A fifth edition of the Cosmic Chants followed in 1974. Today the sixth edition (2005) is in circulation.
India has one more…
In India, SRF (YSS) has added a chant, unknown in the West, called Namo Namaste (I Bow to Thee). Its lyrics, as the Indian Cosmic Chants book specifies, are words from the Bhagavad Gita (11.39-40). It is chanted by Indian YSS monks at the end of meditation and services. It was included in the book for that reason though it is not one of Yogananda’s Cosmic Chants.
It remains a fact, however, that Yogananda loved this particular Bhagavad Gita passage. The very first prayer in Whispers from Eternity is based on it. We read:
“Cosmic Salutation
(Inspired by the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu Bible)O Spirit, I bow to Thee,
in front of me, behind me,
on the left, and on the right.
I bow to Thee above and beneath.
I bow to Thee all around me.
I bow to Thee, within and without me.
I bow to Thee everywhere,
for Thou art omnipresent.”
This is the Bhagavad Gita Sanskrit verse and YSS’s English rendition:
Namo namaste ’stu sahasra-kritvah
punash cha bhuyo ’pi namo namaste
namah purastad atha prishthatas te
namo ’stu te sarvata eva sarva.
To Thee praise, praise, without end,
To Thee my salutations a thousandfold.
I bow to Thee in front and behind,
I bow to Thee on the left and on the right,
I bow to Thee above and beneath,
I bow to Thee enclosing me everywhere.
Listen to it here:
Conclusion
Yogananda wrote in his magazine Inner Culture (April 1942): “I was so happy to visit the long-established Indianapolis Center, so very tastefully decorated. I was deeply touched to hear my chants sung there so accurately and beautifully.”
His Cosmic Chants, and the way they are sung, were obviously important for him, as he was “deeply touched”. So also today let’s do our very best to sing his spiritualized, devotional, God-drenched Cosmic Chants “accurately” and “beautifully”.
Let us end by chanting in unison “JAI GURU”, with Durga Mata leading us: