Question: What is better for spiritual development — to sing your songs in English or in Bengali or in Russian translation?

Sri Chinmoy: Even if you do not know English, I would like my "Invocation" to be sung in English. Again, since Russian is your mother tongue and there are many who do not know English, a translation is necessary so others can know the meaning of the words. So I do want this song to be translated. Occasionally if you sing the song in your own language, you may get a kind of unusual joy and thrill. But most of the time I would like the "Invocation" to be sung in English.

I composed the "Invocation" in English. When the original words came to me, each and every word came from my own highest experience and realisation. Outwardly you may say these are all just words. The last line is so simple: "Thou art one Truth, one Life, one Face." Every Tom, Dick and Harry can say this. But when I wrote those words, I not only saw them but also felt them and became them. What I expressed through my "Invocation" — the reality, the divinity, the life-breath of the song itself — I actually became.

As for my other songs, it depends on the individual. If you like the Bengali songs more than the English songs, then learn the Bengali songs. If some English songs give you joy, then those songs you learn. Only I must say that many of my English songs are not on the same level as my Bengali songs. Some of my English songs can be placed on the same footing as my Bengali songs. But there are hundreds and hundreds of Bengali songs that give me enormous delight, not because they are written in Bengali-which is my mother tongue-but because their melodies are very haunting, thrilling, illumining and fulfilling.

When I write poems or compose songs in English, I never think of Bengali words or Bengali ideas; the English words and ideas come to me naturally. But because I was born in Bengal, the Bengali atmosphere, the Bengali vibration, the Bengali way of expressing and revealing the divinity within me is easier for me than the borrowed English language or English words.

So please sing the Invocation in English. On rare occasions you can sing it in Russian. Also, when you have Joy Days, if some of you want to get special joy, you can sing it in Russian. But during your regular meetings please sing it in English. As for other songs, you decide. If Bengali songs give you more joy, then sing in Bengali. Sometimes if you know the meaning of the words, you get extra joy. Again, it isn't necessary to know the meaning of a song. There are many, many songs in various languages whose meaning we do not understand. But we get tremendous joy in singing these songs or in listening to others sing them.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Russia and Russia's God-Blossoming Heart, Agni Press, 1991
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