Man is endowed with divinity. It is
natural for him to transcend gross materialism. Ideas take shape
by an unknown alchemy from within. This force indeed pervades the whole of
universe. Its natural destiny is true expression. Thus, emerge the
arts—literature, music, dance, sculpture, etc. To
enjoy literature—its architectonic quality, harmony between action and
expression, the author's intense feeling for the characters that he dramatizes, his
allusiveness, the happy coalescence of matter and style, the marriage between
the thought and the form that confirms to every mood of grace and
dignity—one has to read, reread, think, and
meditate upon to understand it; and the more one meditates, the more the rasa that one enjoys. Unlike literature, to enjoy
music, one need not labor—the very act of listening makes one swing in
beatitude. Which is why it is said: sisurvetti, pasurvetti, vetti ganarasam
phanihi—infants, cattle and snakes too rejoice
in the sound of music.
Music, is known to be sadyaha
paranirvrutini—an art that makes one instantly forget the external world,
delivering an indefinable anand—joy, bliss. At least that's what happens
to the audience when MS Subbulakshmi, draped in
emerald-colored Kanjeevaram silk sari, adorned with
a diamond-studded nose ring that competes with her pious face radiating
virtue which engulfs the audience in serenity, walks on to the dais and
sitting poignantly, sets her tone to the pitch of the shruti—that ceaseless drone; silence given sound so that never is
there emptiness in the execution of raga;
musical composition is never `void', always `full' filled with the silence of
sound—and as the mellifluous words of the krithi, Teratiyagarada forming
natural notes of music pour out … the
listeners, be the lay or connoisseurs of music,
simply get mesmerized by her golden voice, get transported to a new world.
Every lover of music reveres her as an angel of music and as she renders krithi after krithi in her flawless style, even
tone-deaf swing in trance.
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