Mystic yogi Sadhguru and singer Mohit Chauhan narrate tales from their childhood to give examples of how lives have transformed today because of storytelling. By Chahak Mittal
How often do you see two soul-stirring beings — one through his wisdom and words, the other through his voice and music — collaborate and narrate some untold tales? When mystic and yogi Sadhguru and singer Mohit Chauhan came together on one stage at Kathakar, a storytelling festival — a rare sight, they held the audience in their thrall.
It is the contact between the storyteller and the listener that brings a story alive, especially when the audience spans across all age groups. It was much more than just telling stories when the duo held centrestage.
Surrounded by two to three large incense burners placed before the stage, the place encapsulated a spiritual vibe as the fragrance of camphor spread all around the venue. The fire invoked the setting of a temple or a pious holy ritual and the atmosphere too acquired spiritual overtones. So when the number of seats fell short, the remaining audience found space on the floor and sat cross-legged in the padmasana position. All eyes and ears were directed at the stage listening to the kissey, kahaniyaan and conversations between the two mystics.
Narrating his story of how he dreamt about mountains every now and then, Sadhguru’s search for his dreams began when he first trekked across the hills in South and North India, including the Himalayas, but couldn’t find what he was looking for. “It was only when I trekked back to the South and I reached Yelagiri hills in Coimbatore that I could find what I had been dreaming of,” said Sadhguru on the first day of festival.
So what is it that he wanted to convey through the story? asked Mohit. “Stop putting logic to everything, it is all about attention,” laughed Sadhguru.
He pointed towards today’s technology-driven world and how children are moving away from storytelling and reading books, to just devoting themselves to gadgets which are eventually distracting them from paying attention to academics. He said, “I don’t think we need to blame it on technology. Long ago, when technology was not so advanced, we lost the art of storytelling and even the process of learning. Earlier, we read books and papers to gain knowledge. Today if they are browsing the internet for stories, what is the harm? But the problem is that they are not focussing on one story, rather multiple stories and hence do not know even one of them.”
But the story that Sadhguru narrated was universal and not meant just for children. It began with his childhood when Sadhguru saw a calculator for the first time. He almost cried that despite the fact that the calculator could do a maths problem easily and quickly, his teacher tortured him in the maths class everyday. Sadhguru said, “The idea of education has destroyed a more holistic and dialectical impression of life. That was an evidence that education in the coming times would become completely meaningless. A simple gadget will able to do the things better than somebody who calls himself an intellectual.”
He continued with stories about life, human race and aspirations and the session ended with Sadhguru and Mohit’s collaboration of the holy song, Shankar Sankat Harna.
It did not only seem like a spiritual session rather an experience worth cherishing and narrating forward.
Sadhguru also talked about a wide variety of stories from his life as a maverick child, as an adventurous teenager pursuing biking and trekking and finally, as a spiritual seeker. As a four-year-old, he decided to study the life of insects, so he would store tadpoles and different species of insects in the penicillin bottles belonging to his physician father. The other story was about his grandmother, who died at the age of 113. She was famous for her typically unfeminine uproarious laughter, “which would shake the whole street.”
The podium was surrounded by stalls of books by Sadhguru, Rachna Rawat Bisht and other writers who told tales at the three-day festival that ended yesterday.