Spiritual satsang and quality of music

[Rsachi]

First off, no offence meant about any great guru, master, or mutt head. Nor any neo movement.

I have been inspired by bhajans in Ramakrishna mission for many decades. I have also heard wonderful music live and recorded performed in front of saints/gurus. This post is not about that type of thing.

When I consider the quality of music and its purely 'musical inspiration quotient', I find the mass singing of bhajans and prayers that is encouraged in satsangs often suffers from quality issues. Even some singers who have branded themselves as famous 'satsang' singers seem to my mind to play to the gallery and kind of cheapen the core classical music values.

There are some swamis and gurus who have recorded albums and actively employ music as a key ingredient in their spiritual methods.

But invariably I find the musical quality a bit underwhelming in satsang settings. It tends to be loud, uninspiring in lyric or tune, infested with some unmusical keyboard or percussion, and leaves me wondering how our classical music, said to have spiritual roots, suffers musically so much when placed in such settings.

Note that I am not referring to the mass of besur voices of the crowd but the lead singer or lead band's own music quality here.

Any thoughts?


PS
Honourable exceptions: as I mentioned before, some great musicians have performed in spiritual festivals to memorable effect. Also, I have attended an outlier of a bhajana sampradaya math singing session in Kumbakonam where the small group of stalwart singers were performing complex raga and neraval to tongue twisting Sanskrit lyrics - a unique type of singing. It came closer to a group concert type (a la quawwali) rather than group bhajan singing where the audience could join in.

[varsha]

Such music you refer to is high quality music for the majority of participants who are otherwise used to junk stuff .
I am more amazed at the stranglehold of ragas like yaman , desh , bhimpalas .
Right now Listening to GNB-LLG RTP IN SHANMUKHAPRIYA .
The Gods cannot be anywhere else . Onecan feel their presennce . Only The Gods could have conceived this to wash our souls with .

[Rsachi]

MADBHAKTAAH YATRA GAAYANTI TATRA TISHTHAAMI NAARADA!

??

[yensundar]

My 3-4 yens:

1. Bhajan by definition needs to be simple and easy to follow - hence very limited scope for displaying/perceiving musical values
2. Bhajan like any other pursuit requires discipline - any group that sings bhajans with regularity and one that keeps it simple can bring about bhakti (bhava) even without great musical values.
3. Satsang singers are usually well-trained and sing in a performance-type setting almost like in a concert. In a satsang the bhajan-loving-audience are not necessarily regular bhajan-singers (unlike in Sai bhajans etc).
4. Qawwal-types are die-hard in their practice and delivery of music - be it bhajans or qawwals...the only small issue is that the vast majority of the audience will remain passive but impressed which defeats the basic definition of bhajan (simple and participative).
5. Overall in today's musical/religious landscape the number of bhajans easily outnumber the concerts in any given calendar month... this at some level explains the situation.

[Rsachi]

Sundar
Great summary.

Yes I think the key words are simple and pure. Often what we encounter are jarring and loud. That is my issue.
I do believe loud group singing also has a type of mind bending effect which we can mistake for bhakti. But these are deep waters.

[girish_a]

...mutt head.

I laughed a little

[harimau]

girish_a wrote:

"I laughed a little"

at the word mutt-head.


He probably was referring to things like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xam01uaj6Vg

[Rsachi]

Harimau and Girish, good pick
With words like mutt, I too have felt like laughing (at the inadequacy of the English alphabet.)

Well, there are two kinds of people in this world, the Youtubers and the Wikipeds. Here's from Wikipedia:

A matha (also written math or mutt) Sanskrit: मठ maṭha) is a term for monastic and similar religious establishments of Hinduism[1] and Jainism. A matha is usually more formal, hierarchical, and rule-based than an ashram.

[espras]

You really did not want this discussion to go to the dogs, did you Sachi?

[harimau]

Rsachi wrote:

A matha (also written math or mutt) Sanskrit: मठ maṭha) is a term for monastic and similar religious establishments of Hinduism[1] and Jainism.

There is this sari store at the intersection of St Mary's Road and R K Mutt Road in Mandaveli, Chennai that spells its address as "Ramakrishna Madam Road"! )

[Rsachi]

Harimau! Hilarious!

I lived for many years close to that corner.

[varsha]

An early morning spiritual satsang from my countryside - decades ago
https://archive.org/details/KishoriAmon ... rav_201308

[varsha]

A recording of a satsang from my childhood . I was too young to understand the significance ( worried about my chappals outside ) but luckily the recording exists .
From a night long vachana rendering in A MURUGHA MATHA BY Siddram Jambaldinni. SJ was a prime disciple of Mansoor who took up singing of vachanas in spiritual gatherings .
https://archive.org/details/VachanasSid ... baldinni01