Musician Talk

This article is based on a talk given by Mas Ikemiya, a world-famous musician, at the Manhattan Center in January 1999.

I was born into a religious Christian family that began every morning with prayer. Both my grandfather and uncle were ministers. My father, also a devout Christian, was a university professor. After retirement, he was feeling that he was not finding his truth, so he abandoned Christianity to become a Buddhist monk. He studied Buddhism and eventually became a Buddhist priest.

I came to this country at fifteen, when my father was invited to Kansas State University as a professor. I went to a local high school and excelled in math and science. After graduation, I entered Kansas State University and studied nuclear physics. But I decided I did not want to work in that field, so I entered a Zen Buddhist monastery. For ten years, I spent eighteen hours each day in meditation.

Once, after I had been meditation for fourteen hours, I looked at a rock an saw that it was beaming with beautiful light. The tree next to it was also shining. Then I noticed that the whole sky was showering a bright light—so bright that I was almost blinded. I felt that the entire world had changed. Yet, the rock was the same old rock I had seen many times. Then I realized that it was I who changed, not the world. Usually, we are so busy trying to change the world that we do not see that we need to work on ourselves. After that experience, the world became a much brighter and more wonderful place to live. The world wasn’t different; I was. That was a wonderful lesson I learned at the monastery.

After my years in the monastery, I started my career in music, came to New York and learned of Baba. After hearing about Swami at a wonderful meeting, I become totally involved. I could think of nothing but Swami. I hoped that someday I would get to go see Him. Two weeks later, I was invited to perform in India. I was asked to come, not to a common city like Bombay—whose name I would have recognized—but to Bangalore. At that time, I didn’t know where Baba lived.

When I found out that He lived in Bangalore, I told my manager I would definitely go. I thought it must be Baba’s invitation. I was to play at the International Music Cultural Foundation, a prestigious organization.

I flew to Bombay and had to wait until 8:00 A.M. the next morning for my flight to Bangalore. As I was trying to get some sleep, a person walked up to me and asked, “Where are you going?” I told him I was on my way to Bangalore.

“What for?”

“A job.” He wanted to know what kind of job. I was trying to sleep, and I wanted to be left alone, but I managed to tell him that I was going to play at a concert. He wanted to know if that was my only purpose. I told him that my real purpose was to see Sathya Sai Baba. He said he was going there also and would take me. From that moment on, he took care of everything. I was wait-listed for an earlier flight, but I hadn’t been able to get a seat. I don’t know what the man did, but he got me a space on the airplane. At the ashram the man disappeared. I asked everyone who he was, but no one knew.

Since then, I have gone to the ashram nine times. Every time I go, I receive certain lessons. Very often the message comes from the “thought for the day.” For example, one helpful practice I sometimes forget is the idea of thinking of Swami all the time. When I arrived at the ashram for my last visit, what do you think the blackboard said? “At all times and in all places, always think of God. Whatever you are doing, think of God. Remember God with love. Remember God with faith.” I knew I needed to do this, but somehow it had never really sunk in. At darshan (sight of a holy person), Baba came by me. I was beaming. There is something about His energy. You start to cry. You are so full of bliss and joy. That is the way I should live all the time. He is with us constantly-not just when He walks by. He is here with us now.

If we thought He was sitting here with us, we would feel so blissful, beaming. We should be in such a state of awareness. Realizing that, I started to feel his presence more and more. I began to have that level of joy in me all the time. When I wake up, I say, “Good morning, Baba.” All of a sudden, my energy gets going because He is right there.

Wonderful examples exist of how He is with us all the time. When I went to El Salvador during the civil war, danger was everywhere. I was scared when I got there. At a traffic light, the car stopped, and I thought, “Baba are you sure you are with me?” Baba likes to play jokes. I did not think He would appear in person, but I hoped He was with me. Suddenly, I saw a demolished building next to the car.

The sign on the building was ruined. All that remained was the word Baba. I laughed out loud because I felt He was teasing me, saying, “Don’t worry, I am here.”

These words are my theme: “My place is among you, with you, and wherever work lies. That is why I move among you and stand at your back. This is just to show you that even in your own places when you do bhajans (devotional songs) or some other kind of adoration like serving the sick or the poor, I do not sit on a special seat apart and distant. Do not believe that I am on the pedestal you offer me. I am part of you, a partner and partaker in all your efforts, inspiring and instructing when you ask or need inspiration.” Sometimes I forget about Baba. I can’t think of Him always. But when we remember to involve Him, things get much better. He helps us work out whatever we are going through.

The last time I was touring, I stopped in Italy. At the airport, I came upon a little sign. When I looked closely, it said, “Sai Company.” I kept seeing signs of Him everywhere. Later, while giving a concert in Japan, I was tuning up, and something clicked. I felt Swami with me. I smelled jasmine. He started to play a game with me. Before a concert in Kyoto, for example, I was assigned a changing room. Such rooms in Japan have names like Chrysanthemum. Though hotels never name rooms after foreign flowers, my room was called Jasmine. For three days afterward, I didn’t smell Jasmine. Then a fan gave me flowers—jasmine. The Jasmine theme continued into India. Since I was going to Kodaikanal, I asked an airport official in Madras for the best way to get there. He said to drive. As far as I knew, it was the only way to get there. But the trip took twelve long hours, made more difficult by the fact that my companions and I had to drive up a mountain very late at night. We started to worry. Then, we smelled a familiar scent. We could see white flowers all along the roadside and were ecstatic. When we got to the ashram, it was closed. We were completely lost and didn’t know where to go. Suddenly, a young boy came up on a bicycle. He led us to a hotel. Only one room was available, and we asked to see it. When the boy opened the door, the room was filled with the smell of Jasmine.

It almost knocked us out. In Kodaikanal, Swami came out, and because there were only three or four rows separating us, He was very, very close. He took my letters.

These are the kinds of signs Swami gives all the time to show that He is thinking of us. He is like the sun. He shines all the time, but we often close the doors and windows by closing our hearts. That is why we do not see the sun-the sun that He is. We only need to open our hearts to let Him come into us. One thing that helps me is to do seva (service) projects. As I travel, I try, through music, to create better understanding between cultures. My work is a tremendous blessing and joy. At some music festivals, we have very little money. Swami says not to think about money. People ask how we manage, and I don’t know. It just happens. People ask me how I run the Bangalore festival. Swami does it. It has been a magical thing. In addition, I try to do as many concerts for charities as possible to raise money for them. Mother Theresa spent her whole life Working for charity. She said, “Try to be kind and deeply compassionate toward everyone. Whoever you meet-leave them feeling better and happier than before they met you. May your kindness express through your eyes, smiles, heartwarming words and your behavior. Always have joyous smiles for children, poor people, sick people and people suffering from loneliness. You should not only serve them, but also give your heart to them.” Sometimes we go through the motions of Service, but we don’t really give our hearts or wish for people to be happier. That feeling must come through in our actions.

People who are hearing-impaired or who sit in wheelchairs do not often feel welcome at concerts, so I decided to give a concert for handicapped people. Those who couldn’t hear sat against the piano and felt the vibrations. They began to tap in rhythm. The experience of sharing with them was wonderful.

When I first learned of Swami, my father, a highly scientific man, wanted to disprove Him. He came to a meeting with me. We weren’t doing anything unusual—just singing bhajans. My father looked all around. Afterward, we dimmed the lights and only Baba’s picture was lit up. My father started acting strangely, He stood up and moved around. I wondered if he were going crazy. When the meeting was over, he went up front and bowed in front of Swami’s picture, looking intently at it. Then he became quiet and peaceful. Later, I asked what he thought. He replied, “My son I do not know where to start. I was looking at Swami’s picture. All of a sudden, Swami’s eyes began to glow and pierce me.” He thought it might be some kind of reflection. Then Swami’s hand began to move. My father shook his head, but the movement continued. As a scientist, he tried to understand. When Swami’s fingernails began to shine, he finally realized that his eyes were not the problem. My father studies palm reading. He could see that Swami’s hand was the most perfect palm he had ever seen. At that moment, he knew that Swami was God. He felt blissful and calm. That night he went to sleep with Swami’s photo by his bed.