Taimur Khan :
1. “Raga – and the Ananda it brings – is best experienced firsthand, by renewing and recreating it in the hallways of your own mind, not vicariously or through the written word. I am anxious that a Raga not be viewed as merely an ensemble of rules defined by Aroha and avaroha, vAdi-samvAdi pairs, and a tissue of characteristic phrases and chalans. A nyAsa swara here and a skipped swara there are important and necessary details while speaking about Raga, true. But where do these considerations come from? Are they merely whims ossified by convention? Or is there a deeper basis? My hope is that I have successfully suggested some of the answers. That, at its foundations, Indian music is governed by what I refer to as The Laws of Melodic Ethics (the Indian term is Raga Dharma). Pandit Bhatkhande’s monumental achievement lay in seeing and abstracting the nature of these ‘laws’ from the thicket of melodic observations. What seem like ‘rules’ to the innocent eye are, upon contemplation, revealed to be ‘truths’ to the sAdhaka.”—Rajan Parrikar

That is a great point, I’ve also found that however much you learn listening, your learning deepens through personal contemplation on the various aspects of the Raag: the shruti, swar, and the ras. Listening is always important, but we can only take so much in without creating ourselves. The amount we can take in 2nd hand, of course depends on the individual, but eventually if we want to fulfill our creative and imaginative needs, we must create and imagine.