Mysuru: Sarod Maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan was pained, disturbed and in mental agony over the killing of innocent people in Manchester Arena in England on Monday night and strongly felt a need for a man of Mahatma Gandhi’s calibre to return to the world again.

The Maestro, who was in city to perform at Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Ashrama as part of the 75th birthday celebrations and Vajrotsava of Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji, speaking to Star of Mysore at a private hotel here yesterday just before his concert,said, “It is sad to see that education, instead of bringing peace and harmony, is producing terrorists. The youth with Ph.Ds are being radicalised and are indulging in such acts of violence.”

“I am sharing my thoughts for the first time as what happened in England has deeply disturbed me. What we need to do in a world of violence is the apostle of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi. There is an old saying ‘Swar Hi Eshwar Hai.’ According to my study, research and discovery — music has no language or religion. I am just a musician who is offering music to the whole world,” he said.

Amjad Ali Khan always avoids referring to music as Hindustani or Karnatak because by doing this it creates a void, distance and distance. According to him, only through sound can one connect to God, be it the sound of symphony, sound of sarod or guitar, or violin or cello or even human expression which is the purest form of music.

“Today’s  human being has become a ferocious animal. My Guru was my father. He taught me music. From the very beginning of my life I realised his sacred messages and he tried to inculcate in me that all of us have a common God. Because we all come into the world and go in the same way. So there is no room for a second God,” he said with anguish and added, “There are many ways of saying goodbye to a dead body, whether you burn, bury, keep it on the Tower of Silence, finally it all returns to dust. That is the truth of life, Kyonki sab moorthy pattarhai,” said the Ustad.

“I understand the valuable teachings of my Guru and because of that, today, my wife Subbalakshmi, my sons Amaan and Ayaan Bangash, my grandchildren Zohaan and Abeer and my daughter-in-law Neema, we all feel connected with every religion in the world,” he said.

Amjad Ali Khan strongly feels that greatest disservice has been done by politicians of the world and specially in our country as unfortunately the base of politics is religion and the politicians play around with the sentiments of all religions.

“It is high time even the judiciary and politics must find some other way to find a murderer or to win an election. Because in a court on the first day, a witness says something, on the second day he contradicts it and on the third day he is not there. It is a mockery of the judiciary. Politicians pretend to eat in a Dalit’s house or a poor labourer’s house. That is not natural at all. They do all this just to win elections. Hence, I strongly feel we need a Mahatma Gandhi once again in this country,” said Amjad Ali Khan.

In the evening, the Sarod Maestro performed with his son Ayaan Ali Bangash at Nada Mantapa to a packed audience. Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji felicitated the Ustad with the Nada Nidhi award.