Songs of Light

as manifested by Tushar Kanoi

*I am going to start with a kind of a guide as to how to go about reading this article.* 

Music, as I am sure it is to many others, is a very important part of my life. The following piece contains songs from my playlist. Some of them have been there for as long as I can remember and some of them are rather new. I have a deep personal association with each and every one of them. And it is about these deep personal associations that I have written. It is because of this that I sincerely urge you to listen to each and every song before you read what I feel about them. Because the last thing that I intend for this article to do is hijack the way each and every one of you would engage with these wonderful songs. It is sacrilegious to me that I fiddle with the emotions that these songs stimulate in you. Nobody wants a crime like that on their hands. 

Light my fire by The Doors

Written by Robby Krieger and sung by the legendary Jim Morrison, Light My Fire is a cult classic. Light My Fire is that song that encapsulates the throbbing livid vibe of the 60s. The unpredictable vivacity of fire is used as a stirring motif for lust and seduction. Krieger through his song proposes that humans beings are guided by a very primal instinct or rather a very primal need, sex. I love how sex is seen as this grand spiritual event, and how it is more than the coming together of two bodies and yet it is nothing more than just that. The line that moves me the most is, “And our love becomes a funeral pyre.” Sex is compared to death, wherein it is seen as the elevation of the soul from the constraints of the human body and finding its place in a larger cosmic universe. The human body is seen as nothing more than a vehicle. 

Deep ki jyot jale by Pandit Kumar Gandharva (BANDISH)

I do not think I am or will ever be at a position in my life to give any sort of commentary on any work by the legendary Pandit Kumar Gandharva but it is my job to, and so I shall try. In the 1960s, Kumarji was invited by Doordarshan to sing a piece for Diwali. He was unable to find a suitable piece so he went on to compose this masterpiece solely for the occasion of Diwali. 

Now, I have very limited knowledge about Hindustani Music so I am absolutely going to steer clear from the many beautiful technicalities that I’m sure the song is built up of. I have found that this song has something to it that washes you over with this unforeseen and unexpected stability. You will not see it coming but a certain clarity of mind will dawn upon you. I think when I think of Diwali as the start of a new year, as it is in my culture, the profundity of the song increases manifold. The song blesses you with that fresh slate with which we are so eager to start a new year. 

Let your light shine on me Blind Willie Johnson

Let your light shine on me, while doused in melancholy, has the same comforting feeling of a lullaby or a prayer. Listening to it, makes me feel as though everything is going to be alright. It feels like something my father would’ve sung and put me to sleep on difficult nights when I was a kid. While being a very humble and grounded song it also possesses this almost unconscious element of transcendence and divinity which is what I love the most about it.

While the song says ‘Let your light shine on me’ and is a dialogue between you and your creator, you somehow still realise your role in humanity, that you’re a part of a greater collective. While the song manages to make you feel all of these things and more, not once do you feel that it tries to make you feel all of this. It is almost as though the song is oblivious of your presence and that it exists unaware of all that is around it. It is as though the song is this warm glowing blob that you attach yourself to and before you know it, you have become that warm glowing blob. 

In the Light by Led Zeppelin

As much as I hate doing this, I am going to pick a comment put up on the YouTube video of this song that I had come across a couple of years back to describe it, because no matter how much I try, I cannot possibly come up with a better way to describe it. The person called ‘In the Light’, the ‘shortest nine minute song ever made’ and man, that is just spot on. The song is so gripping and captivating that you might find yourself losing all sense of time and in some instances, space. 

The song is scarily mystical. Listening to it feels like you’re lost and home is somewhere close by but you just don’t know where. And also, you’re blind. Or maybe you have been lost in the dark for so long that you just do not know anymore. Light is seen as this guiding force, the force that’ll drive you home. What I love about this song is that it doesn’t idolise this easily sellable imagery of a lonesome ranger but rather urges you to share your load with somebody you love, the same way you would, for them. This makes me fall in love with Page and Plant all over again solely because of the sanctity of their intentions and the reality with which they deliver it.

The Inner Light by The Beatles

If you are a Beatles fan and have followed their beautiful work, The Inner Light is a pleasant surprise that’ll leave you disoriented in the beginning, The song sounds nothing like what they’ve done before and sounds much closer to home. The Inner Light is a product of The Beatles’ fascination with spirituality and Hindustani music. It features maestros such as Hariprasad Chaurasia on flute and also makes the use of a sarod and pakhawaj.

Lao-Tzu’s ‘Tao Te Ching’ inspired George Harrison to write this beautiful song that talks about spirituality and meditation. The song is a wonderful antithesis to the idea that one has to travel to the other side of the world to be able to ‘find themselves’. It quite beautifully proposes that meditation is the answer to all of our angsts and curiosities and aspirations. While I personally disagree with this idea, I can see the merit in it. The song manages to fulfil its intent in the fact that it instills in me a very humble euphoria and a very instinctive joy. 

Shine a Light by The Rolling Stones

Shine a Light is a song that gives me an immense amount of strength and support. Written by lead singer Mick Jaggers and drummer Leon Russel for their guitarist Brian Jones shortly before his death, the song deals with Jones’ growing drug addiction and detachment from the rest of the band. I think the only thing tougher than going through a time of great emotional and physical duress is to see someone you deeply love go through it. And when somebody you love deeply is going through a tough time often times you can find yourselves helpless and exasperated. This song is a remedy to that helplessness and exasperation. I am listening to the song as I am writing this and I realise I feel very vulnerable right now and I am extremely careful about what I am writing, which is typically not my style. That’s just my association to the song. And while I was feeling vulnerable a few moments ago, I am now filled with a growing warmth and comfort that beautifully crescendos towards the end of the song. So yea, I guess things will be alright after all.

It is wonderful to see, or in this context hear, how varied a metaphor light is. It is seen as a genesis, a medium and a conclusion to situations and circumstances. However, all of these songs share the one idea of divine association with light. Light is seen as an answer to problems. I wonder why is it that this association with light transcends physical boundaries and resonates with humans universally? 

The tactile physical sensations set the preamble for emotional and mental associations. The warmth associated with light is an example of what I am talking about. Warmth is a felt physical sensation that is a consequence of the coming together of natural elements in a particular sequence, under particular circumstances. When our body feels it, it is comforted and at ease. Usually you might experience this by the hearth in your home or in your mother’s hug stirring up associations of home, more often. Similarly, light to some people signifies hope, will and strength. They indulge in religion and prayer to find it. So many of our gestures of prayer are soaked with a very romantic use of light and I think perhaps the association of hope and strength with light is a consequence of that. 

I am stumped, at a loss for words. I do not know. Music possesses that same comforting and uplifting quality and man, a song about lights is just what the doctor prescribed.