Song of the eternal

THE SPIRITUALITY OF MUSIC: Selina Thielemann; A.P.H. Publishing Corporation, 5, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 600.

THE COLLECTION of essays in the book seeks to unravel how music, an incorporated entity, springing from the longings of the heart aims to find fulfilment in the perception of the Divine. As mentioned by the authoress, the Infinite rests in the Finite in the hearts of human beings. Music, by nature an invisible beauty, embodies the higher aesthetic objective to visualise the Supreme Being through sound - the concept of Nada Brahmam.

This ennobling value of music at its core is spiritual experience, beyond the reach of the sense organs. Worship happens to be the best mode of devotion. The composers of Carnatic music stand as shining examples of how they longed to perceive the Transcendental Reality. Grace descends from the Divine and the human has to strive continuously to perceive the Supreme Being.

True music appeals therefore to the heart and the emotional sphere of human consciousness. This spiritual experience of great "vaggeyakaras" has become a vehicle. It is the intrinsic nature of music that it elevates both the singer and the listener. The author, in this connection, refers to Rabindranath Tagore's poem:

The singer alone does not make a song

There has to be someone who hears

One man opens his throat to sing

The other sings in his mind.

Many similar references are to be found from Tagore's works. The quest to realise the cosmic reality, as the authoress says, is ``the driving energy that dwells in all beings and inspires their search for fulfilment of one kind or another". The main purport of the book is well expressed in these words: ``The heart being the centre of emotionality, is able to perceive the subtle message from the sphere of Infinity in a language that is music". The gift of music is therefore received by man as a blessing from divinity.

She acknowledges in the preface that her effort is inspired by ``the charming expressiveness of Rabindranath Tagore's poems'' extensively quoted and by the ``devotional depths of the songs of Bengal's Baul mendicants", an experience well shared by South Indian Carnatic music vaggeyakaras, Azhwars and Nayanmars.

SVK

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Pioneering study in linguistics
Next     : Values in management