Ranjit and Unmesh Swanson – 26 October 2005

Last modified May 22, 2007

In this live performance, Ranjit and Unmesh Swanson sing two songs in traditional Indian Baoul style.

They performed the songs for Sri Chinmoy and his disciples 26 October, 2005  in  Queens, New York. At the end of the last song, Sri Chinmoy can be heard appreciating the performance.

The first song, “O Kanaiya”, is a song to Lord Krishna, written by Sri Chinmoy.

The second song was one of Sri Ramakrishna’s favourite bhajans. Before the song begins, Ranjit tells a short story behind this particular song. I paraphrase it here:

In 1885, when Sri Ramakrishna was no longer able to live at Dakshineswar he was staying at a disciples house in Shakurpur. And at that time he was being visited by several pundits, including Bijoy Goswami – an imposing man; he was a stout man with extremely long hair, which reached down to the floor when he stood up.

At this time, Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples had come to realise that he (Ramakrishna) was not going to get better – his cancer was terminal, and they were kind of glum. Dr Shakar had come to see Sri Ramakrishna and he saw that everyone was kind of down, and he asked Sri Ramakrishna whether there was going to be any songs. And Sri Ramakrishna asked Naren (later Swami Vivekananda) to sing. And when Vivekananda got to the chorus, Bijoy Goswami jumped up and danced around the room, and no sooner did he do that, but Ramakrishna  did the same – he got up from his sickbed and began dancing and singing, and so did everyone else – chanting the chorus of this song. It became a mad house. And of this song, Ramakrishna said that ‘it describes my philosophy perfectly.’

 

  • Artists: Ranjit and Unmesh Swanson
  • Release year: 2005
  • Related tags: Ranjit & Unmesh
  • Acknowledgements: Sri Chinmoy, Ranjit and Unmesh Swanson
  • Publisher: Sri Chinmoy Centre
  • Tracks uploaded and notes: – Kamalakanta Nieves and Tejvan Pettinger
  • Duration: 9.41
  • Format: Advanced Audio Coding

 

 

More about Ranjit and Unmesh

We have 4 other pages containing uploaded tracks by Ranjit and Unmesh. View all pages »

List of tracks

The content on Radio Sri Chinmoy is available to share with everybody under the terms of the Creative Commons licence. Read more »

9 Comments

  1. Hello,

    Can anyone tell me what the name of the second song is or have the lyrics, in English?

    It’s one of my favorites, ever since I came across it.

    Thank You,
    Elias

    Reply
      • THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU!!

    • O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!
      What need have I of knowledge or reason?
      Make me drunk with Thy love’s Wine;
      O Thou who stealest Thy bhaktas’ hearts,
      Drown me deep in the Sea of Thy love!
      Here in this world, this madhouse of Thine,
      Some laugh, some weep, some dance for joy:
      Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga,
      All are drunk with the Wine of Thy love.
      O Mother, when shall I be blessed
      By joining their blissful company?

      Reply
  2. It is as if I was there. The music and story bring tears to my eyes. I can see and feel the room.

    Reply
  3. Good

    Reply
  4. Superb recording. Very spiritual atmosphere created by this music.

    Reply
  5. Beautiful, stilling, stirring

    Reply
  6. A mind silenting music.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Once you are done adding and removing songs, you can then rearrange, save and share them.