Image: Command Performance
Command Performance: Singing for God and Guru
To Thee I humbly offer my songs
That Thou hast given me
Introduction
These poems grow out of my experience serving as harmonium player/chant leader for our Nashville Self-Realization Fellowship Sunday Readings Service.
I title this collection Command Performance for I have attempted to retire from the chant leader position, offering it to other devotees, but no one thus far wishes to take it from me.
And often I have come to the chapel Readings Service, thinking I would merely be attending, only to find that the scheduled chant leader was unavailable and so the service leader would prevail upon me to fill the void; thus, another “command performance.”
I reason that Guruji Paramahansa Yogananda is commanding me to continue performing this function, as long as I am capable.
Poems from Chants
These original poem were all inspired by the chant, whose title is offered following the poem title.
Who says, She is Dark?
—after “Thousands of Suns and Moons”
Her smile beams
With the rays
Of a millions suns.
Her skin glows
With the light
Of a million moons.
Who says, She is dark?
Only those who refuse
To open their eye
To her light.
Joy, Joy, Joy!
—after “Ever New Joy”
Joy, joy, joy—
Morning has broken in joy.
Light of starlight, hiding
Behind the sun.
Joy, joy, joy—
Noon breaks bread
Lovingly baked
By God-guided hands.
Joy, joy, joy—
Evening calls the faithful
To rest from a full day’s labor
Practiced by Divine decree.
Joy, joy, joy—
Night covers maya’s delusion
So the spiritual eye
May bound in brilliance.
Thou art That
—after “Hymn to Brahma”
Beyond my thoughts,
Beyond my ideas,
Beyond my knowledge,
Far beyond my wisdom—
Thou are That.
Beyond my body,
Beyond my mind,
Beyond my energy,
One with my soul—
Thou art That.
Drowning in Glory
—after “I Am the Bubble, Make Me the Sea”
You wake my senses to clear sight, glorious sound,
Intelligent touch, pure fragrance, tempered taste.
You wake my senses by drowning them in Glory
Inundating them in the silence of Your vastness,
Spilling on them the majestic light show
Of Your body, bound by boundlessness.
In the ocean of Your love, my bubble heart
Contracts and expands to eternity.
My restless brain shrinks and extends
Its reach to unknown realms of wisdom.
My soul knows itself in the crash of breaking worlds
Where it stands unshaken hand in hand with You.
As You do, so I wish to do forever,
Drowning in the Glory of Your sacred presence.
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