Sunset as seen from Sat Kirtan Kaur’s home (classroom).

Rag Kedara
7/18/01 Monterey

From stillness
The call emerges, “come”.
The dance of the singer’s voice
Draws the beloved near.
In an instant he appears
And the glow of his presence
Consumes all sense of time and space.

While the world stands still
The two dance on
Around the fire of sound
Caller and called,
Together as one.

Then into the silence
he slips away again
leaving only a shadow
and the fragrance of his coming.

Until now, this little poem was the only attempt to describe my first experience with rāga kedāra. The first time I heard rāga kedāra it was a summer night in Monterey, California. Bhai Baldeep Singh sat in front of a wall of windows overlooking the seamless black expanse of sea and sky, dotted with stars that twinkled in the heavens and sparkled on the water. The small sangat circled around, wrapped in shawls, our ears just beginning to register a barely audible note resonating in the cool night air. The note slipped easily, transforming itself, fluid like water in the bay below, circling, flowing into the lower octave, than spiraling, stretching to the higher. As the alāp developed the patterns became more complex, the pace quickened, the sound filled the room.

To me, a listener, time seemed to stand still and the world seemed to pause, hushed in silence as rāga kedāra unfolded, emerging like a living presence among us. Then, like the tide, the song receded until all that remained was the stillness it had itself evoked, damp with traces of the song memory. I felt transported to a new vantage point from which to see.

The bāni in rāga kedāra spans the full spectrum of human life– birth, attachments, ego, work in the world, entanglement and death as well as grace, peace, meditation and nām intoxication. The devotee lives in the world unattached. Remembering nām, affairs are taken care of. In the Lord’s sanctuary there is no resistance, the world is not avoided, but there is a sense of ease, trusting the Doer to set things right.

Like the sky merging into the sea, rāga kedāra flows seamlessly between the lower notes of the octave and the higher notes. Whereas the pancham appears in some rāgas as a springboard for ascending, there is no dividing line in rāga kedāra. The notes in rāga kedāra slide easily between low and high as if life itself flowed with no effort between inner and outer, work and worship, heaven and earth, a dance of simultaneous engagement and renunciation, without duality, encompassing all of reality into One.

It was a long drive, starting at 9p from Nizamuddin, first stop Chandigarh meeting mom after almost 8-9 weeks, and then touching base at the Qila – 4:30a; Raga Natt through out/Hau Vaar Vaar Jao Gur Gopal till Chandigarh/Kou Hai Mero Sajan Meet till Village penultimate, Dalla, wherefrom hailed Bibi Damodari, the wife of Guru Hargobind, the 6th guru – the mother of the ninth, Guru Teg Bahadur, and the grandma of the tenth, Guru Gobind Singh.
Raju, works as a cook at Anad, Qila Sultanpur Lodhi, accompanied me this time. He also wants to be a singer and I have have been teaching him off and on for some time. After I had sung the first Natt composition, instead of going nuts, he began to sing along. Soon he was understanding, as I sang on a few improvisations as we passed Ropar, the difference between various mukaa-s, tinn mukaa-s, tcheh mukaa-s, nau-mukaa-s and so on. He even held a digital-audio recorder sans a flinch.
It is quite something driving through all these places and at times one feels their presence still or perhaps, I have just gone bonkers…
😉

🙁
The natural forests have long gone, the beautiful and seductive rivulet Kali Bein long dead – the gardens famous in Akbar’s Ain-e-Akbari long wilted – the corrupt minds have usurped all those lands and now, worry about my presence here for they fear – spring may once again visit albeit to stay for a longtime this time – that Nanak gurus’ Rababa and Mridang might just resound again and whose songs may cause an awe-filled and wonderstruck revolution yet again…

If you continue past Sultanpur Lodhi, you reach Village Parowana, where lives still the legend of Rababi Bhai Firanda, whomfrom came the Rababa of Bhai Mardana at the behest of Nanak Shah Faqeer – Hindu Ka Guru Mussalman Ka Peer.

All these places have lost their vernacular uniqueness and I have a vision – an action plan which is feasible and doable.
Are there any romantics still around?
You know where to find me – join up folks – it is high time…!

Lahore Gate, Qila Sultanpur Lodhi
Photo by Thomas R. Hughes – courtesy Rameet Kaur Dhaliwal Hughes.
July 2012.

Sometimes the songs extol the virtues of singing itself. Throughout Siri Guru Granth Sāhib there are songs that describe the path of kirtan, the rewards of chanting, singing and reciting. The songs of rāga gond are like that, songs in praise of singing. The praise is not for just any song, but for those songs that spring from consciousness, that emerge from knowing, that are born of experience.

Raga Gond
Ignited by a heart at peace,
Kindled by a soul’s release,
Songs to praise the Only One,
Songs to sing when the searching is done,
Songs after freedom from false illusion,
Songs after cleaning mental pollution,
Meditate, sing, remember the Name,
Let go of fear, remove the pain,
Fly to the heavens where you belong,
Sing praise to God, sing praise to the song.
Nirvair 8/2/12

These weeks have been busy. In America this is the time of year that schools welcome students and staff who are returning after the summer vacation. There is much to do to prepare for the new school year– hiring, training, planning, scheduling, organizing, and lots of meetings. This year our preparations were interrupted with news of the tragic shooting at the gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Since we don’t have a gurdwāra in Tucson, Khalsa Montessori School worked with the local sangat to organize a memorial, offering a place for the Tucson community to connect, pray together and heal. A diverse group of civic and religious leaders attended to express their condolences and offer support. The group included Jewish, Christian and Muslim clergy, a Congressman and Tucson’s mayor. Through all the preparations for the first day of school and for the memorial event, the daily singing practice remained a constant source of strength, inspiration and comfort. Although there hasn’t been time for writing, the singing has continued, travelling through rāga rāmkali, rāga nat narāyan, rāga māli gaura, rāga māru, and rāga tukhāri.

Do the work, sing the songs
Mourn the loss, sing the songs
Feed the people, sing the songs
Comfort the community, sing the songs
Help a friend, sing the songs
Remember those who died, sing the songs,
Protect the living, sing the songs
Uplift the spirits, sing the songs
Heal the heart, sing the songs
See the One through it All, sing the songs