Connect...!

Yesterday, on the evening of the 65th Republic Day of India, I had this opportunity to participate in an incredible and extremely profound activity called Drum Circle. I have never felt so connected to the cosmic energy as I did during this meditative drumming, except for few days when I was doing Viapassana. Although I am very grateful to Rashmi for introducing me to Anand of TAAL INC, who introduced me to an enchanting form of meditation, he never alerted us of the after-effects of it…! My shoulders, fingers and palms are still aching and feeling warm as I write this. This is a good unifying energy, I believe and look forward to have many such events with Anand and TAAL INC.

So, given to my intrinsic inquisitive and analytic nature, I probed into this Djembe and Drum Circle more and found out this one of the legends behind the birth of it...

 

 

Long ago, men did not know the drum; the chimpanzees owned it. At that time, before guns, there was a trapper named So Dyeu. He was the leader of all the trappers. The chimpanzees often came near his camp. One day, he went hunting and noticed the chimpanzees eating fruit in the trees. They were entertaining themselves with a drum. The hunter said, "This thing they are beating is beautiful. I will set a trap." 

 

He dug a hole and laid a trap. The next day, he heard the chimpanzees crying. The baby chimpanzees cried, the young chimpanzees cried, and the old chimpanzees cried. The trap had caught the chimpanzee drummer.

 

 

The hunter called his dog and went into the forest. The chimpanzees fled as he approached, leaving behind them the drummer, caught in the trap with his drum. The hunter took the drum and brought it to the village. That is why the chimpanzees don't have drums anymore and why they beat their chests with their fists. That's why they say "gugu". It isn't a real drum that we hear today, it is the chimpanzee who has stopped breathing and is beating his chest. 

When the hunter arrived at the village, he gave the drum to the chief, who said, "We have heard the voice of this thing for a long time, but no-one had seen it until now. You have brought it to us; you have done well. Take my first daughter for your first wife." 

 

From that day on the person who played the drum was called "tambourine player". That is how we got the drum. The chimpanzees of the bush were men who went astray. They had done wrong, so God cursed them and they became chimpanzees. Today, they no longer have drums and they have to beat their chests.

 

On the celebration of Republic Day, we have more to fear than to cheer and somehow I found a connection between this story and our present status. Can we go back to the Drum Circle and connect with each other first through this holistic drumming…!?! Who knows, we might just find answers to dreadful question within that connect…! Think over it as I will call Anand to organize another Drum Circle…

Stay tuned... keep connected...!