Bernstein Brought Down Heaven to Earth

I watched the New York Philharmonic and a fine cast perform Leonard Bernstein's musical score for Candide on PBS.

During my reflection after the show, I realized there is a divine perfection in Bernstein's music that captivated America and the world. Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) was a man of rare intellect who experienced music as pure ecstasy. He was a household name and achieved unparalleled fame as an American icon not simply because he was in incredible conductor and composer, but also because of his powerful personality and his passion to communicate, through music, about life, love and the human condition.

Perhaps the reason we loved his music, conducting and TV shows explaining music, was that he was passionately driven and exuberant in conveying the spiritual essence of music as he felt it inside, through every single note and passage.

And as he jumped up and down on the orchestral podium, baton in hand with sweat pouring from his forehead, the orchestras he led leaped to new levels of expression and divine Connection, and we through them. If you can imagine the concept of being an "instrument" of the Source of music itself, Bernstein knew that and lived it. And we got to experience the great music of legendary composers through the lens of Bernstein's deep inner connection to the Source of Music.

Growing up as a young kid, I was magnetically drawn to Bernstein's West Side Story and, in the basement of my home endlessly spinning the album on a record player, I learned from listening to it about musical composition, rhythm and orchestration. By the time I was 19 I was writing my own musical scores for off-off Broadway shows, influenced by Bernstein and the great Stephen Sondheim.

A few years later, I helped my Guru Sri Chinmoy meet the Maestro at his incredible home at The Dakota in Manhattan. These meetings began with meditations for the two had a deep inner connection.

Though they led dissimilar lives, Leonard Bernstein and Sri Chinmoy both brought down Heaven to Earth. Now, today, I somehow get joy knowing they are together in Heaven....inspiring and delighting through music. How marvelous!!!