Inspiration-Sun

Worldwide News and Inspirations from the Sri Chinmoy Centres

Issue #2 - April 2008

Gurus Western Flute Gift

by Kishore
In 1975, the first year of my discipleship, we visited Sydney to speak with
Guru on the phone. In those days New
York still seemed a far-off place and
Australia was truly a land down under
very far away. Even the thought of
travelling the almost 1000 kilometre
journey from Melbourne to Sydney
was daunting enough. It was a thrilling experience and one that we would
grow accustomed to, sitting around
the phone listening to Gurus golden
voice. On this occasion Guru cajoled
and begged us to come to New York
. . . come by boat if you can, was His
sweet plea.

So then it was astonishing news when

we heard early in 1976 that Guru was
actually coming to Australia to visit
Guru at Healesville Sanctuary, each of the Centres. Australia is a vast
Melbourne, Australia land and the main cities where the
Centres are located are spread across

Guru was coming to Australia for two whole weeks

a distance of over 5000 kilometres. Guru was coming to Australia for two whole
weeks.During this first visit we shared many unique and amazing experiences.
And of all the gifts Guru blessed us with during this time, perhaps one of the
most special is that He took up the western flute and so began a remarkable
relationship with this haunting instrument.
It was March 10 and we had organised a bus trip to a nature park on the outskirts
of Melbourne. Now, nature park in Australia means kangaroos, koala bears,
wombats and all kinds of exotic fauna and Guru was keen to get amongst them.
During the bus ride to the park,
called Healesville Sanctuary, Guru
was chatting with one of the disciples about her flute. Guru asked
to see it and was shown how to
get a sound from it and occupied
Himself for the rest of the journey
in this manner.
When we arrived at the sanctuary,
well forget the animals, Guru was
completely absorbed in His new

Welcome
to the second issue of our Inspiration-Sun. Most
of us are here in New York, celebrating Gurus
arrival in the West. Forty-four years ago the
Supreme sent His chosen Avatar-Son to the West
to bring down His Light and Peace. We are all so
fortunate to have become his disciples and to
have spent many years experiencing his love,
his concern, his compassion and all the other
qualities that have made our lives so fulfilling.
On April 13th there will be almost 1200 disciples
from all over the world in New York, and it will
be an opportunity for us to share the love, the
oneness and the happiness that our beloved
Guru has given us. From now on Guru will be
watching us from the Eternal Beyond, and I am
sure that our family gathering will make him
proud and happy. I miss him, and Im sure this
feeling is shared by all of us. But I am consoled
when I remember that Guru has just moved
next door. His smile is with us more than ever.
We would like to thank you for all the encouraging, inspiring and enthusiastic comments we
have gotten from you. (See letters to the editor.)
Thank you for your fantastic support! The newsletters name says it all, and we are sure that
with your help we will keep this uplifting newsletter going. It is the contributions of so many
disciples who make it possible, and again we
want to encourage everyone to take part.
Please send us your news, your comments
and your contributions and dont forget the
photos! We promise you worldwide distribution to readers with great hearts and good
souls. Our address on purity is inspiration-sun.
For those of you who are interested there will
be an Inspiration-Sun meeting on Wednesday,
16th April at Aspiration-Ground, either after the
afternoon function or at 4pm.
We warmly invite you to sit back, enjoy and be
inspired.

Projjwal

Gurus Flute Statue at the Melbourne Centre

Editor in charge

Profiles in Service

Interview with Sundari

There are many disciples who have played

significant roles in Gurus voluminous manifestation of songs and musicRanjana,
Tanima, Radha, Paree and othersand we
hope that in future months well be able to
interview each one of them. This month,
we feature an interview with Sundari, who
for the last 34 years, has transcribed Gurus
songs in both English and Bengali. Sundari
is also known for her famous birthday cakes
that she made for many years for Gurus
birthday and April 13th.

Back then, when Guru gave a concert, he

would have the musician disciples perform
as well. So, he knew I was a musician, and
one time when I was in New York he asked
me to help Tanima transcribe some songs.
Guru had composed many songs that had
not yet been published, and he wanted
us to catch up. We spent a month or so in
her apartment doing it all by handthe
musical notes, dots, clefts everything. We
just used rulers and pens, Later, Shambhu
got us a music typewriter, which made the
transcribing process more like typing. This
made the written music look more professional. It wasnt until much later that we
could do it on the computer!

love that Guru was offering them through

the song. It was such a special gift to give
someone. Also, people would get so much
joy when Guru would set their own words
to musicthey were always thrilled. In
every way, Guru showed such oneness,
love and humility.

You learned Bengali in order to better

comprehend Gurus songs and notation.
What can you tell us about this?
Knowing the language has helped me
a lot, considering how much time weve
spent in the past 35 years learning Bengali
songs. Its such a beautiful and poetic
language. Guru was once talking to Dr.
Guruge and he said that if you dont know
the language, you miss certain things.
Guru mentioned a particular word that
Sundari with Guru in front of her famous cake. means cow dust time. That word creates a
very vivid picture for someone who knows
You transcribed Gurus music for more than
Bengaliyou can see that whole vision
three decades. How did his music manifesof the evening setting in and the cows
tation change over time?
coming home, the dust rising from their
When I first started transcribing, Guru footsteps.
would sing with the harmonium and he
When Guru writes the music, the poem
would have the songs all written down
is in Bengali characters and then over
before he sang them. In those days, it was
the word is another Bengali letter which
not spontaneous. Also, he translated the
represents a note. He taught this system to
songs into English. Garden of Love Light
Radha and me in the 1970s; he wrote out
I, II, and III and Teach Me How to Cry and
the characters and I did a whole book of
other older songbooks have beautiful,
songs for Guru, writing out those Bengali
soulful translations. The poems are incrednotes above the words. Guru had his own
ible in and of themselves. Guru used to
unique way of notating; its nothing like
write out the songs for us in his own handWestern notation and its not even tradiwriting. Another difference was that he
tional Bengali.
didnt write as many songs as he did later.
In the mid-1970s he reached 2000 songs. When meeting with dignitaries or wellIn the early years of the Path, everything known people, Guru would often compose
was slower; later on Guru started doing a song in their honor. This usually surprised
things faster and faster. It was in the late and delighted themit was something so
70s, I think, that I first transcribed sponta- different than the countless other meetings these world figures had. What do you
neous songs.
think Guru was doing with this tradition?
How did your transcribing career begin?
He would go right into the heart of the
I was a music major in college and a profesperson. We were singing and they were
sional musician when I first came to path.
sitting and receiving. They could feel the
6

Sundari transcribing in early years.

It seems that Guru used song to celebrate
life and humanitysongs on running,
songs for people, songs to say hello,
goodbye, thank you, etc.
All of human life has been set to music!
There will never be another human being
who will write as many songs for other
people as Guru did. He has written at least
1500 songs to honor people and to put
music to their words That itself is phenomenal. Gurus music has tremendous variety;
long, slow, powerful, patriotic, everything!
He has written more than 23,000 songs. He
holds so many records in the song-world;
no one can come close.
The sheer volume of Gurus songs is enormous. What will humanity do with these
songs?
Thats a really amazing thing to think
about. Time will tell. It would really be nice
if on our website, we could have songs for
this and songs for thatall kinds of different topics and qualities. People in India
and the rest of the world could turn to the
body of Gurus music when they want a
particular feeling in a song. Radha, myself,
and some others have a goal of making
sure every song gets finalized and printed.
Its our mission for the next few years.
There was a lot of back and forth between

you and Guru when you were transcribing

his songs. He would give you the songs,
youd give them back, hed return them
to you, youd again give to him for final
checking. What can you tell us about
Gurus process?
In 1995, Guru decided to finish 13,000
songs, so he was writing them everywhereall the time. We never caught up!
There are still quite a few songs that havent
been checked and printed although they
have been transcribed. So, in later years
I always wrote out the words for him to
check right away so that the songs could
be printed as soon as possible. I would
give Guru the song notebooks and he
would mark changes in spelling, notation,
and other things. Then later, when Guru
heard them being sung, he would sometimes change something else.
What did it mean when Guru would designate certain songs as selected?
I wonder that myself. Sometimes they
were particularly catchy or haunting. Its
hard to know why some would
be more special to Guru than
others. A lot of times, he would
have the groups sing the new
songs and then he would raise
his hand to indicate that one
or more should be selected.
These were ones that he would
want to have written out for
him personally so that he could
perform them in concerts.
You studied music at university.
In what way is Gurus music
different from all the composers you knew then?

like the melody; its just amazing.

In your opinion, what role does singing
play on our Path?
Singing is definitely very important. And it
seems as though even people who dont
have any singing talent when theyre new
will start to develop it after awhile. I think
thats a very striking feature of our path.
In working with Guru and his music all
these years, what has been most challenging for you?
Keeping up! During the Christmas Trips,
Guru would sing and sing and sing. I would
be in my room transcribing songs while
he was in the function room composing
even more of them. He never stopped. But
I am so grateful for the opportunity; its so
special to work on this music which is such
a gift to humanity. I really feel that Gurus
body of songs is an immortal offering.
There were other challenges too. Many
times I was in the back of car and Guru
was singing away in the passengers seat.

What is your favorite song?

MY SONGS
My earth-songs
Devotedly find me.
My Heaven-songs
Soulfully illumine me.
My God-songs
Triumphantly immortalise me.
WHAT MUSIC TELLS ME
The sound-music tells me
God is Power.
The silence-music tells me
God is Bliss.
The God-music tells me
God is Experience.
A singing heart
Is
A flying life.

Guru composing while Sundari transcribes

Im not so familiar with other Indian

musicians, but I know that Gurus music
is completely unique. Its pretty much a
Bhajan style in that its very devotional.
He admired Tagore a lot, but his songs are
not like Tagores; he has own style entirely.
Guru doesnt use a tempo marking; this
is something that Western music always
has. In Gurus music, we dont have any
bar lines; instead, we go by the poem.
We put one line of the poem on a line of
music and then break it to the next line.
Also, Gurus music is very free; its not
mental. It has such a lofty, spiritual feeling.
Its completely different from anything I
studied previously.

Selections from Gurus

writings on music:

I would be trying to transcribe, but it

was so hard because the car was moving
and it was very noisy. Guru seemed to
get inspiration to compose songs whenever he was travelling on buses, trains,
boatsanything moving. Also, Guru once
did a series of 400 songs and then sang
them, along with the harmonium, during
a concert at Buchman Hall. I had transcribed them originally and given them to
Guru to use during the concert. But when
he performed them, he sang many of the
songs differently. So, I had to transcribe
them all over again!
Do you feel Guru is still composing songs?
(Laughing) I wonder! We need a spy up
there to give us a report.

My favorite song is Ki Sundaro. I especially

Vasudha interviewed Sundari on March 26, 2008

Question: What role will music play in

bringing about world oneness?
Sri Chinmoy: Music will play a most
important role in bringing about
world oneness, for music embodies
the Universal Heart, the OnenessHeart. Music transcends the barriers
of nations, nationalities and religions.
Music embodies universal Light and
universal Truth, and music also embodies the oneness-reality which we see
in universal Love, universal Light,
universal Awareness and universal
Wakefulness. Universal Wakefulness
we see inside all music. Music has to
play a most important role in bringing
about world oneness, for music is the
connecting link between the One and
the many and between the many and
the One.