{"id":1955,"date":"2025-11-29T18:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/?p=1955"},"modified":"2025-11-29T18:00:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T18:00:55","slug":"swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-the-sound-of-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yoganandafortheworld.com\/story\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-the-sound-of-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Swami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: The Sound of Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Told by Bhagavati)<\/em><\/p>\n

As soon as Swamiji began to sing, it was obvious that the cough and sinus infection he had been battling for months had seriously affected his voice<\/strong>. I am a professional musician and my heart went out to him. I play the flute and I know what it is like to try to perform when the body isn\u2019t working right.<\/p>\n

The song was Where Has My Love Gone<\/em>. It is hauntingly beautiful and quite long. His voice was weak and inconsistent and I projected as much positive energy to him as I could just to help him get through it. With my sensitive ears, I expected to endure rather than to enjoy his performance.<\/p>\n

To my astonishment, this turned out to be a truly exquisite performance and a defining moment for me as a musician, because the real secret of Swamiji\u2019s musical genius was revealed to me.<\/p>\n

Until then, I had made the natural mistake of thinking that when Swamiji sang, the beauty of the music came from the sound<\/em> of his voice. Now, the sound was distorted by his illness, but the music was more beautiful than ever. For the first time I saw it clearly: Music comes from consciousness<\/em>. Swamiji\u2019s body was impaired, but his spirit was soaring.<\/p>\n

This realization brought to a clear focus something that had puzzled me for years.<\/p>\n

I was always something of an anomaly among my classical music colleagues. Before big performances, I would devote comparatively little time to practicing the music itself, and an inordinate amount of time to \u201cwarming-up.\u201d On my instrument this meant long slow tones, which required deep breathing and concentrated attention to every nuance of sound.<\/p>\n

I knew from experience that if I got myself<\/em> in order, the music would come out fine. During the performance I could lose myself in the music in a way that wasn\u2019t possible unless I prepared in this way. I understand now that it was my way of meditating.<\/p>\n

It had never occurred to me, though, until Swamiji showed me with his performance, that consciousness is<\/em> the music. Sound itself is secondary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Told by Bhagavati) As soon as Swamiji began to sing, it was obvious that the cough and sinus infection he had been battling for months had seriously affected his voice. I am a professional musician and my heart went out to him. I play the flute and I know what it is like to try … 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-1955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSwami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: The Sound of Music - Swami Kriyananda: Lightbearer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A disciple of Swami Kriyananda shows a classically trained musician where inspiration comes from.\" \/>\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\/swami-kriyananda-as-we-have-known-him-the-sound-of-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Swami Kriyananda \u2014 As We Have Known Him: The Sound of Music - 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