Leo 9° Sitar Improvisation
July 31, 2026
*
Light spills over the edge,
I am an author who has grown
into sitar improvisation.
Tonight,
the piece Aum Tryambakam will be played,
I play for everyone, I play without the pressure to perform,
I play with ease, I play the same single tone over and over.
You’re welcome, my pleasure.
When you merge with Saraswati,
you can either play the sitar in the middle of a river — or write.
Take your pick, it will either be a swan, or it will be a peacock.
So then:
Aum Tryambakam, I walked by and you didn’t see me.
I walked by you and I liked you so much.
Three hours have passed.
Anoushka Shankar plays on, and it’s still the same,
time flows slower in India.
And in one valley there, they have the exact same afternoon forever.
In Bodh Gaya. There, the universe only lets you in with a scar on your body.
And closes the old doors. The past leads nowhere, the past leads nowhere.
Where do the tones of the sitar lead? That is a holy war being fought.
For long millennia.
I’m overcoming an old habit. Trying to see ahead,
maybe it needed a better plan, we should have thought it through better,
it’s late. Bandhanāt.
We will write our wish in the next stanza,
we will write the next stanza ourselves:
We call upon the One,
he is precious, fragrant, all-nourishing.
We call upon the three-eyed Shiva,
it’s the mantra that contains a cucumber.
Hear the mantra of the ripe cucumber:
When the conditions and possibilities ripen,
and the harvest time draws near,
then, may it be so easily, and all by itself,
just as you see a ripe cucumber drop from its stem,
may I touch celestial joy just as easily,
and not me from life, but death shall fall away from me.
May I awake in that moment beside
— beside the all-nourishing god Shiva.
(That’s how I want to finish it, Jordan.)
And I will harvest the seeds.
In India, time sometimes doesn’t move at all.
That’s because everything has lasted so long
in a single rhythm,
that it stopped making sense to keep counting.
And time stood still.
Everything that has ripened has already shed its leaves.
It floats down the river, bandhanaan, carried by the current.
The Sun still shines from one single spot, scorching the soil.
The old veils have already dissolved in the wind.
We only remember the illusions we used to live in.
We forgot what was real.
We reached the end of reality and began falling into the universe.
Get Halley Virgo’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Bandhanaan, what we held, we let go,
only because — and so gently — we simply ran out of strength.
It’s a relief not to struggle with survival, with what must be protected.
We found ourselves in a space of ripeness where there is nothing left to lose.
Nothing left to gain. Nothing left to give.
Our will broke away from the world so delicately.
Maamritaat.
Om.
And the ideas of how we lived came to an end.
We found ourselves in freedom, in a place
where hands cannot reach. There,
where the old man turns into the eternal child.
Om.
Ah.
And also Hung.
Phat!
Svaha.
Hri.
*
—
Note: When it comes to what will be given, let’s be unapologetically confident.
Audio, youtube: Anoushka Shankar — Piece 2 Darbari Kannad | Live Coutances France 2014 Rare Footage HD
Sanskrit:
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् |उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ||
English Transliteration:
Aum Tryambakam yajaamahe sugandhim pushtivardhanam |Urvaarukamiva bandhanaan-mrityormuksheeya maamritaat ||
Translation:
“We worship the three-eyed One, who is fragrant and who nourishes all. Like the fruit falls off from the bondage of the stem, may we be liberated from death, from mortality.”, as noted by Sounds of Isha.
Significance:
Meaning of the Mantra:
It is known as the great death-conquering mantra. “While some believe the mantra is for prolonging life or avoiding untimely death, a prominent interpretation suggests its actual purpose is liberation from worldly suffering (samsara), realizing one’s eternal nature, and conquering the fear of death”, as expressed in discussions on Reddit.
Rudhyar: “PHASE 129 (LEO 9°): GLASS BLOWERS SHAPE BEAUTIFUL VASES WITH THEIR CONTROLLED BREATHING. KEYNOTE: The need to involve one’s most spiritual and vital energies in the creative act’ if it is to produce significant and beautiful new forms.”
