When one listens to bhajan singer Hari Om Sharan, one is not just hearing music – it’s a bit like entering a state of surrender that feels intimate, almost like a prayer. Unlike many devotional singers who ‘perform devotion’, Hari Om Sharan’s singing embodies a state of spiritual surrender.
As someone who listened to his bhajans while growing up in Mumbai in the 1980s, I recall the tremendous impact his voice and devotion had on some of the adults in my family. In Maximum City (i.e. Mumbai) though, Hari Om Sharan was something of an anomaly – he was not good looking, was slightly obese, dressed in ethnic clothes and cut a somewhat unimpressive figure on the face of it. But once his voice started flowing, people were mesmerized by its quality and spirituality. In the Mumbai of film stars and celebrities of the time, each more good-looking and savvy than the next, Hari Om Sharan was an unusual celebrity — embodying a rustic spirituality that harkened to the roots of India and to its rich 5,000-year-old spiritual traditions.
Glimmer of hope after attempted suicide
Born in Lahore in 1932, the primal episode in a young Hari Om Sharan’s life was the Partition of India in 1947. In the journey from Lahore to India, the 15-year-old was separated from his family and cast asunder in the vast country, all alone, like a ship separated from its anchor. He wandered here and there from Delhi to Punjab to Uttar Pradesh, desperately searching for his loved ones but to no avail. At 17, not able to bear his immense grief, he attempted suicide by drowning at Hardwar. Fortuitously, an ascetic who was doing his ablutions nearby, saved him. His savior, Hari Giri Ji, was to prove a spiritual mentor for this young man, coaching him on Indian spiritual traditions and practices. During this time, Hari Om Sharan was to discover that he had inborn talent for writing, composing and singing bhajans as odes to Hindu deities.
First and only biography of Hari Om Sharan
A Song of Surrender, published recently, is perhaps the first and only known biography so far of this maestro of devotional singing, who used the bhakti tradition to remove the barriers between the devotee and the divine. Critics have pointed out that Hari’s singing, rooted in yearning for the divine, has at least three emotional layers: Viraha (separation) – a deep ache for the divine; Sharangati (surrender) – letting go of ego and control and Vishwas (trust) – quiet faith that grace will come. This was very much a reflection of his life.
Undoubtedly, the deep trauma he felt at the separation from his family and their ultimate reunion in Amritsar almost two decades later had an irrevocable effect on the singer’s personality for the rest of his life. Grace did come for the singer finally, one momentous day, during a performance when he spotted his father, now an old man, sitting among the audience. His elderly father didn’t recognize him at first sight, having assumed that his only son was dead, probably killed during the journey from Lahore. When the truth was revealed, Hari Om Sharan, much to his joy, was also reunited with his mother and sisters.
Unlike many devotional singers who ‘perform devotion’, Hari Om Sharan’s singing embodies a state of spiritual surrender… and a rustic spirituality that harkened to the roots of India and to its 5,000-year-old spiritual tradition.
Finding his life’s purpose
Those intervening two decades of separation from his family and tutelage under a spiritual mentor were to sculpt his personality in a unique way that was ultimately to serve his purpose on planet Earth. He would have preferred to renounce the materialistic world, but his guru indicated that this option was not for him. Then, by his early thirties, Hari Om Sharan’s untutored but spectacular singing abilities had been discovered by an enthusiastic public in North India. At this stage he would sing upon request whenever he accompanied his guru to satsangs.
Through a network of devotees, Hari’s singing became more widely known. Around this time, he felt an inner calling to travel to Mumbai for its ocean setting. Despite his parents’ protests, he took a train to Maximum City. He stayed at a modest ashram in Khar and saw the sea for the first time in his life. The sight transfixed him and he remained on Juhu beach for hours staring at the waters, spellbound by the setting sun. He stayed on when the moon appeared, so reluctant was he to tear himself away from the glories of nature.
In Mumbai, he performed during the weekly satsangs held at the ashram and later at devotees’ homes where his singing was much admired. The Motwanes of ‘Chicago Loudspeakers’ invited Hari to perform at their bungalow. Slowly, his fan club grew. The singer shifted to another ashram at Churchgate run by a swami and was happy to mingle in the company of sadhus and holy men. However, a diamond merchant, Shyam Kripalani, who was totally enamored by Hari’s voice invited him to perform at his home several times and began circulating tapes of his singing among his friends. Through Shyam’s circle of friends and relatives, the singer was to receive several invitations to perform in Bangkok, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, giving him international stature.
5 popular bhajans of Hari Om Sharan
- Aisa Pyar Baha De Maiya
- Prabhu Ham Pe Kripa Karna
- Tera Raamji Karenge Beda Paar
- Maili Chadar Odh Ke Kaise
- Daata Ek Ram, Bhikhari Sari Duniya
A journey of divine grace
Shyam also encouraged Hari to participate in the annual ‘Sur Singar Samsad’ music festival held in Mumbai. At this festival, which was attended by music composers and music company chiefs scouting for fresh talent, one evening was reserved exclusively for devotional music. When Hari performed, music director and lyricist Murli Manohar Swarup and Vijay Krishna Dubey of HMV were so impressed that they offered to cut the singer’s first disc. And that was how his journey into fame began.
Left to himself, it is apparent from A Song of Surrender that Hari Om Sharan would have gladly lived the life of a renunciate. But the singer was to go on to perform in several countries overseas and to eventually marry a young girl named Nandini from British Guyana. Thereby fulfilling his mother’s great desire to attend the wedding of her only son. Nandini didn’t understand a word of Hindi but was nevertheless impressed by her future husband’s velvet voice when it used to come over the radio in Trinidad. Nandini joined Hari in Mumbai and later was to accompany him as a singing partner in locations across the world. The couple had a son who succumbed to meningitis in infancy. Nandini had another miscarriage and the couple gave up any aspirations of having children.
Hari Om Sharan passed away in New York in 2007 while on a concert tour of the USA. He was 75 years old. The book A Song of Surrender, then, is not so much a conventional biography as a devotional life narrative. Since it was orally narrated by the singer to the author, it reads more like a tribute born of reverence written with emotional and devotional authenticity. Capturing the inner mood of sharangati (surrender), the singer’s life is presented as a journey of grace rather than ambition. While there may be a lack of critical distance or a balanced analysis of contradictions or flaws in the protagonist’s make-up, I might add, on a personal note, that I found the book immensely fulfilling emotionally and spiritually.
Shailaja Ganguly
Author of A Song of Surrender
Shailaja Ganguly is a senior journalist, writer, and poet. She is also a script writer, live anchor, and voiceover artiste with many decades of work for radio, television, and stage. She has been Deputy Editor Femina, Editor of Funday Times, and Namaskaar. She has also taught Creative Writing and Journalism.
Dr Bijal Maroo
Editor of Shailaja’s biography of Hari Om Sharan
Dr Bijal Maroo is an author of children’s books. She has freelanced for Life Positive magazine and Yogi Impressions in India, Conscious Living magazine in Australia, andA Lotus in the Mud. A passionate singer, she has practiced as a Homeopathic consultant, counselor, and health psychologist for over 20 years.
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