On Indian music

My God, the Supreme Musician, has two families. One is in the East, the other in the West. He tells His Eastern children, precisely His Indian children, that music is the soul's purity. He tells His Western children that music is life's beauty.

He tells His Eastern children that music is the fulfilling rest at the bottom of the life-sea. He tells His Western children that music is the dance of the multitudinous waves of the life-sea.

Most English songs are like geometry. Everything is measured — English metre, English line. But we Indians have eternal time. It is like the Ganges flowing. Our flow is also eternal. And whenever we get the opportunity, we bring forward our classical tendencies, and we do not know when to start and stop; it just goes on. Once we are inspired, inspiration carries us, or we carry it or drag it! But English songs are like metric units — here there will be a beat, a quarter note, this and that. But when we Indians start singing soulfully, we forget about beats and earthbound measurement; at that time we deal with Eternity's time. Eternity's time carries us along or we carry the inspiration with us.

There is a considerable difference between the Western approach and the Indian approach in the music world. No criticism; it is only a difference of taste.

Bande Mataram (Mother, I bow to Thee):

This was the original national anthem of India, and the source of profound inspiration in the long struggle for India's independence.

No Indian will forget the role that this song, Bande Mataram, played in the patriotic feeling of the Indian people. It served a divine purpose in energising them in their long struggle for freedom. From the burning hearts of India's patriots, its flames of incantation rose high into the sky.

It is my firm conviction that Bande Mataram will keep Bankim's memory green for all time in this great sub-continent and will stand out in the future as the national Mantra that it is.

Of all the musical instruments, the conch is the most sacred and spiritual. Cosmic gods and goddesses hold the conch. Sri Krishna, Arjuna, and all heroes of the highest order used the conch. It is the symbol of victory. The conch is to be found on the sea bed. Water symbolises consciousness and the ocean symbolises vastness. In our spiritual life, nothing is more important than the expansion of our consciousness. A sacred, sacred, sacred instrument is our Indian conch.

From:Sri Chinmoy,India, my India. Mother India's summit-prides, Agni Press, 1997
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/imi