If you know the meaning of Bengali words

A few years ago I did say that if you know the meaning of Bengali words, your singing can be much improved, because you will be able to draw feelings from the words. That is absolutely true. Again, something else is equally true. There are some superlative Tamil singers and other singers from South India and elsewhere, like Subbulakshmi — she is absolutely the queen — and Lata Mangeshkar. They do not know the proper meanings of Tagore’s songs, but they are such super-excellent singers. When they sing Tagore’s songs, even without knowing the meaning of the Bengali words, they far, far surpass many of the Bengali singers who know their mother tongue well and sing well. Subbulakshmi and a few other singers from South India and other places do not know Bengali well, but they sing Bengali songs extremely well! First of all, they are blessed with super-excellent singing voices. Then, they have created such a devoted inner feeling for the songs, on the strength of their love for the songs. When they sing Bengali songs, they sing far, far better than many of the singers who know Bengali well.

Among our disciple singers, I have already declared that our Adarsha from Scotland stands first. He is really the best singer. Among our singers, I declare that the best is Adarsha. Does Adarsha know the meaning of all my songs? No, no, no! But when he sings, he absolutely melts my heart. Even our World Harmony Run song — “Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run” — how soulfully he sings! This song is for enthusiasm, energy and dynamism. It is all dynamism, but how soulfully he sings it! When he sings my songs at Christmas time or here in New York, as soon as he starts singing, it melts my heart. Now, if we ask him what is the meaning of this word, what is the meaning of that word, he may not be able to say. But he has such a devoted feeling for the songs, and his soul’s identification with my songs is so powerful. There can be many, many qualities in one voice. Adarsha’s voice has tenderness, softness, soulfulness and power. Is he a Bengali scholar? Does he know anything about Bengali? No! But he sings so soulfully.

Again, there is another theory, as I said a few years ago: if you know the meaning of a word, you can imagine it. When you sing the word akash, you can imagine the sky. You can immediately imagine the sky or the ocean while you are singing these words. It is absolutely true that if you can have the image right in front of you, it helps considerably. If you are singing the word pakhi, and you know that it means “bird,” then immediately if you send your imagination to identify with the bird, it definitely helps. Again, sometimes such a silly thing happens. If some singers sing akash and they imagine the sky, they get lost in thinking about the sky, and then the melody itself they forget. They enter into the meaning of the word and the melody they lose. It does happen.

Both the theories are equally important. If you do not know the meaning of the words, but if you can bring your soul’s identification and extreme devotedness to the song, you can sing extremely well. We have quite a few excellent and very good singers. I deeply appreciate them when they sing. I do not think any of my disciples know the meaning of each and every word when they sing, but some of the singers do sing very, very well. Some of our excellent singers and very good singers do very, very good justice to my songs. I will never say that if they had known the Bengali language, they would have sung better. I do not think that is the case.

Again, both approaches are correct. If you know the meaning of the Bengali words, it can be of great help; and if you do not know the meaning, you can also be very, very, very successful in singing my songs.

If a singer sings one word incorrectly, and the person does not know Bengali, it will not affect him at all, because he does not know even one word of that particular song. For him it will not be a problem. If a Bengali-speaking person, while he is singing, sees that a word is written incorrectly, his mind will come forward. Then his heart will not be able to carry the melody. But in the case of my disciples, even if several words are wrong it may not affect them, because they may not know the meaning of all the words. If somebody knows Bengali well and there is a wrong word, then his mind will stop there. He will think of grammar. Then the poor fellow will suffer. If he knows Bengali well and if one word is printed incorrectly in Tagore’s music, let us say, he will stop there and say: “What is this? How can it be?” Again, for those who do not know Bengali at all well, their main problem is to learn the words and sing the melody correctly and soulfully.

Even if you use a wrong word, even if you mispronounce some words, I assure you that the soul of the song will not be displeased. The soul of the song will only observe your devotedness, your soulfulness, your concern for the song to be sung well.

In a sense, if you do not know Bengali well, it is a great blessing. If you know the language well, your mind can come into the picture and interfere. If you do not know the meaning of a particular word, or if you sing a wrong word, it will not affect you at all, and neither the soul of the song nor God Himself will be displeased with you.

24 April 2005 Aspiration-Ground Jamaica, New York