Be a Synesthete of human hearts!

“Since my childhood, even before I started learning music, I was able to see different sounds and swaras (musical notes or alphabets of music language). Yes, you are understanding it right, Lata — I can not just hear but clearly see each musical note with my eyes. For every swara, there is a design that comes in front of my eyes. Whenever I hear or memorize songs and prayers I can actually see the visual design of these songs right in front of me. These musical notes are not abstract for me but so concrete and visible every time I sing anything. And this unusual gift meant that over the years whatever I can visualize I can memorize in seconds. Whenever I am hearing any music a design gets printed in my mind and that design of the sound fascinates me. I can hear for hours, visualize the design of swaras, meet swaras like I am meeting humans and talk to them for hours. And with this gift when I met my masters who taught me the art of music, I could see them in a magnified view — like if swaras are humans then masters of swaras are superhumans. With this magnified view, my friendship with each swar intensified. Visual image of each swar got clearer and I also started seeing colors, characteristics and features of each swar. Yes, I can actually see the colors of swaras — like Sa is yellow, Re is blue, Ga is white, Ma is green… so on and so forth. I started smelling each swar too. Thanks to my master I got so close to swaras that I used to love spending time with them and I still do-so much so that I love practicing swaras more than practicing a song. I fall short of words and I am unable to express how blessed and grateful I feel to have found a master of music who made me fully utilise my inborn gift of seeing swaras, made me meet music in such a deeper way and made me one with it. Sometimes when I sing I feel like crying and I say to my master (who is no more in person but always there in spirit with me) — I owe it to you. Sometimes I see Him for hours and hours, I can feel Him around me even when I just acknowledge what I have received and learnt from Him. Many times He comes in my dreams and keeps teaching me not just music but deeper and profound lessons of life. Gratitude is all I have and I don’t know how I will ever repay what He has given to me” — Nitin Sampat

Recently I asked my music teacher Nitin Sir how much time (in days or weeks or months or years) did he take to learn swaras and in response to this innocent question he gave me this precious gift of a beautifully true story of his encounter with swaras and transformation of his relationship with swaras from a stranger to a friend to a soul connection. Moistness in his eyes and overflowing gratitude in his heart as he narrated his story unraveled the secret of his immense devotion for his master, his oneness with music, his passion for the art of music, his love for his students and his purpose of life to spread this art and the wisdom behind it in the entire universe.

As I was hearing this live narration, it sounded so magical that I couldn’t help but research if this kind of magic is even possible on this planet. I found out that just 4% of population on mother earth is blessed with this exceptional gift called Synesthesia. As per research, Synesthetes are known for their enhanced creativity, for their absorption and openness and cognitive abilities of verbal comprehension and mental imagery. Researchers have reported synesthetic experiences that involve visual representation of the abstract, pattern recognition, spatial orientation, or emotions in response to certain stimuli. Therefore, synesthesia is not confined to the five human senses and can go way beyond them. Synesthetes can experience the world from a different perspective with enhanced creativity and other forms of intelligence including emotional intelligence. There is also research which says that we are all born synesthetic, with all the connections between senses but lose them as our brains mature. Only a rare few — the Synesthetes retain these connections together with the synesthetic experience.

As I kept thinking about Nitin Sir’s beautiful story and his fascinatingly divine experiences, it occurred to me that one of the ways in which we can make this world a better place is: to acquire the traits of synesthetes and integrate those in our human connections and relationships. How beautiful it would be if we could visualize the feelings and emotions of people around us, if we could see their hearts and souls for what they are instead of making assumptions and judgements about what they could be, if we could see each other’s pain, if we could not just empathize with another’s pain but experience the observed or imagined pain as if it was our own. That’s when we will make every person we encounter feel happier, feel loved and feel valued. As a famous quote rightly said — “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel” because that’s how a human mind is programmed. Let’s be synesthetes of human lives — lets love each one equally as that’s what God wants us to do, let’s see each other’s pain, experience it and be compassionate towards each other, let’s make kindness our second nature, let’s make inclusion a non-negotiable trait to imbibe & teach, let’s let go of negative traits of comparison, insecurity, jealousy, recognizing fully that each one of us is uniquely beautiful and God loves us equally and infinitely. Because, as Lord Buddha rightly said — “In the end only 3 things matter : how much you loved, how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you”

Inspired by : Shri Nitin Sampat, Founder of Swaradhana music family