Continued from page 1
Do people ever tell you that your music heals?I get a lot email from people who thank me for the CDs who've just gone through chemotherapy, surgeries. So believe me, I don't take this lightly. But I don't do it for other people. There are no other people. It's just us. We are one. If I was just performing, that presence, that grace wouldn't be in the voice for people to feel. It would be something else. Who you are is what you transmit. No matter what you're doing. So you might as well get that right.
What does chanting literally do?
The way I look at it is that these chants come from a place of being inside of us that's deeper than where we spend most of our time. So when we turn our attention to them, it brings us deeper into ourselves. Along with that inward motion may come a lot of experiences--happiness, joy--but essentially, those are side products of moving deeper into ourselves. These [chants] are revealed names. These names come from a deeper reality. They also say that the name and the named are the same. That means when you are repeating the name Ram, you are actually in Ram. We don't necessarily experience that because we are so attached to our thoughts and our emotions and our feelings and our senses. But the truth is--according to what they say--that the name and God are the same, which is interesting. You know, St. John of the Cross said, "In the beginning, the Father uttered one word and that word was his son and he utters him forever in everlasting silence."
The silent name that resounds without end, that's the true name. That's everywhere all the time, so we're trying to find a way to dive down deeper into that place and out of this froth. And of course, with the blessings of my guru, it happens with a lot of power and a lot of grace.
You met Ram Dass [author of New Age mega-hit Be Here Now] in the late sixties when you were twenty, right? Not long after Ram Das himself had had a life-transforming visit with Maharaj-ji. Did Ram Dass say to you, "You should meet my teacher?"No, Ram Dass wasn't allowed to talk about him. Maharaj-ji didn't want people to come. But Ram Dass couldn't help but talk about him because it was just oozing out of him. And you know, when I met Ram Dass for the first time, I then, in that very second, came into contact with Maharaj-ji, with his presence. And then, I actually dreamed about him.
Continued on page 3: »
Listen to Krishna Das