Samgita-Sadhana: The Path of Human Oneness (An Old and Rare Book) (Only One Copy in Stock)

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The phenomenal presence of music is often re- garded solely as an entertaining enjoyment designed for outward perception by the human senses. In its perfect transcendent personality, however, music embodies more than the delightful passtime it rep- resents on the surface. Music is in essence a spir- itual activity directed at the inward spheres of the human emotional consciousness, hence music, if carnestly practiced, signifies a spiritual exercise rather than a mere artistic skill. It is therefore not surprising that music counts among the foremost and indispensable constituents of sadhana, of spir- itual striving for the object of attainment to the Supreme. In India, the execution of music as part of the spiritual practice is known as samgita- sadhana ('sadhana through music'), referring to both music as part of liturgical worship, and music as part of the individual striver's way of spiritual questing. The most important advantage of music over other spiritual procedures and methods of di- vine service rests in its emotional profundity, which enables the striver engaged in the musical exercise to immerse himself fully and unconditionally into the stream of transcendental sweetness that carries him very speedily and in an uncomplicated manner to the aspired destination of his spiritual journey.

This book represents a compilation of selected essays originally delivered as lectures, all centred around the theme of music in the context of man's continuous endeavor for realization of the Highest Truth. The explications are based on concrete examples from the South Asian musico-spiritual tradition, with particular reference to Vaisnava lit- urgy as well as to the philosophy of the Bauls of Bengal. The latter aspect recurs in some detail in four out of ten papers contained in the present collection, not at last because the singer-philoso- phers from Bengal have made music the principal element of their complex and intricate spiritual practice nourished by a comprehensive philosophy which, without exaggeration, deserves to be called the philosophy of humanity. All essays reproduced in this volume are essentially inspired by the Baul spiritual heritage, and in the concrete by the thoughts of the author's revered spiritual teacher, the renowned folk singer and philosopher Baul Samrat Purna Das.

Selina Thielemann, who belongs to a family of musicians, holds a first degree in Western music and violin performance. After completing her M.Mus. in ethnomusicology from the School of Oriental and African Studies/University of London, and M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, she obtained her Ph.D from Banaras Hindu University with a thesis on the Vaisnava temple music of Vraja. Based at Vrindaban where she is currently establishing an academic institution, Selina Thielemann conducts research with focus on Vaisnava performing arts, as well as on music and religion in general. Selina Thielemann is also trained as a vocalist in classical dhrupada and haveli samgīta styles.

Selina Thielemann is author of The Darbhanga tradition: dhrupada in the school of Pandit Vidur Mallik (Indica Books, Varanasi, 1997), Rasalīla. A musical study of religious drama in Vraja(1998), Sounds of the Sacred. Religious Music in India (1998), The music of South Asia (1999), Singing the Praises Divine. Music in the Hindu tradition (2000), The Spirituality of Music (2001), Divine Service and the Performing Arts in India (2002, all published by APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi), and Musical traditions of Vaisnava temples in Vraja. A comparative study of samaja and the dhrupada tradition of North Indian classical music (Sagar Printers and Publishers, New Delhi, 2001). Together with Baul Samrat Purna Das, Selina Thielemann is co-author of Baul Philosophy (APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 2003).

Music is known to everybody as the melodious presence built up of orderly arranged sounding cadences designed to delight man and touch the human aesthetic consciousness in a pleasant and enjoyable manner. Thus emerges a general perception of music as a gratifying passtime: a divertissement to reach the senses, but not beyond them.

This perspective from which music appears merely in its entertaining aspect, however, is limited and misses the core of the spiritual personality called music. In its indwelling essence, music represents a transcendental energy rather than a phenomenal reality, a source of cosmic bliss rather than a cause for mundane satisfaction. More than that, music is not a mere game for amusement: the act of making music, the persistence of listening to music, the process of conceiving the musical flow these are spiritual procedures, actions pertaining to the spiritual consciousness of man. Why so? Because music is essentially an experience: an emotional experience, whose object is non-material in its nature, hence withdraws itself from the clutches of sensual phenomenality.

Given the fundamentally spiritual character of music, the role of music as a crucial element of human spiritual activity becomes self- evident. Therefore, music in its purest form is sadhana, is spiritual practice per se. As a vehicle to enhance the effect of human spiritual striving, religious liturgies all over the world employ music as part of the divine worship.