Questioner: Yeah, hi, I’m Sadhana. So, I am interested in or I learned Carnatic music in my pastime. Around the same time last year, 2018 there was a controversy that broke out about four Carnatic musicians, famous ones who sang kritis, which were not related to Hinduism, on Jesus Christ. The common folk believe that Carnatic music is sacred of Hindu origin and should remain so.
My question is two-fold. First if Carnatic music is a Hindu art, should it remain so. And second, considering the fact that India as such as a country is an amalgamation of multiple diverse cultures. In fact, you kept mentioning culture when you answered the first question on religion. Considering the fact that India is an amalgamation of cultures which are invariably related to our faiths or religion, where do we draw the line between religion, culture and art ?
Sadhguru: See, we need to understand this, which largely it’s being forgotten. What you know as Carnatic music and also what you know as Hindustani music, which are the basic classical forms of music in this country. It is not that there was a form of music, and then somebody sang about some God or something. It is because of devotees, because of somebody’s overflowing devotion, that music happened. So what you see as Carnatic music or even Hindustani music, is a consequence of devotee’s overflowing.
It is not a mathematical rendition that people are trying to make it out as it is. Yes, there is mathematics to it, but all that flowed out of people because of overflowing devotion towards something. If you look back, many musicians of the past refused to sing in front of kings, because they sang only in temples, only for their deity. Because their entire compositions are made on the basis of this.
Even today, though during the Mughal period, most musicians in the northern region in the UP, Bihar that ‘Gharanas’, all got converted to Islam. Even today, all Hindustani musicians, all Islamic by religion today, but they only sing Shiva, nothing else. Because the compositions are made for that, it is an overflowing of devotion.
This is not a question of your religion versus my religion. It is a certain form, which has evolved in a certain way, so they want to keep it that way. If somebody wants to sing something else in their home, they can sing whatever they want. But in Chennai, the sabha’s are all created in that context. So, maybe some people feel sensitive about it.
But I don’t want you to look at this – see, the problem is right now, in this culture as I told you, I’m saying at least five bovine animals should be there on one hectare of land to fertilize the land and, “Oh, he’s a gowrakshak.” What nonsense, are you crazy? In this country, this certain people who think they’re intellectual, I don’t think they have much intellect. But they think they are intellectual. They are declared themselves intellectual for some reason. And they got some little bit of media, you know, purchase, they got some hold in this. And they’re all the time trying to create vitiated debate about everything. You just look at the English channels in the country. Everybody’s throwing something at somebody. Doesn’t matter what you say. It doesn’t matter what you say, everybody is throwing something at somebody. What has happened? This is not the way to have a decent debate about something.
Well, if you want to debate about these issues, they can be debated instead of abusing each other. But we must understand Carnatic music and Hindustani music is not singing devotion. It is because of the devotees this music has come into existence. Having said that, rest of it can be looked at, without imposing it on somebody.
