Gayatri Ghetto

from Kashi: Songs from the India Within by Prem Joshua & Chintan

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about

The Gayatri Mantra is probably the most popular of all Indian mantras and it is claimed that chanting it brings happiness. On yoga mats around the world, people with bellies full of 'organic wholefoods' are chanting themselves silly hoping for 'happiness' to descend.
But what is happiness really? Like, what does happiness mean to a hungry beggar? Or what is happiness to me when a young boy knocks pathetically at my air-conditioned taxi window in the suburbs of Bombay...begging for some coins? Suddenly I look into this dirty face with big innocent eyes just a few inches from my own. Now it's common knowledge that giving these children money means supporting the beggar mafia that sent them out on the streets in the first place and you might think I'm hardened to it all after so many years in India. But in that moment looking into this boy's eyes...the
discomfort is too much. Once again, I lower the window and drop few coins into his grubby hand. Here is a human being right next to me living a life so different from my own – how can I be happy? But then...at the next traf fic light I look down at my smart phone pretending to be busy; hoping the next child will not notice my foreign
face before the lights turn green again. Strangely though, there appears to be more happiness in the ghettos of Bombay
than in the bank headquarters of Zurich and London. How come with increasing wealth, happiness is disappearing? Why is it when one has absolutely nothing to lose – a smile is so easily shared? The open eyes of the beggar children of India and their wild laughter are the inspiration behind this song. This is the Gayatri Mantra of the ghettos and it shouts from the rooftops that unless all beings live in dignity no one can be really happy.

lyrics

Om Bhur Bhuva Swaha
Tat Savithur Varenyam
Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi
Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat

credits

from Kashi: Songs from the India Within, released August 5, 2014
Prem Joshua: vocals, bamboo flute, dilruba, gopichand
Chintan: keyboards, tabla bol, drum programming
Sanou Olszewski: vocals, field recordings

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