Gurukul' method of
training is perhaps the most unique feature of our music and its
heritage. It may appear rather old fashioned if not primitive
to those students who sit around modern electronic wonder gadgets
like tape or video recorders and pick up their lessons. But truth
is what it is. Gurukul system presupposes that the students have
to be in constant company and guidance of their master whom they
serve in every way. As in the case of religion, it is only when
the master is satisfied with the earnestness and sincerity of
the student, then he imparts his power and the wealth of all the
feelings and realizations of his own Sadhana or practice. Between
the teacher and the taught the principle of give and take is only
this. The student can only offer his devotion and service, and
the teacher can let him have knowledge and truth. We can find
easily how a system as such can effect the total development of
a student both physical and mental under the strict vigilance
of the teacher who knows how to let the flower blossom. Sad to
say, for many many years this principle used to operate in a limited
sense and the great Ustads kept up a very secretive approach.
They would not let the student see the truth unless there was
any blood relation between them. Baba Allauddin Khan Sahib was
great in going against this current, and courageously proving
that our music is not a hidden magic but essentially a matter
of practice aiming at self-realization. He was not a musician
by family tradition. His life is quite a classic story of endless
tests and trials through which he found his way towards knowledge
and enlightenment. It is probably this background which bred such
a strong antipathy towards anything mean and narrow in the sphere
of teaching. He was a teacher incarnate with the purest vibration.
Any student, if really deserving, had from him the shower of his
blessings and by the sheer touch of his genius felt quite transformed.
Our much respected Sri Timirbaran, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, our most
revered Annapurnadidi, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Sri Pannalal Ghosh
are some of the brightest luminaries that Baba produced, and who
else but he could do it.Many people raised one common question that how we could learn sitar from an Ustad whose medium of expression was sarod. His biography records many interesting accounts of his training in veena, sursringar, rabab, surbahar and several other instruments. This opened up endless possibilities of those instruments and enabled him to assimilate and introduce a style of playing much bigger in scope and dimension compared to which the old recordings or other sitar playing sound limited. In course of teaching he said to me one day, "I have decided to teach you sitar after the style of Nawab Kutubudaulla Bahadur of Lucknow." He had such an exhaustive idea about the 'baj' or style of playing of every instrument that he could neatly distinguish between them and combine them as well for the best conceivable effect.
A man is, in point of fact, inseparable from his ideals. To my mind Baba Allauddin Khan Sahib was more of an institution than only a musician. While staying at Maihar Baba gave as a life-style very much like that of an Ashram or hermitage. As a person he was simple, unassuming and completely devoid of egoism. He lived a life with the minimum of necessities and always helped himself to the best of his physical abilities. He washed his own clothes every day. He had a strong aversion towards any kind of luxury which, he believed, could only make a man materialistic and pleasure-loving and not idealistic and sensitive. Maihar, as we all know, is a place of extreme climate and it becomes unbearably hot during the summer because of the limestone factories that surround it. Once, his son Ustad Ali Akbar Khan Sahib bought an air-cooler and took it to Maihar with the expectation that it might give him some relief. But after a few days it was rejected with scorn. Till the day he was unable to move, he would go to the market to buy daily necessities and not let the students go there and waste their valuable moments of practice. He was great in practicing austerity in his own life and had therefore the right to impose it on us. He was a disciplinarian and would never allow the slightest deviation from his ideals of simple living, strict observance of Bramhacharya during our stay at Maihar, a total withdrawal of the mind from all kinds of superficialities, directing all the energy to practice of music and concentration. In going to enforce all this he had to keep up a certain hardness which was, in reality, a show. Stories of Baba's severe scoldings, beating with the bow of violin and throwing of tabla hammer are so common that people are sometimes terribly mistaken to assume that he was a kind of an old village schoolmaster lacking in any sophistication, with only the ability to be rather ridiculously stern. But this image of himself he deliberately projected in order not to allow any liberty to the disciple. He always had the tension that soft treatment on his part would only spoil them. One day I heard him speaking out rather candidly, "Don't you see that I am a grandsire? Don't I feel like taking them (meaning his grandsons) in my arms-patting and loving them. But I am afraid it may spoil them." Here was the inner voice which could be heard seldom or never. Beneath the veil of toughness was the soft and tender soul bubbling with humanity. We used to watch with wonder how in different corners of his premises he arranged to set up wooden pieces of shelter-racks to let the birds build up their nests. At the time of his meals these birds would gather around him and he enjoyed their innocent company. Whenever any Sadhu or saint was around, Baba would give him God-like treatment, offering food and clothing. He used to clean with his own hand the left-overs of their food and never let us touch them.
I cannot resist the
temptation to narrate a couple of episodes which reveal Baba's
humanity. There was one woman who was mentally deranged and stayed
near Baba's house. In the evening she would frequently visit Baba
while he was engaged either in playing or teaching us. We even
noticed that various herbal medicines were externally applied
on her head to cool down her nervous system. This lady would keep
her head on Baba's lap and while listening to music fell asleep.
The stern teacher never felt disturbed but rather compassionately
said "Ah, what a pity that she suffers so much! Let her have
some rest at least!" Other than those who witnessed this
scene, how can anybody recognize what he actually was!