The universe loves music which includes trees, birds, water, air, animals and human. Many researchers including musicologists have highlighted the connection between music and nature. While trees and birds may not experience music in the same way humans and animals do, studies suggest that birds are attracted to and even learn to sing in response to human music, and music can create a calming and enhancing environment for them. Additionally, the rhythms and structures of bird song have been found to share similarities with human musical compositions, suggesting a fundamental link between music and the natural world.

Many dogs enjoy listening to music, and some even have preferences for certain genres or instruments and certain singers.  Studies have shown that music can have a calming effect on dogs, reducing stress and anxiety.  My pet, a German Shepard whose name was Momo used to love Modemed Rafi’s songs “ Dil ka bhavar kare pukar”, “Abhi na jao chodakar”, “Likhe jo khat tuze”.   Momo used to literally enjoy these songs, I would listen to songs with him. He was a good companion for enjoying music.  

Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, a renowned Indian classical vocalist, was known for his strong bond with his dog, Tipu Miyan, who was also his musical companion. Tipu Miyan would listen to Ustad Khan’s music during his practice and even accompany him on stage, Tipu Miyan  drew  attention for his unique “singing” during concerts. People would throng for Ustad Khan’s concert for watching the vocalist support by Tipu Miyan. Ustad and Tipu Miyan even shared  food and drink. Miyan was Ustad’s constant companion.

Ustad  Abdul Karim Khan Saheb is known as the father of modern Kirana Gharana. Khan Sahib got his initial training from his uncle Ustad Abdullah Khan and father Ustad Kale Khan. Abdul Karim Khan’s Gayaki (style of singing) was a merging of pure Kirana Gharana Gayaki, Carnatic style of singing and elements of Gwalior Gayaki which he picked up from Ustad Rahimat Khan Sahib of Gwalior Gharana. 

Tipu Miyan would listen attentively to Ustad Khan’s music, and Ustad Khan even gave him lessons. Tipu Miyan was known for his ability to “sing” along with Ustad Khan’s music, and he was often showcased during concerts, especially when the king of Satara was present. There’s a famous story about a concert in Satara where Tipu Miyan, by mistake, was listed as a performer. Ustad Khan, despite the mistake, had Tipu Miyan join him on stage, where he “sang” in tune with Ustad Khan’s music. When Khan Saheb learned the King of Satara would be attending, he told Tipu Miyan “इज्ज़त की बात है, you have to sing before an eminent audience,” and Tipu Miyan, in response, reportedly sang along with Khan Saheb, mirroring his notes. Khan Saheb regularly gave Tipu Miyan lessons on music. Whenever Ustad sang emotional mukhadas and ragas, Tipu Miyan would shed tears.  HMV has recorded Ustad Abdul Karim Khans music.

Though HMV’s logo is not linked to Tipu Miyan and Ustad Khan, I connect to the logo with this history. In 1898, Francis Barraud painted logo for His Master’s Voice, which depicted his late dog, Nipper, listening to a phonograph. The painting and subsequent trademark rights were sold in 1899 to the Gramophone Company, using it on its sound equipment, and LPs. In 1909, created their His Master’s Voice record label. In 1909, The Gramophone Company began using the dog and gramophone trademark on its record labels, replacing the former “recording Angel” trademark. The company rapidly became known as His Master’s Voice due to the prominence of that phrase around the top perimeter of the label.

Music can affect human health and well-being. This sparked an expanding field of study that focused on how music might improve animal welfare and facilitate human-animal interaction. Birds have a vocal organ called the syrinx in their larynx that holds their vocal cords deeper into their bodies. While humans only have one set of vocal cords, songbirds have two sets, allowing them to generate two distinct sounds simultaneously and in unison. The term “bird song” refers, in non-technical terms, to the musical bird sounds that humans can hear. Loud shouts from monkeys are the most probable choice for the model of predecessor for human vocalisation due to structural and behavioural similarities in all non-human primates’ vocalisation.

Music is one of the main functions of living beings. Even plants grow faster when light music is played near them. Although making music is a distinctly human activity, research shows that animals have the capacity to listen to and even enjoy some types of music.

Conclusion

A 2002 study of shelter dogs conducted by Dr. Deborah Wells, a psychologist and animal behaviourist, found that dogs did indeed react to music. Award-winning concert pianist and canine musician Lisa Spector runs a nonprofit organization called “Music in Shelters.” She has donated CDs of playing her piano to over 1,500 shelters worldwide. The soothing classical music played at dog-specific tempos helps reduce barking and creating a more peaceful atmosphere that encourages visitors to stay longer in the shelters with the canines.

Our values are important because they help us to grow as humans. All decisions we make are a replication of our values and beliefs, and they direct our actions. Our values help us reach specific goals in life. Each endeavour of ours is directed by our values. Values are the core of the human character.

Milton Rokeach (1918 – 1988) was a Polish-American psychologist. He taught at various Universities in America. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Rokeach as the 85th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Rokeach had conducted a well-known experiment in which he observed the interaction between three mentally ill patients at the Ypsilanti State Mental Hospital, Michigan, USA. The hospital is closed since 2006. Rokeach found in his experiment that the three men on whom he investigated personal values, each claimed to be Jesus Christ. Rokeach confronted them with one another’s inconsistent claims while encouraging them to interact personally as a support group. Rokeach also attempted to manipulate other aspects of their misconceptions by inventing messages from imaginary characters. He did not, as he had hoped, provoke any lessening of the patients’ delusions. But, his inventing messages did bring a number of changes in their beliefs, which Rokeach documented.

While initially, the three patients quarrelled over who was holier and reached the point of disagreements in mental and physical forms, eventually each explained away the other two as being patients with a mental disability. By the way, it is interesting to note that the graduate students who worked with Rokeach on the project had been strongly critical of the morality of the project because of the amount of lying and manipulation by Rokeach and the amount of distress experienced by the patients. 

As time passed, the men started to humour one another’s delusions. They even became friends, defending each other against other patients. They stopped arguing and talked about routine things and avoided the subject of Jesus entirely. I like to quote this experiment in my lecturing on Organizational Behaviour because when we accept realities, the majority of disillusions vanish allowing us to accept ourselves with our plusses and minuses.    

Rokeach added a comment in the final revision of the book that, while the experiment did not cure any of the three Christs, “It did cure me of my godlike delusion that I could manipulate them out of their beliefs.”

For most people, their central beliefs about the world and the physical reality around them cannot be questioned and are harder to shake.  In the political world, the politicians take advantage of people’s beliefs in their religions; the belief in and worship of superhuman controlling power, especially their God or gods cannot be shaken. Politicians play one religion against the other to rule the society.  Values form the basis for the formation, continuity and development of each culture.

We see that even today the ongoing battle between ardent creationists and people defending scientific theories about evolution.  Creationist arguments are notoriously erring based on a misinterpretation of evolutionary science and evidence. It is difficult to shake the values of people suffering from delusions that they are someone else; disproving it can be extremely difficult since they will simply reject any external evidence. 

In the case of the three patients at the centre of the experiment by Rokeach probably all three were suffering from an extremely strong central delusion that reflected how they viewed reality itself.  Identity is at the core of what we believe about ourselves; it is most important how we look at ourselves; how we see ‘our’ world which is based on our strong beliefs. In the business world also a proper understanding of culture is essential for developing and maintaining business relationships, negotiating deals, or conducting sales or marketing campaigns. Businesses and people are getting more and more global, providing much impetus to the popular saying “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

Every individual and every organization is involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The decisions we make are a reflection of our values and beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose. That purpose is the satisfaction of our individual and collective organizational needs.

Values describe the personal qualities we choose to symbolize to guide our actions; the sort of person we want to be; the manner in which we treat ourselves and others, and our interaction with the world around us. They provide the general guidelines for our conduct. Values in short are that which are good, desirable, or worthwhile. Values are the motive behind purposeful action. Values are essential to ethics. Ethics is concerned with human actions, and the choice of those actions. Ethics evaluate those actions and the values that underlie them. It determines which values should be pursued, and which should not.  

There are three types of values: 

Character Values

Character values are the universal values that you need to exist as a good human being.

Work Values

Work values are values that help you find what you want in a job and give you job satisfaction.

Personal Values

Personal values are the things that are important to us, the characteristics and behaviours that motivate us and guide our decisions.

In 1973, Rokeach published his book “The Nature of Personal Values” the book occupied the final years of his career. In it, he suggested that a relatively few “terminal human values” are the goals that a person would like to achieve during his or her lifetime. These values vary among different groups of people in different cultures. These values can predict a wide variety of culture. Rokeach’s theory led to a series of experiments in the next decades starting in ’80s.