JIVA Dark Horse SP-22003
In many ways satsang and music are analagous worlds. The beauty of satsang is that it can communicate directly from one heart to another without having to pass through the filter of our minds. And, in the worldly sphere, music has fulfilled the same function for millions of people. It has enabled an artist to take the real feelings and energy of what he is trying to say and express them directly to his audience; bypassing both the limitations of the lyrics in the song and the thoughts in the listener's mind. For just this reason, premies have been waiting for a musical group to arise that can really combine the power of music and of satsang together and take the message of Knowledge out into the music-listening world.
With the release of JIVA's first album on Dark Horse Records this past month, the wait seems over. JIVA has the skill and talent to make it, and with a big promotional push being made by Dark Horse, you can expect to hear their songs over the airways regularly and soon.
One warning though - don't expect them to fit your expectations of an average premie band. JIVA is a rock and roll band all the way, mixing their hip LA vibe with the solid drive of the Philly sound. They're hard rock and they're good.
As each of us is discovering, there are many expressions of the Knowledge as there are premies that practice it; even though the experience is the same for us all. If we really hope to reach all kinds of people, then we must be able to relate to everyone right where they are. Each person needs to be addressed in his own language by someone he can easily communicate with, and by someone whose approach to life and truth is the same as his.
As a result, we now begin to see premies getting their lives together and using all their talents and all the qualities of their lifestyles to become their own form of the expressions of Knowledge. From Tim Gallwey's "Inner Game" to JIVA's enlightened rock and roll, premies are stepping up to be examples of the many forms that the sharing of Maharaj Ji's Knowledge can take.
In an interview with Divine Times (see issue #4), bass player Jim Strauss said of JIVA: "We were born playing in satsang and as far as we're concerned we'll always be playing in satsang." But they're not about to hit anyone over the head with the Perfect Master right from the start: their satsang is a subtler variety. Like the other premies who have joined their ranks, JIVA is doing what it must to be heard - in their case that means making it as a commercial band.
Yet the beauty of their music and their words cannot be mistaken. Jim Strauss' strong bass and Mike (Reedo) Reed's drums and Tom Hilton's lead guitar provide fitting compliments to the power of Michael Lannings vocals. Their first album moves in a smooth and delicately balanced gesture through a varied selection of excellent material, all written by the band. Included in the songs are some well-knowns among premies, such as "Take My Love," and "Something's Goin' On Inside LA."
All through the album, never stopping even between cuts, is the one thing that could indeed see JIVA make it: their music is overpoweringly filled with a kind of unflinching positivism and optimism that is as rare to the music scene as Maharaj Ji's Knowledge is to the world.
Available at any record store worthy of the name.
THE CLOSER I GET
You might think me absent minded,
If your name I sometimes forget.
And at times I may seem blinded,
Because your love blows my mind,
The closer I get.
You could say I've got a problem,
You could say I'm in a jam,
But my eyes just ache for the sigh
Of the one who made me what I am.
Oh, how can I ever say, how can I even try?
Without the help of anything in this world
You've taken me beyond the sky,
Which is the roof of my limitation,
As far as I can go by myself.
You could say I got a problem,
Yes, I guess so.
But if loving you is a problem,
I want everyone in the world to know
I want the world to know!
© Loka Productions, S.A.
All lyrics used by permission