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While fashions changed, interest in and understanding of not just traditional Indian music but traditional music from all over Asia developed substantially. The outcomes are – I hope - not transient but here to stay: far better opportunities for formal study of Asian music and ethnomusicology at University level as well as in conservertoires and at school, more performance and teaching opportunities and many more companies and venues producing concerts of Asian music – the Arts Council created the AMC being a prominent organisation in this field. The University of York is of course an internationally renowned institution in the field of music.

The world of music from the wider Asia is fascinating, wonderful and beautiful and it's been a fantastic experience to have been involved in introducing it to the UK audiences. There is so much that could be said about it and issues that surround it discussed – but I wanted to say what music has meant to me. In the East, music is seen as a way to knowledge. Knowledge was more a matter of revelation and intuition than a science and a means of personal gnosis, understanding not just of the deeper reality of things but also of people, their perceptions, their thinking and how they see the world. Music can and does lead to a better understand of our world – perhaps the world of politics would be a far better arena if music was involved to break barriers and reveal common goals, that we are all human and experience similar pains and pleasures of life.

Knowledge gained through music leads to better understanding, unity, peace and reconciliation. This is one of its most important effects.

In Indian music, the aim of RAG is to take the listener and performer to a heightened state of mind beyond the world of senses. That is the universal state experienced by everyone through all kinds of music. Music per se may not be a universal language, but the consequences and effects of it are universally felt.

The creative work of music and the world of intuition and knowledge that it reveals can be compared with scientific discovery. Its purpose is the same – the search for truth.

Mathematicians compare their discoveries to artistic intuition; numbers, their arrangements and forms can be described as beautiful.

I particularly like the idea that creative work is due as much to relaxation as it is to concentration and hard work. Remember Archimedes in his bath and Newton sitting under an apple tree? We are seen as the conduit for some greater hand at work .The problem is ideas come or are inspired but then need to be organised and then presented to an audience. If clearly and logically presented, our experiences and intuitions can be shared with others. For musicians this means years of hard training and the crystallisation of a life-process!

With the diversity of peoples now making up the UK, I see no opposition between maintaining the best of traditional music/cultural practices and having an integrated society based on the highest ideals of citizenship.

In the fast moving age of globalisation and the furious rush for wealth not only is our physical environment at risk but so also is our spiritual environment. I dread the thought of losing the great music traditions of the world with all their fantastic values

of purpose, practice, aesthetics and spirituality - all lost to an increasingly homogenous Western perception of popular and world music. That's why the work of excellent music departments such as the one at the University of York is so vital to our lives and the lives of future generations. I find it strange and sad that the United Nations and Governments designate traditional music in some areas as being of special heritage and cultural importance and are "protected" – when these used to be a part of the daily lives of people.

We have a concept in Indian music called RAS. It was the theme of one of AMC's summer schools recently and the conclusion of seminars was that RAS was a state of mind where there is no EGO. Where we have EGO, there is conflict, sadness, happiness, joy, pathos – but all these feelings disappear if there is no EGO into a state of "bliss".

The BHAGVAD GITA says that he is a superior soul who experiences the most intense pain and pleasure without being affected by them whose purpose is to achieve the highest ideals with the most just and highest of means. To reach that state of RAS is the aim of music.

Through music, with love of truth and service to man we can change the world from an intellectual, moral and spiritual perspective and make it better place to be in.

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