Geetanjali Krishna: Kabir's musical wisdom

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He was a prosaic science teacher who believed only in what he could see or experience himself. When he was 24, he first heard the tambur, a five-stringed instrument popular in Madhya Pradesh and his life was never the same again. "It struck some deep inner chord, and I felt strangely compelled to learn to play it," recounts Prahlad Singh Tipaniya, who has the entire Malwa belt riveted to Kabir's poetry today. After that momentous first experience, Tipaniya began living in that village and as the teacher began teaching himself how to play the instrument, he also fell in love with the mystical poetry of Kabir.

Today, Tipaniya is the head or Mathadheesh of the Kabir Panth of his area, and Kabir's verses are a way of life for him. He performs at least fifteen days in a month in and around Ujjain, accompanied by his brother Ashok Tipaniya, for audiences larger than most city concerts. "Whenever I sing in and around Ujjain, the audience numbers between 1,000 and 2,000, and sometimes they don't let me stop till the wee hours of the morning," says he. Apart from regular concerts, Tipaniya routinely performs for the television and radio. He has been awarded several state and national level prizes for his efforts to keep this five-hundred-year-old oral tradition alive.

Do Kabir's thoughts still have any relevance in the modern world, I wonder. In metros such as Delhi, Kabir's couplets are best remembered only by students who want good grades in their Hindi literature exam. But Tipaniya believes Kabir's relevance is undiminished today: "Kabir's couplets have the remarkable quality of being able to transcend time," says he, "in fact this is what attracted me to them in the first place!"

As the 15th century weaver-poet neither read nor wrote, Kabir used simple language and homespun imagery to illustrate complex philosophical ideas. His ideas were so universal that they appeal to people of all faiths. "The beauty of Kabir's words is that one doesn't need to be educated or need to belong to any particular faith or any particular age, to understand them," says Tipaniya. "They are for everyone to listen to and learn from!" He quotes one of Kabir's couplets on beauty: "Kabir says cotton flowers look beautiful, but if you try and pick them up, they disintegrate. Similarly, it is futile for men to give too much importance to beauty for it too, is transient!" says he.

Audience reactions to his music prove his point. On a recent visit to the US, his performances were accomp-anied by translations of Kabir's selected works. Tipaniya's earthy voice and Kabir's philosophy crossed cultures more than successfully. "It was interesting to see that there weren't just non-resident Indians who had come to listen," says Tipaniya, "there were many Americans in the audience as well." When he sang at Delhi's Dilli Haat on 2nd October this year, it was to a full house that was reluctant to call it a day, even after he finished.

But after having performed for such diverse audiences, Tipaniya still enjoys singing for locals in Ujjain. "They understand the nuances of the words best," says he.

The 50-year-old Tipaniya has brought out several albums and MP3s of his music are also available on the Internet. "What I really want is for more and more people to appreciate Kabir's works and ideas, and in doing so, bring some positive changes in their lives," says he.

Saying so, he picks up his beloved tambur, with which he has faithfully kept Kabir's memory alive "" 500 years after he left this earth.