
by Nayaswami Rambhakta
Author’s Note: I wrote this to demonstrate an important spiritual principle: that God’s guidance is always individual. In His efforts to bring us into ever-greater happiness and freedom from suffering, God is wonderfully creative in the way He makes use of the resources at hand. – Rambhakta
I showered and shaved and strolled to the Ananda community’s music studio to sing, arriving at 4:15 a.m. I felt awful – it was something I’d eaten. My body was dragging and I wasn’t certain how long I’d be able to sing.
I opened the forScore app and decided that it would make sense to choose short, peppy songs to boost my energy.
As often happens when I offer my practice to God, my eyes lit on a song that I wouldn’t have thought of choosing: “Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto.”
I sang the melody and harmony several times with genuine pleasure. As with all of Swami Kriyananda’s music, it carried an undercurrent of joy. Cherry Blossoms is sweet and innocent – my spirits were lifted.
Here is the remainder of the morning’s playlist, as I followed the natural inclination of my heart.
Be Free Inside
Fischerweise (“The Fisherman’s Ditty” – a song by Franz Schubert with lyrics by his friend Franz von Schlechta).
This song needs a bit of explanation. I first heard it in the Robert Downey, Jr. film Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, where Sherlock Holmes visits the villain, Professor Moriarty, in his University of Cambridge study, and a recording of Fischerweise plays in the background.
The two antagonists exchange barbed remarks over the closing line: “Gib auf nur deine Tücke – den Fisch betrügst du nicht!” (“Give up your clever trickery – you will not fool the fish!”) You can watch Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing it wonderfully on YouTube here.
The melody is delightful and the words are sweet – it’s a cheerful, happy tune. I had felt that it was chosen for me by Swamiji, who was always very much in favor of happiness and good cheer.
A Vedic astrologer had told me I’d been under heavy Saturn influences for fifty years, from age thirteen to sixty-three. Swamiji often tried to help me see the happy side of the spiritual life. He would make absurd jokes, for example – as when he said to me, “Rambhakta, do you think Roy Guggggggliotta eats lasagggggna?” Roy’s name is pronounced “Gulliotta” in Italian, without the hard “g’s.”
I remember a letter I received from Brother Bhaktananda in the late 1960s, in which he urged me to temper my over-serious approach. “Learn to relax and enjoy the spiritual path,” he said. At the time, my fear was that if I relaxed I might slip off the path forever.
When it came to deciding if I should include Fischerweise in my practice, I felt some trepidation, as I didn’t want to wander too far from the spiritual purpose of my singing.
For months Divine Mother had awakened me at 4 a.m., often when I would have preferred to sleep in. Formerly, I had chanted in the morning, but had begun to sense a change in the air, and when I held up the idea of singing Ananda’s songs, the guidance that came surprised me – I felt that I was being urged to sing the melodies that Swamiji had written for Shakespeare’s lyrics. I loved the songs, but I’d considered them a light diversion, and not part of the “serious” Ananda music canon.
Yet I soon noticed that I was becoming a more cheerful, upbeat and happy person. I discovered that the songs held the same nectar as the Ananda “heavy hitters” – the Oratorio, the spiritual folk songs (“Come Gather Round,” etc.), and the serious singles: “To Death I’m a Stranger,” “Life Flows On,” “Through All Trials,” “I Live Without Fear.”.
At any rate, I felt that Fischerweise deserved a place in my “Sweetness” folder. Here’s the rest of the morning’s repertoire:
Free At Last (A wonderful song from The Peace Treaty.)
Give Me A Light
Invocation
Of His Dreams (A seldom-sung children’s song.)
All That Glisters
Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind
Oh, Mistress Mine
Spring Song (The lyrics are worldly, but it’s a hoot to sing!)
Under The Greenwood Tree (A song I resisted singing but felt I should, finding it eventually immensely cheering.)
When I Was A Boy
Where The Bee Sucks
The Secret of Laughter
“Secret of Laughter” took me over the hill. I had wanted to dedicate part of my practice to sending positive vibrations as a counter to the riots that were gripping the nation, and Secret of Laughter stepped up. As I sang, I was filled with a joy that spread to bless the air. I imagined it spreading over all of northern California and then beyond. Swami Kriyananda often said that Ananda’s greatest service to the world is not to convert others or beat them with our beliefs, but quietly and simply to radiate God’s love to all.
Later, when I sat to meditate, I felt God using me as a conduit for His bliss, which I felt was the answer to negativity in all its forms, and the most effective way to heal hearts gripped by anger.
My heart flowed also with blessings for America, whose heart is expressed not by its politicians or those who offer outrage without solutions, but by its everyday spiritual warriors, present in every town, who offer their lives lovingly to effect lasting good and peace for all.
After singing Swamiji’s music for several years, I again felt a change was in order. When I asked inwardly, “What’s next?” I heard Swamiji’s voice very clearly and amusingly: “I don’t want to hear any music coming out of that studio in the morning but chanting!”
And that’s another story.