Find the Song that will Dance You Awake

This song began with a desire to know self-healing, self-trust and inner wisdom. In the shadow times when I missed my lover and my life with him, I needed to know that everything happening was leading me to a more powerful place. Back then, there were many people around me struggling through their day to day lives and this song was for them as much as for me. It felt so hard to know what to do next so I questioned the Universe over and over to show me the reason for experiencing unbearable pain and how to rise above it. This song came together in few short weeks and gave me such tremendous hope:

"Where do you wander in your body of dust?
What do you need and who do you trust?
How do you heal and do you see the real?
Come sing a song of freedom,
I know just how you feel.

Come share your sadness.
Release any hate.
Look for the oneness beyond all the ache.
Touch only beauty, your soul wants to dance.
Come sing a song of freedom.
Just give yourself a chance.

(Chorus)
Free from slavery arise
It’s time to open up your eyes
And lift away that look of pain
To open up your great heart again

Look deep inside you and feel your desire
Is it one that can burn you or lift you up higher?
Does your smile lead to laughter?
Is your intention clear?
Come sing a song of freedom.
There’s only right now and here

Come let your deep imagination soar.
Believe for a moment, you can always ask for more
Let go of limitation, let go of all the fear
The one you have been waiting for
…is finally here.”

Ganga Fondan, 1998, Invocation to Freedom

And in the flickering candlelight of a one room apartment, my heart sang so intensely with the desire to experience Truth. Closing my eyes I sometimes saw a great blazing fire surrounded by many people who slowly started to dance. At first their movements were gentle and careful and gradually became more animated. Everyone longed to know the great Creator within and in the presence of music and sincere intention, the beautiful feelings would come. Sometimes the song felt like a private prayer and whenever someone was deeply sad or disillusioned with life, my heart would sing out to them. Even during the day, this song would dance in my thoughts and keep me smiling. Beyond all the cynicism of the world around me, the peace would come again and again. In that stillness, the Creator lifted my life from the inside. Singing would often erase any feeling of separation. We became One. Truth.

In those precious moments, the words of my Teacher would ring in my memory:

"This is the Truth and knowing this Truth will set us free. Free to be whatever we want to be, do whatever we want to do, and have whatever we want to have. Intellectual understanding is not enough. It must be believed. It must become our knowing. When it becomes our Being then we will realize the Truth and the Truth shall set us free." *

Practicing the Four Proclamations and doing the exercises of my Teacher, I realize more and more what his words mean. The intellect cannot satisfy the yearning of the heart. Otherwise we merely live someone else's definition of Truth. We must experience our Oneness in order to make peace with ourselves. We must experience this Truth within ourselves. Then we can take charge of our life and live the life we truly desire.

Everyone has a way to this knowing. Beyond loneliness, beyond pain and fear, this knowing waits in the silence within. We each find a way to reach that place and and experience it personaly. The final verse of the song takes us there:

"Knock on the door and it shall open unto you.
Ask for a kingdom and this heaven shines through.
Ask for its comfort and feel its embrace
shining all around you in each smiling face.
Rising within... you are never alone.
Come sing a song of freedom and dance your way home.

Free from slavery arise.
It’s time to open up your eyes
and lift away that look of pain
to open up your great heart again
to open up your great heart again."

I celebrate this song of our freedom here and now.

Namaste,

Ganga

* Quote from "Ancient Secrets of Success for Today's World" - by Tulshi Sen