My Life belongs to You, Siva My Lord, Giver of Light and Infinite Love- David S. Annderson
There are few traditions of wisdom so influential in the modern world's spiritual awakening as that of the Hindu wisdom of India.
Adi Shankara's Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, Transcendental Meditation.
With the age of Bob Dylan and Miles Davis, the modern world began a spiritual awakening.
At first, this awakening was wordless, sung to the strains of the hipster modern jazz of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Then protest lyrics were added, singing of political causes rather than spiritual awakening.
Finally, with Bob Dylan's electric period, truly spiritually searching lyrics were added for the first time.
Lyrics that tried to articulate the spiritual awakening of the Beat generation and the young Hippies.
Hallucinatory lyrics of acid-soaked visions, searching out a spiritual awakening.
But of all the lyrics that came out of the 60s and 70s, two sets of lyrics had a far greater clarity while still being spiritual and not merely political.
One is the narrative of personal spiritual searching that was the lyrics of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys from side 2 of Beach Boys Today on, reaching its peak of clarity in the personal narrative that is Pet Sounds.
The other is the lyrics of The Beatles.
And the lyrics of The Beatles are Bhakti lyrics.
There are three great strains of Hindu wisdom that are more prominent than the rest.
One is Vedanta, the philosophical school founded on the Upanishads.
One is Yoga, the great Hindu school of the healing of the mind.
And the third is simple Devotion.
And this is Bhakti.
And the lyrics of spiritual awakening of The Beatles, which are so clear and so deep, are Vedanta, and are Bhakti.
Some of the finest Bhakti poetry ever written.
Turn off your mind and float downstream
It is not dying
That love is all and love is everyone
It is knowing
What I feel I cannot say
But my love is there for you anytime of day
But if it's not love that you need
Than I'll try my best to make everything succeed
Tell me, what is my life without your love?
And tell me, who am I without you by my side?
In the spiritual lyrics of The Beatles and George Harrison, three great strands of spiritualism mix in harmony.
One of them is a very personal and universalist interpretation of the mindfulness of Vedanta.
One of them is Bhakti, Devotion, pure and simple.
And one of them is a vision of how the Love of Bhakti and Vedanta can heal the world by getting us to be as devoted to love to each other as to Siva who is Vishnu.
I look at the world and notice that it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
While my guitar gently weeps
We were talking about the space between us all
And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth, than it's too late and they pass away
Try to realize it's all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you
Jai Guru Deva Om
Nothing's gonna change my world
This is a powerful spiritual vision
One part Bhakti, one part a very personal and universalist interpretation of Vedanta, and one part applying that to loving each other to heal the world
And along with the vision of personal spiritual searching in Pet Sounds, this is the spiritual vision with more clarity than any other from the poetry of the English language of the 20th Century, song lyrics or not
Food for thought
Thank you, George Harrison!
Thank you, Siva who is Vishnu!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson