A musical offering and reflection from a member of our Australia and New Zealand chapter, Singer, Musician and Composer, Mahesh White-Radhakrishnan

This musical offering for the 6th night of Navaratri is my humble attempt to let tradition have a brief rest with a brief outdoor performance honouring the simple delight of freedom and to reflect on where it is found.

This famous Bengali song Amar Mukti Aloy Aloy (My freedom is in the light, of the sky) by Rabindranath Tagore was written almost a century ago in Nuremberg before the horrors of World War II, the Holocaust and Partition, and before the independence of the present-day South Asian states from mainly British colonial rule.

The song is a meditation on freedom. The world-renowned poet, composer and polymath says:

“my freedom is in the light of the sky, in the dust and in the grass, in the minds of the people, in pain and in danger-belittled work, at the altar of the creator and when I offer myself there.”

Tagore has the rare distinction of composing the national anthems of two countries (Bangladesh and India), heavily influencing the music and culture of at least one other (Sri Lanka) as well as leaving a legacy of human connectedness for the world!

His poetry captures the beauty and transcendence in everything, arguably the Goddess as manifest in the world around us and our connection to each other much needed at this time.

I happen to be performing this at a time when we are beginning to enjoy some freedoms from lockdown again here in Sydney. For the first time in months I could venture into Gadi country and sit at the feet of a Moreton Bay Fig.