saints

“Khwaja mere khwaja” from Jodha Akbar

~ Madame Zenista ~ 4 Comments
Jodha Akbar
Jodha Akbar: Aishwarya Rai as Princess Jodha Bai

I happened to watch Jodha Akbar in the theater for more than once. Rather, I chose to. I liked a lot of things about the film, especially the song “khwaja mere khwaja“. Interestingly, it turns out that the track wasn’t originally meant for the movie; AR Rahman had composed it sometime back for himself to listen to. A regular visitor of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti shrine for a decade and a half, Rahman agreed to let Ashutosh Gowarikar use it in the film “only if gets the respect it deserves”.

In the film, a group of white clad Sufi mystics from Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti sing this song to Emperor Akbar in the open amidst burning torches. As words of praise for the saint start pouring with the gripping beat, it enchants the audience. The chorus and the singing elevates the listeners to their higher selves. Young emperor Akbar’s uninterrupted fixed look reflects his intense involvement. As the song progresses,  the seated group of singers who are now completely in a trance rise and with one hand raised, start dancing still singing Khwajaji’s name.  As the chanting increases, Akbar shuts his eyes for a moment and as if in a flash, slips into a divine trance, rises from his seat oblivious to the people around him and joins the dancing singers! With one hand raised with his gaze towards the sky, he loses touch with this world to enter a higher one, which is the hallmark of the song!

Jodha bai (Aishwarya rai) during the song Khwaja Mere Khwaja from Jodha Akbar.
Jodha bai (Aishwarya rai) in the women’s quarters during the song Khwaja Mere Khwaja from Jodha Akbar.

Composed an sung by Rahman himself, “khwaja mere khwaja” certainly generates a strong spiritual sentiment in its listeners. Once you listen to it, the song keeps playing in your mind for a long time. In the film, it tries to successfully establish a strong spiritual inclination as part of Akbars character which possibly lends him wisdom while making several significant decisions in the capacity of an Emperor who is still young. I was appalled to notice how some viewers ridiculed Akbars reaction. Probably this cross-section is not conditioned to think or expect beyond the mediocre confines set by the commerical Indian cinema. So they dont know how to handle it. According to me, this song has set a remarkable precedent for filmakers now and in time to come.

Just let go…

~ Madame Zenista ~ 6 Comments

When I look back at the years gone by, I feel that I had an eventful life. I always had a certain structure in mind that I thought my life would fit into, or will look like. But things that happened to me threw me off my premeditated ideal. I didn’t know to what I should attribute it all to: the choices that I had to make (there’s such an irony in the statement) which would turn out to be ‘wrong’ in time to come, or to ‘fate’. The latter approach, I realized, seemed comforting as it salvages you from the never ending ‘analysis – paralysis’ loop and you concede to the fact that things happen the way they have to irrespective of the choices we make.

None of the above theories could convince me deep down, until a few years back, when I came across this interesting book that caused a paradigm shift in me. Illusions by Richard Bach has been one of the best books I have read so far. It spoke to my soul, and when I most needed it. At the beginning, there is this parable that is very profound which is reproduced below:

“Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all — young and old, rich and poor, good and evil — the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current was what each had learned from birth.

But one creature said at last, “I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.” The other creatures laughed and said, “Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!” But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.

Illusions by Richard Bach
Illusions by Richard Bach

Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more. And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, “See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the messiah, come to save us all!” And the one carried in the current said, “I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.”

But they cried the more, “Savior!” all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a savior.”

The current, the flow probably knows where it is going, if we don’t. That’s so reassuring. This philosophy could be likened to the higher concept of being “sahaj” found in the Hindu philosophy, and in Sikhism. So is it reflected in the teachings of great saints known to be associated with various religions. Spiritual teachings and the philosophy therein does offer answers to problems, difficult life situations and ambiguity life puts us into. On an individual level, I did find solace in these teachings and this theory.