Deepak Kumar Pareek
Deepak Kumar Pareek is a singer, composer and guitarist. Born in Rajasthan, India, his repertoire covers a wide spectrum of devotional music styles, including devotional songs (bhajans) and ancient love poetry (ghazals). Born to a musical family, he first studied with his father, Shri P.N. Vyas, and later with Ustad R.F. Dagar, Ustad Moinuddin Khan and Mohinderjit Singh.
Mr. Pareek is an accomplished performer of many musical instruments, including harmonium, tanpura, guitar and keyboard. His classically trained voice has delighted audiences of the East and West alike. His music has been described as creating a deep spiritual energy that transports the listener back in time to the source from which the music began long ago. In addition to performing and composing, he teaches vocal music in group classes and individual lessons in the New York area. He is on the faculty of the East-West School of Music in Monroe, N.Y.
FROM THE COMPOSER
" Peace Mantra "
For the 2nd Festival of Universal Sacred Music, Deepak set into music the ancient Sanskrit peace mantra, Asato Ma. He accompanied himself on the tanpura, with Naren Budhakar on tabla.
Mantras are energy-based sounds. A mantra is mystical syllable or poem from the Sanskrit or other languages. Through mantra the devotee attains one-pointedness, or extreme focus, on the idea of the mantra. The vibrations and sounds of the mantra are considered extremely important, and thus reverberations of the sound awaken the prana or spiritual life force.
PEACE MANTRA
Asato ma sad gamaya — Lead us from the unreal to the real
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya — Lead us from darkness to light
Mrtyor mamrtam gamaya — Lead us from death to immortality
Satyam eva jayate — Only the Truth conquers
