The lyrics of this Cosmic Chant were written by Yogananda and are to be sung to the tune of Roamin’ In The Gloamin’ by Harry Lauder. He was a hugely popular Scottish poet and singer, whom Winston Churchill described as “Scotland’s greatest-ever ambassador”.
Yogananda visited Harry Lauder in 1935, when he toured Europe on his way to India. He writes in his Autobiography of a Yogi: “Our party spent a pleasant day as guests of Sir Harry Lauder at his estate in Scotland.”
Harry Lauder was a spiritual man, an initiated Freemason, and probably karmically connected to Yogananda, as the Master went to pay him that extra visit (otherwise he went mostly to pilgrimage spots). Here are two fun a pictures of the “two friends”, from Yogananda’s early magazine:
Harry Lauder loved to laugh and make others laugh: he was an entertainer. Swami Kriyananda recounts that Yogananda too had a contagious sense of humor, at times roaring with laughter. Probably the two shared some good laughs together. Kriyananda writes:
“I still remember the delight with which Master told jokes. Here is a small sampling of them:…
- Three men were drinking whiskey: an Irishman, an Englishman, and a Scotchman. A fly flew into each of their glasses. The Irishman tossed the fly out of his glass, losing as he did so half the whiskey. The Englishman carefully flicked the fly out of his glass. ‘But the Scotchman,’ Master concluded with a delighted chuckle, ‘squeezedthe fly!’ I still remember the delight with which he pronounced that word, ‘squeezed.’
- Three Scotchmen went to church. When the collection plate approached the row they were sitting in, one of the men fainted and the other two carried him out!
Those last two jokes had probably been told to him by Harry Lauder, a Scottish singer and composer whom Master went to visit in Scotland on his way to India in 1935.”
Harry Lauder came to America repeatedly, for example to meet Charley Chaplin and act in a short film with him. He also became acquainted with Luther Burbank, “the American saint”, whom Yogananda loved dearly. Below is a photo of the two standing together in 1921. Through Luther Burbank he might have met Yogananda, inviting him to Scotland.
Popular songs transformed by Yogananda
By the way, Yogananda transformed also other popular tunes. For example he turned the California state song, “I love you, California” into “I love you, India”, writing new words.
He turned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” into the song “Glory Hallelujah,” writing his own words.
Yogananda also transformed “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” (words by Rida J. Young; lyrics by Victor Herbert) into a devotional song.
He also turned the song “Indian Love Call” (lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II; music by Rudolf Friml) into devotional chanting.
And as we said, he turned Roamin’ In The Gloamin’ into “Sitting in the Silence”:
Today this Cosmic Chant Sitting in the Silence is sometimes sung to the Guru. Originally, however, Yogananda dedicated it to Christ and Krishna.
LYRICS:
Sitting in the silence,
On the sunny banks of my mind;
Sitting in the silence.
With the Christ by my side.
[Or] With the Krishna by my side.
When the thoughts have gone to rest,
That’s the time I see Him best,
Oh, ‘tis lovely sitting in the silence.
WHEN TO USE THIS SONG:
Not given
SING ALONG:
Durga Mata sings this Cosmic Chant in its original form, with the above lyrics on her album “Chanting For Deep Meditation”. It can be purchased here.