Time to turn devotional

A three- day Bhakti Sangeet festival is being organised by Delhi Government to renew the message of unconditional love. The festival that opened yesterday (9 May) will be featuring 14 devotional singers of different genres. 

For people who love devotional music, this festival serves as a platform to look up to. The festival brings together a wide range of devotional singers who perform bhakti music in their own different cultural forms – be it through bhajans, vedic chanting, baul singing, or qawwali and sufiana kalams. Among the singers who will be participating in the festival are Hans Raj Hans, Shubha Mudgal, Mohammad Irshad and Aslam Sabri.

The opening day of the festival was attended by S K Srivastava, Chief Secretary, Government of Delhi as Chief Guest along with Rinku Dugga, Secretary, Department of Art, Culture and Languages, Govt of Delhi.Starting with a session of Rigveda chanting by K Vasedevan Namboothiri, A M Kesavan and K Madhavan Namboothiri, the event features the baul singing of Bengal by Parvathi Baul, Punjabi Sufi kalam by Hans Raj Hans, Sagun and Abhang bhakti traditions by Sanjeev Abhayankar, and the kalam of Bulle Shah by Mohammad Irshad over three days.

'Music is an eternal natural component of human life. Even a baby who doesn’t speak responds to music beats. When you use this medium to express your unconditional love to your creator, the result can easily stir any soul. We are a nation of spirituality and we have multifarious ways of professing our love to God. Bhakti Sangeet is unique as it brings together all different genres of devotional music prevalent in India on one stage,' says Prahlad Singh Tipania, folk singer from Madhya Pradesh who performs Kabir bhajans in the state’s Malwi folk style.

On 10 May the festival will feature Buddhist Chanting (Bhutan), krishna bhakti by  O. S. Arun and Kalaam Bulle Shah by Mohammad Irshad. The closing day (11 May) will feature Shubha Mudgal singing Nirgun bhakti, Prahlad Singh Tipania with his Kabir bhakti in Malwi folf traditions and Agnihotri Bandhu rendering Ram and Hanuman bhakti.In different regions and different cultures, people develop and nurture their own bhakti and sufi traditions.

 

The festival brings together many such different genres of bhakti from different parts of the country. It was our bhakti and sufi saints who originally laid the foundation of our composite culture and this festival is an ode to them.