Guest
Temple~Song~Hearts is an all female vocal and instrumental ensemble, featuring singers and musicians from across Europe. The group was founded in 1988 and has evolved over the decades to produce a sound that fuses classical and modern, Western and Eastern, in a musical expression that is at once contemplative and joyful. The group, led by Shankara Smith who studied singing at the feet of Sri Chinmoy and Eshana Gadjanski an accomplished pianist, is devoted exclusively to performing the music of Sri Chinmoy. For Sri Chinmoy, music was more than art, entertainment or even self-expression – it was the language of the soul, a bridge from earth to heaven, capable of dissolving man-made barriers, closing gaps between cultures, faiths and nations. With haunting and soul-stirring voices Temple-Song-Hearts takes the depth, power and sheer vastness of Sri Chinmoy’s musical composition and weaves an experience dedicated to the journey of the human soul. The group has toured extensively throughout Europe, offering free concerts of soulful music to inspire and uplift. Its members hail from U.K, France, Austria, Germany, Holland, Serbia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Ukraine. 'We sing these devotional songs to awaken our spiritual heart and bring to the fore our inner qualities, to carry us along the path of meditation.’ #TempleSongHearts #SriChinmoy #MeditationMusic The musicians play on eastern (sarangi, sitar, harmonium, bansuri ...) and western instruments and exclusively perform spiritual songs or mantras that were composed in a state of mystical vision or meditative trance and thus put a “receptive” listener into a meditative or higher consciousness. The music of Arthada & Friends is well suited for edification or meditation. Sri Chinmoy, the composer of these wonderful and, above all, touching songs uses his native Bengali for most of his lyrics, as this language with its mantric and poetic beauty lends itself to spiritual music. Sri Chinmoy describes the relationship between spirituality and music thus: “When we listen to soulful music, or when we ourselves play soulful music, immediately our inner existence climbs up high, higher, highest. It climbs up and enters into something beyond. This beyond is constantly trying to help us, guide us, mould us and shape us into our true transcendental image, our true divinity. When we hear soulful music, or when we play a piece of soulful music, we feel a kind of inner thrill in our entire existence, from the soles of our feet to the crown of our head. A river is flowing through us, a river of consciousness, and this consciousness is all the time illumined.” “If we can feel that it is not our voice, not our fingers, but some reality deep inside our heart which is expressing itself, then we will know that it is the soul’s music.” “There is some music that is really destructive to our inner being. This music comes from the gross physical or lower vital. The spiritual person will immediately be affected by this music. But soulful and spiritual music really helps us; it feeds our inner life. Music has tremendous power. With fire we can burn ourselves, or we can cook and do many other good things. So it is with music. The divine music immediately elevates our consciousness. Undivine music immediately lowers our consciousness, and it tries to destroy our sincere inner cry for a better spiritual life. Undivine music tries to awaken our lower vital consciousness and throw us into a world of excitement.“ - Sri Chinmoy “Start to think of a new life. Your sincere mind Will teach you how to start. Your pure heart Will continue for you. Just start to think of a new life.“ - Sri Chinmoy “Music is entertainment. Music is enlightenment. Music is the animal bark Of man. Music is the God-Song And God-Dance for man.“ - Sri Chinmoy “The mind-music is earth-ful. The heart-music is soulful. The soul-music is Godful. The life-music is painful.“ - Sri Chinmoy “My Lord, my Lord, Give me a doubt-free mind! My Lord, my Lord, Give me a fear-free heart! My Lord, my Lord, Give me a worry-free life!“ - Sri Chinmoy “I am happy because My body is obedience. I am happy because My vital is confidence. I am happy because My mind is concentration. I am happy because My heart is dedication. I am happy because My soul is satisfaction.“ - Sri Chinmoy
