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Yogi Bhajan said we expand our consciousness and grow in spiritual maturity through the process of: Poke Provoke Confront Uplift.
Life poked me hard in 2017 with the loss of two dear friends, Guru Dass Singh and Sada Sat Singh. At the same time I was turning 70 (how did that happen?) and retiring from role as the Executive Director of Teacher Training at KRI, and ending 47 years of institutional responsibility with our 3HO community.
This provoked in me many thoughts, feelings and emotions with the realization I am entering the final stages of this life’s journey, and writing these songs helped me reflect upon the memories of life lived, confront the reality of death coming and bring me back to living fully and gratefully in the here and now.
If it all starts to get a little too melancholy for you, hold on, upliftment is coming with an Italian inspired update of Ardas Bhaee and then a new composition, “I Know the Unknown” with a lighter perspective that I think both Guru Dass Singh and Sada Sat Singh would have appreciated. It all ends with mantra Dharti Hai, which connects the ever-changing realm on the earthly Tatwas with the eternal realms of the heavens in this moment, appreciating and serving the here and now. And finally, with that wonderful advice from Yogi Bhajan to “Travel Light, Live Light, Spread the Light, Be the Light”.
I have a tremendous gratitude to my musical partner of almost 20 years, Saribjit Singh. We recorded this in his home studio in Infernetto (“Little Hell”) outside Rome, where he did all the engineering and mixing, as well playing multiple instruments. To Saravtar, whose beautiful voice and spirit has graced almost all of my CD’s. To all of the incredible musicians who graciously shared their talent and inspiration. And finally my dear Italian sister in the divine, Haribhajan Kaur, who is always in the background, making sure I am well cared for during my Roman stays.
I share this music with you, with the hope that my heart may touch your heart and the prayer that the light your Soul may shine brightly in the night sky. It is to the memory and undying spirit of two bright souls, Guru Dass Singh and Sada Sat Singh, that this CD is dedicated.
“My friend Guru Dass Singh was a fabulous musician. He always encouraged me in my musical endeavors, and we would play together whenever we had the chance.”
More recently we were planning to write and record songs together. It was a joy and blessing we had the chance to write and sing together “Nothing Going to Stop This Train”. You can hear his voice and ukulele on this track, but he is woven throughout this CD. I played him several of these songs the last time we were together on Bali, just months before he passed… and as always he generously would suggest a little cord variation here, and a word phrasing there… enhancing the musical and poetic quality of songs he touched. He was with me throughout the all the writing and recording and I feel his presence every time I play this music.
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG (Tarn Taran Singh — Hamburg, Germany — 1987)
Hitting 40. Realizing “we’re not young anymore”. Maintaining the family, business, social and dharmic duties which arose out of the burst of unlimited youthful energy and creativity. Feeling the limits of physical energy and options. Mortality looming reality. Looking back with fondness at the glories of Spring and realizing its part of the eternal circle of Life. (GDS helped with cord change for interlude.)
Lyrics:
When we were young we were on fire
And we burned like fire had never burnt before
When we were young the moon wasn’t far enough
No we were reaching for the farthest star
When... when... when we were young
When we were young we were raging
A storm like this world had never seen before
We shook the walls we shattered the windows
We shook this old world to its very core
When... when... when we were young
Spring is a moment of magic and wonder
Life rising from the dead And in that moment of youth eternal
We had no fear of winter’s dread
Not when we were young
Life is a circle unending
Time a wheel that grinds flesh and bone
Death is a door and not an ending
Opening to now
Opening to now
Opening to now ... and evermore.
MY LIFE LIKE JEWELS (Tarn Taran Singh —2016/17)
On a plane over the Pacific heading home, after a rich cultural, spiritual and personal experience in China and Taiwan… jewels from heaven… slipping through my fingers as they become memories… the blessing of having the opportunity to experience the miracle of life… and the realization of the impermanence of it all. So, “Travel light…”. (Thanks to Saribjit for the inspiration to add the interlude cord changes and also a message from Yogi Bhajan at the end.)
Lyrics:
I feel my life like jewels
Falling from heaven
Just to slip through my hands
And be lost forever
In time
Lost forever in time
Pieces of my life
Just tryin’ to hold them together
As they slip through my hands
To be lost forever
In time
Memories lost in time
Flesh and blood
Ground down to dirt and dust
Life slips through our hands
To be lost forever
In time
Lost forever in time
Time is the river I ride
My life goes drifting by
Time opens the door
We tumble, crumble through empty space
Slipping through the hands of death
To be lost forever
Beyond time
Lost forever beyond time
And time when it comes
To the end
Beyond time
With you, I will blend
Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light
US OLD MEN (Tarn Taran Singh — Espanola, NM — 2017)
My wife and I met Yogi Bhajan in 1972. I was 23 years old. He sent us to Europe. We started a family, founded an ashram, generated and ran a restaurant and the Yogi Tea startup, along with yoga classes, inter-religious work, Teacher Training, the European Yoga Festival…. I served the mission in multiple roles and institutional responsibilities in Europe, American and globally for 45 years. Sometimes I would feel “burnt out”, and my body would force me to “take a break”, but there was always an underlying drive and impatience to recover and get “back in the game”. My last official role was as Executive Director of the KRI International Teacher Training Program. For me it was the culmination of all I had done before, and though challenging, I enjoyed it immensely! But by 2016 I knew I had done what I could do, and now fresh perspective and youthful energy were needed to carry it forward. And frankly, I was “tired to the bone” and I knew this was it, and I was done doing. It was my first sense of being “old”. Not in any kind of negative way, but just recognizing it … and enjoying it… telling the stories… leaving no regrets. (Again, GDS suggested cord change in interlude.)
Lyrics:
Us old men our time is past
Guess we knew it’d never last
Oh we have stories to be told
But us old men, we’re tired to the bone
Us old men our time has come
To lay it down, it’s all been done
The sun must rise, the sun must set
Us old men, just want to leave with no regrets
Oh young men gather round
Our time is lost but yours is found
It’s time to spread your wings and fly
For us old men, no need to cry
For us old men our fate is sealed
There’s nothing left to be reveled
Except for that which lies beyond
For us old men, there’s just one more Kingdom to come
For us old men, there’s just the Kingdom Come
NOTHIN’ GOING TO STOP THIS TRAIN (Tarn Taran Singh & Guru Dass Singh — Sweden — January 2017)
On January 1, 2017 I was in a hotel room in Rome, packing my bags to depart the next day to home. I got a call from my dear brother Guru Dass Singh, who had just been blind sided with a diagnosis of Pancreas Cancer. Two days later I was on a plane flying to be with him in Sweden. We had been planning to write songs together, so I thought, I need to come up with something. And sitting in that airplane felt like being in a tunnel, hurdling through space, filled with people in all stages of life… “Time is a tunnel boring through space / Filled with the tatwas ever shifting shape” and there was nothing to stop its inevitable momentum … “no nothing going to stop this train…”. We met. We hugged. We cried. We look at each other with disbelief. And I said I have some words that could be a song. And I remember the brightness light up in his eyes as he took the paper, grabbed his guitar and instantly had a cord progress and melody. And the creative process started to flow with more verses and cord progressions…. It took no more that 30 minutes. His wife said, we have to record this, so out came the cell phone. We planned to record it later in a studio, but train was moving too fast. We could never get studio quality out of a cell phone recording, but Saribjit has done wonderful job adding some backing to fill out the sound. It is most precious to me. When I hear Guru Dass’s ukulele and voice I am back in that moment… and filled with equal parts joy and sadness.
Lyrics:
Time is a tunnel
Boring through space
Filled with the Tatwas
Ever shifting shape
And there ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
Well there ain’t nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
Stars fill the sky
The moon shines bright
Day will always
Turn to night
And there ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
No there ain’t nothing, no no nothing gonna stop this train.
So when you hear the whistle blowing
And the conductor calls your name
Turn your back to all that was
Feel the sunshine on your face
‘Cause we’re leaving the station
Destination unknown
And there ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
No there ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
Everything comes
Everything goes
Lost in Love’s
Everlasting glow
And there ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
There ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
So take my hand
And hold on tight
Nothing to fear
Nothing to fight
‘Cause ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
No there’s nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
So when you hear the whistle blowing
And the conductor calls your name
Turn your back to all that was
Feel the sunshine on your face
‘Cause we’re leaving the station
Destination unknown
But there ain't nothing, no nothing gonna stop this train.
I tell you nothing gonna stop this train. Nothings gonna stop this train.
MY OLD FRIEND DEATH (Tarn Taran Singh — 2018)
2017 was a tough year. I lost Guru Dass in June and then at the closing of the year, another friend and brother, Sada Sat Singh, who fought valiantly for life until the last breath. When you face death, your true character comes out. A spiritual life is a training for this moment. Both my brothers were fearless and courageous as they faced death. For me they were great inspirations. My journey is ending. Death can come at any moment. I can no longer deny death exists. Time to make death my friend.
Lyrics:
My old friend death
Sits at the foot of my bed
He’s waiting there most patiently
My old friend death
There’s twinkle in his eye
He knows I am coming bye and bye
Well this road I’ve traveled
I know it’s coming to an end
And waiting there to take me home
Is my old friend
My old friend death
Whispers in my ear
To tell me there is nothing to fear
My old friend death
When time has dropped its last grains of sand
He’ll be there to take my hand
To embrace me in his arms
And dispel all of life’s charms
There to welcome me back home
Will be, my old friend
My old friend death
Silent companion over all these miles
Now winks at me and slyly smiles
My old friend death
Takes me in his warm embrace
As we drop out time, into eternal grace.
AN ANGEL (Tarn Taran Singh — 2017)
We believe when the soul departs the body at moment of death, it has 17 days to say goodbye to its earthly existence before it departs to its home in the ethers. I wrote this in the days after Guru Dass’s death. This is my personal farewell to my best and dearest brother who presence I feel but whose earthly company I miss terribly.
Lyrics:
Oh my friends, an angel has just left this earth
I was holdin’ on to him for all that I was worth
But somehow I let my grip it slip
His wings I could not clip
And now an angel is flying, back to heaven
I feel lost and alone in a dark hole surrounded by pain
My angel smiles down on me with a light that dissolves any blame
Guess I knew I could never hold him down
An angel knows no bounds
And angels must always fly, back to heaven
He’s shed his body’s prison
And dropped all his cares
He’s on his way to heaven
One day I’ll meet him there
And as angels we’ll fly
As angels we’ll fly
As angels we’ll fly
Together in heaven
I asked him when you’re gone how will I fill this empty space
He smiled and said, fill it with Love and surround it with Grace
Now he’s homeward bound
Soaring above the clouds
An angel, on his way home to heaven
He’s shed his body’s prison
And dropped all his cares
He’s on his way to heaven
One day I’ll meet him there
And as angels we’ll fly
As angels we’ll fly
As angels we’ll fly
Together in heaven
Hume Hum Bhram Hum -- We are We, We are One
ARDAS BHAEE
This is the Mantra of Prayer given to us by Yogi Bhajan. Back in 2000 when Guru Dass Singh heard my version, he invited me to Barcelona to record it. He produced it, Gurudass Kaur did the incredible choral arrangements and Saravtar shared her beautiful voice. It has become the mantra I am most recognized for. My Italian friends came up with this new jazzy version which we recorded with vocal solos by Saribjit and Saravtar along with Marco’s soulful guitar and Cristiano’s melodic bass line. I love it!
I KNOW THE UNKNOWN
We were supposed to finish this album in 2018… but it needed to wait for this song to lift it out of my grief’s melancholy and sadness and bring in little perspective and humor that both Guru Das and Sada Sat would have appreciated.
“I know the Unknown is known to me”…. Is a mantra given to us by Yogi Bhajan that is a favorite of my wife, Tarn Taran Kaur, and the basis of much of her teaching.
THE MANTRAS you find on this CD are from Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.
1. Travel Light, Live Light, Spread the Light, Be the Light
2. Humee Hum Bhram Hum, We are We, We are One
3. I Know the Unknown is Known to Me
4. Isht Sodhanna Mantra: Dharti Hai, Akash Hai, Guru Ram Das Hai [The heavens are, The earth is, Guru Ram Das is]
5. Ardas Bhaee Amar Das Guru, Amar Das Guru Ardas Bhaee / Ram Das Guru, Ram Das Guru / Ram Das Guru Sachee Sahai