Jñānāgni

Photo courtesy: Shiv Shankar

We all experience this. You listen to a piece of music or a song for the first time and think that it is the best music you’ve ever heard. You want to listen to it again and you make use of every opportunity to hear it again. You don’t mind spending some money to get a CD or a recording in order to listen to it whenever you want. You enjoy the music a few times, but as it always happens, after a while it becomes just another music. And after you listen to that music a number of times, you don’t want to listen to it anymore, you are bored, you start running away whenever that familiar tune comes up.

Why does this happen? Why does the music become boring? Isn’t that because you don’t flow with the music anymore? When you listen to the music the first time, you listen to it in anticipation, you relish the rhythm, you flow with the music in its highs and lows, you enjoy every single moment in the music. But as you listen to it a number of times, you know what to expect. Instead of flowing with the music, your mind looks towards the bit of tune or note that’s coming up or keeps humming the tune that’s gone by. Your mind keeps going back and forth, and you don’t enjoy the music anymore. It’s not the music that becomes boring, but it’s because you don’t flow with the rhythm when you listen to that old music.

You can try this for yourself. Take a piece of music or a song that you’ve enjoyed listening in the past, but you have played it so many times that it doesn’t interest you anymore. Now, you are going to listen to it again, but before you start playing the song, take a few deep breaths… and consciously intend that you are not going to predict the tune that’s coming up and you’ll just let go of the tune that’s gone by, you will only listen to the music as you are listening to it the first time. You will look for subtle rhythms that you have not experienced when you were listening to it so many times in the past. Now play the music and flow with the music. Do it now, and come back when you are done!

Tell me, did you enjoy the music? I have tried this and no music is boring to me anymore! No matter how many times you listen to a piece of music, no matter what kind of music that is, there’s always something subtle, something new you can pick up every time you listen to it.

Life, you know, is pretty much like that. Sometimes life does become boring. Why do we get bored? Why is it that life sometimes becomes so frustratingly monotonous? When tasks become repetitive, the mind always goes back and forth, it becomes difficult to stay in the present moment. We always compare our present with the past and from that comparison, try to predict the future.  Now, if you look closely, you will find that no two days are alike, no two minutes are alike, no two seconds are alike. However repetitive the task seems to be, there is always something unique each time. When you let go of intentions to compare and make predictions, when you simply watch yourself doing the task and flow with the task, when you live in the present moment, you will find that each moment is unique, each movement beautiful, each experience fresh and new. Then no task is boring, life becomes beautifully rhythmic, life becomes a music! In fact, when you live in ‘present moment awareness’, in that calm state of mind, even random sounds from the environment feels like music. But when the mind is agitated, even the best music feels like disturbing noise. So, it’s all a matter of choice… do you choose music, or noise?