{"id":1481,"date":"2024-05-10T16:49:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2024-05-10T16:49:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T16:49:36","slug":"conversations-with-ananda-ch-68-chaitanya-mahoney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/conversations-with-ananda-ch-68-chaitanya-mahoney\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations With Ananda — Ch. 68, Chaitanya Mahoney"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chaintanya<\/a>
Chaitanya leads chanting during a Guru Day celebration at the Ananda Community in Mountain View, California.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chaitanya has a lovely Irish tenor voice that he has offered in service to God who has inspired thousands. through him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Tell us how you got interested in singing.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I was at St. Francis de Sales High School in Columbus, Ohio. I think it was in my sophomore year that I tried out for a variety show and discovered that I could sing. I sat next to two guys, and one day at rehearsal they said, \u201cLet\u2019s start a barbershop quartet.\u201d<\/p>\n

We knew someone whose father was a barber shopper and we started learning the music, and I sang with them for seven years.<\/p>\n

At one point we were doing amusement park gigs in Cincinnati, and that\u2019s when I first saw Autobiography of a Yogi<\/em>. Then while we were doing a show in Washington, DC, I picked up a copy of the book.<\/p>\n

Later on, we were doing a summer gig at a Gay Nineties restaurant in Cape Cod, and it was making me unhappy because it wasn\u2019t what I thought I wanted to do, so I finally picked up the book and read it, a year after I had bought it, and that\u2019s when I got into spirituality.<\/p>\n

To cut a long and winding story short, I came to Ananda Village for a program, and I visited the boutique at The Expanding Light. Nakula was there, and I told him I wanted to buy some music. He asked me what kind of music I liked, and I told him I liked harmony, and he gave me The Joy Singers in Concert<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When I returned to upstate New York I listened to the tape and thought, \u201cOh, that\u2019s nice.\u201d But in truth, I thought it was kind of hokey. Then on the drive back from visiting friends in Montreal I listened to the tape again, and when I heard \u201cCloisters\u201d it really struck me \u2013 it hit my heart and I thought, \u201cWow!\u201d and on the two-hour drive I learned both parts and memorized them.<\/p>\n

Years later, I moved to Ananda Palo Alto, and I hadn\u2019t been there long when Kirtani said, \u201cYou ought to join the choir,\u201d and I remember turning to her and saying, \u201cIt\u2019s inevitable.\u201d [Laughs] That was 1990. I had lived at Ananda Village and worked at the dairy early in the year, so I\u2019m giving you the shortened version.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Did the Ananda music feel like a fit from the start?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> Oh, yes. After the \u201cCloisters\u201d experience I was hooked. I really like harmony and it\u2019s why I loved barbershop. We don\u2019t have the same \u201cring\u201d in our Ananda music, but of course you don\u2019t get the depth of spiritual experience from singing the stupid lyrics of the barbershop songs. [Laughs]<\/p>\n

I sang some barbershop recently, and it was fun, but I was mainly singing with the Ananda choir and an ensemble, plus doing solos and teaching. I did the barbershop as vocal training, because you have to be very accurate when you\u2019re singing those close harmonies.<\/p>\n

When Swami wrote the Oratorio, he came to Palo Alto and we gave a big public performance at the Mountain View Performing Arts Center. Some years later he wrote the recitatives, and while I was learning them I recorded myself, and I realized that there wasn\u2019t enough energy in my voice. So I kept recording and listening until I could change one song, then I would do the same for the next song until it had energy. I did that with all of the Oratorio songs, and it really changed my singing. I discovered that you need ten to twenty times more energy in your voice than you think you do. It\u2019s a kind of internal energy, and it\u2019s hard to describe it, because you have to experience it.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Did you feel it was a process of attuning your energy and consciousness to the music?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> Yes, absolutely. Swami gives us the melody, and when we tune into it we\u2019re really trying to get in front of the window that it came through, and the inspiration behind where that window is, and it takes a lot of energy to do that.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Is it a process, as you said, of going over and over a song until you find the inspiration?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> The process with the Oratorio was to raise enough energy so that I could get a flow going inside myself. But then there\u2019s always the issue of \u201cgetting out of the way.\u201d So there\u2019s a constant process of finding a balance between will power and surrender. But I didn\u2019t truly understand that until later.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you find there\u2019s a point where will power and surrender merge in a flow, where you feel you\u2019ve actually gotten out of the way?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> It does happen. I\u2019ve developed an exercise that helps me do that. I talk about it in the syllabus that I give the students when I teach singing classes. [See syllabus at the end of this conversation.]<\/p>\n

Most singers aren\u2019t conscious when they breathe, and when I talk to singers, it\u2019s the only thing I talk about. It\u2019s very simple. I urge them to be more conscious when they breathe, to breathe in through the heart, and to bring that energy up onto their face, and then it becomes prana <\/em>\u2013 spiritual energy. It\u2019s a packet of information that has its own intelligence and its own direction. It\u2019s always changing, depending on who\u2019s listening. Does that make sense?<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> It does, in a subtle way. I can see why it would be hard to talk about it.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I spent a lot of time writing the syllabus. The words didn\u2019t flow easily, but I kept revising it until I could say \u201cI like that.\u201d Everything that\u2019s in that syllabus is something I like. It\u2019s concise, but it says what my experience is, and what I can teach. My experience with the young students here at Ananda is that these things are teachable.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> That brings up another point. I\u2019ve learned the songs by listening to recordings of the tenor parts that you and Dambara made. First it\u2019s just scrambling to get the notes right, but then I begin to pick up the \u201cmelody\u201d that Swami wrote for the tenors. But beyond that, there\u2019s a quality in the way you and Dambara are singing, as if you\u2019re wholly immersed in the song. There are no distraction or doubts \u2013 all of your attention and energy is in the song. It\u2019s like a song \u201cbeing sung,\u201d where I\u2019m listening and I\u2019m not aware of any personality factors or distractions. I\u2019m wondering if that\u2019s a state you strive for consciously when you sing, to be one with the song.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I hear what you\u2019re saying. I\u2019ll see if I can break it down a little.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> It seems a question of experience also.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> That\u2019s definitely true. When I breathe, I\u2019m trying to take in the energy consciously. And then by feeling that energy going out to the audience, it doesn\u2019t get stuck in my body. That\u2019s when you get nervous. If you\u2019re just singing from your body, without that flow, that\u2019s when the nerves take over and it starts to affect your voice, and then you hear your voice get affected, and it makes you even more nervous. I always get nervous in front of a crowd. But if you take that energy, with all of the adrenaline, and put it into that flow, it expands the flow of breathing where you connect with the song and then express it to the audience. You deepen and expand it because of the performance-energy factor. If you get stuck in the body, that nervous energy snowballs \u2013 it cascades in your voice and makes you more nervous.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Are you saying that you\u2019re trying to get out of the ego?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> What I\u2019m describing is a very technical way of doing it, but it\u2019s not technical if you\u2019re getting into that flow. What I\u2019m feeling when I\u2019m truly in that flow is that Divine Mother really loves everybody. [Laughs] You can feel that love and then try to let that love express itself to everyone. When you take a breath and start to sing, if you\u2019re not just playing your own tape in your head Divine Mother can express a certain way for whoever is in front of you, especially if you\u2019re doing a solo.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re singing in a group, you\u2019re tuning into the whole group and the consciousness of the group. You\u2019ll have experiences with the group where you think \u201cWow, that was amazing.\u201d You won\u2019t always have that experience, but that\u2019s when you know that Divine Mother is expressing through all of you, and She\u2019s expressing something for the particular people who are listening out there.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I talk about at the bottom of the syllabus, where you ask and you ask and you ask to be able to serve, and it opens you so the energy can serve through you.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> I was going to ask you about the last part of the syllabus, because it seems essential to the process.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> Yes. I\u2019m teaching students at Ananda University who might not be part of Ananda, but they all like Swami\u2019s music, and they\u2019re not much interested in doing other music, and when I handed out the last part of the syllabus, they liked it.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Did you write the syllabus to help people learn more quickly what you\u2019ve learned over the years?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> Nischala wanted something to put on the Ananda University website, and it\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned and what I teach.<\/p>\n

They say that inspiration can\u2019t be taught, you either have it or you don\u2019t, but our teaching is that you can learn to connect and sing from inspiration.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> What would you say to a person who\u2019s new to Ananda, and they\u2019re timid about starting to sing the music?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> The first thing I would say is that most of the people in our choirs aren\u2019t soloists \u2013 they\u2019re not going to be able to stand up by themselves and sing a part. But they can stand next to someone and sing and feel the inspiration and expand it.<\/p>\n

Maybe fifty percent aren\u2019t great singers, and occasionally some pretty bad singers will float through the cracks, but I like to let people think it\u2019s possible for them. I\u2019ll ask them to let me listen to them. I\u2019ll take them into a private room and start singing with them. I\u2019m very comfortable with that, because of barbershop. In barbershop, you go anywhere and sing with anybody, and you only need four guys, so I\u2019m very comfortable singing with people, where most people are not.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start singing with them, doing scales or a tune they know, so they\u2019ll feel comfortable, and then I can hear how good their ear is, and their tonal placement, their intonation and so on, and I can make a decision about whether they\u2019re ready to sing in the choir.<\/p>\n

If they don\u2019t make the cut, the best thing people can do is to chant. If they play the harmonium and chant the wires will start getting connected over time and they might be able to join the choir.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> What would you advise people about improving their singing \u2013 the quality of their voice, getting in tune with the inspiration of the songs, and learning to channel it to others? You cover a lot of this in the syllabus, but I\u2019m wondering if you have any other thoughts.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> They can ask for help. Karen has taught people in Palo Alto, and Ramesha gives classes in person and online. Ramesha has very good tonal placement, and he\u2019s very good at helping people learn to sing.<\/p>\n

What I teach is how to sing from inspiration, and it\u2019s another approach. And then you can learn a lot about tonal placement by learning to sing from inspiration, because inspiration improves everything.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> It\u2019s refreshing to hear you say that.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> The choir might be singing a little flat, and lots of directors would point upward, but one of our former choir directors did it differently \u2013 he would stop the choir and tell a story, and it would improve the quality of the singing, because they would feel inspired. By telling an inspiring story, he was able to turn things around vibrationally. He would tell stories about his experiences singing with the choir in Assisi. Many of the stories would have humor in them, but there were stories with serious themes, and it was interesting to see how people would be able to hit the notes after that.<\/p>\n

The breath is important. The breath is conscious \u2013 it has information about placement, but it\u2019s very demanding. Sometimes one of Swami\u2019s songs will require that you sing a series of high notes very softly, and you\u2019ll think \u201cI can\u2019t do that!\u201d But if you don\u2019t think about it, but just work with the breath, all of a sudden you find that you\u2019re doing it. You think \u201cHow did I do that?\u201d And you don\u2019t actually know how, but it doesn\u2019t matter, because if you stay connected you can do it.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to do this or that, but if you can get the placement of your voice right, it becomes a question of staying connected to the right energy and vibration. The right flow of energy will support singing a high note softly.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> As you sing, are you always aware of your breathing?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I\u2019m trying to be, but it\u2019s not easy. Fortunately music has melody, rhythm, and breathing, so there\u2019s a cycle that allows the mind to come back to a starting point. When you\u2019re singing it\u2019s easier to keep the mind focused than when you\u2019re meditating, because the melody is captivating. And if you can develop the habit of taking a breath consciously, it deepens the whole experience it makes it all more alive and inspiring.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Is it like the experience where you\u2019re out in public and you want to get calm, and you\u2019ve been doing Kriya and meditating, and you know that if you breathe deeply for a while there will be a gathering of energy in the heart. And once you have the energy gathered in the heart you can direct it easily to good thoughts, expansive thoughts, praying for people, singing, or whatever. Is that the same thing, that gathering of energy in the heart and then using it to sing?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> Yes. I always recommend that people practice during the Festival of Light when they\u2019re singing \u201cFather, Mother, Friend, Our God.\u201d It\u2019s fairly easy to practice breathing with that song, and it\u2019s easier in rehearsal than in performance. A performance has activity and adrenaline that are stimulating the mind, but if you keep practicing it will have an effect over time.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you reach a point where performing becomes relaxed, like practicing? Where you aren\u2019t running down a checklist of things to remember, and you can just sing?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I have a certain level of consciousness when I sing, but I think the potential for tapping the higher consciousness is unlimited. We can always deepen and expand that awareness, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve gotten close to being fully aware of the source of this music. I don\u2019t look at the process as being easy. I look at it as something I have to work at, and then there are no limits to the inspiration. If you feel the hand of God coming through your heart and going out and blessing people, that would be something to aim for. I definitely feel energy moving, but I don\u2019t always know what it\u2019s doing. I feel inspired, and I feel love for the audience, and I realize that the love isn\u2019t coming from me.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Is it going inside and finding oneness with Divine Mother\u2019s love?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s all in a flow. As I deepen and expand the experience of the breath I feel more of it. It is a oneness that reaches out to help everybody who wants to be an instrument for it. Because Divine Mother is always looking for instruments.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Is there is a process that you use to prepare yourself spiritually before you perform? Do you meditate or pray?<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I\u2019m embarrassed to say that I don\u2019t, other than that I try to breathe consciously. When Swami wrote the recitatives for the Oratorio, there were four soloists who sat in front and sang most of them. Swami sometimes sang bass, and I sang tenor. One time he was singing bass and he said, \u201cI wrote this for a bass \u2013 here, you sing it.\u201d [Laughs] Because some of the songs were a bit high for a bass.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just a small aside. But I noticed that before a concert he would always meditate. He would sit up here and start doing alternate breathing, with the fingers on the forehead, where you close one nostril and breathe through the other for a count, then hold and exhale through the other nostril. He would do that for fifteen minutes, so that would be a good thing, and I\u2019ve thought about it, but I\u2019m embarrassed to say that I haven\u2019t done it.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> But you are thinking of the audience.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I do think of the audience. It\u2019s easier if we\u2019re singing at Sunday service because we\u2019re meditating during service. And whenever I pray I always ask to be able to be open, and for Divine Mother to shine through us. That\u2019s the only prayer I pray, really \u2013 to breathe and to be open to that energy.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> I remember asking you how you were able to sing the high notes purely and with a nice, full energy, and you said, \u201cSinging this music changes your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> I did say that, because it\u2019s a real experience. The more you sing \u2013 especially drawing the breath through your heart, and connecting the heart chakra to the throat chakra where the voice is \u2013 the more it affects the quality of the sound. And then Divine Mother demands a pure tone up on the high notes. So you keep singing until it sounds beautiful. Keep practicing and singing the music until it sounds nicer. And then all of a sudden if it\u2019s making that connection, it\u2019s happening, and then when it\u2019s not happening, say you\u2019ve got a cold or something, it\u2019s frustrating.<\/p>\n

Swami once had me put my hand on his back while he sang, and when he breathed, his ribs came apart. It was a huge movement \u2013 his chest was expanding in all directions \u2013 360 degrees. When you breathe like that, you can feel more of the diaphragm. That\u2019s because you feel more of the diaphragm, and you create more support, which makes it easier to sing the high notes.<\/p>\n

I usually start by having the students do the Half Moon Pose, where you breathe deeply into the back part of the ribs, the floating ribs, and you try to expand that range. And when you exhale you come down sideways, and it stretches those ribs. Then you breathe in again and you exhale and stretch. You do that maybe four times on each side, and then you keep your chest erect.<\/p>\n

Then we do bubbling and trilling while we\u2019re breathing in deeply and expanding the rib cage so we can feel the diaphragm. Then you can sing more from the diaphragm than the throat. The breath for singing a note starts with the diaphragm squeezing in on the air, instead of from constricting the throat, and it allows the throat to be more relaxed.<\/p>\n

Bubbling allows you to be aware of the various passages of sound in the head, and to be able to go in and out of them more easily. The main passage for everyone is straight up, and then for the men, when you get up as high as E-flat, it goes back. It\u2019s like an air column that rises from the diaphragm and then turns back. You get the air up and then it goes into different chambers in your head. When we go really high \u2013 men don\u2019t sing that high, but the women do \u2013 there\u2019s another passage that\u2019s even further back.<\/p>\n

But you do the exercises \u2013 the trilling and bubbling \u2013 because they allow you to go in and out of these passages smoothly with support from the diaphragm, and it makes a natural connection. The vibration of the bubbling and trilling also relaxes the face and opens the cavities that resonate with the voice, and when they\u2019ve opened and your throat\u2019s relaxed, there\u2019s no distortion.<\/p>\n

We sang in Palo Alto at an event where Joan Baez sang. I was about twenty yards away, where I could hear her voice clearly, and there was no distortion, just a clear, ringing bell. It was like a Stradivarius instrument.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had to help people learn to sing, starting with an average voice where there\u2019s lots of tension in the throat, using these methods with the breath to make the voice pure, without distortion.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> I find it\u2019s hugely helpful to do exercises that open the rib cage. I had spinal surgeries eons ago, and that area can get tight. I find that loosening the spine by stretching backward and sideways and opening the rib cage makes a tremendous difference in how the energy can flow \u2013 I feel almost like a different person. It makes it much more harmonious and smooth.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya:<\/strong> We\u2019re usually not aware of the back half of our bodies, but in singing, if you\u2019re aware of the heart chakra in your spinal column, and if you breathe into it, you\u2019ll have a different experience. I\u2019ve practiced this for four or five years, and I can feel the heart chakra as a flower, and it shines upward when the breath comes across it, and it makes me smile.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s from consciously doing this exercise over an extended period. But then it gets easier, and all of a sudden these things are working for you, without the boredom of doing an exercise over and over without much response. Of course, the inspiration of the music really helps. You keep coming back and having the opportunity to do it again.<\/p>\n

Fortunately we have the Festival where we sing things that demand it. I look forward to the Festival, and I recommend it as a chance to practice these things. I have a powerful experience of the Festival every Sunday because of the singing \u2013 because I engage it. I don\u2019t merely sing it, I engage it. I\u2019m trying to deepen and expand it. When a song is over, I say, \u201cOh, the song\u2019s over \u2013 shucks.\u201d By the time they do the touch of light, I am in tears, usually. That\u2019s my experience. That\u2019s why I recommend the Festival as a way of practicing.<\/p>\n

Formerly when I would teach I noticed that nobody would practice the technical stuff, so I thought, \u201cWell that\u2019s stupid. I\u2019ve got to figure out something else.\u201d And this exercise is what came to me.<\/p>\n

If you listen to Swami\u2019s voice, he has it. In a video and audio that he made called \u201cThe Voice,\u201d he said one sentence that\u2019s a part of who he is, and that had already become my whole teaching. I expanded my whole syllabus from that one sentence. He talks about using the body as a \u201csounding board,\u201d and I extrapolated from that simple statement, and then this whole practice came to me that eventually became the syllabus.<\/p>\n

It definitely works. I\u2019m thinking particularly of the young college students who come to this place that\u2019s very unusual for them, and I\u2019m thinking of one student particularly who\u2019s very talented and could do what I taught him, although he couldn\u2019t do it all the time, and it was frustrating for him. But he knew it was a real thing, and if his experience is like mine and he keeps practicing, I\u2019m sure it will be easier for him over time.<\/p>\n

Chaitanya: Conscious Devotional Singing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Singing Technique.<\/strong> Learn to expand the area of the floating ribs, and be aware of how the diaphragm connects to this area, and how a flow of energy starts there and creates power in the voice. Certain exercises will help you make this connection and learn to move in and out fluidly through the different registers of the voice.<\/p>\n

Breathing.<\/strong> Most singers go unconscious when they breathe. In this particular style of singing, you learn that it\u2019s when you breathe that you need to be the most conscious<\/strong>. If you can develop the habit of using conscious breath<\/strong>, all the other aspects of singing will become easier.<\/p>\n

Connecting.<\/strong> Once you can make a habit of conscious breathing, you can start learning to connect to a greater awareness that gives direction, power, devotion, and humility to the voice.<\/p>\n

Conscious Devotional Singing.<\/strong> It then becomes a matter of practicing and enjoying your practice, which changes the quality of your voice. You gradually begin to \u201cSelf-Realize the Divine Voice\u201d as yours and unique only to you.<\/p>\n

Performing.<\/strong> Finally, if you wish to perform with your voice, you can work to overcome nervousness and stage fright, which this style of singing will help you naturally transcend. Conscious Devotional Singing is (a) opening to the breath<\/strong> (inspiration<\/strong>), (b) directing your will power<\/strong> with conviction<\/strong> inwardly<\/strong> upon a phrase, which then (c) creates an experience of consciousness<\/strong> that you can (d) direct outwardly to touch people<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Further Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n

The purpose of Swamiji\u2019s music is to serve!<\/p>\n

How does one do that? How can we learn to serve through singing Ananda\u2019s music?<\/p>\n

By asking, asking, asking, and asking to serve before one sings!<\/p>\n

When you are able to do this correctly, the energy of the Divine Mother comes from the back, supports and shapes your instrument, then moves outward to express Her qualities and touch the people in front of your instrument as She chooses.<\/p>\n

This is done through the in-breath, where Divine Mother will enter as prana, giving power, direction, devotion, and humility to your voice.<\/p>\n

Through practice and experience, the instrument then begins to feel love (Divine Mother) entering on the in-breath, and Her love moving out on the out-breath, as you observe it (without judgment or thinking) to touch the people in front of you. You feel Her loving the audience.<\/p>\n

Anyone can do this, no matter what your voice is like. Bharat is a glorious example of this!!! His instrument may not be able to sing in tune, but spiritually he is very much in tune with this practice. He is a great example for all the Ananda singers. When I sit near him at Sunday service, I am inspired by his devotion, because I\u2019ve learned to look past his instrument and feel the Divine Mother expressing devotion through him.<\/p>\n

The lesson is that if you say you cannot do this style of singing because your instrument gets in the way, it simply is not true. Your voice can be transcended if you truly want to \u2013 and through transcending everything will improve, including the instrument, and especially the soul\u2019s expression.<\/p>\n

She is the greatest teacher!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chaitanya has a lovely Irish tenor voice that he has offered in service to God who has inspired thousands. through him. Q: Tell us how you got interested in singing. Chaitanya: I was at St. Francis de Sales High School in Columbus, Ohio. I think it was in my sophomore year that I tried out … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nConversations With Ananda — Ch. 68, Chaitanya Mahoney - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda shares his story as a singer, from barbershop to Bhakti Yoga.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/conversations-with-ananda-ch-68-chaitanya-mahoney\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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