When Kumar Gandharva Sang Kabir

This introduction can go on for much longer. But we know you are here for the music. So let’s get straight to that. Here are our five favourite tracks of Kumar Gandharva singing Kabir.

1. Kudrat ki gat nyari

You’ve worked for something, or for someone. You’ve lost count of the number of hours put in. You stopped caring about time long ago. It was only about the goal. Always.

You just stand there. But somehow, from somewhere, you find the strength to laugh at all of it. You are amused at the fragility of life. There’s a smile on your face. And deep inside, there’s a new found detachment and wisdom.

That’s Kumar Gandharva’s ‘Kudrat Ki Gat Nyari’. A faint, wise smile at life.

2. Nirbhay Nirgun

Kabir opens it with “Nirbhay” (fearless), Kumar Gandharva opens it, literally, on a high. There is no build-up; just a clear, direct declaration of intent.

3. Yugan yugan hum Yogi

4. Kaun thagawa nagariya

Is it folk? Is it classical? We don’t know. What we do know is that it is a celebration of enlightenment.

What scenes of revelry would have followed the singing of this in Varanasi in Kabir’s time? That we cannot answer. But if you listen to Kumar Gandharva’s rendition of it, we’re sure you’ll get a fair idea.

5. Sakhi wa ghar sab se nyara

His voice is so plain and simple– hard to believe it is coming from an artist of infinite skill. He sings very slowly and deliberately with lots of space in the sound. I feel this voice, so quiet and calm, is coming inside my body and stirring me irresistabily. It stirs inside me, and a hard crust that is like a body within my body begins to come apart. It just comes apart and dissolves. What is underneath it is so pure and shining and open, it can receive that beautiful sound with no resistance. What was closed is open. The sound moves freely in my body, the beautiful body that shines forth when the crust dissolves.