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Shubha Mudgal is a Hindustani classical vocalist. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2000.

What does spirituality mean to you?
It means looking for something that has been there all the time, yet for some reason we forgot it, and have to go back and seek it. It is a strange conflict that it is there for everyone to see and within everyone, yet we lose it and have to rediscover it.

How did you rediscover it?
Through music. I grew up in a very liberal home, where religiosity never was a big thing. We never bothered about rituals as such. But we were exposed to many kinds of music, literature, and experiences. And over time, I wondered what it was about the world of music that made me feel there is something more to be looked at. It could not be only a pleasant sound to my ears.

Did something trigger it?
Classical Indian music is generally considered as spiritual. But I never thought it systematically could be so. Classical musicians cannot always feel spiritual when playing. Not all musical intent can be spiritual. Also, the lives of those playing can be extremely mean and shallow. So how could the music they play be called spiritual? That has always been a strange thing for me.
Yet, a couple of very meaningful experiences connected music and spirituality to me.

In the early 90’s, a woman by the name of Veena Modi came to me as a student. Unlike all the others, she did not wish to perform, but only be able to do “seva” (or service) to Thakur, to Krishna. I was intrigued and surprised by her request.
She then came with beautiful poems in a dialect of Hindi spoken in the area of Vrindavan, and asked me to compose music for them.

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