Sunday, July 25, 2010

Yet another cosmic message!


(Above is a photograph of the Mother of Pondicherry)Many times we come across people with familiar features or attitude (body language, features, articulation etc.)bearing strong resemblance to our friends, relatives, acquaintances or someone who has hurt/angered or pleased/made us happy in the past. I made the startling discovery that such people bearing similar features of our past contacts cross our paths generally after we have lost touch ( for any reason) with those 'past contacts'. It could be a cosmic reminder or a karmic chain of contact!I recall the period when I had lost touch with a person many years ago. Within just a year of the event, I ran into another person from a totally different field, yet bearing an overwhelming resemblance to the past friend. That is when I realized that another entity bearing a strong resemblance to the past contact bumped into me to remind me of unfinished karmic business. Even if we are convinced that there is nothing more to the past, unfinished karmic business points to lingering thoughts or an interest from the past contact to reestablish contact. The only means to break the chain of karma is through detachment to the past and the person.
I tried to analyse the cosmic message behind such an occurrence (of meeting somebody who resembles a past contact). I understood that the person with whom we have lost touch could be mentally following us through powerful thought waves emanating from his/her aura, automatically invoking an interaction between their "breed" of people ( similar "saamudrika lakshanam") and ourselves. While all this is about living people, evolved souls have explained about after death phenomena such as the following:-
In one of the books by Navajata Bhaiji, a close associate and devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother of Pondicherry, he states that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have described in very great detail what happens to the soul, the psychic being and the astral personality after death. The mind continues to exist, the vital continues to exist, even after death. People may say out of ignorance that so and so would be born as a snake or a cat or a bird. Bhaiji states that it is incorrect. He says that according to what he has learnt from Mother, only a part of the personality of a person, like the lower part, may join a snake, a cat or a bird. That doesn't mean that his entire personality, including his soul have joined with that animal! He quotes Mother's examples of this phenomenon. She said that a young man She knew, died in the First World War. She was living in Paris at that time. She was sitting in a room when suddenly a cat ran to Her and pulled at Her dress. She saw in the cat's eyes the eyes of that man and could feel his presence. She immediately knew that the young man had been killed. Later She found that he had indeed died on the battlefront exactly at the time the cat had come to the Mother. So the astral body hardly took any time to travel from a battlefield in Germany right upto Paris and get in touch with the Mother. That is the speed with which the astral body can travel, it can even go through a wall and keep its personality intact.
The book has another account of the Mother's narration of an incident regarding a musician (a pianist). He had trained his hands in piano-playing over years of pracitce. After his death, his subtle hands got concretised- they got the skill- and so even after the man died, his hands, only the hands, remained in the subtle-physical. This is truly amazing that not the total personality but the hands alone could combine with the hands of another person who was trying to become a good pianist. But this second musician must be in an attitude of invoking- and this is very important- invoking some force to help him and for that moment he may play very beautifully, which normally he may be incapable of doing.
This means it is quite possible to build a connection; to build a contact with subtle-physical forces, and combine with even a part of the personality of another person who has died and thus improve one's life!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Who is the monk?

Above is a group photo taken way back in early 60s, after I rendered 2 or 3 krithis in All India Sai Samaj (Saibaba Temple, Mylapore). In the audience were a revered monk (at whose feet I am seated) and somebody called "Professor Rege" (I still remember his name). The eyes of His Holiness are deep with knowledge of the Self. I was too young to know any details about Him. I wish to know particulars about His Holiness.
(Click on photo to enlarge).

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Acupressure on veena for tonal enhancement- Clarification

VEENA PLAYING FOR ACUPRESSURE-
While thanking Music Lover for raising the point if other set of melakartha ragas that contain swaras (notes) missing in each other (for eg. Chakravakam-Simhendramadhyamam, Hanumathodi-Mechakalyani, etc.) could be used, I would like to clarify that it is acceptable and possible to do so. I had mentioned Mayamalavagowla-Haimavathi specifically only because the former is traditionally used for Sarali Varisai, Janta Varisai and Alankaram. Haimavathi is the only raga that has entirely different notes (swaras) than that of Mayamalavagowla.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Acupressure on veena for tonal enhancement!

VEENA PLAYING AS ACUPRESSURE-

The brass-plated bridge (tonal enhancer)

Parts of Veena
'Naadam' (resonance) is the life of veena. A veena devoid of 'naadam' is lifeless and fails to evoke any emotion in the player as well as the listener. The tone of a veena is enhanced only when it is used. How does it happen? As we all know the bridge is the tone-determining part of the veena. It is located on the kudam-(see diagram).The process is like this:-
Veena is subject to acupressure simultaneously while the player is involved in producing music through the instrument. Acupressure is an ancient art using the fingers (or other parts of the body which is irrelevant in the case of veena)to skilfully press key points, which stimulates the body's (in this case -veena) natural abilities. When these trigger points (frets and strings) are pressed, they release muscular tension (tonal inertia) and promote blood circulation ('naadam'-resonance).
The index finger and the middle finger of the left hand press on the metal frets as they move from one swara to another. The right hand's index and middle fingers strike (pluck) the strings firmly, matching the movements of the left hand. As both the hands operate simultaneously,the strings that runs across the bridge rub tightly across the brass plate on top of the bridge (there are two bridges, the top of the bridge which is covered by a brass plate supports four main strings, holding them tightly and firmly while the side bridge, which is a curved brass plate supports the three side strings) creating a black line-like dent or mark over the brass plate while the metal frets, due to the pressure of the left hand fingers dip ever so finely into the wax-bed. Both, the line-like mark on the brass plated bridge and the frets that are being pressed and ground by the act of playing the instrument gradually bring about a deep timbre in the tonal quality of the veena. Obviously the points (swaras) wherever the frets are pressed by the left hand and plucked by the right hand fingers trigger particular zones on the brass plate resulting in tonal enhancement. If a particular krithi or raaga or the mere scale of Mayamalavagowla from open sarani to the middle shadjamam could produce tonal enhancement to a certain extent, the result would be far greater and wholesome when the veena is played or subject to acupressure from the first fret (rishabha) to the topmost shadjamam, that is, on all the 24 frets.
The two ragas, Mayamalavagowla and Haimavathi when played on three octaves (starting from the open shadjamam of the third bass string to the topmost shadjamam on the first string) in all the three speeds activate every zone on the brass-plate. The 15th melakartha raga, Mayamalavagowla and the 58th mealakartha raga, Haimavathi consist of swaras that are missing in each other, thereby encompassing the 24 frets of the veena, leaving no scope for an untouched pressure-point.

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