The Bridge to God – Shubha Mudgal

Have you ever had an experience that is so deep that it gives you goosebumps? Send shivers down your spine? Make parts of your brain tingle?

These I believe, are the moments when the soul connects to something larger than itself and trembles at the jolt of that connection.

The Nirvana moment.It happens to me, sometimes through my own conscious attainment but most often it happens when I am a passive voyeur of someone else’s journey into the depths of their own soul-universe.

It happened last night.

At least 2-3 times – as I watched the singers and the music maestros of classical Indian music reach heights of their of their own personal effort.

They weren’t performing for an audience – though we were all certainly very present – they played for themselves.

While their hands / voices performed, their faces and eyes told the story of the excruciating strain of getting the notes just right. The concentration or dhyaan was so intense that it transported even me – a music-ignoramus – to another world; I cannot imagine how they managed to hold themselves in this world during those moments! In the final performance the jugalbandi between the Sitar player and the tabla player felt liek it was one spirit playing through the two sets of hands!

Sublime Excruciating Intense Nirvana moments.

Totally transported me over the bridge across the universe!

The show curated by Shubha Mudgal and performed by Kaushiki Chakravorty, Murad Ali, Akram Khan, Purbayan Chatterjee, Satyajit Talwalkar, Ajay Joglekar, Yogesh Samsi and others.

Grateful.

Pranaam to all these supreme souls!

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Here is a song by Shubha Mudgal … from a Bollywood film … not as raw or intense as classical Indian music but one that has given me many evenings of pure joy.