Love Is the Answer to All Our Questions - Why?, Ep. 9
Join Swamiji for a hauntingly beautiful song that is perhaps one of the most autobiographical pieces of music he's written. The tale of a young maid who searches for meaning in life, and wonders at the underlying purpose of all natural phenomenon, until at last in a moment of Divine contact she discovers the meaning of all life itself. In this modern age, sometimes we are deceived into thinking that rational definitions are the ultimate gauge of life — though without love, and without the soul's intuitive faculty, all life is meaningless. Explore this song with me to rediscover the answer to all our heart's questions, all of our pondering in divine love.
Lyrics
There lived a tender maid
In a far-off country.
The strangeness of this world made her sigh.
Her friends asked their fathers
For money and clothes,
But all she could ask was—
Why?
She saw the solemn clouds
Gathered watching a rainbow;
The bright rays of their joy filled the sky.
Her teachers explained it
All wisely away,
But still her heart wondered—
Why?
She saw the silent stars
Thrill the night with their gladness.
They seemed some wond’rous truth to imply.
Her elders all slept,
But the magic of night
Awoke her to ponder—
Why?
She saw a mother smile
As she tended her baby;
A widow weep, that love had to die.
The joy of new friends,
And the sadness of parting:
All these made her ask God—
Why?
One night into her heart
Stole the secret of oneness—
The bond not even time can untie.
For Love then possessed her
And made her His own.
In love she at last learned—
Why.
Comment by Swami Kriyananda: “This song represents the history of my life. Though I am (obviously!) not, myself, a “tender maid,” I have never been, nor have I sought to be, a macho male, indifferent to the tenderness of wonder at the nature of human existence. As a child, I asked myself constantly, “Why are we here? Why are there stars in the sky? Why do we feel love in our hearts? Have we no higher destiny than death?” My own solution was the same as that of this “tender maid.” I came to see at last that, underlying all the innumerable expressions of life, there is one uniting consciousness. In unity I found my answer to that eternal question, “Why?”
This was the third song I ever wrote.
