Swamiji was a very special teacher he will pick up on your talent or gift and make emphasis on that in each student, he realized that I was a Jazz musician with a big performer ego so that will be my personal sadhana or practice, to work on my ego…….still working on it.
But also he will inspire you to develop your gift, we’ll often talked about music from the metaphysical aspect of it , also he introduced me to Hindustani music from India and to the music of his friend G.S. Sachdev the great flute player from India.
He will often say this: “UNITY IN DIVERSITY“ which is a great phrase to explain the meaning of the word YOGA ( UNION, ONENESS ). This stuck with me so deep! because in the center we all were from someplace else in the world and not from India, so we had to learn to incorporate this amazing teachings within our own cultures.
So this is what will inspire my carrier for the last 37 years, he send me out to learn all sacred music from around the world (which took me 7 years) to play in his Ashrams which I’d been doing for 30 years. In terms of the teachings of Master Sivananda about sound and music there is great information in books like “ Meditation and Mantras” By Swami Vishnu also “Music as yoga” By Master Sivananda.
You will learn not only about Nada Yoga ( The yoga of Sound ) but also about The devotion of music .
This is the most important mission for a Ghandarvan (Angel-Musician): to bring people into ONENESS.
Till next time , Love Supreme !
Rev. Jorge Alfano.