Host: Is spiritual music a path into the heart, perhaps for our culture particularly at this time?
Sri Chinmoy: Certainly. Not only for your culture, it is for every culture since time immemorial because music helps us abundantly in our life of aspiration. Very recently, I wrote
God the Supreme Musician. Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of it here. Otherwise, I could have read out. Is it here?
Host: It's coming, I think. I must say about music, as you speak . . .
Sri Chinmoy: I have written about Eastern music and Western music, and how music helps us in our spiritual life.
Lex: Because Paul has been playing music, the music of Baba Ram Dass, and it cuts through a certain amount of intellectual concern.
Paul: I had to come from my house in Brooklyn here and usually I have to go on the subway, which often scrambles my mind and my concentration. And I sang all the way here, you know, and it was as if I'd passed through the subway almost as if it were a very brief tunnel. And as you were saying before, as you were speaking, I can still hear the music of your chorus.
Lex: Because it's so beautiful. Did you have something you would read to us?
Sri Chinmoy: Yes. With your kind permission, I would like to read out something about music, what role music plays in our spiritual life. Now, to start with:
(Sri Chinmoy reads out)
"God the Musician knows that music is spirituality, music is Immortality. Man the musician thinks that music is sensuality, music is mortality. This is how we take music."
"God the Musician knows that His Music is His transcendental Self-communion. Man the musician thinks that his music is his world's lifelong companion."
"God the Musician is divinely and eternally mysterious. Man the musician is humanly, temporarily marvellous."
"God's Music tells us that music is the realisation of the universal Soul. Man's music tells us that music is the aspiration of the individual soul."
"My God the Supreme Musician has two families. One is in the East, the other in the West. God tells His Eastern children, precisely, His Indian children, that music is the soul's purity. God tells His Western children that music is life's beauty. He tells His Eastern children that music is the fulfilling rest at the bottom of the life-sea. He tells His Western children that music is the dance of the multitudinous waves of the life-sea."
"He tells His Eastern children: My children, among you those who can run will run, those who can march will march and those who can walk will walk towards your destined goal. He tells His Western children: My children, I want you all to stay together. I want you all to run together towards your destined goal."
"He tells His Eastern children: My children, what you have is a one-pointed and unbroken chain of unity. That is good. He tells His Western children: My children, what you have is the unity in diversity. That is great."
"He tells His Eastern children: My children, what you have is your dream's poetry, what you have is your reality's literature. He tells His Western children: My children, what you have is your dream's arithmetic, what you have is your reality's mathematics."
"Here we are all seekers, seekers of the infinite Truth. I wish to tell you that Beethoven was also a genuine seeker. Some of you are consumed with the desire to arouse and awaken your Kundalini so that you can have occult powers to perform miracles. Well, I wish to tell you that you do not have to practise any specific spiritual discipline in order to awaken your Kundalini. Beethoven is a striking example. His soulful music of the other world did awaken his Kundalini. You try with your own soul's music. I assure you that you, too, will succeed."
"Music is the Vedic bird in us. This bird is called Suparna. The bird divine flies in the welkin of Infinity, through Eternity, with the message of Immortality."
"Here on earth, we do notice that the birds have the capacity to sing in endless measure, whereas the human beings try to create or develop this capacity. Tagore defends us, India's greatest poet:"
"To the birds you gave songs, the birds gave you songs in return."
"You gave me only a voice, yet asked for more, I sing."
