I met Dr Ram Sai Bala for the first time in his house, playing Harmonium for a small Sai Bhajan, his brother Raghu was accompanying him on Tabla and Raghu’s wife Rama joined Bala in the Bhajan. My original intention was to find an instrumental accompaniment to sing a movie song called Enna Samayalo all by myself. Dr. Bala suggested that Rama Raghuraman also knows the song and the two of us can try to sing the song for the program at Tamil Sangam. While Dr Bala and myself were keen on the musical aspect and its creative raga Malika, I never realized that Rama had a superb voice ideal for film songs requiring high pitch and even more than that her clear mastery of the song. I realized that I am no match for her mastery of film songs.
Truly Dr Bala’s mastery of the harmonium as well as his melodious voice touched my heart and I wanted to have his Bhajan session in my house. Even people like Dr. Krishnamachari, an orthodox Iyengar, was deeply touched by the musical emotion that the Bhajans created. I had no idea about Sai Baba Bhajans, their time discipline, and their organizational formats, and was amazed how they were rendered under the leadership of Dr Ram Bala. We had a whole evening of Bhajans in my house of various types followed by a session of movie songs of the classical type. It was from him, that I picked up the Bhajan Jagaddhoddhaaraka Janakirama in Mohana Ragam, that I would sing at Balaji temple Bhajan sessions on first Sundays as a continuation of Kulasekara Azhwar’s pasuram “ Aanadaselavathu” .
Ever since I heard the musically challenging Bhajans of Haridas Swamy at Krishna Gana Sabha, I really felt that under the leadership of Dr Ram Sai Bala we could introduce Dakshina Sampradaya Bhajans in our annual Memorial Day Festival at Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam. Besides his regular Bhajan singers, a few more of music loving people joined together to sing Haridas Swamy Bhajans . We had to share parts of the lines and each one was the lead singer for specific portions : I still cherish My portion : “Sharanu Sharanu Surendra sannutha” in raga Arabhi which was emotionally appealing to me. It was sung in thriputa taalam. He even taught me the flow meticulously.
Dr Xavier Roche and members of Chicago Tamil Sangam asked us to do a mini katha kaalakshepam mimicking PU Chinnappa’s unique Katha Kalakshepam from the movie Krishnabhakthi. I was to act as the teacher and main Kalakshepa-performer to be followed by co-singers. Needless to say, Dr Bala with his inimitable voice and perfect Harmonium accompaniment made it very memorable.
While he was very busy with his profession and also with his leadership at Sathya Saibaba center, I was trying to bring as integral part of CTU annual Memorial Day weekend festival, the high-level Bhajan professionals from India to sing the formal Dakshina Sampradaya Bhajans. Dr Ram Bala said he would like to monetarily support and nurture such programs of the Bhajan genre, inspiring local people to be involved in Bhajan singing.
I was always curious to know how he was drawn into Sai Bhajans. In one personal conversation, he said he was deeply influenced by the emotional Bhajans of Pithukkuli Murugadas and his impeccable control of the harmonium. Once he had a call from Sai center in India to help them in their newly built hospital in Puttaparthi . He saw for the first time Puttaparthi Sai baba passing through the hospital center and himself requesting Dr Bala in person to stay there and help them for a few days. He also listened to the Bhajans at that place and every thing triggered his commitment to spread those Bhajans in the USA. His melodious voice and his superb harmonium playing came quite handy and very influential in bringing together a unique Bhajan program.
For many years he used to attend mainly the Dakshina Sampradaya Bhajan session at CTU by Srividhya Ganesan. Needless to say, it has been phenomenal. His very generous support over the years, I feel is the main thrust for such a spiritually elevating Bhajan program at CTU. In the last few years, his brother-in-law Dr TV Subramanyam used to specially bring him to the Utsavam and we now completely miss his presence. His Satva Gunam, his melody filled voice, his commitment to nurture spirituality via Bhajans have all taken him to the feet of the Lord via his Guruvandanam.
For many years he used to just drive to my house, deliver his generous check for CTU and just take some fruit and go home in a span of half an hour. More than any one I have personally lost a noble soul – an exceptionally rare friend, an inspiring Bhajan teacher and a devout supporter of Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam.
In grief,
T E S Raghavan
