Artline

is the reason why Reiki, Pranic Healing, and other forms of complementary medicine are also gaining ground. The Art of Living belongs to this category. And cashing on to the popularity is Times Music with their latest cassette Sacred Chants of the Ganges and is geared towards reflection and meditation.

It is the music of meditation, silence and healing. The cassette starts with the composition Shiva Manas Puja, an offering to Shiva, the embodiment of pure consciousness, knowledge, innocence and bliss. This music, as the jacket cover says, is suitable for or before meditation. Sung by Bhanumati Narsimhan, Urmila Devi Goenka, Criag Pruess and devotees of the Art of Living, flows through in mellifluous tones, literally drawing on to the energy from the environment. Followed by Bhavanyastakam, compositions of Sri Adi Shankara, in praise of the divine mother Shivoham, literally makes the atmosphere reverberate with the presence of a higher power. Atmasaktam and Lingasaktam, the two concluding compositions are again devoted to the primordial God Shiva. Side B is a chanting of the mantra Om Nama Shivaya.

The importance of chanting the `name’ is a universal practice in most of the world religions. And the going back to these ancient sacred chants is a tool for centring the mind. The pressures of survival not even living are multiplied to such high limits which are leading to a reduction in life expectancy and serenity, the demand for such music is growing by the day.

And what could be more appropriate than the month of Sawan, or the monsoon in India, when in the North, thousands are travelling to Haridwar, the old sacred pilgrimage, making offerings of kavars to Lord Shiva. Shiva is also known as Gandadhar, the one who held aloft the river Ganga in his jatta or head. The Sacred Chants of Shiva are a tribute to the Supreme Being. It is music which does not detract but adds to consciousness and slowly focuses the mind, towards the sublime. A musical pointer to the belief of mind over matter.

A few months earlier, yet another cassette simply titled Chants of India also belongs to the same ilk. Produced by George Harrison and composed by the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar has become a great hit. The cassette consists of a selection of `sholakas‘ from the Upanishads, Vedas and the other scriptures is sung in the tradition of the Vedic chants. It is almost mesmeric in its appeal. “This has been one of the most difficult challenges in my life, as a composer and arranger,” writes Ravi Shankar.

Though sanskrit chants have been recorded by many scholars elsewhere in the country, and there are a lot of cassettes available in South India, patronised by rich temples of the south, Chants of India differs greatly from the more academic productions due to the universality of its appeal. Shankar has woven some of the chants with the heavy string instruments, some of the bamboo flute, vina, harp and chimes, using solo and vocal groups.

The repetitive use of mantra invoke the dormant energies of an individual and the primordial sacred sound of Aum, the shortest mantra has been effectively used to set the mood, either as a opening or the closing to the composition.

The two cassettes are truly music for the soul, elevating and uplifting the spirits, and in helping to open the vast resources of energy through the meditative and reflective aspects of the compositions.