New Dawn- (2nd edition)- One Track, Two Songs, Four Voices

“This track contains two songs, “Bedana Diye and “Usha Bala Elo”,  which are first presented on their own, then together (2 voices) , and then together with a round (or cannon) for each one, so at one point we have four voices.

30 years ago, Sri Chinmoy asked Sukhendu (my dear spiritual brother-friend) and I to form a music group. Up to that point, I had never arranged Sri Chinmoy’s music. I loved to sing his songs, but the thought of arranging had not crossed my mind. Sukhendu and I used to meet at the Sri Chinmoy Meditation Centre in Puerto Rico; he would bring his tablas and I would bring my harmonium, and we used to sing, sometimes for hours at a time, just voice and tablas.

But as soon as Sri Chinmoy urged us to form a music group, I knew that we needed musical arrangements.

I try to use intuition as a main tool for arranging. This means to stay open and listen carefully to my own inner impulses, musical ideas, thoughts or inspirations that come spontaneously, and to give them due attention.

Sometimes I will be arranging one song, and another song comes and knocks at my heart’s door, insisting to be combined with the first one! Spiritual songs, and in my case Sri Chinmoy’s songs, are like divine friends who inspire you on your journey.

The first song in this track, Bedana Diye, is very poignant. It was composed in both Bengali and English, and the English part reads:

BEDANA DIYE

“Through excruciating pangs
You awaken my lotus-heart.”

In this song, the devotee is talking to the Lord. The devotee has become aware that so-called inner pangs or sufferings are one of the ways in which the Lord can awaken the spiritual heart, the aspiring heart in the seeker. In India the lotus is seen as a symbol for the soul, which “blossoms” inside the aspiring heart of the seeker. This “awakening” is two-fold: First of all, a realisation that there is something deeper, higher than the physical reality; something spiritual. Second of all, a yearning, or what we call aspiration, an inner cry to grow into or become one with that newly-discovered inner reality.

There is also another aspect to this: The pangs of separation from the Beloved. Let us say a spiritual seeker has had a spiritual experience; he has felt God in some way, be it peace, or joy, or light. If even for a fleeting second one experiences this, then there is a spontaneous love that springs from the heart. It is a recognition of one’s own nature, one’s own forgotten reality. Plato said that knowing is remembering, because we tend to forget our own nature, the depth and height of our own existence.

So there is an inherent sweetness in these “excruciating pangs”, the sweetness of feeling separated from the Beloved.

The second song in this track is “Usha Bala Elo”, which is a wonderful song that also talks about the heart. In English it means:

USHA BALA ELO

“Slowly, very slowly,
The virgin dawn appears
In the very depths of my aspiration-heart.”
-Sri Chinmoy

I am enchanted by this image…. a dawn within my heart! It is, indeed, an inner landscape. Both songs are talking about something unfolding, awakening. There is a sense of a new beginning…  this is why this combination of these two songs is titled “New Dawn”.

I hope that you, dear listener, enjoy these beautiful songs by Sri Chinmoy as much as I do. They are richly rewarding!

Artist: Kamalakanta
Name: New Dawn (2nd edition) One track, Two Songs, Four Voices
Release year: 2013
Duration: 7:04
Acknowledgements: Sri Chinmoy
Page Created: Kamalakanta Nieves / Tejvan Pettinger
Format: Advanced Audio Coding