Apart from prayers, there are several ways of connecting with God, and spirituality is the highest form. Mystics call it the short-cut to God. Spirituality is anything that nurtures your inner-self (soul, atma, spirit, ruh, etc.) Religion is only one of the paths of spirituality. Singing (or hearing) bhajans or church-choirs is another path and dancing with frenzy like Meerabai or the Dervishes of the desert or the quawwals of Sufism, yet another path. Kabir sang about Ram and Rahim while Narsinh Mehta sang about Lord Krishna in ecstasy. Tulsidas composed the ‘RamcharitManas’ while Soordas is all about spirituality.

In Islamic Sufi-ism, Qawwali is called the mystic path (Tariga) leading to union with God (Wisal). In the powerful rhythm and repetition of God’s name, (Zikr) there lies divine-ecstasy for the Sufi, the primordial experience of worship, affirming the love of God (Muhabbat) nearness to him (Ahwal) and the state of unity with the Supreme (Tauhid). The singer is the lover of God (Ashik) while God is his beloved (Mashuk).

According to Islamic scholar Schimmel, Qawwali is the constant recollection of God through repetition of Divine names. In Sufi music, Regula Qureshi writes, “It is a Sufi-silsila (mystic-path) linking the disciple (or qawwal) to the geneology of spiritual power through his Pir (guru) to God.” Whereas, Al Ghazali calls Qawwali an inward transformation through love. In Arabic, the qawwal is called ‘Mashaikh’ or singer with a message.

Qawwali comes from the Arabic word ‘Qaul’ meaning ‘to say’. Hence, a qawwal ‘says’ something mystical to establish a link between the singer, the listener and God. This link is called ISHQ or ‘Love of God’, expressed through a text rich in metaphors and images, codified meanings, example: In the 50’s film ‘Barsaat Ki Raat’, the Qawwal sings, “Na toh karvan ki talash hai “referring to the lonely, solitary path one travels to seek God. In the film, ‘Mohra’, if one can see beyond Raveena Tandon’s dance, “Tu cheez badi hai mast-mast”, the ‘cheez’ is God’s ecstasy. In ‘Taal’, “Ishq bina kya jeena yaara, Ishq bina kya marna “depicts the voidness in life without God’s love (Ishq).

Amir Khushro, the court-poet was in Aluddin Khilji’s darbar when Nizzamudin Aulia sang a qawwali. Khushro started dancing in frenzy like a whirling dervish. When the King asked: “Are you mad? What are you doing?” Khushro replied: “Nothing much, just seeking God and being intoxicated in his love”.

Music affects and appeals to the soul’s hidden faculty, example: In the beautiful strains of Beethoven’s noble Fifth Symphony or in the sublime-anguish of Chopin’s Ballade in G minor there is spirituality.

The Zoroastrian Gathas are celestial songs! The Ram Charit Manas of Goswami Tulsidas is divine! Throughout the living and the non-living world, we find recurrent rhythms in which everything subsists in a state of continual-vibration, pulsation and oscillation eg.: the beating of the heart, blood circulation, inhaling and exhaling, formation of cells and tissues, rhythmic movements of oceans, hypersonic vibrations etc. extending throughout the solar systems into the entire cosmos. This is God’s Divine music permeating everything. Hinduism calls it ‘Naad-Brahma’. Christians call it ‘Logos’. Some call it the ‘Word’ or ‘Shabd’ (Music of the Spheres) Zoroastrians call it ‘Sarosh-No-Naad’.

In the mystic dance of the Sufi-Dervish, the folded position of the arms signifies unity with God while the black cloak and tapering head-dress signify the tomb and the tomb-stone. The Dervish whirls round and round, in a frenzy, one hand turned-up, receiving from God and the other turned-down, giving benediction to others. Giving up everything, he is engrossed (Mast) in unity with God. Therefore, he is called Mast-Maula or Mast-Kalandar. There’s Divinity in symphony, tune, song and dance which affects our aura (electro-magnetic-field) and hence we like or dislike certain music according to whether it harmonises or not with our aura.

For Plato and his teacher Socrates, philosophy was the practical search for truth, goodness and beauty or ‘satyam-shivam-sunderam’, which leads to moral purification and Plato therefore called philosophy ‘the highest music’. Music education was compulsory for children in ancient Egypt and in the Greco-Roman culture. It led to a rational, good and beautiful society. Through music, the children’s bodies and souls developed most harmoniously and responded and vibrated naturally to all that was good, true and beautiful in life.

The song of God has been singing forever – the deep baritone of the Seas, the Soprano of the winds and the roar of the waterfalls but do we have the time or the inclination to listen and seek God through these??