Many people are familiar with Sri Chinmoy’s flute or esraj music, but during the hundreds of Peace Concerts he held in his lifetime, he would invariably perform on different string and keyboard instruments from around the world. Often those performances were extremely dynamic and powerful – especially Sri Chinmoy’s improvisations on piano, organ and synthesizer – but this particular selection was chosen for its peaceful, arcadian quality; the listener might find it good to have on in the background while they are going about their daily business.

Sri Chinmoy was not a classically trained musician, but he had a childlike sense of enthusiasm and fearlessness to explore and experiment with new instruments. Some of the instruments, such as the shakuhachi keyboard and the taktiri, became a frequent staple of his Peace Concerts.

This world of ours has everything save and except one thing: peace. And this peace has to start from within. If I have peace of mind, then only can I be of help to you. If you have peace of mind, then only can you be of help to me. This peace of mind we can get from our peaceful meditation and our prayerful life, not from political talk. Not by talking, but by praying and becoming something good can we offer peace to others. So I play quite a few instruments and offer soulful music — not the music that stimulates our vital, but the music that increases our inner hunger, which is love of God.

Sri Chinmoy
from the book Run and Smile, Smile and Run