Guru's music is a very big connection between him and my soul. He has said that his music is not secondary to his meditation, and if you know how Guru meditates, you know it's the infinite consciousness.
I don't know how to describe it. It's almost like a river or an ocean, but it's a river between earth and heaven. It is a direct connection. You touch the river here, but the river touches Heaven also. So, what happens to me is I that I make arrangements for Guru’s music intuitively, so I feel my soul in the music that I do.
Sri Chinmoy introduces a performance of his 13,000th song performed by his students. Kamalakanta can be seen at the left of the male choral section
Sometimes the songs will come to me asking me to do something with them. You probably all know the song Asundar je bhitar bahir. A few years ago, I was in Manhattan with some boys. We had a class and we were leaving, we were going to get pizza. Suddenly the song was coming very powerfully and knocking in my heart. You know, it's a very sad song. But I remember when Guru composed that song in Brazil, I remember falling in love with that song immediately because it is so, so tenderly human.
Kamalakanta's arrangement of Sri Chinmoy's song 'Asundar je bhitar bahir'
The song, the meaning of the song, is incredible, it says, “My life, inner and outer, is utterly devoid of beauty. How can the shattered boat of my life-river ever reach God’s beauty-harbour?”
I've played that song so many times now, and it's in a medley I did in honour of Guru. It's on Radio Sri Chinmoy. It’s called “Ode to My Lord.” I concentrate on the meaning of a song, and it captures me. Then I learn the song. It becomes part of my heart and then it comes out in an arrangement.
'Ode to My Lord': a medley by Kamalakanta, containing arrangements of 11 of Sri Chinmoy's songs
God wants
My meditation-depth
To be the sweetest song
Of His Heart.
Sri Chinmoy