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Tabla study is more than learning rhythms — it’s a complete training for attention, memory, timing, and pattern thinking. In this episode, I share what tabla is, how it’s learned through an oral tradition, and how speaking, playing, and listening work together to shape the mind. I talk about my own path from Kolkata to North America, the early challenges of introducing tabla to new audiences, and how years of collaboration with artists from taiko, flamenco, jazz, Afro-Peruvian, and rock traditions have placed it beside the world’s great instruments.

I explain how tabla meets people where they are. For a teenager, it can build focus, patience, and confidence. For a doctor, it refines precision and steady control. For an architect, it reveals the beauty of structure and proportion. For a mathematician, it becomes an endless playground of formulas in motion. For a programmer, the logic and problem-solving of rhythm feels instantly familiar. For an actor, the expressive recitation brings new life to their voice.

This is an episode for anyone curious about how a traditional art can transform thinking, sharpen skills, and open unexpected doors — no matter your age or profession.

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🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.

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In this episode, Ritesh Das explores the often overlooked art of listening—through the lens of a tabla class.

From childhood instinct to adult distraction, from classroom interruptions to moments of deep focus, he walks through how real listening is not just a musical technique—it’s a life skill.

Drawing from decades of teaching and a story from his own guru Shankar Ghosh, Ritesh shows how listening with full attention can lead to joy, growth, and clarity—on the drums and in life.

#TablaBeyondBorders #RiteshDas #ListeningIsASkill #TablaClass #IndianClassicalMusic #SpiritualPractice #RhythmAndLife #MusicAndMindfulness #ShankarGhosh #LifeThroughTabla

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🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.

I like to hear from you

In this episode, Ritesh Das talks about how learning tabla can become a meaningful part of your life. From the first sounds and rhythms to deeper stillness and self-awareness, he shares how daily practice supports balance, focus, and clarity. Whether you're a musician or not, this episode explores how tabla can help you stay grounded in a fast-paced world—through breath, repetition, and honest discipline.

#Tabla #Vedanta #ConsciousLiving #IndianClassicalMusic #SpiritualityInPractice #BalanceOverSpeed #RiteshDas #TorontoTablaEnsemble #MeditationThroughRhythm #ArtistLife #Upanishads #NonDuality #SlowDown #CreativeLife #MusicAsMeditation #Awareness #TablaPodcast #WisdomInRhythm #RealJoy

Support the show

🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.

I like to hear from you

Not every student wants the stage. And not every great player ends up on one.

In this episode, Ritesh Das reflects on a quieter kind of journey in the world of tabla—one not measured by applause or public recognition. Through personal stories from Kolkata, Toronto, and decades of teaching, he honours the students who showed up week after week, not for performance, but for depth. Mothers who watched. Adults who played after work. Disciples who returned after years away. Each brought sincerity—not ambition—and still carried something lasting.

This is not about who got famous. It’s about who stayed true.

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🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.

I like to hear from you

What if the joy you’re chasing isn’t really joy?

In this episode, Ritesh Das explores the quiet truth behind lasting joy—not the kind that comes from applause or outcomes, but the kind born from presence, practice, and deep inner alignment. Drawing from Vedantic teachings, daily discipline, and a life shaped by sound, he reflects on how real joy begins only after you’ve unlearned the noise and remembered your Swadharma—your true rhythm, not the world’s formula.

There’s a difference between excitement and joy.
Excitement is external, loud, and fleeting.
Joy is internal, still, and enduring.

This episode touches the heart of Abhyāsa (steady practice), Vairāgya (letting go), and the courage it takes to walk away from illusion—even the ones that look like success. Ritesh shares how he spent years following the formulas of others—until life brought him back to his own centre. That return came at a cost, but it brought with it a joy that no audience could give or take away.

And then, sometimes… something beyond even that appears.

A moment when artist, audience, and sound become one.
When presence speaks—not performance.
When something true enters the room.

His elder brother—the legendary Kathak dancer Pandit Chitresh Das—shared a phrase from his Guru:
Lo Ban Jai.
You don’t plan it. You don’t perform it.
You witness it.
And then it’s gone.

This episode is a remembering.
Not of how to succeed—but how to be.

Tat tvam asi.
You are That.

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🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.

I like to hear from you

In this powerful follow-up to Episode 12 (What is a Guru), Ritesh Das dives into the difficult but necessary topic of false Gurus—and the lessons they leave behind.

Drawing from Vedic roots and personal experience, he explores how false teachers appear in many forms: not just in ashrams, but in friendships, spiritual circles, relationships, and leadership roles. What happens when guidance turns into control? When surrender becomes manipulation?

This episode isn’t about blame. It’s about clarity. It’s about reclaiming your inner compass.

You’ll hear reflections on:

• The original Vedic meaning of Guru
• How even well-intentioned leaders can misguide
• Why true learning includes questioning
• And how real wisdom begins within

Whether you've followed a teacher, trusted a guide, or been let down along the way—this episode is a mirror, and maybe a turning point.

Tat twam asi. You are That.

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🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.

I like to hear from you

Episode 11: What Is a Guru—Really?

In this episode, I return to the source.
Not to talk about gurus as personalities or institutions—but to ask:
What does the word “Guru” actually mean?
And how has that meaning changed—and been misused—over time?

Starting from the Vedas, through lived experience, and into the role of the śiṣya (student), I share what I’ve learned over a lifetime of study, teaching, and unlearning.

This episode includes:

• The original Vedic context of the Guru
• The meaning of the sloka: gurur brahmā gurur viṣṇuḥ...
• The journey from outer teacher to inner clarity
• How real Gurus prepare you to stand without them

This isn’t theory. This is practice, reflection, and life.

If you’ve ever asked, “Who is my Guru?”,
maybe the better question is—“Am I ready to become one?”

🎙️ Recorded and spoken by Ritesh Das
🪘 Founder, Toronto Tabla Ensemble

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🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.

I like to hear from you

“Because That’s What This Is” is a raw, unfiltered reflection from the heart of Ritesh Das—composer, tabla teacher, founder of the Toronto Tabla Ensemble, and lifelong seeker. This podcast is not about performance. It’s not for promotion. It’s a return.

Through spontaneous conversation, memory, and deep truth-telling, Ritesh revisits the moments that shaped his path—from the purity of sound in empty rooms to the pressures of the music industry, from backstage whispers to center-stage chaos, and now, toward a quiet reclaiming of dharma, spirit, and creation.

These are not episodes. They are strokes of rhythm.
Sometimes clear. Sometimes cracked. Always real.

This is for artists, seekers, students, and anyone who has ever asked:
“What did I lose along the way—and how do I find it again?”

Because that’s what this is.

Support the show

🎙 Tabla Beyond Borders: Life, Spirit, and Rhythm with Ritesh Das
This podcast isn’t about entertainment. It’s about practice.
Real conversations on rhythm, discipline, and the deeper purpose behind music.
For artists, seekers, students—and anyone listening for something true.