In the forests of Tulasi, Jani unravels her plaits
Butter in hand,
Chakrapani massages her head
‘My Jani has no one’
Having said that, God pours the water
Jani tells everybody
‘My dear friend is bathing me’

• Janabai

We do not need a scholar to tell us that our life is a compound of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, ecstasy and agony, birth and death. And that we cannot opt for one and reject the other, for they always come in twos, like two sides of the same coin. Life is a question mark and the search for meaning is a never-ending search. Therefore, the urge to self- transcendence is a spiritual quest in us. This spiritual quest may take different forms and follow multiple paths. Each path is a promise to reach a state of tranquility.

Love makes life bearable and beautiful but for how long?

In the quest for self-transcendence mystics like Janabai (13th Cen), Shah Abdul Latif (18th Cen), St. John of the Cross (16th Cen) and Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār (12th Cen) composed poems of pain and ecstasy. Pain that came from longing and ecstasy that came from union, led to the creation of some of the finest mystical writings. In the journey of merging with the divine, one becomes the lover and the divine becomes the beloved.

The Ecstatic Voices is a collection of poems of four mystical poets: Janabai , Shah Abdul Latif, St. John of the Cross and Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār yearning to meet their beloved to eternally emulsify and become one with the divine. These sacred poems are woven like flowers in a prayerful garland using music and movement to be offered at the altar of Love.

Performed on August 16, 2024 at Godrej Dance Theatre, NCPA.

A SAAZINDIYA AND METAMORPHOSIS THEATRE INC. PRODUCTION