For Shanker, the purpose of music is expression and reflection, and the structure is how the emotion unfolds. “In this album, the Fugue-Kriti traces an emotional arc from tranquillity to foreboding, and Field of Dharma explores the emotional landscape of the Bhagavad Gita,” he says. Shanker’s inclination towards the philosophies and teachings of the Gita, and the emotional perplexities Arjuna encounters at each point of time during the Kurukshetra war, exude in the album.

He believes that Arjuna’s dilemma and the lessons of the Gita are both “timeless and timely”. The themes used in the album have a universal appeal. “The Gita remains very relevant in today’s world. In moments of stress and anxiety, I still turn to its teaching of…”