On playing a raga.
“

First of all I choose a raga that gives me musical satisfaction. When I choose that raga then I welcome and invite the raga. To do that I have to meditate on the raga to understand its structure. When I get the structure then I can enjoy playing it. When I play a few beautiful notes, the spirit of the raga feels happy and comes and blesses me. Then the real music comes.

— Hariprasad Chaurasia

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "First of all I choose a raga that gives me musical satisfaction. When I choose that raga then I welcome and invite the raga. To do that I have to meditate on the raga to understand its structure. When I get the structure then I can enjoy playing it. When I play a few beautiful notes, the spirit of the raga feels happy and comes and blesses me. Then the real music comes." in the context of "On playing a raga." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Hariprasad Chaurasia" (Quotes, Music is a Prayer:An interview with Hariprasad Chaurasia by Ian Gottstein: Music is a Prayer:An interview with Hariprasad Chaurasia by Ian Gottstein, publisher: Renaissance Universal Organization, retrieved: 19 December 2013) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Hariprasad Chaurasia

About Hariprasad Chaurasia

Hariprasad Chaurasia (born July 1, 1938) is a renowned Indian flute player whose repertoire is in Eastern Classical music. He is an innovator and a traditionalist. He is as credited for his musicianship as for his technical ability on the native instruments. He has been honoured with several awards of which the most prominent ones are the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of India, and the distinction of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) of France. He also serves as the Artistic Director of the World Music Department at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory in the Netherlands.