Pandit Jasraj and his late disciple, the poet-thinker Mukund Lath, were renunciates who lived the philosophy of the UpanishadThe disciple, friend and reclusive philosopher, departed first. Within 11 days, Pandit Jasraj, who had taught Hindustani classical music to Mukund for at least five decades, breathed his last, 10 years short of a century. Mukund left this earth just in time before not sitting close to one’s teacher — un-Upanishad — became the new normal. That first verse of the Isha Upanishad changed the life trajectory of Debendranath Tagore, the prodigal-merchant-turned-contemplative-saint father of Rabindranath. In his last years, he told me he wanted to go back to the Isha Upanishad .

Source: The Hindu September 11, 2020 10:18 UTC