Eight Shades of Love : A Musical Prism

Along with February comes a brouhaha about Valentine Day. Red hearts are pushed into your face from all corners of this commercial world, hopelessly believing in cliched concepts around this emotion and thus reducing the divine quality of love to mere romantic exchange between two lovers. Love can’t be just this shortest~month~born fad idea which passes away sooner than a blink. 

I believe the entire life is all about love. we are either in love or dreaming about it, recovering from it, wishing for it or reflecting, celebrating, defying, underrating, overrating or even hating it.. but love is certainly the base of our existence and expression both. So, this time, this year, for valentine’s let’s unveil and re-live those aspects of our lives which are universally experienced and adored. We may have never called them our valentine but they certainly have warmed our hearts and soul at times. 

Here are eight shades of love in our lives~ beautifully portrayed through music………

1. Divine Love

The first and foremost is the sacred divine love for the universal form, Bhagwan, God, Allah, call it by any name but the adulation for this energy is universal. This aspect is the whole and soul of any and every Art form . Artists are the first believers in the beauty of creation and the creator both and thus all their works are expressions of divinity through which a human being strives to catch a glimpse of bliss inside himself.

Well, interestingly in the words of Great Mystic poet Rumi.. All our efforts to reach Him are actually HIS efforts to reach us.. HE thus appears in our lives, beholds us in the form of our parents and we in return pour our deepest, purest emotion on Him in the form of our children. How wonderful is this first facet of love in our life ~ two sides of a same coin~ Love of God or Love of parents.. Love for God or Love for children..

Soak in the bliss of this beautiful amalgamation of divinity in the voice of who else.. Swar Samragyi Lata di from the movie aptly named Amar Prem~ 

Bada Natkhat hai re kishan Kanhaiya

2. Patriotic Love

If your eyes have glistened like mine, drinking that Panchamtrit by Pancham then you know that this world sees people like us as emotional fools. 🙂 From English fool let’s move on to Hindi one~ फ़ूल~ Another necessary Valentine accessory 😉

What you can’t say in words you can say with flowers.

But is it so ? 

Which is the rightful place of flowers of our heart ?

This reminds me of Pt Makhan Lal Chaturvedi’s poem which we learnt in our childhood.

पुष्प की अभिलाषा ~ 

चाह नहीं, मैं सुरबाला के
गहनों में गूँथा जाऊँ,
चाह नहीं प्रेमी-माला में बिंध
प्यारी को ललचाऊँ,

चाह नहीं सम्राटों के शव पर
हे हरि डाला जाऊँ,
चाह नहीं देवों के सिर पर
चढूँ भाग्य पर इठलाऊँ,

मुझे तोड़ लेना बनमाली,
उस पथ पर देना तुम फेंक!
मातृ-भूमि पर शीश- चढ़ाने,
जिस पथ पर जावें वीर अनेक!

That Nation whose anthem we sing with pride and emotion, our Motherland which gives us an identity, land, life and livelihood, Our hearts are moulded out of whose soil, our love for that piece of earth is immeasurable~ unbound and surpasses all boundaries, manmade or otherwise.

Second in line but first outside our own self which we experience is this aspect, Patriotism~ Desh Prem~ Strong~Proud~Intense.

हो, थोड़ी सी धूल मेरी धरती की मेरे वतन की~ 
सर आँखों ~ Rang de Basanti

3. Love for the Passion

Basant is around the corner by the way.. 🙂 मन आनंद आनंद छायो रे~

That’s how it feels when we connect with our life purpose~ Our dream . 

Our 3^rd very own love ~ Apna Sapna.

Love for an artistic pursuit. Our passion in life. One may be a Writer~Dancer~Singer~Director~Sculptor~Artist or just simply passionate about planes or trains or migration of Wildebeest at Masai, it doesn’t matter what it is but that quality which keeps one alive and kicking is one’s signature.. a heart print on the sands of time. And sometimes when the pursuit of that happiness obscures the path one can’t help but feels like this~

सा गा माँ पा नि सारे गा 
सपना देखे मेरे नैना ~ Sabita Chaudhry

4. Love of Friendship

That was such an intense potion of emotion~

Sigh!

Let’s calm our nerves in the company of those soulmates whom we consider our friend, philosopher, mentor, guide.

Yaar~Dost~Sakha~Sakhi~Mitr~Friend

Let’s celebrate the most glorified emotion in Hindi Film Music

and also the most gratifying shade of love in our lives.. ~ Friendship 

यारों दोस्ती बड़ी ही हसीं है,
ये न हो तो, क्या फिर, बोलो ये ज़िन्दगी है – KK

5. When Friendship turns into Love

They say love is friendship set on fire~ when the flame of passion is ignited between two friends it changes the course of an entire life. This fifth phase isn’t a passing one~ It’s that shade which only intensifies with time~ Season of love is here to stay and stay it must to make this life a shade better~ brighter~ shinier…

Since time immemorial poets and writers have tried to weave ‘it’ in words but love has ever remain an experience to feel not an expression to state~

मैं कैसे कहुँ जानेमान तेरा दिल सुने मेरी बात ~

6. Self Love

A poet has tried failingly but beautifully nevertheless, to express the overwhelming perpetuity of love in our lives..

“मुहब्बत रही चार दिन जिन्दगी में
रहा चार दिन का असर जिन्दगी भर”

Some of us have never even proposed to someone ever or professed our love openly but let’s be honest to self and admit that we live our entire lives with unexpressed loving emotions and unsaid feelings.

This sixth aspect sings that tune which we sing to ourselves silently ~ with love.. in love.. for love.

While commitment isn’t easy and love is a valour only few are capable of it’s portrayal, no one can deny the need or want of it in life. Can anyone say honestly that their heart didn’t skip a beat when their college crush messaged on V day or has anyone ever succeeded in fighting the  temptation of zooming in on the DP of their new love interest 🙂 ?

We just love~ Love… with hope in our hearts that may it keep changing its colours and beautify our lives eternally…

Mausam Pyar ka Rang Badalta Rahe

7. Marital Love

As we reached seventh place~ Seven promises of Seven rounds around sacred fires for seven births can’t be left behind~

Marital love. Unfleeting~Steadfast~Everlasting !

This is that aspect… around which our whole story revolves and rests on~

 Ik pyar ka nagma hai ~

8. Relationship with Love

महोब्बत की दास्ताँ जारी रहेगी 
जिन्दगी से सबकी यारी रहेगी~

Leaving you with your our own special, unique colour of love~

Happy~Joyful~Lost~Resigned~Serious~Somber~Mystical~Spiritual your own definition, relationship with love.. 

The pinnacle~ Pen ultimate love ~ Now while we are at the top of the list..just a step away from the finish line,  let’s bring forth that expression which frees love from all bounds and shackles…this let’s it breathe in its own existence~fragrace~bliss!

 Who can match this beauty~

“ Pyar ko Pyar hi rehne do koi naam na do”~

Gulzarism Zindabad~ Muhabbat Zindabaad~ Muhabbat karne waale Zindabaad~

Let this lingering love anthem lift your spirits this love season and make you rise in love with every aspect of your lives~

Happy Musical Valentine Season friends !

Much love~ Vandana Nigam