As many of you may know, Swami Kriyananda, now 84, has had some recent physical setbacks, including a visit to the emergency room last Tuesday after a fall that injured his hip. He was scheduled to be at a tea in Los Angeles on Saturday, and was heartbroken to cancel for the first time in his life an appearance of such magnitude. He didn’t even know if he would be able to make it to his publicized talk on Sunday at the Ford Amphitheater. On Sunday morning we were overjoyed to hear the news that he was miraculously on his way, either by the Grace of God, a Herculean exertion of will power, or a combination of both. I wasn’t sure in what condition he would arrive after what must have been a painful trip. However, he entered the Ford Amphitheater with great energy, and was greeted with much joy by all who were already seated in the amphitheater (his path to the backstage area was visible to all). The pictures you see of his talk at the Ford Amphitheater mark his first ever appearance in a wheelchair.
Divine Mother gave him a grand entrance, coinciding perfectly with a musical climax halfway through our preshow performance of Life Is a Quest for Joy. The next 10 minutes of the piece were some of the most special I’ve ever played. It was as if his presence fueled a spark within me, granting me the boon of tangibly feeling God’s loving presence expanding from my heart.
Having been a performer for the past 25 years, I’ve been backstage with celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Collins, Julian Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Elton John, and have often seen inconsistencies with their public personas, ranging from peaceful to exuberant, dull to vulgar.
Choir performing “Come Gather Round”
As I walked backstage last Sunday after finishing our piece, I saw Swamiji ready to go. No trace of his recent ordeal showed on his face, as he radiated joy, enthusiasm, love, and a deep sense of peace. I was simply stunned – this was no facade, as there were just a handful of us in his presence, quietly waiting.
There comes a deep joy in life when you recognize someone not necessarily for their relationship to you (a wife, a friend, a son or daughter), but for what they have brought to your life. Unlike others, I have not been in the position to be close personally to Swami Kriyananda. In fact, one day years ago I decided to try to feel towards him as I would a dear personal loved one. An hour later I passed him in the Crystal Hermitage, and I silently reached out to him with that personal kind of energy. I was amazed at how completely limiting it felt, trying to relate to him only on a superficial (egoic) level. I realized finally that I needed to go much deeper, and since then have deepened my attunement with him not by any outward relationship, but by tuning into his vibration and inspiration, especially through music. Since then, numerous times I’ve been overwhelmed at how empty my life would be without his teaching, his attunement with Yogananda, his music, and his incredible example of living for God.
For those few moments before he went onstage, I saw him not for my personal friend, or a celebrity, or even the founder of Ananda. What was overwhelmingly evident to me was a disciple’s great joy and devotion in serving his Guru – it is all he lives for now. It shone through his eyes, his face, with a force that could be tangibly felt.
I went back onstage to conduct the choir, and as we ended our set with his song Dark Eyes, you may be wondering why I was hardly moving my arms. I could once again feel that same presence of the power of love, coming from our singing, and was trying to expand that bubble of inspiration to fill the amphitheater. Could any of you feel it, I wonder?
Choir performing “Brothers”
During his talk, I sat downstairs with the choir in the green room and listened. Over the PA system I could hear his heartfelt emotion as he spoke of the beginning of his journey to live for God alone. I continued to dive deep into his vibration, not noticing how well he was articulating his words, or where his talk may be going from one thought to another. I was simply overjoyed that he had made the trip, and was here to serve all those awaiting his presence.
At the end of the show, we came back onstage to sing Peace with him, and despite his evident fatigue, still chose to sing with us, with surprising vigor. As the audience sang the final “Amen” with us, the amphitheater was vibrantly resonating with a Divine Presence that could not but open wide that hardest of hearts.
After he was taken backstage, he remained in that uplifted bliss, radiating joy as he blessed Neale Donald Walsch and his wife and a few others before leaving for his new home in Los Angeles. I know in his heart of hearts he couldn’t help but feel Yogananda’s blessings from all the energy it took to make “The Miracle Show” (as Sean has been dubbing it) the great success that it was.
Thank you Swamiji, for your continued example of a life lived completely for God, no matter what the cost.
What an incredible week we had! Here are some recordings from our concert last Monday night:
Salute The Great Paper Flag (Swami’s one political song!)
Here is a beautiful instrumental, Love Is the Aspiration Toward Perfection played by Craig Roberts, Bhagavati, myself, Todd Billingsley, and Mukti Deranja.
And another, Friendship Is Acting In Freedom, featuring Dharmini Iyer and Bhagavati on flute, Cindy Gottfried on guitar.
Another highlight of the evening was the performance of the Life Is the Quest for Joy Suite, with solos by Paean Lee and Ben Skillman. Here is an excerpt of the last 5 minutes:
And finally, a beautiful performance of Life Is a Dream, featuring Ramesha Nani and Parkle Lee:
My heartfelt thanks to all the musicians and singers who made this wonderful evening possible, and of course, to dear Swamiji, without whom none of this would have been possible!
CDs of the concert are available upon request - music@ananda.org
I’ll be giving a live webinar on Thursday night on just this subject (which will include a first ever interactive kirtan with tabla, guitar, and harmonium) and wanted to give a little background of what chanting has meant to me.
When I came to Ananda and experienced chanting for the first time, my heart was wonderstruck at how so few words with such a simple melody could have such a profound effect upon me. Tears flowed as my heart was cracked open with a crowbar.
How different this was from my experience in the Presbyterian church in which we’d typically sing three hymns, all with 3 or 4 different verses that kept our attention wrapped up in the words of each line. Nobody ever explained hymn singing to me, and as I stood next to my mom sharing the hymnal, I got the feeling that this was something that was expected of me, and it was simply something one did as a good Christian. Was God expecting us to sing to Him? I couldn’t quite get the deeper meaning, and occupied myself with learning the harmony parts - at least that was pleasing enough.
If chanting is something new to you, please, please understand this: God is not expecting us to sing to Him, but rather wants us to sing with Him, and to open ourselves to His presence. The chanting that we have to offer is simply an opportunity to experience for ourselves firsthand God’s presence. It’s not something that we expect people to do simply because it ought to be done, but is a meal offered for anyone to partake. What we get out of it is up to us, and what a feast it can be.
This evening I taught a Music and Meditation class for the Meditation Teacher Training class at the Expanding Light. For some, chanting was a new encounter, and my job was to give them as dynamic experience as I could of what chanting is all about. At the end of the class, my consciousness was completely transformed and I found myself blissed out - one of the benefits of leading such a class!
My approach is this: in order to convincingly convey something to someone, I must bring it alive as completely as possible. For instance, if I were to try to share my enthusiasm about the new ice cream store in Nevada City, I’m going to try to bring to mind (and mouth!) the experience as vividly as I can so that I can use the best words to convey the experience (”the lemon custard was divine: creamy, sweet, and refreshing!”). But no matter how many words I use, I don’t think I can leave you with the exact taste in your mouth. And seeing as finished off the cup, all I can do is give you directions (Treats - 110 York Street!).
With chanting, we get to go beyond the realm of words into that of vibration, and with dynamic energy on my part and receptivity on the your own, I can help lead you to a direct experience for yourself. How is that possible? For me, I must again feel the vibration of each chant so powerfully that it can’t help but aid in awakening those same vibrations within your own self. And as we chant together, you must be as open as possible to the experience. If I slightly dampen my cello strings, no matter how hard I try to produce a freely resonating sound, it will remain muted. As I feel and broadcast (both vibrationally and digitally), I’m offering through my own state of receptivity what is possible for you to experience - bliss divine, eternal love, devotion, peace, deep calmness, and power. If my hope is for you to touch a little of what chanting has to offer, I must be an ever deeper channel through which this all can flow. And that challenge is what leaves me residing in bliss.
Here is a recording of I Am the Bubble from the Crystal Clarity album, Bliss Chants. As you listen, try to feel what is happening on a deeper level than just the auditory - go within and feel for God’s presence as Bliss. The more you can open to the experience, the more you can resonate with joy.
“…listen to my music.” We had a very deep evening of honoring Swami Kriyananda on his 84th birthday - I wish you all could have been there, for the vibration of the entire evening was very much in keeping with where Swami’s consciousness is right now - deep bliss. I hope you can take a few minutes to listen to these songs that we sang this evening, to feel a little of the spirit of who Swami Kriyananda is.
Blessed the Life
God’s Call Within
Thy Will
Home Is a Green Hill
It was a simple, but very deep evening, with a little chanting and these four songs before Jyotish and Devi gave very moving, inspiring talks. The evening ended with a half an hour of meditation, and we left with some Prasad, a sweet morsel offered to Master for his blessing.
Speaking personally, my life would be empty without the gift of Swamiji’s music. It has brought such meaning, purpose, direction, and bliss into my life. I simply don’t know how I could bear to live without it.
Thank you Swamiji, for ALL you have given to us, in every aspect of our lives, and for your continued example of living for God. I’ll end with a quote from God’s Call Within:
Leave to the weak his craven life!
To the coward leave his dreaming!
O my saint, wake up! Reclaim the light.
Seek the truth behind all seeming.
When you think about the wave of yoga that has swept the nation, you may not immediately make any connections to Christianity. In fact, many people may indeed be drawn to the yoga movement simply because it has no outward ties to any formal religious dogmas.
Yet for me, my spiritual journey has always been Christ centered, and remains so to this day, where I find myself living in the midst of those who I can readily call “true Christians.”
I have had the great blessing to be born into a God-loving family - in fact, my father is a Presbyterian Pastor. Some of my earliest, fondest memories are evenings filled with singing and fellowship at our house with the church youth group, led by my father. This was in the 70’s, so songs like “Pass It On”, and others from “Godspell” filled our house with vibrations of love and happiness, and being so young, I could embrace it whole heartedly and tangibly feel the music’s effect on my soul. I had a few great blessings of Christ’s presence as a child, made known to me by an overwhelming vibration of love in my heart.
As I grew up, I became very comfortable with being part of the church, but never really identified myself as an overt Christian. My peers didn’t really talk about God much, and I wasn’t going to push my beliefs, perhaps from a fear of persecution from a unidentifiable past. I was once asked if I was going to be a minister like my dad and his own father, but I honestly couldn’t see myself following in those particular footsteps.
It wasn’t until I was out of graduate school and living a married life that I found myself needing to feed a spiritual hunger that had been growing within me for all of my life, and became deeply involved in our local Presbyterian Church in Evansville, Indiana. I appreciated our pastor’s words from the pulpit, but I was growing more and more disillusioned with how few people, if any, were actually living the life that Christ had offered.
Deep questions began to haunt me: How many Christians, if Christ were to come again into our midst, would “drop their nets” and follow him? Where could I find souls filled with a greater power of love, of humility, of the unalloyed joy of Christ’s presence? And most pressing, what must I do to become a true Christian?
With my father as my nearest and dearest role model, I whole heartedly offered my energy in service, for that was what I had seen as the ultimate role of being a Christian. I engaged myself in many committees, served as a youth director and sang in the choir, but after 6 months of strenuous service with no means to balance it, I ended up exhausted and sick.
It was at that critical point where my wife prodded me to take a long, deep look at my life.
We were reading metaphysical books that mentioned meditation, but I had no idea what it was or how to do it. At the bookstore, the saleswomen pointed out book after book, but then perked up and said - “Oh, but you must read this - it’s a classic!” On the cover of this book was a face that seemed so familiar, that called out to me with Divine Love and Friendship. The book, as you may have guessed, was Autobiography of a Yogi. I took it home and immediately engrossed myself, on the way to finally finding the answers to all my questions and the clear path to the fulfillment of my spiritual longings.
I was thrilled to find in the book not a rejection of Christianity in favor of something new and different, but rather a very scientific explanation of how true Christianity and yoga are linked together. Countless stories of the Yogi-Christs fill the pages, bringing alive Christ’s message in a very vibrant relevance. I found myself strengthening my devotion to Christ, rather than turning away from my Christian upbringing. For those of you who haven’t yet read it, you can read it online or as a free Kindle edition download.
A few months later I entered the Ananda Church in Beaverton, Oregon for a Sunday Service, and immediately knew that I had found my true home. Everyone I met felt like an old friend, and as the service commenced, I once again felt the tangible presence of Christ making itself known to me as an overwhelming vibration of love in my heart. Tears of joy streamed down my face as I knew my life would never be the same again.
In the 14 years since then, I’ve fully embraced this path based on Christ’s greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart (devotion), with all your soul, with all your mind (concentration), and with all your strength (the inner Path of Kriya Yoga);
and Love Thy neighbor as Thyself.
Our spiritual teacher, Swami Kriyananda, has written a deeply meaningful book, Revelations of Christ, which offers the teachings of Christ from the experience and perspective of Paramhansa Yogananda. Swami Kriyananda continues to serve as an incredible example of a life lived for God alone.
I would also be deeply remiss if I didn’t mention the Oratorio Christ Lives that Swami Kriyananda has written, based on Christ’s life and the inspiration that he received while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Here are some recordings from our recent December performance at Mills College.
It is with great joy and gratitude that I continue to offer my life in service to God, following Christ’s teachings with the help of my Guru, until I find myself face to face with the Christ consciousness that has promised to meet me at the end of my quest.
It truly was a beautifully inspiring week of Inner Renewal, and I wanted to just quickly share some highlights from the concert on Saturday night. It was titled “A Musical Pilgrimage into God Communion”, and was filled with many very deep performances of some of Swami’s most sacred pieces.
Cloisters:
In the Temple of Isis:
Mother of Wisdom:
Make Us Channels of Thy Peace:
He Who Clothes the Field & May We Serve You:
God! God! God!
The Divine Romance:
I highly recommend listening to a larger work, Life Is the Quest For Joy, on the Inner Renewal Week page (I wasn’t able to upload here, due to size limitations).
It has been a blessed month indeed! Here are a few excerpts worth a listen:
First, from our Living Wisdom High School Concert on Friday, Dec 11th, a piece by John Rutter titled Mary’s Lullaby.
On Saturday, Dec 12th, I led an astounding performance of Swami Kriyananda’s Oratorio, Christ Lives! at Mills College in Oakland, in a beautiful chapel with marvelous acoustics! Here are a few choir pieces: Christ Has Come
Sing Out With Joy
When Human Hopes Toward Thee Aspire
Thy Light Within Us Shining
Then back at the village, on Sunday, Dec 13th, we had our World Brotherhood Day celebration, which included performances of: The Christ Child’s Asleep (studio recording)
And The Christmas Mystery (studio recording)
Here is a link to the video of many of the pieces performed that afternoon (Three Wise Men at the beginning, The Christ Child’s Asleep and Mother of Wisdom at 24:23).
On Sunday morning Dec 20th, we had our Christmas Sunday Service, led by Jyotish and Devi, which can be viewed by visiting our video page. It includes our children’s choir joining us at the beginning of the video for Christ Has Come and The Christmas Mystery. You’ll easily find my daughter - the only one not standing still!
That same evening we had our annual Christmas concert on Sunday, Dec 20th, which included performances of The Blue Danube, For Unto Us a Child Is Born, the Halleluiah Chorus, a visit by the Victorian Singers, and many of Swami Kriyananda’s Christmas pieces.
It truly has been a blessed month, and our wish is for you to carry with you these vibrations of Light, Love, Peace, and Joy with you throughout this coming year! May God Bless you all.
