Spiritual singing

In each song I have sung, I have tried to identify myself with the song with utmost concern. The words I have tried to convey through my voice. There are many, many, many, many, many singers who have extraordinary voices and singing ability. I am no match for them. I have heard many singers of that type, but they don't feel the living breath of the words when they sing. Their beautiful, melodious voice carries the tune, but the depth and real significance of the words, we don't get from their voice. In my case, musical talent, voice, everything is unbearable; but when it is a matter of expressing the thoughts, of showing the inner significance of the ideas, I wish to say that in almost all of the songs I have been successful. There are three or four songs I ought to have sung better out of this group of fifty. But as far as the inner concern, inner depth, inner identification with the ideas and the thoughts, I have really done justice to these songs. Perhaps on some rare occasions I have made mistakes, but the sincere seekers of the Truth will forgive my so-called mistakes, even if they are grave mistakes. If they identified with me, if they identified with my aspiring soul rather than my singing voice, then they would have gotten considerable benefit.

So my request to you people, when you sing, is to sing soulfully. Even if you don't know a particular Bengali word, no harm. Still, you have to sing soulfully. You will say, "I don't know this word." But even when you sing an English song, very often you don't sing the words with any real feeling. When you sing, try to embody the significance of each word. If you can do this, then you will become the song itself. Otherwise, you will be a singer and your song will be something other than yourself. But the song and the singer must be inseparable. When a singer sings spiritual songs, if he lives the song that he sings, then God will be a living Reality at every second. Otherwise, God will remain in the infinite blue sky and the singer will have to remain down on earth. Then there will be a yawning gulf between God's Feet and the singer's head.

In the spiritual life, we are trying to raise our head to the point where God's Feet will come and touch it. Our head and God's Feet must be together. Our head means what? Our head means our song. And God's Feet means God the Singer. So when the Supreme Singer sees that a song is aspiring to the Highest, then He feels His fulfilment in His creation. And what is the creation? The creation is the unfoldment of the Singer Supreme.