Music plays an indispensable role in the spiritual quest of Sri Chinmoy’s students. “When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest”, explains Sri Chinmoy in his book ‘God the Supreme Musician’. “It climbs up and enters into something beyond. This Beyond is constantly trying to help us, guide us, mould us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soulful music, or when we play a soulful piece of music, we feel a kind of inner thrill in our entire existence, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined.”
Meditation functions with Sri Chinmoy will often have a diverse range of musical performances: there are some groups and singers which will perform every week. In addition, when Sri Chinmoy’s students from all around the world visit him in New York in April and August, there will be performances from every country as well as instrumental performances from Sri Chinmoy’s outstanding musician-students from all corners of the globe.
On Radio Sri Chinmoy, 44 tracks have just been posted which nicely capture the flavour and diverse nature of these performances. The tracks were recorded between June and September 2007, with the majority of the tracks recorded in August when many international groups performed. The performances are mostly arrangements of Sri Chinmoy’s songs, but there is also performances of songs by the immortal Rabindranath Tagore sung by Rintu Chakravarty and some traditional baoul singing by brothers Ranjit and Unmesh Swanson. For these tracks we are very grateful to Kamalakanta Nieves, who edits radiosrichinmoy.org and is responsible for the recording of many of the tracks, and Sumangali Morhall, the webmaster of Radio Sri Chinmoy. You can listen to the music tracks here…