Nation must be confluence of sweet notes, says Vishvesha Thirtha

MOODBIDRI: A touch of spirituality marked the grand opening of the silver jubilee edition of Alva’s Virasat, a three-day national cultural festival that got under way at the sprawling Smt Vanajakshi K Shripathi Bhat Vedike at Puthige on Friday.
If Sri Vishvesha Thirtha, seer of Pejavar Adhokshaja Math, stressed on the power of music to bind society, singer Hariharan, who received the Alva’s Virasat award, described music as a short cut to spirituality.

Even as dusk descended across this Jain Kashi of the South and the lighting started to take effect of the vedike, the benediction that the Pejavar seer gave exemplified the need for the nation to be on the same page with its thought process.

Reminding the audience that music can turn into an unbearable cacophony if there is no coordination between the various performing stakeholders, he said the same is the case with a nation. “We need to have harmony in every aspect of a nation’s life and it is this perfect coordination that ensures that a nation progresses ahead,” said the seer. Lauding the initiative taken by Alva’s Education Foundation to organise the cultural fest for the past 25 years, the seer said it is such endeavours that ensures that Indian culture is vibrant.

“This is also an endeavour that ensures that decadent cultural practices of the West are kept at bay,” he said.

Admitting that conferring of the Alva’s Virasat award left him misty-eyed, Hariharan of the Colonial Cousins fame recalled having performed on the very same stage in 2009, albeit on a smaller stage. Expressing his astonishment at the scale in which the cultural festival has grown since then, Hariharan said the dedication shown by chairman of the foundation M Mohan Alva is organising the festival is unmatched even by the government.

The singer also exhorted the youth, who formed a sizeable part of the nearly 50,000-odd crowd gathered at the specially-designed amphitheatre for the festival to listen to good music.

“Music is a great healer. It is a medicine that keeps heart and mind peaceful,” the singer said, adding music creates a sense one gets while doing yoga – that of tranquillity.