The pursuit of perfection

Violinist Yehudi Menuhin was once asked, ‘Sir, now when you’ve reached the apogee of perfection in playing violin and there seems to be nothing left to achieve or master, why do you still play for hours in solitude?’ Menuhin humbly replied, ‘Because I’m still not satisfied with my own so-called perfection, and every day when I play violin in the solitude of my room, I feel that there’s enough scope for improvement.’

Allama Iqbal said this in one of his immortal couplets, ‘Sahab-e-saaz ko laazim hai ke ghafil na rahe/ Gaahe-gaahe ghalat aahang bhi hota hai sarosh‘ – It is expected of an instrumentalist that he remains active and alert all the time/ For, only the sustained practise corrects the wrong notes.

Practise, with a realisation that contentment is inimical to creativity, keeps a creative person perpetually on toes. The moment contentment descends on you, your journey to perfection comes to a screeching halt.

The legendary playback singer Mohammad Rafi never gave up on his riyaaz till he breathed his last. He always believed that his best creation was yet to come despite achieving so much in a rather short span of time. Just like Robert Browning exhorting, ‘Grow old with me/ The best is yet to be’ – A creative genius believes that his best is yet to come.

The goal of a creative person lies in the quest of perfection. It makes him aware that there are still many worlds to conquer and many frontiers to encounter.