Hariprasad Chaurasia - Music Quotes

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First of all I choose a raga that gives me musical satisfaction. When I choose that raga then I welcome and invite the raga. To do that I have to meditate on the raga to understand its structure. When I get the structure then I can enjoy playing it. When I play a few beautiful notes, the spirit of the raga feels happy and comes and blesses me. Then the real music comes.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
My father was a wrestler and though everyone liked music in the family, it was a taboo to even think of a musical career. I used to wrestle to keep him happy. When I was about nine years old, I started learning vocal music from Pandit Rajaram, secretly! At the age of fifteen, I heard the flute for the first time on Allahabad radio. It was as if I was being transported to heaven. The flautist was Pt. Bholanath and that was the major turning point in my life. Soon after, while I was still in my teens I got an offer to work as a staff artist on Cuttack radio in Odisha/ and I accepted. It was then that my father found out that I was a musician. It was a major shock for him.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Motivate the younger generation to listen to music especially, when they are tired, when they are upset about anything. Music is the best remedy; it remediates you mentally, physically and emotionally.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Eventually you cannot stop the sun from rising, the water from flowing, the moon from spreading its light and you cannot compromise the seven notes with anything else. Live your life, live the music.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
I learnt kushti (wrestling) and music simultaneously,

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Whoever gets involved in this field becomes spiritual because the music itself is purely spiritual. The music is a prayer, a rare kind of prayer. Music is created by the Supreme entity ('Brahma') so that we can get an understanding or a view ('Darshan') of that entity.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Listening to that performance changed my life. It changed the course of my musical career. I could listen to my heart's voice clearly because the music had helped me understand my mind's deepest desires. Today, I am happy and feel blessed that I followed the path dictated by my heart.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Music is my love. And because it is my love, music has become my religion.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
It's very difficult to make them understand the importance of a Guruji. In India, it's kind of more than gods and goddesses. We revere our Gurujis more than our parents, more than our family members, more than gods and goddesses. But they'll never understand. Never understand who a Guru is. There are so many differences. But when I am teaching at Rotterdam in Netherlands (He heads the World Music Department at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory), I tell each and every student- keep your shoe out, you have to sit down. If you want to learn Indian music, you have to treat me- not like your teacher, not like your Guru, you treat me as a friend and we share our willing.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
When I play music, that is my best yoga, the best meditation, the best prayer.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Music helps you understand the deeper musings of the mind. Listening to music can help a person to a better understanding of his inner drives. This, in turn, gives him the confidence to follow the path in life dictated by his heart.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Music has no differences. We played alongside each other; it was not in fusion but in unison. I have enjoyed playing with all the artists. I have collaborated with musicians from the west and fellow Indians, including Ravi Shankar, Allah Rakha (father of Zakir Hussain), George Harrison, Jean Pierre Ramphal, Jethro Tull, John McLaughlin, Jan Gabarek, Yehudi Menuhin and others. I composed for Bollywood. It made me affluent. It was Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma who asked me one day if playing in Bollywood films was all I was going to do in my life. I was not growing as an artist. I needed more. What did I have to show in terms of personal creativity, or growth? He was right.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Music assists you in your quest of the spark hidden within, the moment you discover your real self through music, the reason why you have been born becomes clear. This realisation ultimately helps you mould your path to achieve your dreams.

Hariprasad Chaurasia
I almost never go to temples. I don't find the time. I'm not religious in that sense. My religion is my music. Lord Krishna is my God. Whenever I want to pray, whenever I want to meditate and concentrate, I take my flute. I can feel God. The feeling is difficult to explain, but I feel lost when I'm in it.

Hariprasad Chaurasia