Smt. Shobha Srinivasan
Date: Mar 03 2023
Music and Life - the Teacher and the Taught
Question: Are we all same or are we all different?
Even though the question and the answer to this looks very simple at the surface, this is the crux of our struggles. Wanting the objective to become subjective and vice versa is the biggest of our desires that creates lots of conflicts within us.
Musical Experience
Just like how we have so many regions, culture, tradition, languages and cuisines in India, we have so many different genres of music in India. Every region has its own folk music. Then there is popular music or film music. Even here, we can see there is a difference in the way that region’s film music is composed. It is not only the language that is different but the way a melody is handled is different.
A Carnatic Music learner is blessed with learning compositions primarily in Telugu, Samskritam, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam. A Ragam or the melody is handled in the same way across the compositions in these languages. Not all singers know all these languages but they do learn compositions in that language as handed over by their Guru. Recent times have seen both the Guru and the Shishya becoming more conscious about the meaning of the song to enjoy that song to the fullest extent.
What is common and what is individual is also based on the context.
A Carnatic Composition has the following components - Ragam, Talam, Lyrics, Overall Bhavam or expression of the composition. If you look at two compositions in Kalyani Ragam - one in Telugu (vasudEvani veDalina, a composition of Tyagaraja Swami) and one in Tamil (unnai allal vErE gathi illai ammA, a composition of Papanasam Sivan), the commonality is the Ragam, the individuality is the language and the meaning conveyed by the composition.
If you take two compositions in Purnasadjam (Sri Manini composed by Tyagaraja Swami) or Rudrapriya (Gananayakam composed by Muthuswami Dikshitar), the commonality is not just the ragam itself, but the tune also. They have the exact same tune (thanks to Sri TM Krishna’s article on this). The Individuality is just the language here.
If you take Ragam Mohanam of Carnatic Music and Raag Bhoop or Bhupali of Hindustani, the commonality is the Swarasthanam of the Sa Ri Ga Pa Da swaras and it is just amazing to see that the individuality lies in the handling of these swaras.
If you take Sankarabharanam Ragam of Carnatic Music and C Major Scale of Western Music, the commonality is again the swarasthanam themselves, but the individuality is the way the same swarasthanams are handled.
So, we observe that in music too, commonality and individuality exist together.
Connecting the dots…
In life we can see this commonality and individuality everywhere.
If we take two human beings, the fact that they have similar anatomy is a common factor. The fact that their mind thinks differently, is the individualisation.
If we take a human being and an animal, the fact that they both have animalistic instincts is a common factor. The fact that one has an evolved mind and one has a minimalistic mind is the individualisation.
We can keep going with these kind of examples to see the common and individualisation aspects.
So, why is it important to us and what problems can it cause if we are not aware and don’t take the right perspective?
The commonality aspect of a being is used for connection to other beings and the individualisation aspect of a being is used for that individual’s growth. Do you see how important both are? Connection without growth or growth without connection, both are bound to fail.
If you would like to visualise, connection moves horizontally and growth moves vertically. The way it works is that, we connect, we grow, we connect, we grow. We just cannot grow without connection to either another human being or to the Divine or both. But when our mind or ego takes over us, that connection is lost and then our growth stops. We may not see this in this manner, but we will feel it and we will then start searching for reasons. Unless we are extremely aware, we may never find the reason.
Another interesting aspect here is that as when we are growing vertically, we tend to be in the same peer group who are also growing at the same level so it is easier to connect horizontally.
When we see the vertical growth and ignore the horizontal connectivity, we see the differences and we tend to compare and get jealous or even blame and hate. When we see the vertical growth along with the horizontal connectivity, we tend to get inspired and share and forgive and love. When we see only the horizontal connectivity but resist to look up at the vertical growth, it might mean that we need to work on our resistance, procrastination, feeling low, anxiety etc.
Practice
As we navigate through life, let us keep observing
- how we respond to external triggers
- how we use our time
- what values we connect to
- what is the direction of our growth
Any problem can be understood in terms of the commonality (horizontal connection) and the individualisation (the vertical growth)
If we feel anxious, it means, we are not able to find that connection or commonality and we do not want to grow vertically alone.
If we feel jealous, it means that we do want to grow vertically, but we are using the wrong horizontal connection or we are not interpreting the horizontal connection in the right way.
If we feel overly confident (to the extent of being arrogant), it means, we tend to grow very fast and probably may not acknowledge the horizontal connectivity even though we use it.
If we feel very empathetic, it means, while we value our vertical growth, we constantly connect and watch others and keep coming back and connect and are available if others want to connect.
A true growth of a human being happens when there is a perfect balance between the commonality and individualisation and we are able to look at them in the right perspective.
See you in the next episode with yet another musical experience and life lesson.