The Joy of Being an Instrument | Bhakti and Creative Flow
4/15/20261 hr 2 min
The best thing you ever created — you probably didn't create it. Bob Dylan said he could never write a song like Blowin' in the Wind again. Marvin Gaye told Smokey Robinson that What's Going On wasn't his — it came through him. Every great artist eventually arrives at the same humbling, liberating realization: the music doesn't come from you. It comes through you. The Bhagavad Gita names this directly — Krishna says from him comes knowledge, remembrance, and forgetfulness. Whatever ability we have to create, to compose, to lift a single finger — it's being granted. And when we truly recognize that, the pres...
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First 90 secondsKastuba Das· Host0:00
You're inspiring me just to-- or reminding me- Am I? Yes. But, but you know, Gita, you know, Bhagavad Gita c- state-- there's this verse, right, "Isvarahaham aham bhogi," right? This, this fundamental misconception that we have that it separates us from truth, and that needs to be clarified in order to c- reconnect us with truth and reconnect us... You know, the truth is ultimately, you know, the bliss of the self, you know, understanding oneself and, and, and feeling one's own nature and being very happy in it. And we embrace this illusion that I am Isvarahaham, I am the controller, aham bhogi, I am the enjoyer. And there's so much right in that statement if we can- That's like the whole 12-step program right there. Yeah.
Raghunath· Host0:43
I'm not in control.
Kastuba Das· Host0:44
Yeah, right.
Raghunath· Host0:45
There's a God in control.
Kastuba Das· Host0:47
[lip smack] And, um, and, and as we were saying earlier, you know, with music, it, it's interesting that a musician could feel that it's wonderful not to struggle to write a song myself, but to be the instrument of the music coming through me, right? And not even take credit for it.
Raghunath· Host1:05
Mm.
Kastuba Das· Host1:06
You know, and, and we, we mentioned a couple statements there. The, the one that always-- uh, two, two always really stand out with me, and they're considered two of the greatest musicians of their eras. One was Bob Dylan when he was interviewed on 60 Minutes, and he was asked like, "Could you write a song like that again, like 'Blowin' in the Wind'?" He said, "There's no way I could write a song like that again." He's like, "Why not?"