For me, music is pure magic; it is the most direct connection between the physical world and the spiritual world.  I believe that's what drew me to music in the first place. It is a doorway into the unknown and the unknowable.

Guru speaks the language of music more perfectly than any human being has ever spoken this language on Earth. And Guru has expanded the universe, through the music. If you can imagine music itself as a universe, Guru has expanded the boundaries of that universe far, far beyond any previous conception of what music could be or could achieve in this world.

For me, Guru has so many ways of teaching. Music is such a direct and powerful way that Guru uses to teach us in ways that words can never express. I've always been very, very moved not only by Guru's songs and Guru's music, but also by everything that Guru said and wrote about music. The most beautiful thing I ever heard Guru say about music was a talk that Guru gave in Moscow. Guru’s talk on “Music and Song.” It was so moving because when Guru was speaking, he was embodying the truth of his words and they entered into the very core of my being. That particular lecture that Guru gave, to me, is the most profound utterance that has ever been spoken on the subject of music.  

Each human being is a musician. He either plays on his mind-drum or he plays on his heart-flute or he plays on both. He himself plays, hears, appreciates and admires his own creations that come from an unknown Source.

Each human being is a singer. In his thoughts, in his ideas, in his actions, in his words and deeds, in his sound-life and silence-life, he carries sweetness, tenderness and soul-stirring or heart-rending melodies of the Unknown. He himself is a singer, listener and admirer of his own songs.

God is the Supreme Musician. God is the Supreme Singer. He created the Universe from His Vision-Music. He feeds and nourishes the Universe with His Revelation and Manifestation-Songs.

Sri Chinmoy
Excerpt from a lecture at Russian Gnesins’ Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia, 31 May 2004

 

Guru speaks about having inner beings, emanations. It seems to me that Guru's songs are his emanations. They are, they are Guru.

Every song that Guru has written, he puts part of himself into it, a part of his consciousness, part of his heart, part of his aspiration and part of his love and concern for humanity. He packs all of these qualities into each song, and he releases these songs into the world, like letting a dove go into the world. These songs bring Guru's light and Guru's wisdom and Guru's sweetness and Guru's power directly into our realm of consciousness. So, in a very real sense, Guru's songs are Guru.

The more we approach Guru's songs, the more we sing Guru's songs with utmost feeling and devotion, then the more the songs give to us, and every song has a limitless light and wisdom that it can teach us. You can sing one song, the same song every day, and each day the song will reveal a deeper truth and beauty and perfection.

Guru's songs are also his creations. They are also his children, and like any parent, any creator, Guru pours all of his love and all of his concern into every song. Now, if we are Guru's children and Guru's songs are also Guru’s children, that means the songs are our brothers and sisters.

We embody Guru’s light, and Guru's songs embody Guru's light in different colours, different shapes, different forms, but we are all from the same source—Guru's songs and Guru's disciples—we are all here together to manifest Guru as light.

So, I feel if we approach the songs as our brothers and sisters, then there is a very sweet, intimate sense that we are very, very—that we know each other very deeply. It is as though we have all come into the world together, Guru's songs and us, to sing and dance together in Guru's Heart-Garden. We love each other and we need each other—the songs and the disciples. We need Guru's songs because by singing Guru's songs, they show us deeper levels of ourselves, they reveal to us levels of light and sweetness and joy that we didn't know that we have. But Guru's songs also need us. Because the song is not a song unless it is sung. So, Guru's songs must be sung. Otherwise, they cannot express and manifest all the lights and all the truth and all the power that they embody for this world.

That is not to say that we have to all be singing Guru's songs on the radio or in the concert hall, but we do have to sing because every time anybody sings any of Guru's songs wholeheartedly and with love and with commitment, then that song has an opportunity to shine and to spread its particular light to the world.

I feel that Guru has brought forth the soul of music itself and is showing this to the world for the world's benefit. And music itself will be forever grateful to Guru because Guru has liberated music from its confinement in all the human musical traditions that we had created. Guru has liberated music so that it can express its true soul, its real spiritual self. Guru has done this using the simplest of means; Guru has returned music to its absolutely essential elements of melody.

My music embodies
The fragrance of my heart.
My songs embody
The glories of my life.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Giti mala, 2000