In plain words
Many children think this way. “I sing to myself in my mind; why should I say it out loud?” they say. This is sheer Ajñāna. The cooking is in the kitchen, the cooking. Do you think it is enough if you think of it in your mind? It must come onto your plate. What is on the plate must reach the stomach. Only then is your hunger satisfied. So there is no use in its staying in the mind. What is in the mind must come into words. What has come into words must reach your ear. It came out of the word. It went in through the ear. So you must eat food of this kind
Students! For men who walk off the road, the body comes into danger. The man who walks off the path of morality loses his humanness. We must not bring ourselves to lose our humanness. Some people keep shaking their lips as they sing. They keep swaying them, moving them. That is not right. If a man who has fallen into a well says softly, “I have fallen into the well,” no one will come and rescue him. “Ayyō! I have fallen into the well!”: the moment he shouts it loudly, everyone round about comes and rescues him. In the same way, you who have fallen into the well called the heart: if you say you will go on thinking of something within, it will not do. You must say it out loud. That itself they called “Samyak kīrtanaṃ iti saṅkīrtanam.” As long as you have a voice, you must raise it and sing. Why was the voice given? To talk crazy nonsense! You may talk. God's Name has no limit at all. You must sing saṅkīrtana freely. You must not put any kind of restraint on it. Our S.Kumar keeps saying it. “Ū, ū,” like that. Not even one word comes out clearly. The words must come out clearly. If you murmur ‘Rāmā’ softly to yourself, rāmā, how will that sound? You must raise the voice well, move the tongue well and sing bhajan with a sweet voice. You must recognise one more thing too. We are not the only ones who hear the songs we sing. Thousands are listening. We must sing in a way that gives Ānanda to their hearts. You must fill yourself with this Ānanda and share this Ānanda with others too. There is the Street light. Have you seen it? They fix bulbs in this Street light. That light stands on a pole. But that light shows the way to those who walk on the road. It shows its own forms too. In the same way, this bhajan must bring satisfaction to oneself. It must satisfy others. It does not matter how those who follow do it. But those who lead must do it well. Those who are to lead, do your Practice well. You must remember that many thousands will be listening. It must be one with pitch, rhythm, melody and beat. Our country's name comes from that very thing. What is our country? All these new children are here. Bhārata. Bhā-ra-ta: a word made of three syllables.