Читать книгу Those Forty Days - Samir Chatterjee - Страница 5

It is 12.39 am on July 10th. In two days I shall be entering that room of isolation for forty days, to practice as long as I am awake. The only reasons I might stop would be to use the restroom, take a bite or a short nap. In all of these three excuses, the urges will go through multiple levels of verification before being addressed. There will be no indulgence of any kind. It is called the Chilla.

I became familiar with this discipline of practicing music much earlier in my life and always felt fascinated by the concept. But, as I said earlier, I could never manage the time and determination together to actually do it. I have done something similar, practicing continuously for several hours and days. But, it has never been for forty days. When I started developing the urge to do it, my life kept on becoming busier and busier, dedicated to fulfilling the wish of the Supreme. Through advanced planning, which also called for making sacrifices, I was finally able to isolate these forty days from my schedule of activities. Other than time and determination, there was another obstacle - my body. Chilla is recommended to be done within the early part of life, not exceeding the age of thirty. It is imaginably extremely demanding on physical and mental abilities. My body has been in use for sixty one years. It is not young and fresh anymore, as required for such austerity. It has its wear and tear, discomforts and pains. In spite of all of those issues, last summer going through the Ayurvedic intense cleansing process called Pancha-Karma, I got an affirmation from the treating doctors that my body was younger than it normally is at my age. So, without any further hesitation, I blocked this period of time.

The choice of place happened in a miraculous yet natural way. Initially, I thought of doing it in my new apartment in Sodepur, part of the new extended territories of Kolkata, India. In addition to the isolation, there is also a very dependable support system. But, during the initiation ceremony of Alexander Naylor, Todd Miller, Tripp Dudley and Aditya Phatak on February 13^th of this year, which was the day of Saraswati Puja*, I came to know Alexander's mother Dr. Magdalena Naylor a little better than before. I had met Magdalena twice before. The first meeting was in Dartmouth, New Hampshire with her husband Thomas. At that time Alexander and I were just growing acquaintance.

* Saraswati is the Indian goddess of knowledge, wisdom and all kinds of artistic pursuit, including music. Puja is the Indian word for worship. The day of Saraswati Puja is considered auspicious for initiation.

The second time was in New York City when we went for lunch to a Greek restaurant. This was after Thomas’s untimely death. On both occasions I couldn’t fail to notice her stand-alone individuality, which could be somewhat embarrassing to her immediate family. She appeared to me as a radiant energy of positivity. During the initiation ceremony in my house in Nutley, NJ I got to see some other aspects of her – her loving, caring and selfless service-oriented mentality. Some of these may be somewhat attributed to her Polish origin. But, she is a tad more than that. When she genuinely invited me to her place saying that her house is practically empty, it occurred to me that this would be an ideal place. What further added to the appropriateness of the venue is the weather in Burlington, Vermont, which will be much more favorable than the weather in Kolkata during these months.

Since May 28^th, the first day of this year's three-day long Annual Tabla Ashram*, I have been finally preparing for it - sitting and practicing for long duration of time, keeping hunger waiting beyond the usual wait time and treating sleep more as nap. And, there were some other abstinences too. Observing these for more than a month, I have been feeling increasingly lighter and ready for it. I am hoping the transition will be relatively smooth.

* Ashram is a Sanskrit word for hermitage. And, the Annual Tabla Ashram is a gathering of musicians to learn and practice tabla in an unbroken spell of time. This year it was held for three days, from 9 am until 9 pm.

Tonight I am staying at the residence of my dear friends Steve Gorn and Barbara Bash in Accord, New York. I came here after a performance at the Maverick festival. Tomorrow morning, or rather later this morning, I shall drive up to Alexander's house in Charlotte, Vermont. I am driving a vehicle rented from Newark, New Jersey airport, which I shall return to Burlington, Vermont airport tomorrow afternoon. My student Tejas Tope drove me to the rental car station in Newark airport. In the past couple of days my wife Sanghamitra, son Dibyarka, disciple Aditya and his mother Aishwarya Phatak helped me in packing for the trip. Another disciple Amod Dandawate came to see me two days before I left. The exchange of our final looks was memorable. I saw a question in his eyes: who is this man, do I know him?