carolyn (1999). Finding your voice. New York: Hyperion.

Stevens, Anthony (1982). Archetyp: A natural history of the self.  London: Routledge.

Van der Post, Laurens (1975).  Jung and the story of our time.  New York: Vintage Book

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kab dekhoon mere ram sanehi

2009-07-08T12:37:00.008+05:30

कब देखों मेरे राम सनेही, जा बिन दुःख पावे मेरी देहि II

हूँ तेरा पत्थ निहारूं स्वामी,कब रे मिलाहूगे अंतरजामी

जैसे जल बिण मीन तरपे, ऐसे हरी बिन मेरा जिया कलपे

निस दिन हरी बिन नींद न आवे, दरस पियरी राम क्यों सचु पावे

कहे कबीर अब विलम्ब ना कीजे, अपनों जानी मोहे दरसन दीजे.

kab dekhon mere ram sanehi,

jaa bin dukh paave meri dehi.

hoon tera pathh nihaarun swami,

kab re milahooge antarjaami.

jaise jal binn meen tarape

aise hari binn mera jiya kalapae.

niss din hari binn neend na aawae

daras piyari ram kyoon sachoo paawae.

kahae kabir abb vilamb naa keejae

apno jaani mohae darasan dijae.

my poetic translation

alas when will I see you my Beloved

Without thee I suffer in body

I wait unblinkingly for you to come my dearest

When will you meet me dearest to my soul

Like a fish writhes without water

Without you I suffer thus

Without thee, in peace I do not sleep

Waiting to behold you in my eyes

Says Kabir, do not now stay away

Consider me thine own and reveal thyself to me.

My interpretation

A song of the deepest yearning of the soul for its divine counterpart.

jaag piyari

2009-07-07T17:41:00.001+05:30

jaag piyari ab kya sovae, raen gai din kaahe ko khovae

jin jaaga tinn maanik paaya, bauri sab soye gavaaya;

piya tere chatur tu moorakh nari, kabahun na piya ki sej sanwaari

tein bauri bauraapan keenhon, bhar joban piya apan na cheenhon;

jaag dekh piya sej na tere, tahi chhaadi uthi gaye savere

kahae kabir soi dhan jaage, sabad baan urr antar laagae.

my translation in verse-

wake up my slumbering self awake,

the night hath pass't, why pass the day

like a precious jewel the awakened ones shall behold the day ,

the ignorant shall it all lose slumbering;

While thee a fool thine beloved is clever

for never in time* did you sit by HIS side

in thine ignorance thee behaved ignorant

you never made HIM your own intoxicated by youth;

Awake, look thine beloved ain't in your chamber any more

leaving you asleep he woke up in the morning

Says Kabir only those shall wake up

Who gets pierced by the arrows of these Words.

Kahe Kabir -Volume 1

* in time: when you had time enough in your youth

my interpretation-