"Watching the sea swaying its manes" is the first line of Bhaavam (Attitude, music video, 2023) by singer & composer Job Kurian. Bhaavam is perhaps one of those "untranslatable" Indian words as eminent Indian intellectual Rajiv Malhotra would call it. "Attitude" gives the sense of a mental poise but Bhaavam gives not only the mental but includes the vital and the physical poise of a human being.
Kurian has sung 37 film songs and composed and sung in 18 music albums since his first song in the film "Goal" in 2007. His Bhaavam is about losing the ego, opening to self-knowledge, and seeking the Truth. The protagonist's experiences are not a result of joining a traditional ashram or monastery but while living in the present world. Notably, his vision is not an ascetic withdrawal from life's riches nor an embracing of poverty, reflective of the Upanishadic teachings that the Divine can be experienced both amid wealth and poverty. ("For it is not the wealth and the poverty which matter or are real, but only the feeling of the presence of the Lord in all things". - Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, CWSA, Vol 7, Pg 184)
The video has received 4.2 million views on Kurian's YouTube channel who regards as his gurus Surendran Master, Kavalam Narayana Panicker (1928–2016, poet, playwright, theatre director, lyricist—Padmabhushan, 2007), and Nedumudi Venu (1948–2021, veteran movie actor, won three National Film Awards).
The lyrics of Bhaavam were written by Engandiyoor Chandrasekharan and Job Kurian. They have been translated from Malayalam into English and added as subtitles on the video.
Click this link to watch (5 min : 24 sec): https://youtu.be/yaiyONTH1Rk
