In 1988, I was invited to see in the world's greatest meditation music composer.  At least that's what I was told he was.

I was also told he was the most prolific painter of all time, but for now let's stick to the music and meditation.

Some of you may have already guessed that the person I'm referring to is the late Sri Chinmoy.

I went with my girlfriend, Nicole, who I think is the one who got the tickets to Radio City Music Hall where the event was occurring.  The place was packed.  You could see some of Chinmoy's devotees scattered about the room, but it seemed like most of the hall was filled with meditators and spiritual seekers of all sorts, who were an eagerly anticipating hearing the music meditations that this famous guru would produce.

So, Sri Chinmoy walks out and sits down on the stage, which is practically littered with musical instruments.  I expected a band to follow him but he was the only person on the stage.

He reaches for one of the instruments and, trust me, for the sake of the story, it doesn't matter that I don't remember which one. But let's say it was a flute. He places the flute to his lips. The room grows hushed in anticipation, and he starts to "play."

Maybe I was expecting some Indian meditation music or some calming, relaxing New Age tones. But, suffice it to say, with my eyes closed to contemplate the music yoga that I was anticipating, I couldn't tell that they hadn't replaced the guru with a monkey. All I heard was a random collection of notes, with no melody, no  rhythm, no nothing.

I literally open my eyes and looked around the room to see if everyone was laughing at what must have been a practical joke.

But no, everybody took this incredibly seriously. After a few moments to guru puts down the flute picks up a guitar and, as if he had never played one in his life, plucked and strummed a seemingly random barrage of notes and chords.

And again as I look around the room, everybody seemed blissed out, as if he was playing musical Percocet.

I wish I could make a free meditation MP3 or meditation CD so you could download this music meditation free and then can tell me if I was insane or not.

All I can tell you is that after about 30 minutes I realized one of two things was happening: either this was the most enlightened guy in the universe making meditation music so profound that it was light-years above my head… or, this was a complete put on.

To the dismay of the people sitting near us, who I'm sure believed we had just ruined our chances of becoming fully awakened, Nicole and I came to the latter conclusion, and walked out into the New York evening and found a place to enjoy a wonderful dinner.

Next Post: Music meditation mantra and me

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