Every night at the ashram, after an evening chant and before dinner, there are fifteen minutes of music. And every night, after dinner, one or two hours. The musicians play as a devotion, an offering to the sanctuary and to those who come here as their church.
The sanctuary is rather large; the floor is granite, the walls stone, and the ceiling vaulted; there are no chairs, those who come to worship or participate or attend sit on the floor or against the walls. Everyone is silent, but you feel them there — imagine the full emptiness of orchestra hall — and then the single instrument begins to play. The sound of a sitar was made for this type of hall; the musician is a master, and we follow his movements, both physical and musical, from a distance of 10 feet. A sitar has resonance strings and body, and sometimes a gourd attached to carry the vibrations further or longer. In this room they were not needed, and the voice sounded and resounded around the hall. An echoing silence followed each pause and each break. Astounding fortune, yet another call for gratitude, to be witness to both the grace and simplicity of this spiritual community, and the arts which are inspired by their master, Ramana Maharshi.
The following day, the father of the sitar master played. His is an ancient two-stringed instrument called a dilruba. It is a bowed instrument, and in the incredible acoustics of this place, and perhaps with the age and the skill of the musician himself, it held a strong yet plaintive quality, with nuances of tone and depth such as you might hear in the finest operatic tenor. While there are frets beneath the two played strings — the resonators are below, such as in the sitar — they are not struck heavily, and the effect is more akin to a fretless instrument, with slides and strikes that are softened by the body of the instrument and the vast stone space of the hall.
It is said that there are good instruments to be had — but probably only in Bombay (Mumbai), a long haul on this trip to look for an instrument! I hope to speak to the son this evening… if for nothing else, to thank him for his mastery, and the gift of song.
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