Learning To Sing
Posted November 13th, 2009 by tejvan_13
(#24108)
Before joining Sri Chinmoy's path, my experience of singing amounted to little more than a few short songs on the football terraces. Something along the lines of 'We are Leeds' (repeat 164 times) or "Who ate all the pies?" - I can't really remember but, it wasn't exactly Bach.
Anyway, life can change quickly and in my last year of university I find myself immersed in the wonder of meditation and the spiritual life. My preconceived notions of spirituality seemed to preclude singing. But, as I soon learnt, singing was an integral part of Guru's path. Immediately, I was struck by the soulful and moving nature of music, and much to my own surprise realised how much soulful singing could change and inspire a more soulful consciousness.
I wasn't a great singer, but my centre was kindly tolerant of an enthusiastic singer, gradually learning to sing in tune and in time. In my first few years, I learnt many songs, choosing those which moved me the most. I loved it and found the melodies reverberating in the most unlikely situations - cycling on my bike, even going shopping in the supermarket.
For a few years, my good habit of learning new songs fell by the wayside as other things came into my life. But, recently, I was trying to find a way to rekindle the inner search, the inner aspiration, and singing definitely helped to create a lot of newness in my daily sadhana. I began re-learing old forgotten songs - it was great, rather akin to finding again a lost friend. I surprised myself at how many songs I had once learnt.
Also, with the help of many of the marvellous CDs by disciples, (on view at http://www.radiosrichinmoy.org/) I've also been finding new songs to learn. Once you hear a song well performed by a good singing group, it becomes much easier to learn it.
As well as the joy of singing, I can't finish without mentioning some of the breathtaking singing performances of Sri Chinmoy. Some of Guru's singing, simply blew me away on first hearing it. So much power and soulfulness!
http://www.radiosrichinmoy.org/sri_chinmoy/singing
~
Tejvan
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Yes, yes, yes Tejvan!
The power of singing Guru's music is unbelievable!
There are times when I feel that I just cannot meditate. Perhaps my mind is too restless, or I'm just not feeling meditative with too many things reeling through my head from my workday,
So instead I start singing. And once I've finished a few songs I'm absolutely hooked in and I can easily sing for an hour, and at the end of that hour I am absolutely flying! Then suddenly meditation is no problem.
No matter what the mental problem, singing Guru's music can fix it.
I like to think of singing Guru's songs as taking a most potent homeopathic remedy. It goes right to the root of the problem, and gently removes it.
For anyone who has not purchased the book and CD set of 50 of Guru's favorite songs that was being sold in NY in August, you absolutely must! When I sing with the CD I feel like I am not singing alone, and it really helps me.
Keep up the singing Tejvan!
Purnakama
for me, singing Guru's songs is like shortcut to meditation. It's really effective. Music has such tremendous effect on our consciousness, it's really powerful. So listening to the right kind of music is so important.