Jun 13, 2009, 08.00am IST
MADHAV CHARI.
When we discuss spiritual music, the popular notion is music that celebrates or invokes the name of a particular spirit or deity. For example, music set to a ritual such as the Yoruba drumming or the Catholic mass, Carnatic music composed by Thyagaraja, devotee of Rama or simply ecstatic music from other bhakti or Sufi-influenced traditions. But, are these the only kinds of spiritual music?
We can only answer this question if we know what a spiritual experience is in the broadest possible sense. Then, spiritual music is simply music that gives a spiritual experience to both the listener and performer.
Language might not describe sufficiently a spiritual experience to someone who has not tasted it, and no thought process from the rational mind can understand this experience without access to the first-hand experience itself. Suppose we know what the colour blue is, how do we use words to explain blue to someone who has only seen black, white and shades of grey? At best we can point to familiar experiences, and by analogy we suspect what it might be like.
Most of us have had some taste of an experience where time stood still, one forgot oneself, and was carried away by the moment. A spiritual experience is the same, more intense, and powerful enough to have the potential to transform one permanently over time. The more experiences of "quality" one has, the more one is tangibly transformed. In time the transformation is permanent and there is no going back.
Music has the potential to bring about such a permanent change in the listener, but the intensity of this spiritual experience is completely determined by the quality of the musician. Think of the musician as a vessel or conduit that is transmitting spiritual energy. This energy has to find a form to manifest in the everyday world, and in the case of the musician it comes through the music. If the mastery of the musical form is not strong enough, this tremendous energy cannot be contained, and what results may not even be good music. The quality of music depends on both the quantity and quality of sustained practice. No music practice means absolutely no possibility of spiritual music.
This kind of music may not be necessarily soothing, or nice-sounding in the beginning: often what we think is soothing or nice-sounding are ideas imposed on us by the culture we live in. Different music forms have different shades of aesthetics or beauty within the particular music form. A musician accomplished in a particular music form has internalised all relevant aspects of that music form including the aesthetic aspect. However, this particular spiritual energy can occur in any music form across the planet that has produced excellent musicians who are immersed in their music. After this kind of spiritual experience we may even find what we understand as soothing music to be boring and devoid of character!
Where can we find these instances of spiritual music? There were, are and will be musicians who excel in many music forms across the world, but their number at any point in time has never been large. This music can happen anytime and anywhere in the world: a church, temple, dargah , coffee shop, concert hall, jazz or blues club, a busy train station, even a living room. But when it happens and you are listening to this music, stop judging the music with your rational mind and your own cultural bias and open yourself to the music. In time you will be transformed.
(The writer is a jazz pianist)
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