Rasa and rang do play a significant role in Hindustani classical music. But, its spiritual life force
or prana has much deeper roots.
Anhad naad, the unstruck sound or naad has been mentioned by saints like Kabir and Mira, as
the music heard within the depths of one’s being. Anhad naad is a divine melody, a celestial
music which is transcendent, beyond the senses and intellect. It can neither be sung nor heard.
It can be contacted by the soul alone. Anhad naad and soul are in essence the same as God.
There is therefore a natural spiritual magnetic attraction between them. So when a listener’s
soul is turned towards the anhad naad within it is drawn like a needle to a magnet.
In the realm of Nirakar, the Unmanifest Supreme God, like every thing else in Creation, music
too is in its potentiality only. But this potentiality is the thing that eventually takes form —
aakaar — as music in our physical world when sung or played.
The pleasure or satisfaction experienced by the listener as rasa and rang is due to the union
of the manifest music with the unmanifest anhad naad deep within the listener.
The relationship between the listener’s soul and anhad naad within her being is like that
between the struck — baaj ke taar — strings of a sitar and its unstruck sympathetic strings or
tarben which resonate only by the vibrations caused by the struck strings. The musicality of the
sound produced by the struck strings is hollow and incomplete without the complementary
sound lent by the sympathetic unstruck strings. That is why sitar maestros give so much time
and attention to the fine-tuning of the tarben.
The same applies to the listener of Hindustani classical music. The more finely attuned are
her soul and the inner celestial melody, the deeper and more fulfilling will be the music heard
by her. This is why everybody does not appreciate or enjoy music to the same extent or
intensity. The fine-tuning of body and soul differs from person to person.
Every lover of classical Hindustani music may not be aware of the anhad naad within, like an
accomplished saint, but anhad is very much there as an integral part of the Supreme Akhand
and Anant or Oneness of the unmanifest or Nirakar and the manifest or Sakar.
Brahmn is “Shabdabrahmaswaroop”. He is manifest when audible (Omkaar or Om+aakaar)
and unmanifest when dormant and formless as “OM” in Brahmn.
Only a true and perfect maestro can join the disciples’ soul with the anhad naad within. We
cannot achieve this by reading books or listening to the recordings of past maestros. Anhad
naad is a transcendent entity and therefore cannot be conveyed or given to others indirectly.
Reciprocity is a must. Only a living person can open the current of the divine melody within
us. If his own soul has awakened to this anhad naad, he can awaken other souls too.
Our own zeal and practice do matter, but these too are part of the guru’s grace only. The
guru, performing artist’s soul, the listener’s soul, God and anhad naad, are one and the same.
Little wonder then that Pandit Amarnath finds bhakti bhav the essential underlying rasa in
Hindustani classical music. But bhakti bhav is the outcome of the spiritual roots of Hindustani
music. It is not the other way round.
Times Of India Mumbai; Date:2008 Aug 28; Section:Editorial; Page Number16
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