Hari Om Class - Give this a good read and we will discuss your
perspective in our Balavihar session tomorrow. Feel free to leave any comments,
while you are here.
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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to
play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for
about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated
that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to
work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was
musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then
hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a
woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen
to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he
was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His
mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.
Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk
turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other
children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and
stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal
pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one
noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the
top musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever
written, with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out
at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro
station was organized by
the Washington Post as part
of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The
outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we
perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an
unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in
the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we
missing?
Hari Om, this is Priya. In this story, Joshua Bell portrayed the Bhagavad-Gita value of Non-Pretentiousness. He never proclaimed his greatness to all of the ignorant adults in the metro station. He did not nurture any self-importance. He used his self-control to keep himself from telling others how famous he truly is. He let his music speak for itself, but only the children noticed.
ReplyDeleteVery nice Priya, your response was quite impressive. Thanks for taking the time to post your comments, talk to your Balavihar friends and inspire them as well :)
DeleteHave a good week!
is mine up there cause i dont see it?
DeleteHi! It's Divya. I feel that this story demonstrates the value of Humility. He was very modest about his amazing musical abilities. Even though he was very famous, he kept aside some time to help the Washington Post with their experiment. He also exhibits a great deal of Ksanti. He had the patience to sit and play even though no one was really listening.
ReplyDeleteVery cool Divya, great response. Love your perspective as well. I'm happy to see some of you actually following the class.
DeleteHave a good week!
H! ok so i know how to post there is just one other litle problem i dont have that yellow book.
ReplyDeleteI picked up some extra copies from CMLA, I'll bring them over next time.
DeleteI think it is arjavam, uprightness, because he knew that anyone could recognize him at any time, but he still went out and played for the experiment. Joshua bell probably knew that if he was found out, he would be stuck in the middle of a huge crowd of people trying to get his autograph. In this way he also demonstrated patience.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Sachit
Awesome Sachit, this is an interesting observation. I'm glad you were able to think & apply different qualities from the book.
DeleteBTW, Thanks for making all the boys proud with your response.
Have a good one.
Hi this is Deepika! I think that Joshua Bell showed Humility because he didn't try to draw too much attention to himself. He also showed non-pretentiousness because he didn't proclaim his own greatness by not yelling out loud that he was the famous Joshua Bell. He was also very patient because he had the capacity and ability to accept that even though he, Joshua Bell, was playing his famous musical skills for free,not a lot of people noticed him except the kids.
ReplyDeleteGood Job Deepika, am impressed how each of you could think of different qualities and then relate it to this incident/situation.
DeleteThanks for taking the time to read and post your comments.
Have a good rest of the week!
Hari Om, this is Vishal. I think Joshua Bell was showing non-pretentiousness. He knew he was a great violinist but didn't start bragging. His cover could have been blown at any second but he still stayed calm and was focused on the music. The only people who were kind enough to stop and give him some attention were the little kids, who didn't have work or school.
ReplyDeleteHi. I think that this experiment was an example of arjavam, or uprightness. I believe this, because Joshua Bell, is helping us realize, through this experiment, that people through their actions are not being sincere, but greedy. Along with this, Joshua Bell shows himself being upright, by being honest through his actions and not just telling everyone who he truly is for fame and recognition.
ReplyDeleteHari Om, this is Rajat. After reading this article, I think that Joshua Bell had portrayed the qualities of non-pretentiousness and patience at the same time. Joshua Bell didn't reveal himself to the public and showed patience. Along with being patient, Joshua Bell showed non-pretentiousness by not bragging and not acting great.
ReplyDeleteVishal, Gopika & Rajat -
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback, your perspectives were very interesting and distinct. Glad to see you were able to relate this social experiment to at least one of the concepts/qualities we have covered.
See you all soon
Hari Om, this response is really late, sorry for that, but what Joshua Bell did was very nonpretentious, he didn't proclaim himself to be one of the world's best violinists. By doing this, his actions showed how most people don't have humility. The adults wouldn't listen long to the music possibly because they felt that they were better than listening to some random guy on the street. Adults would pay to listen to him on stage and that would be perfectly normal. That shows how most people need a "brand name" or something of the sort to make themselves feel better about themselves, and they are feeding their ego by doing this. If they all became more humble and let go of their ego, I'm sure they would've had a great time listening to Joshua's performance on the street. His experiment shows, how we all, as a society need to change our values, including our high egos and lack of humility.
ReplyDeleteSo. I finally found the blog. Thanks to Rahul. So I think that this Joseph Bell guy was a good example of patience and uprightness. He didn't show off and didnt say that he was a world class musician. He also showed patience by not getting upset that no one recognized who he was.
ReplyDeleteKONY 2012!!