The Enigma of Guru by Manjari Sinha

  • July-2021

The Enigma of Guru

by Manjari Sinha

The ‘Mahima’ or importance of ‘Guru’, has been indisputable in Indian culture. The piety of the sacred bond between the Guru (mentor) and the Shishya (disciple), works as the kind of alchemy that has no parallel elsewhere. This is why the auspicious day of ‘Guru Purnima’ is celebrated all over India with such devotional fervour. ‘Guru-Shishya Parampara’, the traditional way of transmitting knowledge directly from Guru to Shishya, has played a significant role in preserving, protecting and perpetuating the rich heritage of Indian classical arts, especially music & dance through centuries. This kind of ‘Guru-Mukhi Vidya’ has been authentically sustained and augmented through this unique, time-tested tradition, generation after generation. The Guru helps you make, music and dance or any art for that matter, a vital ingredient of your life, that will enrich, deepen and warm your nature, put life and its joys and travails in perspective and somehow keep you nourished and strengthened long after other activities of your life have quietly slipped out of it. This is the way our classical arts has come through unwritten, unpublished and uncommercialised all these generations and entered each new generation kicking lustily with life. The Guru Shishya Parampara system and its survival is causing an agonising reappraisal today. Questions like whether it can be retained, if so how or what modifications are necessary to make it survive in these fast and changing times. These questions are asked with certain urgency, which only underlines the importance of this matter of our music and dance. We must remember that the Parampara system was largely based on an attitude of regard and reverence between the teacher and his students. Reverence is difficult to forge, you can not order it. Therefore, the challenge of changing times is also the challenge of changing values which deals with the heritage of culture and values in a changing society. Whether an alternative method of teaching takes place for the new generation or the Parampara system continues with some modification, will be a decision that will have far reaching consequences to the realm of our classical arts and culture.
As long as our system remains tied to the Parampara, the traditional Guru will kindle a whole new generation with new understanding and impetus, values and outlook, not just achievements as its goal. His insights, vision and creativity would give a new lease to our arts that assure meaning and purpose, not just skill and accomplishment. The younger generation is intelligent and technically good enough but they seem increasingly in a hurry to perform too much and say much less through their art. This is a paradox. They must remember that our classical arts, especially music & dance are among the most complex and transforming crafts which produce an inner wakefulness, an awareness that is ultimately liberating. With an interminable investment of discipline, an obsessed dedication and highly specialized training under the watchful eyes of a Guru who belonged to the realm of realized knowledge, the practice of these arts had a curiously transforming effect on the student. This kind of Sadhana was able to transform the very essence of the human being. The disciple embarked upon a journey that changed the very substance and structure of his inherited nature. The true art was dependent on the force and fire of the Sadhana and not putting it down on paper or recording. The music and dance would be born and die in an instant. This instantaneous nature of the art was what made the Guru indispensable. The art had to be possessed. The manner of possessing the art made it a living homeland for the artist. Those who learn the art from a book, Google or YouTube, remain tenants in perpetuity. According to our scriptures, there is no better way to redeem the ‘गुरु ऋण’, the debt of Guru, than to produce your own disciples. Staunch believers in Guru Shishya Parampara, the Padma Bhushan Awardees Guru Raja-Radha Reddy and Guru Kausalya Reddy have done just that. I am happy that their gifted daughters and disciples, the renowned Kuchipudi exponents Yamini and Bhavana Reddy are following in their footsteps, carrying forward the tradition with meaning and purpose. On the auspicious occasion of ‘Guru Purnima’, I extend my sincere greetings and good wishes to Yamini Reddy and her dedicated disciples at Natya-Tarangini, Hyderabad.
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Legendary Kuchipudi Dancing couple, Raja and Radha Reddy, is responsible for bringing Kuchipudi dance, the pride of Andhra Pradesh, onto the cultural map of the world.

Legendary Kuchipudi Dancing couple, Raja and Radha Reddy, is responsible for bringing Kuchipudi dance, the pride of Andhra Pradesh, onto the cultural map of the world.
For their contribution to the art form they have been decorated with many awards nationally and internationally. They have had the honor of performing for presidents and prime ministers of many countries such as President Ford, Bill Clinton, Fidel Castro etc. They have conducted charity shows for Red Cross Society, Blind Relief Association, and the home for the aged people in Bombay and CRY. They had the honor of being invited as the first Indian dancers to participate in the International Dance festival of Avignon in France and Salzburg in Austria.

The couple’s contribution to the festival of India in the USA and the UK was considered outstanding. They were the star attraction of the All Star Ballet Gala festival in Japan. The Reddys inaugurated the India Festival in Bangladesh. Raja and Radha Reddy have created history by becoming the first couple to receive Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan award individually and simultaneously for the same cause by the President of India, the Sangeet Natak Academy award, International Meridian award etc.