Five decades of divine musical life — can anyone envisage such a life in these days where consumerism and market forces are the beacons of most lives? We hear of musicians of yore who lived by their singing as the sole preoccupation but how many made it to 50 long years of uninterrupted singing, as the only livelihood, driven by passion alone?
K.J. Yesudas was recently honoured at the Margazhi music season by Bharat Kalachar for giving the best part of his 71 years to music. It was a pleasure watching the veteran humbly receive a miniature box in which were embedded all the instruments that form a part and parcel of the Carnatic classical repertoire.
Humility is a virtue with which Yesudas has been blessed, perhaps from his childhood. Through his heyday, it never deserted him. Accepting the standing ovation with joined hands, he softly expressed his gratitude to God. That was really fine from a musician who shot to fame when he lent his honeyed tone for playback singing in films way back in the 60s.
As if in response to detractors who love to pronounce him as a film singer who never was a classical artiste, Yesudas reminds us of his Christian roots and his tryst with poverty which led him to take up film singing in order to pay his tuition fee for Carnatic music classes!
“My community was naturally not too pleased for those as, Carnatic music necessarily meant religious music. But my father permitted me to learn it for knowledge, irrelevant of the religiosity involved. I was only too happy to be able to pursue this all-consuming passion. If music is running in my veins today, I owe it to my guru who is a father-mother-mentor, all rolled into one. But for my austere, affectionate guru Chembai Vaidyanathan, there is no Yesudas. No amount of gratitude nor service to music from me can ever repay the treasure he bestowed on me. My worship to him is through music all my life,” he declared before commencing his ‘ Guru Pavana puradeeshamaashraye (in Hamsanandi) as a prelude to the concert.
A visit to Devi Mookambika in Kollur, Karnataka, a popular temple destination for Malayalees, is Yesudas' way of celebrating his birthday (January 10). The man and the musician have merged into a spiritual seeker whose life is not complicated by materialism despite the choicest concerts and earnings they offer.
“My guru in all his kindness graced me with music as a charity and today, I'm selling my music for a living. That itself is a sin for which I seek forgiveness. Let me not tamper with the tradition handed down by our great ancestors and add fuel to fire. Whatever I present has been established by the forefathers of music much before me. It requires no dilution to be acceptable,” he explains about a particular way of rendition he had adopted.
There is never a public appearance wherein the doyen of music does not plead with the younger generation not to eschew our inimitable traditional music and run after a mirage called modern music. To Yesudas, music is a way of life which unfolded its deeper layers as he immersed himself heart and soul in it.
