It announces life. It acknowledges death. It makes bodies go gaga in dance or herald a spiritual saga in trance or better still, plays the best man in many a romance. It assists mothers' in getting their yowling infants to rest. Helps beings' smile, thus dressing them up in their best.Did I miss, how it gives company to the obese as they attempt adipose abandonment on treadmills. It draws out emotions in a cascade over reverent cheeks. Lends lexicon to how nature expresses itself and speaks. Provides the drive to reach our dreams. Unites our tribe to impeach violent screams. Pronounces redundant, the urge to go lingual to drive home a message. When distressed, plays the balm to perfection, lending a heavenly massage. Is non-existential,to it, futile phrases like borders and boundaries. Is deferential, to it, passing faces like time and space. Politics can't pollute it nor money dilute it. Nor can disease or decay hamper it. For hearts endorse and pamper it. Our souls live it and we just love it. For it escorts oneself, leading us up the steps, onto the throne of eternity. Crowns oneself, deitifying us, in the altar of infallibility. Truly, it's the Divine alter ego - MUSIC.
Howzzat possible?
The Divine having an alter ego?
Let's break it down.Consider, what it takes to play God. What attributes or virtues do we need to stake claims that will enable us to be peers of divinity? In a point blank shot, what will give a God a run for His/Her money?
It's a simple trio of the 3-O's.
Omnipresence - the presence in all places
Omniscience - the quality of knowing it all
Omnipotence - the force of unlimited power
Omnipresence:
When a life checks in, into this world; it's cry is music to its mama's ears. What follows is song and dance in that blessed household. Music announces life.
Every time a life checks out, out of this world; the tears are memories dancing to tragic tunes. Every religion has its own way to mark this unavoidable event. Be it the melancholy 'Ram Nam Satya Hai' of the Hindus. The agonizingly comforting 'Amen' of the Christians. Or the heaven seeking strains of the Muslims. Songs, chants,odes all tuned to the notes of inevitability.Music acknowledges death.
But the presence of music is not confined to just the gateways alone - birth and death,entry and exit. In every sphere of human activity, every space of human interaction,every phase of human growth and every face of human emotion, music 'scores' its presence. When a mother has to put a baby to sleep, its a lullaby. When a boy has to get over boring lectures, its FM. When it is time to chill out, it's rock-on concert time.And when......when it's time to forge romantic interests, its waltz. When it's T20 its Shivamani. When its a book store or corporate elevator, it's Kenny G. When its festivities, it is percussions and a good crop it's a folksy cadence.When its tribal, it is abaja, when its the Bible, it's gospel. When its blue, its jazz and when it's che guevera rebel time, its hip-hop rap. If its remix it is HR(hint: the cap), and for the ultimate, its a ARR. Its strings for the emotions and the skins(drums) for the commotions(think Indian hartals and African hunts).Its 'Jana Gana Mana' for the patriot and 'Yeh Jo Des Hai Mera' for the ryot(Miti ki jho khushboo).When its marriage, its nadaswaram and when its the end, shennai. Music never misses out in giving its attendance. Its there all the time, in all the places.
Omniscience
Only a little said will suffice. Get a lifer from Tihar, someone reticent after 3 weeks of 3rd degree torture. Make him face the music of a RD Burman's vintage classic. The emotions that the seemingly stone faced convict never possibly had will surface as a cascade of warm humanity. Music knows all about you. Knows you in your most untarnished form. It knows it all.
Omnipotence
I will let the legends take over from here to lay bare music's credentials on this front -
Victor Hugo
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Berthold Auerbach
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
Music is what feelings sound like. ~Author Unknown
Music is love in search of a word. ~Sidney Lanier
Santiz
“Music speaks what cannot be expressed,
soothes the mind and gives it rest,
heals the heart and makes it whole,
Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. ~William F. Buckley, Jr.
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. ~Arnold Bennett
The pause is as important as the note. ~Truman Fisher
Silence is the fabric upon which the notes are woven. ~Lawrence Duncan
(Paul Sir will love this)
The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic. ~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
I listen to Mohammad Rafi to soothe my nerves - Sachin Tendulkar
I feel naked without it on the run - Lance Armstrong, Tour De France winner
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music” Sergei Rachmaninov
Play the music, not the instrument. - Anonymous
You are the music, while the music lasts - TS Eliot
Not convinced? Think of MS performing in the UN or Fateh Ali Khan moving to tears Indians' during heights of Kargil or Scorpions rendering 'Winds of Change' besides Moskva just around Soviet break up time. You have unthinkable power there.
If you have any further qualms of Music being the divine alter ego, well then, the quote "Without music life would be a mistake" by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche would apply to you. My commiserations to you on that count. Want it or not, it's ubiquitous.
For what is a child's chuckle, if not a life's overture, an embellishment of innocence. For what is a lightning followed by thunder, if not an syncopation, a surprise dance fest between light and sound. For what is a bird song, if not an rhapsody, a rapture of liberty taking flight. For what is the bray of a donkey, if not a perfect arpeggio, a drone of diligence, stickler to the assigned notes. For what is the wave's roar, if not a crescendo, of depths seeking the shore. For what are the stars, if not an appoggiatura, of heaven's twinkling benedictions. For what are the rainbows, if not a symphony, orchestrated by the colors. For what are bodies, if not a key, set to mortality. For what are our minds, if not scales, ranging up the thought octaves. For what is this earth, if not an harmony, an agreement of pitches between beasts,birds,soil and men. For what is this Cosmos, if not a impromptu, a improvisation indulged by an Infinite Intelligence.For what's life, if not a heart's metronome, that's gone ticking. And what's death, if not a pause, that's gone kicking.
Surely, this little interlude about the Divine Alter Ego definitely ought to have struck a chord and found resonance in all of you. So, here's the Alter Ego's rendition of its opus - life, and how we oughtta sing the ballad of our souls.
Before the end of your show
You need to take a bow
Let the world know
You've lived the perfect note
Now now now
Ask me how?
Well let your life's leitmotif be - love.
Howzzat possible?
The Divine having an alter ego?
Let's break it down.Consider, what it takes to play God. What attributes or virtues do we need to stake claims that will enable us to be peers of divinity? In a point blank shot, what will give a God a run for His/Her money?
It's a simple trio of the 3-O's.
Omnipresence - the presence in all places
Omniscience - the quality of knowing it all
Omnipotence - the force of unlimited power
Omnipresence:
When a life checks in, into this world; it's cry is music to its mama's ears. What follows is song and dance in that blessed household. Music announces life.
Every time a life checks out, out of this world; the tears are memories dancing to tragic tunes. Every religion has its own way to mark this unavoidable event. Be it the melancholy 'Ram Nam Satya Hai' of the Hindus. The agonizingly comforting 'Amen' of the Christians. Or the heaven seeking strains of the Muslims. Songs, chants,odes all tuned to the notes of inevitability.Music acknowledges death.
But the presence of music is not confined to just the gateways alone - birth and death,entry and exit. In every sphere of human activity, every space of human interaction,every phase of human growth and every face of human emotion, music 'scores' its presence. When a mother has to put a baby to sleep, its a lullaby. When a boy has to get over boring lectures, its FM. When it is time to chill out, it's rock-on concert time.And when......when it's time to forge romantic interests, its waltz. When it's T20 its Shivamani. When its a book store or corporate elevator, it's Kenny G. When its festivities, it is percussions and a good crop it's a folksy cadence.When its tribal, it is abaja, when its the Bible, it's gospel. When its blue, its jazz and when it's che guevera rebel time, its hip-hop rap. If its remix it is HR(hint: the cap), and for the ultimate, its a ARR. Its strings for the emotions and the skins(drums) for the commotions(think Indian hartals and African hunts).Its 'Jana Gana Mana' for the patriot and 'Yeh Jo Des Hai Mera' for the ryot(Miti ki jho khushboo).When its marriage, its nadaswaram and when its the end, shennai. Music never misses out in giving its attendance. Its there all the time, in all the places.
Omniscience
Only a little said will suffice. Get a lifer from Tihar, someone reticent after 3 weeks of 3rd degree torture. Make him face the music of a RD Burman's vintage classic. The emotions that the seemingly stone faced convict never possibly had will surface as a cascade of warm humanity. Music knows all about you. Knows you in your most untarnished form. It knows it all.
Omnipotence
I will let the legends take over from here to lay bare music's credentials on this front -
Victor Hugo
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Berthold Auerbach
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
Music is what feelings sound like. ~Author Unknown
Music is love in search of a word. ~Sidney Lanier
Santiz
“Music speaks what cannot be expressed,
soothes the mind and gives it rest,
heals the heart and makes it whole,
flows from heaven to the soul.”
Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. ~William F. Buckley, Jr.
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. ~Arnold Bennett
The pause is as important as the note. ~Truman Fisher
Silence is the fabric upon which the notes are woven. ~Lawrence Duncan
(Paul Sir will love this)
The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic. ~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
I listen to Mohammad Rafi to soothe my nerves - Sachin Tendulkar
I feel naked without it on the run - Lance Armstrong, Tour De France winner
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music” Sergei Rachmaninov
Play the music, not the instrument. - Anonymous
You are the music, while the music lasts - TS Eliot
Not convinced? Think of MS performing in the UN or Fateh Ali Khan moving to tears Indians' during heights of Kargil or Scorpions rendering 'Winds of Change' besides Moskva just around Soviet break up time. You have unthinkable power there.
If you have any further qualms of Music being the divine alter ego, well then, the quote "Without music life would be a mistake" by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche would apply to you. My commiserations to you on that count. Want it or not, it's ubiquitous.
For what is a child's chuckle, if not a life's overture, an embellishment of innocence. For what is a lightning followed by thunder, if not an syncopation, a surprise dance fest between light and sound. For what is a bird song, if not an rhapsody, a rapture of liberty taking flight. For what is the bray of a donkey, if not a perfect arpeggio, a drone of diligence, stickler to the assigned notes. For what is the wave's roar, if not a crescendo, of depths seeking the shore. For what are the stars, if not an appoggiatura, of heaven's twinkling benedictions. For what are the rainbows, if not a symphony, orchestrated by the colors. For what are bodies, if not a key, set to mortality. For what are our minds, if not scales, ranging up the thought octaves. For what is this earth, if not an harmony, an agreement of pitches between beasts,birds,soil and men. For what is this Cosmos, if not a impromptu, a improvisation indulged by an Infinite Intelligence.For what's life, if not a heart's metronome, that's gone ticking. And what's death, if not a pause, that's gone kicking.
Surely, this little interlude about the Divine Alter Ego definitely ought to have struck a chord and found resonance in all of you. So, here's the Alter Ego's rendition of its opus - life, and how we oughtta sing the ballad of our souls.
Before the end of your show
You need to take a bow
Let the world know
You've lived the perfect note
Now now now
Ask me how?
Well let your life's leitmotif be - love.
