Eagalic Music
Eagalic Music is an autobiography describing the journey of a Canadian-born musician and his family to India in 1986, where he was initiated into
the Chishti Silsilyah of Sufis at the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia
in Delhi. Ted Katrensky (Baba Farid) was born in Winnipeg in 1946. He began
playing music professionally at an early age and by the time he was in his
twenties he was travelling the world, playing and learning with musicians of
many other countries. In the mid-1970's
he met
Paul Reps,
co-author (with Nyogen Senzaki) of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, who was then in his 80's. Ted was
profoundly impressed and touched by the spirit of this diminuitive but
powerful human being and through "reps" came to the teachings of
Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan,
who had taken reps as a mureed or student in the Sufi
way, in the 1920's, in California and given him the
name Saladin. Ted began an intense study of Zen Buddhist philosophy and
sufism which was to culminate in the mid-80's in an "accidental" trip to
India in company with his wife, Karen, and their two young daughters, Chaya
and Nika. Just before leaving, Ted also "by accident" discovered that his
beloved Inayat Khan was buried in Delhi, where they were due to disembark.
So within the first few days of arriving in India, Ted and his family paid
a visit to the dargah or burial place of
Hazrat Nizamuddin
Aulia, a revered 13th century sufi saint near whose shrine Inayat's dargah
is also located. There, Ted was invited to offer music at the shrine and
met the man who was to become his murshid or teacher in
the Sufi path. Over the next few months Ted was initiated, inwardly and
outwardly, into the Chishti silsilah or line of sufism and
given the name Baba Farid.
Photo of Paul Reps by Robert James circa 1978
Photo of Inayat Khan courtesy Sufi Order website, www.sufiorder.org
Chapter One
Table of Contents
Baba Farid has two albums of his songs available,
on cassette and CD,
Alchemy and
Border Crossings
Email: babafar@vcn.bc.ca