Meditation in Every Breath

Before I found the flute, I was already above 75 years of age and working as a Reiki healer and hypnotherapist. I had always been interested in singing, but Covid affected my lungs. My voice would begin to choke quickly, making singing difficult. Then I came across a Gandharvas advertisement on Facebook. Something about it felt encouraging, and I decided to begin learning the bansuri.

The beginning was far from easy. I could not play even the aroha in a single breath, and for a moment I thought of asking for a refund. I shared my predicament, but instead of letting me give up, the mentors encouraged me to continue practising. I struggled to keep pace and found it difficult to manoeuvre through the website. Memorising notations was another challenge. Even today, I cannot memorise them, and this affects my rhythm.

Submitting a recording for review demanded more patience than I had expected. Sometimes it took me 50 to 60 attempts before I could finally send one. Each attempt reminded me of my breath, my rhythm and everything I was still trying to learn. Yet the encouraging words from the mentors kept reaching me at the right time. At home, my wife gave me the simplest and strongest message: Lage Raho. Keep going.

Slowly, persistence began to bring small moments of joy. Whenever I received five stars, I felt enchanted and behaved like a child. A wave of euphoria would rise within me, and one playful thought captured it perfectly: Pappu pass ho gaya. At my age, the flute gave me the delight of being a student again—the nervousness of trying, the patience to repeat and the happiness of seeing that an effort had been accepted.

Today, I do not need a paragraph to explain what the flute means to me. One word is enough: meditation. When I hold the bansuri and follow the breath, I can imagine myself sitting alone somewhere deep in the Himalayas, playing meditative music. I am still learning, still practising and still facing my limitations. But now there is also hope in every attempt, encouragement in every note and a quiet path opening through every breath.