Performing Vital Versus Soulful Music
If a musician or artist can waken the consciousness of the
audience to a higher height, then I feel that he is successful;
he has made a tremendous contribution to the world at large.
But again there are some musicians - and in no way am I criticising
them; that is what they like and also what the audience likes
- who create a kind of excitement in the vital region. Then
it does not go any farther.
Whereas if some musicians play soulful music and some singers
sing soulfully, they are bound to awaken the consciousness
of the audience. After all, each individual who comes to listen
to songs or to hear music comes to get something abiding -
the lasting joy that inspires them to see and feel something
in themselves that is absolutely new and unprecedented - unprecedented
joy, unprecedented love.
Most present-day musicians are the musicians who play vital
music. They create lightning-excitement for the music-lovers.
But excitement is not the answer to humanity's evolution.
It is the soulful awakening that is of paramount importance.
Soulful music awakens the heart; the soul is already awakened.
The soul is already awakened, but the soul tries to manifest
God's Beauty, Light and Power in and through its members -
the body, vital, mind and heart.
So it depends on the individual musician. If he wants to awaken
the consciousness of his listeners and give them something
divine and immortal, then he has to enter into their aspiring
lives on the strength of his own aspiration - which is his
offering through his musical talents.
Each type of music has access to a particular realm. Vital
music cannot be used as a vehicle for spiritual growth - it
is like knocking on the wrong door. If you play soulful music,
then you have to enter into the soulfulness of the music and
also enter into the soulfulness of the audience. If my goal
is situated in the north, then I will only get whatever is
in the north; I won't get whatever is in the south.
Sincere God-lovers will not be satisfied when they hear music
that is all excitement and vital exuberance. They will be
satisfied only when there is something very soulful, very
pure, very haunting, so that at every moment they feel they
are entering into a higher realm of consciousness. This higher
realm of consciousness is their goal, whereas other musicians
who are playing vital music are not thinking of the goal as
the highest or the greatest need in their life, nor does the
audience think of that highest goal.
Music is of God and for God. Real music, divine music, takes
you back to God, the Supreme Musician. Divine music is of
the heart and for the heart. If it is for the vital world,
then those who play will have to live in that world. But if
you want to live all the time in the soul's world, your music
has to be totally different. Give the world the reality that
you live. Even if the world does not appreciate it right now,
still you have to remain faithful to your reality. If you
are not playing the music that you live, the music that you
are, then you will feel sorry. It is like living a double
life. Your outer life must add to your inner life. Anything
you do in the outer life has to be a proper expression of
your inner life. If there is a yawning gulf between your inner
life and your outer life.
If you are crying to see God's Light in your consciousness,
then you have to give the world what you really are. If you
bring to the fore music from the soul, then only will your
contribution to humanity be significant. When artistic capacity
is joined with spiritual capacity, the musician can break
through the walls that other musicians have created.
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