Although I have commenced my blogging with the “Hello World” Post, this is my first official post. As I am a novice to blogging, I felt I would take up a topic that is familiar to me, probably the one which will not make me feel vacuous.
Music – “The language of the soul” is abysmal and something that cannot be expressed in words. Say, I utter a statement “Sugar is Sweet“, you cannot feel the sweetness in your tongue, unless it is tasted(at least once). Music has to be felt realized (rather lived) than to be spoken about.You can question me then, as to why i am writing about music. To be clear in my point, this is not about music but the experience of music.
Any sound(music or noise) has a frequency and produces an effect in the environment. If you are a C/C++ programmer and if you ever had a chance to read the sound() function(help) in turboc3, you might be aware of the following story.
“True story: 7 Hz is the resonant frequency of a chicken’s skull cavity.
This was determined empirically in Australia, where a new factory
generating 7-Hz tones was located too close to a chicken ranch: When the factory started up, all the chickens died.” – content from turboc3 – help for sound() function.
Experience differs from genre to genre (say Carnatic, Hindustani, Pop, Rock, Folk,western … so on and so forth). It is beyond doubt that, Irrespective of the genre, every music has an impact on the human mind/body. Some takes you to a higher level of ecstasy and some may produce a soothing effect to your mind and some other may tap the emotions out of you. Besides, few others may give a peculiar experience of “Losing oneself in music!!!”. This is a state of being in unison with the music or rather a transcending experience. The effects of Ragas on human mind/body are proven scientifically. For instance, Raag Abhogi stimulates appetite, Raag Ananda Bairavi reduces hyper tension, Chandrakauns treats heart ailments and diabetes, Nilambari induces sleep and the list grows. Moreover, “One of the oldest examples occurs in the Bible with King Saul asking David to play his harp in order to relieve him of his evil spirits”.
Eternal Bliss means “A state of extreme happiness lasting forever” which is a very difficult term to describe but has to be felt. This eternal bliss can be achieved only when the mind releases itself from the bondage of space and the time. Saint Thyagaraja (one of the trinities of Carnatic Music) says in his composition “nAdalOluDai brahmAnandamandavE manasA” meaning “O Mind! By becoming a lover of nadha(Music), attain the eternal bliss”.
The state and the mood of the singer mostly reflects while a song is rendered. And the converse is also true. Say the state and the mood of the singer is greatly influenced by the song he hears/sings. But sorry to say that most of the songs rendered now by most of the great artists reflects the Ego of the performer/artist and it is mere exhibition of their talent. This music can cater to your appetite for knowledge but will never get you even close to the state of bliss.
But on the contrary the beauty of music lies in its simplicity(in its raw form). In a Tamil movie song from the Movie “Idhu namma bhoomi”, there is a lovable lyric that reads “Sabayil paeredukka kuyilgal isaippadillai…enakke naan sugam serka dinamum paadugindren” meaning ” Just as, how cuckoos don’t sing for rewards/glory, I sing for my own happiness/bliss”. One another wonderful composition “Katril varum geethame” from the movie “Oru Naal Oru kanavu” portrays the key objective of music… “Isayin payanae iraivan thaanae” meaning “The ultimate fruit of music is divine himself”.
For instance the “Khwaje Mere Khwaja” song from the movie Jhodha Akbar sung by A.R.Rahman or any song of M.S.Subbulakshmi assimilates the Bhakti Rasa (devotion/divine essence) and is totally devoid of ego.
To conclude, what I feel is, an artist can certainly attain this state of bliss, and with the power of music, can even extend the experience to the listeners if he/she annihilates the ego.
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