By Mukund Dev Sahoo

The most important and yet, the most difficult task is to educate someone. Transmission of knowledge between the teacher and the taught, depends on a teacher’s intellectual development and level of communication, and the receptivity of a student. In essence, an effective teacher brings out the best from within a student.

Being a music teacher for long, I am interested to share with you all, a few of my observations and thoughts. For the past several years, many students have come to me for learning. They all have one thing in common in their mind: if what they are singing is right or wrong, and why are they not able to understand? How do they make mistakes even after I tell them, how to envision the place of a shruti in the interval of swaras used in a raga? They become disturbed because of this, get upset as to why they are unable to understand all these nuances of music? Due to which many have stopped learning music. Furthermore, if Shadaj (Sa) means Shat+Aj; Shat means six and Aj means originating, i.e., the six Swaras originate from Sa itself, then why are they not realising it?

It seems to me that many of today’s music students would similarly be troubled with all these doubts! I am writing this article to address, “why do these doubts arise?” This article is to bring clarity to these doubts and how one should imbibe the best that the art forms offer, in essence, the (He)art of music.

I think it would be appropriate to share here an incident that happened to me, probably in the year 1995, when I was 7 years of age. Our family was raised in Vaishnavism and my father used to perform kirtan, walking the streets, singing the name of Krishna and playing the mridangam (Khol). Whenever he met a saint on the way, father used to invite him for a meal at home. One day father came home with a monk who was wearing saffron robe and had a coiffure on his head. When that monk saw me, he put his hand on my head and gave me a photo in my hand which had a picture of a saint. The monk also gave a mantra to chant and said, “Whenever you have any problem in life, remember him, close your eyes and take his name, all your problems will go away.” After that day, this mantra was included in my Sandhya Aarti which consisted of – Gayatri Mantra, Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, Sandhya Mantra, Navagraha Mantra; at the end of chanting all these mantras, I used to chant the mantra which the monk gave. I didn’t know who this saint was, what he did, or where he was from, I didn’t know anything about the saint in the photo. Yet, I just chanted his name in the mantra everyday as was instructed to me by the monk.

In 2018, my Guruji Padmashree Gundecha Bandhu’s father, Late Shri Chandmal Gundecha Ji, from whom I learned many important things in life, was reading a book at his home. I used to go to Guru ji’s house every day, that day also when I went there, seeing the book Babu ji was reading, I asked him, “What is that book you are reading?” He said, “This is the book of Saint Mahatmas.” “Please can I see it?” I asked. Babu ji said, “Do you want to see or read, tell me?” “I want to read this book after seeing it” I said. Then he gave me that book. When I opened the book, I saw that the same photo which was given to me by the monk in 1995 was inside this book and the whole journey of the saint’s life was written there. When I saw all this in the book, I was surprised that the saint, whose name I was chanting for so many years, though I never showed any desire to know about him; yet he came in front of me and told me who he was!

I have a deep feeling that we may not understand some of the things that Sat Guru (Master, Saint) says now, but if we practise what is said every day, even if it is without understanding, when the time comes, the same thing will be understood. I do not mean to say that you must do things without understanding; if you are able to understand, then that is good; you should try your best to understand. However, if you do not understand, there is no problem in that, just keep doing the Sadhana. It will reflect and dawn in your understanding when the right time comes. Perhaps this birth may also fall short of this understanding, just as following evening is night, and as the sun rises it is morning; this cycle of nature is not dependent on anyone, it is rotating freely in time. If you go to the temple in the dark of the night and pray for morning to dawn in the middle of the night, then even God will call you mad. Similarly, true knowledge automatically dawns, moving in the cycle of time. That knowledge will surely be a payoff when you are ready and have matured. Do not expect that knowledge would just happen because of a sadhna; even if you feel that you are getting peace of mind (& soul) by the music sadhna, then just keep doing the sadhna and keep walking on this path.

I could not understand many things that we learned from Guruji Padmashree Gundecha Bandhu ji then; only now slowly I’m understanding and realising what he wanted to convey. We are all familiar with the fact that music is Gandharva kala. But what is the meaning of Gandharva? The art which brings the sense of infinity, which can take one to samadhi and whose practice opens the door to salvation, is Gandharva art. Cultivation of such an art is not in everyone’s destiny; if you are joining this practice, then you must have done very good deeds by which you are getting familiar with the heart of this art. Keep with music sadhana, treading the path constantly, continuously and in full receptivity to what is taught! All that is to be understood will reveal itself with readiness of the mind!

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