Ravi Shankar Quotations

In India, I have been called a 'destroyer.' But that is only because they mixed my identity as a performer and as a composer. As a composer I have tried everything, even electronic music and avant-garde. But as a performer I am, believe me, getting more classical and more orthodox, jealously protecting the heritage that I have learned.

One single raga can be performed for two hours, three hours.

I will keep playing as long as my body lets me, and as long as I'm wanted by my listeners. Because music is the only thing that keeps me going.

The music that I have learned and want to give is like worshipping God. It's absolutely like a prayer.

I try to give to my music the spiritual quality, very deep in the soul, which does something even if you are not realizing it or analyzing it - that's the duty of the music.

There are thousands of ragas, and they are all connected with different times of the day, like sunrise or night or sunset. It is all based on 72 of what we call 'mela' or scales. And we have principally nine moods, ranging from peacefulness to praying, or the feeling of emptiness you get by sitting by the ocean.

I was admired by all these hippies, and it was wonderful playing at Monterey and Woodstock, performing for half a million people.

In our culture we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God.

I have always had an instinct for doing new things. Call it good or bad, I love to experiment.

Everybody has a right to like or dislike anything or anyone. From a flower to a flavor to a book or a composition but it is very sad that in our country we actually fight over such things in an unseemly manner.

I believe in one thing: that anyone who is able to do something good for someone, I mean, should be praised.

I appreciate very much Vilayat Khan, the sitar player, and Bismillah Khan, the shehnai player; and among the tabla players, of course, Alla Rakha, Kishan Maharaja, and all these people.

Pop changes week to week, month to month. But great music is like literature.

'Ravi' means 'sun.' It's a Sanskrit original word. And 'Shankar' is another name of Shiva, one of the holy trinity god that we worship.

I have my own spiritual guru, and I'm so happy, and I feel so satisfied that I might appreciate many other famous gurus, but, you know, I am not attracted that way because I have found the person.

My music has a very spiritual background, a sanctity that is almost like worship.

My secret ambition was always to provide music for animation films: something with an Indian theme, either a fairy tale or mythological tale or on the Krishna theme. I still have a very deep desire, but these sorts of chances don't always come.

In the olden days, I believe Mozart also improvised on piano, but somehow in the last 200 years, the whole training of Western classical music - they don't read between the lines, they just read the lines.

I don't appreciate avant-garde, electronic music. It makes me feel quite ill.

I enjoy seeing other Indian musicians - old and young - coming to Europe and America and having some success. I'm happy to have contributed to that.

I love the work of Matisse and Picasso, but I don't have enough millions to own one. And I don't really believe in owning art, anyway.

I think musicians and actors have all these problems, because of the popularity and the opportunity.

My brother had a house in Paris. To it came many Western classical musicians. These musicians all made the same point: 'Indian music,' they said, 'is beautiful when we hear it with the dancers. On its own, it is repetitious and monotonous.'

I started out as a dancer, but gradually became more interested in music.

I was invited for the first Woodstock. Actually, I started the programme.

I have great difficulty sitting in the middle of the night and writing. Everything I do comes spontaneous. Sometimes it takes a long time; sometimes it comes just like that.

Many people, especially young people, have started listening to sitar since George Harrison, one of the Beatles, became my disciple.

It is natural to have your favorite actor or actress or musician or composer. But India is the only place where we fight over it.

To me, you know, from my childhood I always had a fascination for United States.

When people say that George Harrison made me famous, that is true in a way.

We spent the day before with him, and even then he looked so peaceful, surrounded by love. George has left so many precious memories and moments in all our lives which will remain with us forever.

In the U.K., classical music is composed by individuals and written down. Indian music is based on certain sequences called ragas. When I perform live, 95% of the music is improvised: it never sounds the same twice.

Ah, 'Pather Panchali' was the most inspiring film that I wrote music for, and it was so spontaneously done. I saw the film, composed on the spot, along with myself and only four other musicians, and everything was done within 4-1/2 hours, I think an all-time record anywhere.

I do think that my Indian classical audiences thought I was sacrificing them through working with George; I became known as the 'fifth Beatle.' In India, they thought I was mad.

Enlightenment is the journey back from the head to the heart.

Enlightenment is very possible for the ordinary individual. Actually, it is easier than for someone who thinks that they are special.

There cannot possibly be a god in heaven watching all of this calmly.

What Sri Chinmoy does is God-given! He has a tremendous, a fantastic creative urge.

Whether you are aware of them or not, whether you recognize them as spiritual or not, you probably have had the experiences of silence, or transcendence, or the Divine-a few seconds, a few minutes that seem out of time; a moment when the ordinary looks beautiful, glowing; a deep sense of being at peace, feeling happy for no reason. When these experiences come...believe in them. They reflect your true nature.