Bombay Bairag

Harpreet’s forte is his understanding of Sufi Music and his earthy voice. Harpreet is inspired by the Bairagi tradition of “ Beparwah (Above care), Beant (Eternal), Bemarz (Without ills), Begarz (Above desire).

Bombay Bairag owes its name to its genre of music and the spirit of the city where the music was being created. The music was taking roots in the city of Mumbai (erstwhile Bombay). Mumbai, for us, is a city we love to our death and the expression “Bombay” , for us, is the spirit of that city.

The spirit which stands for inclusion & equality, where everyone’s welcomed with open arms, the spirit which accepts you with your baggage, your idiosyncrasies, your whims and fancies and yet gives you freedom to be “you”, the spirit which makes space for everything, accommodates and assimilates every single strain of thought, however varied, the spirit which welcomes all the stray ideas, all the curiosity.

The expression “Bombay” is just that spirit of inclusion where we believe we learn and grow as human beings by opening our minds and hearts to different genre of music and embracing them unconditionally. “Bombay” is that romantic notion of welcoming something new with a warm heart.
The term “ Bairag” has its origin in the Sanskrit word “Vairagya”  which means “ the act of renouncing the world and materialism in search of the divine or higher truth” . In ancient times, a sage who would renounce the world and proceed to seek the higher truth will be deemed to go on Bairag and will be called Bairagi. Bairag, thus, is a journey to seek a higher truth and attain a stage of higher being.

Bairag reflects the essence of our music, which is creating music for its own sake with complete devotion; to seek it as a curious child and unconditionally. For us, it means allowing music to evolve just the way  it will. Let it take the form of a prayer, let it become your love ballad, let it become whatever you wish it to yet remain music in the truest sense of the word.

For us, it is just sharing the almighty’s gift with the world sans expectations. Just the way the Bairagis will do it!!!