Meditation Ragas

Sona’s review of Chinmaya’s latest CD.

Chinmaya, Master-Mediator between musical styles of different cultures, attracts and invites the talent of a variety of people to create something beyond convention and therefore his music is always alive and uplifting. (Just listen to his various CDs with the Celtic Raga Band, which convinced Paul McCartney to invite the band to his wedding). Chinmaya just came out with a new CD that moves again to the more quiet and even side of musical expression.

He himself is playing the Sarod, an Indian fretless string instrument (one of the leading instruments of Hindustani music today) that is as fascinating to the Western ear as is the Sitar for its celestial singing quality; yet the Sarod emits a more penetrating, deeper and soulful sound. In the Meditation Ragas he is accompanied mainly by his Indian musician friends on the bamboo flute and the violin, each one picking up or supporting the main melody track of the other.

The music may be used as an aid for the 5 Senses Meditations (plus the heart) that are suggested on the cover, with reference to the meditation techniques Osho speaks about in the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra series. Personally I find it distractive to listen to music during meditation, unless it is an active meditation that involves moving the body.

Surprisingly (to myself) the Meditation Ragas kept evoking memories of those precious moments when Osho, hands held up in Namaste, would greet his disciples or take his leave more than 2 decades ago in Poona. The heightened awareness and attention during those moments, together with the deep receptivity and love of his disciples created a very specific musical expression from the musicians present at that time. Later on that music continued its intimate association with the presence of the Master. Chinmaya’s unhurried, gentle and ‘still’ Meditation Ragas invite a similar mood.

Sona for Osho News

The CD is available on iTunes – Amazon – New Earth Records.

Chinmaya was born in 1954 in England and started playing the classical guitar at 15. After taking sannyas in 1982 he took up playing the sarod. The Osho Commune in Pune provided him the ground for musical experiments over the next quarter century until, today, he has 13 CDs released on New Earth Records and a further 4 on Malimba Records. Chinmaya is also involved with environmental / social justice issues. www.chinmaya-dunster.com