Sri Narasimha Swamiji has described that Sai Baba, in his younger days was fond of singing and dancing in ecstasy, reciting poems and songs by great saints of North India. When wandering Sadhus took a sojourn in Shirdi, he used to tie tiny bells to his feet and dance at the ‘Takia’. Sai Baba indulged in this kind of excursion for twenty to thirty years from the time he settled in ‘Dwarakamayi’. However, after he gave up his body for three days in 1890 and returned to life, he used to sing occult songs of Kabir. Many times, wandering singers, dancing troupes, qawwals and tamasha artists used to visit the mosque to present their talent before Sai Baba.
Before he attained ‘Mahasamadhi’ in 1918, he arranged concerts, samkirtans, reading of the Koran and ‘Hari Vijaya’. Baba inspired Bhishma , an adept composer and poet to write five poems on his Guru aspect as Satchidananda. Bhishma also composed Sagunopasana for Baba’s daily arati, adapting abhangs on Vittal, poems of Adkar, Dasa Ganu, Upasani and traditional shlokas. The booklet was printed by Kaka Dixit. Sagunopasana thus became a daily upasana channel in book form.
The great vocal singer Abdul Karim Khan arrived in Shirdi and satiated Baba’s ears with his classical Bhakti Sangeet in 1915. Keeping these facts in mind, Sri Narasimha Swamiji arranged devotional music concerts every year.
Sri Narasimha Swamiji knew the intricacies of music. He has explained identification of the notes or ‘swaras’ in music, as a child identifies his father, mother, grandparents and siblings. When a student of music is at the initial stages of learning, his ears are sensitized to recognize all the swaras, and distinguish them from each other.
This is ‘Pa’, the ‘Achala Swara’ or unchanging note, like the ‘Sa’; and this ‘Ma’, at the centre of the galaxy of notes, this is the tired ‘Teevra Ma’, this is the ‘Shanta’ or peaceful ‘Shuddha Ma’; this is ‘Re’ or ‘Rishabha’, guardian of the ‘Sa’; this the third note or ‘Gandhar’, whose magic lies in a direct vibration with the ‘Sa’; this is ‘Dha’, is mesmerizing that it can lead to a deep state of trance; and this is ‘Ni’, ever so hungry for the ‘Sa’.
This is also called ‘Swara Nilai’ or establishing the swaras and their specific applications in different ragas. Just as in relationships, familiarity with swaras is cultivated through endless cycles of repetition, years of labour which will make the student know them all like the back of his hand. This is the stage of ‘Swara Jnana’, enlightenment about swaras.
A hundred emotional colours will be discovered through the relationships between the twelve swaras. Cascade the ‘Sa’ down from the ‘Ga’ in the raga ‘Hindoli’, to get that magical hue (not be repeated in any other raga). Develop the haunt of ‘Dha’ in the raga ‘Puriya Dhanashri’, a most poignant note (despite the scientific ‘Ga-Ni Samvada’ or dialogistic positions of ‘Ga’ and ‘Ni’ in the raga). ‘Swara Sambhandam’, develops relationships of the swaras, the more complex the relationships, the more enchanting the music.
In fact, as ‘Swara Sadhana’ proceeds, an immense variety of exercises in several ragas, and some amount of composing, will also start. With the musical materials at hand, there will be assembling and reassembling of the components of musical features of the singer or style as each raga will find its own expression and the river of music will flow. The flow creates emotional kaleidoscopes in the raga, rich paragraphs of colour, and marks a new stage in the artist’s struggle to come to his own.
The world will listen to how well the ragas have been crafted, and how well the musician has brought the music of his masters – and of his tradition – alive, animated by his own creativity. Few may be aware that the music and the musician will continue to mature, even if he is too old to perform, or when swaras melt down completely, each merging with the other.
All the relationships of life become one ecstatic whole, symbolizing that one relationship. As in Samadhi, when relationships are without differences, like the stage when a dying man looks at all the loved ones of his life surrounding his bed as he sleeps for the last time.
Therefore, Sri Narasimha Swamiji said about the stage of Samadhi in music – “all the swaras begin to seem joined together, not separate” – to bring the journey of life full circle, reaching the underlying unity of all life and its basic connectedness.
By: Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji
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