Sanskritjazz, an ne?

Vikram Hazra brings his brand of spiritually uplifting music to Adelaide

Vikram Hazra,oneof lndia's leadingdevotionalsingers,was in Adelaide recently. He performed on 16Mayat the Plympton CommunityCentre ina show organised bytheArtof Living,Adelaide.

A man with ready humour, he laughed and exchanged pleasant banter with the audience and the full hall soon resounded with a heavenlyharmony.As he beganto sing, he wieldedhis electricguitar as if it werean extensionof him.

The halJhad roughly 250 people and packed, withpeople even sitting on the floor right in front.

He began with a Sanskrit chanton LordShiva, wrircen byDivya Prabha of NovaScotia. Divinevibrations filled the atmosphere andbathed tl1e listeners in a clean spring flowing somewhereinMount Kailasa.

Vikram got tl1enon-Indianaudience comfortable byletting them know that not manyin theaudience understoodSanskrit anyway.

He travelled the ruralparts of India whenpossible, gathering music and lyrics that had been passeddownthe generations.Thesehethen practiced andimbibed and carried them alJover tbe world withhim. No less than twelve albums have resulted,and Vikramhas seemingl>7touredup to47countries.

It was fascinating to hear him singanold song fromAssam,ina language none of theaudience hadheardof,Brojaboli.

Another favourite of mine was composed byrenowned poet-saint Kabirdas'sstudent Dharamdas. A beautiful soulfulrendition, the rural lilt andVikram's complete voice made iteven more uplifting. The lyrics were of ayoung womansearchLngfor a groom,a metaphor for the individual soulyearning for the Divine.The tale of her incessant search, findingthe groom and reaching tl1e bliss of being united,Liftedthe audience as one being, high above tl1e physical realm.

Some lead-and-follow bhajans came on next,and thesewere unabashedlyand loudlysungbymostof theaudience.

Sri Krishna and GuruNanakDevsongs mesmerized all and drew participation, witl1followingof tl1e chorus parts. Afew more songs anda question and answer session later the evening drew to aclose. Awriter,philosopher,social activist, corporate traLner and a media producer, Vikram certainlyknows how to reachout to people.

Ananecdote he recounted when be first met the spiritual master Sri Sri

Ravishankar wasmemorable.Sri sri once asked him, a student of Quantumphysics, what the crux of the discipline is Vikram answeredshakily, "},fatter and energyare interconvertible." Srisriwaspleased with the answer, he said.

Another tl1ingchatVikramsaid strongly resonated with me as a practitioner and teacherof meditation. "Meditationis a gift every humanbeing needs to give him or herself."So true,and so important.

Muchof the work of Vikram andhis actress wifeTinaParekh are devoted to theirGuru,spreading peace andloveintl1e world.

We had averyspecialguestfor the evening, namelyShriDbaya BhaiShastri Ji (DadaJi), Pad.ma Shree Awardee 2016, whosat straight in his chair in front at 91 years,seeminghappyandkeen ro be present for theexperience. He is the pioneer of Brahmarshi Sanskrit Mahavidyalayain Gujrat and hasdevoted his whole life for 'Sanskrit' and 'Sanskriti' (languageand culture).

SunilaVig