Hindustani Music and Chennai

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Please Make a Note":

Hello Padmasaniji

Anonymus rasika again.

I wasnt sure if entered my request in the correct place. Kindly suggest through your blog as to how we can create a vibrant environment for H. Classical music in Chennai?

Now that Chinmayi is famous and you are famous too..people will definitely sit up and notice if you start something to this end. Im sure with the kind of expertise and inputs you can bring it can be really wonderful. Looking forward to see your thoughts on your blog.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Please Make a Note":

Hello Padmasaniji
Namaskar. This is same "anon" rasika again. This time i am back requesting you to provide your insights on how we can make chennai a vibrant place for hindustani music. I have read your posts and discussion between Mani Ramaswamy on this topic( i should say that your observations were very insightful). What do you think we should be doing? As you said for hindustani shastriya sangeet to get revived, we should have a very good ambience - in terms of gathering, knowledge sharing, informal bhaitaks over weekends, lec dems etc...Please provide your thoughts.


Mr.Anonymous,

Inspite of my repeated request, you dont reveal youridentity. With such people around, what can one do regarding a vibrant atmosphere for HM?

First write to me from your email id to my email address.

I dont want to work with anonymities.

Everyone in anonimity would like us to serve you. You are definitely a person I know very well. But you dont want to be public about it.

Dont you think you are very very unreasonable in your demands?

For a long time I wanted to ignore this. More than once you repeat the same I am helpless. If you had written in confidentiality, it would have been a one to one correspondence. Sorry!

The North Eastern India - The Rich Culture and Hoary Traditions!

Sometime during the last part of yester year, my heart was refusing to function anymore as only a support system for Chinmayi and her growth.

It happened while I was rearranging my papers and photo albums. The letter from the department of Culture, Government of India announcing my Senior Fellowship, way back in 1997, exactly ten years back settled it all. I wanted to recommence my work on Temple Traditions of India for which the award was given.

There are some valuable information which will find a place here in course of time.

The Exclusive Indian Ethos

This post is a reply to one Mr.Sitaram Hegde.

Hegdeji, the basic spiritual culture of India is not to show off as how much one knows or to open certain things to common public reading. The two devisions of the Tantra is only too very well known to me at least for forty years now.

I don't want certain things to be placed for everybody to know.

Besides, scholarship and spiritual experiences are way apart. Its for the latter that a sadhak yearns for. The world is tearing apart with the influence of shadripu-s and better that things are as they are in my blog. In case you want to discuss more please come with your mail Id and we shall discuss a lot of things in detail. Without permission no letter is published in this blog. Its an unwritten ethical code observed here.

WHY ?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Thanks for compelling mw to write! But dont be an...":

Hello Padmasaniji
Namaskar. This is again the anonymous ardent rasika of your posts. My kind suggestion is that you should bear with people who wish to be anonymous and share the wealth of your knowledge and insight on music with us. Looking forward to your posts on hindustani music, spirituality and Indian Culture

The persistent reader writes back so. I want to know why?

I have been travelling hectically all these months, in between back home only to rectify the domestic chaos and did not find any time for blogging.

The following months of this year is also envisaged so. Whenever I get time, I shall write. In case the anonymous reader wants to come out with his mail id I may discuss a few things in private, on any topic that may be taken at that time. :)

Thanks for compelling mw to write! But dont be anonymous!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "K'loging and Ashwanthe -- Narayanan Venkitu's Mella Mella":

Hello Padmasaniji,
It is a long time since you wrote a post. Kindly write one. Many of your adrent rasikas of music are awaiting the same.

Publish this comment.

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Anonymous to Know Your Roots at 2/16/2007 02:00:22 AM

There were a few more demanding emails on the spiritual subjects also. But they had given no email contact. My reply to them is I am thoroughly aware of the different acharas or margas. This site is open to all and I have deliberately held certain details.

Regarding my ardent readers, Pleease wait for a little while more. I shall write a lot of things and in more organised way for different types of readers.

Thanks for the response and keep it up.

Meet you all as soon as possible on a good frequency.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Readers, Wish You All a Very Very enjoyable Christmas and a Prosperous, Peaceful and a Meaningful Year 2007.

K'loging and Ashwanthe -- Narayanan Venkitu's Mella Mella

Don's son Ashwante has started a blog of his own! Lovely. His painting skills and writing skills will grow phenominally this way. A letter from him to this effect made me feel very curious and the blog is really constructed very beautifully, meaningfully and intellegently.

Good and very constructive motivation and encouragement to children. Very positive noccupation for kids. The sense of diarising, recording and registering develop automatically in children. They also keep in touch with friends and welwishers this way.

Congratulations Don. A very nice thing you have done for your son. It will be wonderful to him in retrospet when he grows up.

My friend's friend has started a blog exclusively for children to read every day.

Mr.Narayanan's song 'Mella Mella' is very nice. I had stated in my previous blog about people living out of India. The constraints of life or the compulsions so to say takes us in various directions and walks of life. Very few are blessed to be where they want to in terms of stay or work. Whatever it may be, the suppressed 'me' comes out at the nearest opportunity. We see Mr.Narayanan's poetic and musical self coming out probably at a possible or affordable time for his own self. I see that he has a flair for a raga based tunes. I remember him writing to me once that he is not formally trained in classical. A small number of people have a natural acumen for ragas. Just by the experience of having been exposed to the ragas and or having heard the raga in conncert or being played several times, the tune gets settled in the subconscious mind. It emerges like this at an appropriate time. The musical arrangement and the recording is also very good.

Two nice things other than my small world and Chinmayi's. Good change!

Please use your E-mail address

I guess it will be great if you write on music
I guess it will be great if you write on music
anonymous 2 Nov 06 07:23 PM

Can you please write more on music.
Can you please write more on music.
anonymous 8 Nov 06 08:22 PM

In music, tihai is a technique by which a statement of music or the rythmic structure is repeated thrice to mark the conclusion.

This anonymous writer, as you see above, does it twice. So I have named him/her tihai but have deleted this person both from the inbox and my mind. :))

Mani Ramaswamy was kind enough to put at least his name below and every inch of his comment was extremely interestingto me. This wonderful person does not have even that courtesy and I see no reason why I should comply with his/her demand.

Being in USA has made a lot of things comfortable. But the basic thirsts and unfulfilled desires and pining come out in search of knowledgeof one's choice. Sometimes it comes out like this with unreasonable demands. Its true that excellent information of very hard research of several decades are available freely and unconditionally. This wonderful person wants in but in total anonymity! If you really have respeact for my writing you would excercise a little etiquette to write to me on how you feel about or the usefulness of the musical writings and ask specific questions for clarifications. There is an email id given at the blog profile page itself.

You know friends, till recently there was a mad search in the google for Mani Ramaswamy which in turn gave me an idea as to how people who contact me are tracked. 99% of this search was by readers from USA! Simply madness.

For all your information, Mani Ramaswamy is from Chennai, respects my scholarship but afraid of the strong karnatak groups who resist the growth of Hindustani music here, who is also aware that the same group attends all the hindustani concerts without fail for their personal growth.

When somebody comes out with outstanding merits and authenticity on their doctrines they are looked up as big threats. The mediocre world does not open their arms in warmth. Its the sheer battle with which they establish their status and once established, the flock mentality endorses everything including crap material they may bring out.

People who write to me regularly are writing to a mail of my friend in a different IP address and get their answers. It should be obvious from my recent post.

Anyway for a straightlaced information on music you dont need big face masks about your identity. If you can not send in your name & email id, with specific request for clarifications or topics of your interest, please dont waste the space in my inbox. Your comment is deleted at once. Of course you can wait until I write when I feel like it.

Ma Pratyangira - Women's Rights on Spirituality

I had told you that Ma Pratyangira is not a deity for petty problems and worldly desires. She is not to be used as a solution for your petty problems with others not realising that life is a struggle of co-existence.

I said she is to be invoked when there is a war like situation on a riteous footing. According to my Guru, she is not to be sold. Charging huge amounts for the puja, havan etc. are, according to my Guru, is crime.

To pray for a right cause, if the interest is triggered by her, is our veritable duty, if one is bestowed with the vidya. There ends the duty anything more than that as claims by us humans will not be considered kindly by her.

We have seen Mayuri Vaishnavi's case where it was a war of a mother with God/Goddess for the life of her daughter. I saw the true simbol of a motherhood in Mala.

Now the Miracle has happened all over again in the riversal form. Its the daughter who was not prepared to part with her mother. The young girl was desperate. She didn't have the fighter I saw in Mala, Mayiri's mother. This girl needed certain small developments of positive attitude and prayer methods. She meticulously followed it.

I assured her that Devi Ma will bring in change within a week's time, if only she will start believing in her own self that she is going to have a beautiful life. I dont know what exactly made me assure her so. I started praying her desperately after this bold assurance and there she is, Kindness incarnation all over again!

This has costed no money, no travel; just two souls heartily praying Mother Goddess for mercy and she had been bountiful.

I have given the excerpts of her letters here. I had to wait for her permission to publish this which took a few days. This is just to bring to the light of people that Devi does not consider women worshipping her as sinful but she is bountifully merciful. So once again I am reassured of women's rights on spirituality.

Dearest Aunty,

I have great news. The scan results for my mother have returned and the doctor has diagnosed that it is not cancerous but some muscle growth and he has prescribed physiotherapy and pain killers to combat the pain. You know, I can never thank you enough for your wonderful advice and prayers.

for myself, I was at a very low point for some time and I was even wishing that I would get hit by a car or something and end my useless life which isnt of use to anyone. then I started doing what you told me to and in a lot of ways it helped me change my mindset too. Whenever I did as you told, I actually felt as if I had electricity passing through my feet, my spine and right up to my head. Once or twice this electricity-passing-through-my-body feeling was too strong I had to stop myself. Is this normal? I was visualising Durga Ma, fyi, and she always looked so brilliantly bright, I could never see her face clearly cos of the bright glow about her.

Aunty, I think somehow I must have done something good to gain your acquaintance, and I am grateful for that. Have a Happy Diwali and take care

Aunty, you do not have to ask me if you wanted to publish the letter. If you feel you want to share this incidence with everyone so that they too realise about the Shakti of Ma. I have not told you this before because I was afraid I might seem pretentious, but I feel I should tell you now. Just after getting to know you, I had a dream of Ma Prayangira, i had only seen her image once before in a temple brochure announcing a Pratyangira Devi homam. When I saw Her image on the brochure I was a bit scared by her fierceness and only caught a glance of her. I cant fully remember what happened in my dream, but Her form was so vivid in my dream and I wasnt scared at all. The only thing I remember was that she asked me somehthing (cant remember what) and I replied something like ' But I want a family and children" and she smiled at me and the dream ended.

I will continue praying. Lately I find myself simply talking to Ma within myself very frequently, like when I am sitting in the bus or walking to the store etc. and I get the feeling that I can take on the world and face whatever challenges that come.
***

For all that I know, we must have an honest soul to pray for us and we ourselves have a right frame of mind to receive it and joining the prayer in our own rights. Chinmayi and me had a lot of such good people for us. Whenever we had the right frame of mind to receive it we enjoyed nice times. When we felt pulled down or low inspite of the prayers or blessings of our welwishers, we had problems. Between me and this little girl, we could succeed in our joint prayers.

I recently had a wonderful experience which I will share with you all shortly.

I have received some reminders about my having have to continue the topics on music, which I shall do at the soonest.