Last modified December 9, 2013
This recording offers a compilation of songs dedicated to the African spirit – including songs composed by Sri Chinmoy and Narada Michael Walden – performed by Sri Chinmoy’s students from the African continent. Published to Radio Sri Chinmoy in memory of President Nelson Mandela (1918-2013).
It also includes Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (God Bless Africa) a song which at one point was the national anthem of 5 African countries, and is now the national anthem of Tanzania, and forms part of the national anthem of South Africa. These songs were recorded in the 1990’s by Premik Russell Tubbs.
Notes about Nelson Mandela
Long walk to freedom, long walk to freedom
To be a child of oneness-kingdom.
Long walk to freedom, long, long, long:
Our proudest victory’s sweetest song.[Song by Sri Chinmoy dedicated to President Nelson Mandela and inspired by the words to Mandela’s own autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom”]
Sri Chinmoy met Nelson Mandela on numerous occasions. Sri Chinmoy presented Nelson Mandela with Sri Chinmoy’s “Oneness-Peace: Earth- Summit-Transcendence-Fragrance” Award March 9 for his unique contributions to world progress. He was the second person to receive the award; former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev accepted the award earlier in the month. During his meeting with President Mandela at the official Presidential Residence, in 1999, Sri Chinmoy lifted the South African leader into the air as part of his “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” program honoring luminaries in different fields.
He also presented the South African leader with a Mandela bust made for the occasion by one of his students – British sculptor Kaivalya Torpy. “I am tongue-tied,” Mandela said. “I don’t have the words to thank you. This is totally unexpected.”
The occasion also marked the country’s formal inauguration as Africa’s first “Sri Chinmoy Peace- Blossom-Nation,” which Mandela had approved on Aug. 21.
Africa, Africa,
Srashtar kripa shikha
Soon, very soon, you will fly.
Prabhu pade labhiyacho thai
God’s Supreme Vision-Song.
Bhubaner sushobita rongIn December 1995 Sri Chinmoy made a pilgrimage to Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment.
From the very cell in which the great South African patriot had been incarcerated, Sri Chinmoy offered this soulful prayer:
“Our beloved President Mandela, O Supreme Pilot of South Africa-Boat, it is here in this tinier than the tiniest room that you embodied your beloved country’s streaming tears and bleeding heart.” “There was a time when this caveroom played the role of punishment. Now this room plays the role of humanity’s sacred, illumining and fulfilling shrine.”
Colonel Elsa Jones, the Commander of Robben Island, who escorted Sri Chinmoy on his tour of the correctional facility, afterwards declared:
“I have been to the cell many, many times but this is the first time that I felt it was sacred – like Sri Chinmoy said, a holy shrine.”
Nelson Mandela, torture-sufferer supreme,
High Heaven’s Smile and earth’s solace-dream.
Your heart has won the world’s admiration-choice.
Within, without, a perfect justice-voice.
Song composed by Sri Chinmoy on August 22, 1986 and published in Nelson Mandela, The Pinnacle-Pillar of Mother Earth book.
This song Sri Chinmoy composed about Nelson Mandela was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio during Nelson Mandela visit to the U.S. It was also aired on several commercial stations across the country, including New York’s WQXR, and sung on television by a church choir in Seattle.
Artist: African students
Name: Africa Vision Song
Release year: 2013
Duration: 0:21:19
Acknowledgements: Sri Chinmoy
Tracks uploaded: Ashish Zubaty | Tejvan Pettinger
Format: Advanced Audio Coding
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Joyous, simple, sweet, and beautiful. Much gratitude.
Unbeknownst to many, there’s more than one way …
…to sing a Sri Chinmoy song.
Here’s the proof.
Oh, I like their singing very much, but here only one song available?