“Destined” CD (2008)
Songs by Sri Chinmoy,
Arranged and Performed by Kamalakanta
Dear listeners,
It is my joy to share with you here the CD “Destined”, which I published in 2008.
Destined
Last modified March 23, 2011
Sri Chinmoy composed more than 13,000 Bengali devotional songs, and they are a great source of inspiration and aspiration in my own spiritual practice.
Although these songs by Sri Chinmoy are perfect as they are, meaning they do not need “arranging”, it gives me great joy to play with them, and I feel that, at the same time, they are playing with me.
There are two metaphors that come to mind when trying to describe what happens when I arrange Sri Chinmoy’s music. Imagine a pond, a beautiful lotus pond in the countryside. And visualize the pure light from the sun hitting the pond, and reflecting onto the leaves of the surrounding trees, bushes and flowers. Or imagine, again, that your heart is a prism, and Sri Chinmoy’s music is the pure, white light that hits the prism. At this point the light reflects in different colors.
My heart is the prism, and Sri Chinmoy’s music is the pure, white light that contains all the spiritual qualities of peace, light, bliss, delight, humility, sweetness, and so forth.
A third metaphor is that I feel like a child, juggling spheres of light, each sphere of a different color, and I get joy from this game.
Music has always been, for me, an inward journey. These arrangements are part of the exploration of my “inner landscape”. Some of these arrangements are arranged traditionally, meaning the chords are following the melody in their same key and meter. But in some arrangements, such as track 7, (Your Face is My Dream), I attempt to combine ideas which are in different rhythms (poly-rhythmic), or even in different keys (poly-tonal), while being still pleasant to the ear, but expanding.
This is one of the principal aspects of my musical journey the last few years; to explore expanded ideas in the realms of counterpoint, harmony and rhythm. I do this in the process of doing music “intuitively”. By this I mean doing music as I feel it comes to me; surrendering to the musical ideas, based on an inner feeling of their correctness and beauty.
The title “Destined” was chosen because, at the time this CD was being made, I was reminded of the significance of this concept that I had read in Sri Chinmoy’s writings many years ago: that the Truth-seeker and God-lover would derive strength if he/she could feel that he/she was destined to realise God:
God-Realisation
“When human-realisation fails and disappoints us, God-realisation becomes a reality. Before that, human-realisation is all reality and God-realisation is unreality for us. God-realisation comes when we feel that God is the only person in Heaven and earth who cannot disappoint us.
For God-realisation, what we need is outer strength and inner strength. Outer strength we shall use to see God in everything. Inner strength we shall use to feel that we are destined to reach our goal. The moment we feel that God-realisation is our birthright, God-realisation can no longer remain a far cry. We have to feel that we have been chosen to realise God in this incarnation. If we can grow into this reality, God-realisation will soon be ours.”
Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy, Life-Tree-Leaves, Agni Press, 1974.
Again, when I do music I am trying to express a certain quality, or sometimes invoking a certain quality that is important to me at that moment in time. So that is the way the title “Destined” was chosen. Here is another nice poem by Sri Chinmoy on this subject:
THERE IS YET TIME
“There is yet time.
You are destined to see God.
Don’t believe your earthly eyes.
There is yet time.
You are destined to realise God.
Don’t believe your earthly friends.
There is yet time.
You are destined to become God.
Don’t believe your earth-bound self,
But believe your Heaven-free
Divinity and Immortality.”
Sri Chinmoy (library Link)
In 1995 I was doing my own compositions, and Sri Chinmoy encouraged me to “combine” his songs instead. He said that the qualities of my soul’s music were softness, sweetness, soulfulness and tenderness. I hope that you find them in this humble offering, and that the music provides you the peace and consolation it has offered me.
Artist: Kamalakanta
Release year: 2008
Duration: 1:07:25
Acknowledgements: Sri Chinmoy, Kamalakanta
Format: Advanced Audio Coding
