Spiritual life force in Hindustani music

By  BINDU CHAWLA

It is the wetness of water, the lilt in a melody, or the hue that radiates with the play of light on colour.

Like the meaning of the word ‘Krishna’ — ‘an inner element which attracts’ — the concept of rasa in Hindustani culture and music helps transmit an elusive but profound tattva or principle of life.

Rasa is the spiritual life force, the affirmation of the spirit in life, which radiates when ragas and talas are honed to a shine. And yet, the ragas of the entire Hindustani system have been categorised under nau rasa or the nine rasas . They are the shringara or love, hasya or humour, raudra or anger, vira or valour, the adbhuta or wondrous, vibhatsa or odious, karuna or compassionate, bhayanaka or fearful and shanta or peaceful. All raga moods are to be contained within the gamut of these nine prescribed bhavas or emotions, with some mix and match as well.

“ Rasa is the essence, the abstract quality of the raga,” explains Pandit Amarnath of the Indore gharana . “There is basically one essence or rasa in all of Hindustani music, and that is the bhakti rasa ; if it is shringara rasa or the emotion that represents love and its celebration, it is for bhakti . If it is adbhuta rasa or the mood which represents the sense of wonder, it is for bhakti . The underlying rasa is always bhakti . That is why the nau rasa theory is more relevant for the actor, rather than the musician, when things have to be dramatised.”

In Hindustani music, ragas are said to number no less than a total of 999, representing as many shades of mood and emotion of the human heart. And they contain one underlying rasa !

In our times a musician normally sings or plays a quarter of this number in an entire lifetime. In the human heart, rasa lies in the emotional sparkle. Emotions, also said to number no less than perhaps a total of 999 in the cosmosphere, representing as many shades of mood in the human heart, contain one underlying rasa: bhakti .

Once a disciple asked Pandit Amarnath, “Guruji, why is it that in the slow aalaap or improvisation of the raga it is all emotion and rasa , and in the fast or taan portion the rasa seems to vanish completely?” To this he replied, “What we experience in the fast portion is not rasa but a thrill, which is not emotionless, but a climax of the slow build-up of the emotion to its own resolution.” In other words, a kind of heightened intoxication before the release, or the culmination of the meditation of the raga .

Close on the heels of the word ‘ rasa’ , conveying the same meaning and used in the same context in music, is the word ‘rang’ , meaning colour, used to refer to the ‘colour’ of the soul, or spiritual colour. Rang chadhana, or raag ka rang chadhana, in other words, the colour of masti, or intoxication, the performer and listener both imbued with the spirit of the raga being sung or heard.

From the word rasa comes the word rasika , or the listener charged by music which is spiritually emotive and deep. The rasika can distinguish between the exhibition of music, and its intension, and gives his heart to the soul of the musician. Rang barase ! Rasa barase ! What is beautiful about the concept, finally, is that rasa sees life in spirituality, and spirituality in life. Hindustani culture sees rasa , finally, as passion, as lust, and as life. As an eternal celebration of the Divine within the human.

12 Aug 2008

Source: spirituality.indiatimes.com

URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/spiritual-life-force-hindustani-music/d/547