“Of all divine qualities fearlessness holds the highest place”.
Sant Jnaneshwar held a reason when he said this. Criminal psychologists of modern times confirm that the sources for most of today’s crimes are fuelled by fear – the fear of uncertainty about one’s future. Particularly in a money-centric society, where accumulation of wealth is the primary goal, the criminal kaleidoscope ranges from simple lying to complex white-collar crimes, and to homicide.
Traditionally, chants have served the purpose of overcoming fear. This could be attributed more to the rhythms and vibrations with which they are woven than to any verbal contents such as, “I can overcome”, “I am fine”, “I will succeed”, etc.
Long time ago, participating in a ‘customs’ raiding party in the sleepy West Coast town where we had ambushed some trucks containing contraband just with the help of torchlight, our team found that our vocal cords could do wonders. “Attack!” someone cried, heading towards the truck. As others followed, all sorts of noise—guttural and high-pitched – emanated unconsciously from our throats injecting us a sense of boldness that makes you fully prepared even to undergo hara-kiri.
Long after this incident, when I started analyzing those shrill determined acoustics, I found a parallel in a musical piece (‘presto’ portion in ‘summer’, ‘Four Season’ by Italian violinist Vivaldi). The power of string resonance interwoven by the wafting waves and waves of rhythms were found capable of not only recalling the complex feeling of both fear and anger deeply embedded in our psyche but also resolving and comforting them. These powerful rhythms and fiery passages of Vivaldi were found to cool down the tempers know of the mentally retarded children who are prone to violence and depression in my experiments.
The combination of tones into chords and the sweeps of strings in the violins, perhaps recall in us Sy the unknown potentials of assertion wrapped up in those sound structures, mystically hidden in our consciousness.
I also happened to witness similar sound emanations in another event in Manipur. A group of masked men surrounded me all of a sudden near the NHPC Township with AK 47 rifles, during my morning walk mistaking me for someone from their enemy. For a moment my heart stopped as I listened to those bravado sounds and uttering – a mixture of vert high-pitched notes even shrill and full throated. I imagined at that moment that instead of AK-47s, I was surrounded by an orchestra of violinists playing Vivaldi. I don’t know what happened but they withdrew and I was left all alone, almost breathless.
The energetic waves of weaves in sound emanations be it natural or composed, have tremendous effect in our life. Synch resists, the phenomenon which helps us visualize our moods or emotional states, totally ignoring the instruments or source form which such sounds emanate, have greatly exploited in movies and in TV soaps. The background tunes can at times meet us much more than the tears dropping down the actor’s face.
This article was published in ICE quarterly, January 2014, Pages 15, 16
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, Nov. 16, 2021