Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume 3
For this music syllabus which is, well, practically finished now I chose a famous song of Jaydev sung in the popular kirtan way as we have to put in a few kirtans at the end. So I asked Nishikanta to compose a kirtan [Tabo Pranaya Kulako Dhari] a la Jaydev telling him about the rhyme scheme. He did it in no time and such jhankār [resonance]!... Isn’t it? Only read on and see. I can’t help admiring the ambience of Jaydev that has been imported into this song.’ Not that it is difficult or has not been done before, Jaydev lending himself rather gratefully to Bengali rhymes. Compare with
vadasi yadi kinchidapi dantamchi kaumudī
[When you open your mouth even a little, your teeth radiate like moonbeam/light]
Tagore’s panchashare dagdha kare karechho eki sannyasi [O Sannyasi! What have you done by burning Cupid] an identical rhythmic twin – but still – none has up till now rendered him in laghu guru itseif with such natural at-home-ness, what? This can be sung deliciously – of course the rhymes galore making the melody captivating, what? His virtuosity in itself is a miracle, is it of Yoga? Tell me – O please – do. Guru! For how can such cascades of assonances and wordy melodies descend so! I am truly lost in the jhankār itself as I am in that of Jaydev even when I pay no heed to the substance. How do you explain this experience of mine? It is as concrete a delight as any I know of – though I admit – it is not a profound delight – more sensuous than spiritual. Is it? O Guru, tell me something illuminating hereanent – for I don’t exaggerate at all when I praise these so lustily. I do react vividly to its sound-beauty and the lovely magic of words chosen with a sureness of intuitive instinct that can hardly be praised too much. I feel no one could change a word here to improve this little song. His choice of laghu and guru 
vowels too are dexterous beyond measure. Qu’en dites-vous? Which proves too de nouveau how laghu guru is at home in Bengali poetry too, for this is more a poem (in its flow and long-drawn cadence) than a song proper.
Nishikanta seems to have put himself into contact with an inexhaustible source of flowing word and rhythm – with the world of sound-music, which is one province of the World of Beauty. It is part of the vital World no doubt and the joy that comes of contact with that beauty is vital – but it is a subtle vital which is not merely sensuous. It is one of the powers by which the substance of the consciousness can be refined and prepared for sensibility to a still higher beauty and Ananda. Also it can be made a vehicle for the expression of the highest things. The Veda, the Upanishad, the Mantra everywhere owe half its power to the rhythmic sound that embodies it.