Sitar Concert by Debu Chauduri with Talks of Shri Mataji, Eve Of Shri Vishnumaya Puja

I have never studied music but somehow in my family there is so much of music that only it is an ocean of music, so only listening to it you know so much. So now he is going to play to you as you know Darbari Kannada. This raga was composed by a very great musician called Tansen and is the majestic raga where you describe the court of the Goddess or of God or of a king. So it has that majesty in it. And also in this raga first they play the lower notes, that is the beauty about it. So are you settled down well in the understanding of that particular raga, in the sense that it creates a feeling of that dignity of that majestic nature in you. First by playing the lower notes in a very deep way. Then this raga is expanded more, later on. The beauty of this is that very high notes are suddenly brought down to a lower note. So that is a kind of a movement of your attention from the higher notes to the lower notes. It’s a remarkable feat also on this instrument. So he was telling me that his fingers are full of grooves which sometimes bleed and this bleeding was so much that I had to stop it, his bleeding. So he plays for you, he is suffering here with pain and here you are enjoying. 

 So both ways if you see his finger also it’s swollen up on both the sides that they use for playing also is in a different way. Otherwise, you see in other things they hold it in the hand. So this sitar and especially in these two notes are less so that also he has in his own Gharana that is in his family, it’s tradition so he has to jolly well use the same kind of sitar missing two notes below, so which he pulls up that’s called as mindh. So sitar has as a player I think it has more advantage in a way, not for the player but the listeners. That the small-small little changes in the note can be shown by pulling the string which we call as mindh and this is really remarkable. And he was saying that next time I will be playing only santoor next life, this life I have played sitar because my [finger is]  paining too much. But today I saw him playing the chimta also quite good. So I was saying what about chimta then? [Sahaja Yogis laugh]

This very difficult thing is the sitar and now I have seen some modern boys have taken to your guitar to be used as a sitar. But it cannot, it has its own problems but it’s the most melodious thing and you can see when they mindh it just pulls your heart you know, you feel that way. And little-little sounds can be created out of that. Now this raga is specially played before a dignitary or somebody who has a court. Now my court is sitting here so he is going to play this for your enjoyment, this raga of respect, of majesty of sitting in a very grand place facing somebody who is, I should say, who is like a king or a queen. 

May God bless you. 

I hope you enjoy this. In this raga, this is Darbari Kannada. So some people say play Darbari. That means he is playing Darbari Kannada. He is not half way you see. It’s a complete raga. Now the one we have composed of this Guru Puja is a mixture of this raga and Kaphi. That somehow I did it. I don’t know how I did it but I did it. Here he is a dean of the faculty of music. He has given me the certificate [that] it is very good so it must be. [Sahaja Yogis applaud]