“The winds of grace are always blowing…”

“The winds of grace are always blowing. You must hoist your sails to catch them.” So said Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836 ~ 1886).

Ustaad Anwar Khan Saab, Mansoor Khan and their troupe

I was, yet again, reminded of this beautiful perspective on Life last evening. A friend and his family had organized a concert by the Manganiyars – a community of folk singers from Rajasthan – on their rooftop. It was an unusual evening in Chennai – it was still very warm, but as the sun set, dark clouds gathered and very strong gusts of wind blew over the city. It didn’t rain. But it came menacingly close to raining. In this backdrop of the game of hide and seek that nature played, five Manganiyars performed at their soulful best. There were no additional lights on stage, no mics and no speakers. The artistes just jammed – led by the supremely talented Ustad Anwar Khan Saab on the vocals and the world-renowned Mansoor Khan on the Dholak. The other three artists played the Kartaal and the Sindhi Sarangi between them. As Anwar Khan Saab sang he lost himself to his music. And held all of us in the audience in a trance. His deep voice, the rhythmic beats of the Kartaals, the sublime strains of the Sindhi Sarangi and the unobtrusive yet unputdownable presence of the Dholak made the evening truly magical.  

I picked up a few learnings.

The first was humility. Anwar Khan Saab is one of the most feted Manganiyars. Yet, as he began the concert, he humbly looked at each of the other four artists in the troupe and asked them: “Izzazat ho, toh shuru karein…” Meaning: “May we have your permission to begin…” There’s an Urdu word called ‘tehzeeb’ which actually means ‘culture’ but combines the essence of being ‘humble and dignified in demeanor’. Khan Saab embodied that word ‘tehzeeb’ in the way he spoke, he sang and he conducted himself last evening – he personified humility.

Second, I re-learnt the value of respecting a senior. Mansoor Khan is younger, is more relevant and hugely famous across the world. Yet Mansoor let Khan Saab lead the whole concert last evening and do all the singing. It’s the kind of difference in appeal that would exist in the cricketing world between Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar that is there between Mansoor and Khan Saab. Even so, Mansoor was content with just being the Dholak player yesterday – happy to share stage presence with the Ustad and sing for the joy of singing alongside the maestro.

Third, I felt the grace – yet again – in my Life. Not that it is ever absent in any of our lives. It is always there. But we are so busy earning-a-living, running on our Life-treadmills, that we miss this grace. But I have realized that whenever I have let go, whenever I have just let a higher energy draw me in its direction, hold me in its sway and take me where it wants to, I have felt the grace. Last evening, I almost did not make it to this home concert of the Manganiyars. It had been a tiring Sunday at home. And all I wanted to do was have a drink and watch television. But our hosts are very, very special. And the Manganiyars are our favorites – particularly Mansoor Khan. So, despite my body protesting, I completely let go as Khan Saab began. For the next two hours it was a pure bliss and grace show! My wife Vaani concurs with me. How else do you explain such great weather in Chennai in the middle of June, such great artists jamming in front of you with no commercial trappings, such soulful music and us in the midst of all this – when we can never quite dream of buying tickets to a live performance of this class, given our fragile financial state?

As the concert ended, I took a swig of Kingfisher beer that my host graciously offered. And then I looked up at the sky and smiled in gratitude and joy. I was reminded of what the Buddha has said: “When you realize how perfect your Life is, you will look up at the sky and laugh!” Indeed, I don’t think that we will ever have a perfect Life – the way we want it. It is always what it is. And if you can accept what is, you will have raised your sails, you will then have felt the grace in your Life, you too will then perhaps look up at the sky and laugh….! 

Make your Life, your living, unputdownable!

Pour yourself into your work. And you will unite with it.

This may seem so abstract. But it is so fundamental, so true and so possible. Remember your teens? You were reading Fredrick Forsyth, Sidney Sheldon or a Mills & Boons romance. Your mom shouted out to you, summoning you for running an errand. You could hear her, but you weren’t listening. Because you were one with the plot of the novel that you were reading. You found the book unputdownable. That’s really what we need to make of our lives to make them interesting and happening. We need to make living, our Life, unputdownable! And that can be achieved when you are immersed in your Life, in living it, fully, wholesomely, blissfully!

Dawoo Khan
Picture Courtesy: The New Indian Express/Internet

I remember attending a home concert at a friend’s place some time back, where a group of folk music artistes from the Manganiar community of Rajasthan performed. The Manganiars consider themselves descendants of the warrior community of Rajputs and are renowned as highly skilled folk musicians of the Thar desert in Rajasthan, bordering Pakistan. Their songs are passed from generation to generation as a form of oral history of the desert. Though Manganiars are Muslims, many Manganiar songs are in praise of Hindu deities and they even sing songs in praise of Alexander The Great! Their music is characterized by their full-throated, high-pitch singing and is supported by three key instruments: the khamaycha, a 17-string bowed instrument made of mango wood; the khartaal, a kind of castenet made of teak, beating two pieces of which using the hand produces a rare rhythm; and the dholak, which is a drum similar to a bongo but played sideways. One of the most acclaimed khartaal artistes is Dawoo Khan, who performed at the concert that I attended. He not only used the two pieces of teak in either hand to create magic, he was drenched to his soul in the songs that he rendered. There was something mystical to his rendition that made the listener unite with the singer and suddenly there was no musician, no audience, just plain, soulful, music. Just music. Just magic!

After the concert, I asked him how he managed to sing so effortlessly, so soulfully. He replied, “I don’t sing Sir. I just live. Just as I breathe, I also sing. It is living, not singing. There is not a moment that I am not singing, just as there is not a moment when I am not breathing! I may not be at a stage performance or concert all the time, but I am still singing, within me.” Dawoo Khan, to me, epitomizes, personifies, what Osho, the Master, describes so beautifully, “When you lose yourself in whatever you do, something breaks down within, all barriers cease to exist, a great orgasm takes over your entire being, you are in tune with existence__and you become one, you unify with creation.” This is the quality we need to bring to our thinking, living and working. And that can happen when you pour yourself into your work. That’s really when your Life__your living__will become unputdownable! And so will you!!!

Life lesson from a mismanaged bar counter

As long as you accept what comes your way, you will be always at peace with and in Life!

Last evening, we were at a pre-wedding reception of a good friend. It was a well-choreographed evening of music and dance. And, of course, drinks and some exquisite gourmet food. As the evening progressed and the Manganiyars from Rajasthan took the audience on a spiritual high with some soul-stirring Sufi music, the bar ran out of wine. What had been on offer was red wine from Australia and California, white wine from Italy, and domestic beer. It appeared that the people managing the bar had wrongly estimated the inventory required for the evening. For some time, there was chaos at the bar counter. But the guests, obviously, given the occasion, did not make this inadvertent aberration a big issue. Soon, the bar started serving some cheap red and white wine and everyone seemed to either be content with the new order or switched to beer. The evening went on and climaxed with some spirited dancing by the guests and a high-octane rendition of “Dama-dam Mast Kalandhar…” and “Nimbooda…Nimbooda…” (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, 1999, Sanjay Leela Bhansali) by the Manganiyars.

I was reminded of a quote of Epictetus (55 AD ~ 135 AD), the Greek sage and Stoic philosopher: “Remember that in Life you must behave as at a banquet. Is anything brought round to you? Put out your hand, and take a moderate share. Does it pass you? Do not stop it. Is it not come yet? Do not yearn in desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you.”  

If you observe Life closely, all the suffering around you, or even in you, comes from your wants. In expecting people, situations and things to be different from the way they are, you invite misery to yourself. Obviously the managers at the hotel, where last evening’s reception, was held had goofed up. Or perhaps there was a miscommunication, or a mis-estimation, of the required inventory between the hosts and the hotel’s staff. Now what can be done about it? I am sure some of the people from among the hosts will do a post-mortem and maybe the hotel’s management will review it as well. But what control does a guest, like me, have on the way the bar was managed? I just shrugged my shoulders, picked up some domestic beer, and was lost in the music.

This is precisely the way to deal with everything and everyone in Life. You – and I – have no control on what happens to us. There is no point in complicating your Life by demanding that people and events be in a certain way. The fact is that everything is the way it is. What is, is your reality. Your wishing it to be different cannot change the reality, cannot change what is. So, every time your mind agitates, every time you pine for something to be different, remember Epictetus. Just accept what comes and let things, people, events and situations, simply be! Happiness and inner peace are intended and assured outcomes!