Music flows even if you do not play instruments

When your mind is fresh the whole existence becomes a melody. When you are fresh, freshness is everywhere and the whole existence responds.
Celebration is possible only when existence is always young. When nothing grows old, when nothing really dies because everything is constantly reborn, it becomes a dance. Then it is an inner music flowing. Whether you play an instrument or not is not the point, the music is flowing.


I have heard a story. It happened in Ajmer. You must have heard about a Sufi mystic, Moinuddin Chishti, whose dargah, whose tomb, is n Ajmer. Chishti was a great mystic, one of the greatest ever born, and he was a musician. To be a musician is to be against Islam because music is prohibited. He played on the sitar and on other istruments. He was a great musician and he enjoyed it. Five times every day, when a Muslim is required to pray the five ritual prayers, he wouldn't pray, he would simply play on his instrument. That was his prayer.
This was absolutely anti-religious but nobody could say anything to Chishti. Often people would come to tell him so and he would start singing, and the song would be so beautiful they would forget completely why they had come. He would start playing on his instrument and it would be so prayerful that even scholars, pandits and maulvis who had come to object, wouldn't object. Tehy would remember at home; when theywere back at home they would remember why they had come.
Chirthi's fame spread over the would. From every part of the would, people came. One man, Jilani, himself a great mystic, came from Baghdad just to see Chishti. When Chishti heard that Jilani was coming he felt, "To pay respect to Jilani it will not be cordial to play my instrument now. Because he is such an orthodox Muslim, it will not be a good welcome. He may feel hurt." So only for that day, in his whole life, he decided he would not play, he would not sing. He waited from morning and in the afternoon Jilani came. Chrshti had hidden his instruments.


When Jilani came and they both sat in silence, the instruemnts began to make music, the whole room was filled. Chishti became very puzzled over what to do. He had hiden them, and such music he had never known before. Jilani laughed and saidd, "Rules are not for you, you need not hide them. Rules are for ordinary people, rules are not for you, you should ot hide them. how can you hide your soul? Your hands may not play, you may not sing from your throat, but your whole being is musical. And this whole room is filled with so much music, with so many vibrations that now the whole room is playing by itself."


When your mind is fresh the whole existence becomes a melody. When you are fresh, freshness is everywhere and the whole existence responds. When you are young, not burdened by memory, everything is young, new and strange.