Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas: A Danavira Mela Consideration (video)

CHRIS TONG: Happy Danavira Mela to everyone! I’ve sung Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Beloved Adi Da many times over the years — at the Manner of Flowers, at Adi Da Samrajashram, at First People / Great Food Dish, etc. (as one of a small group of singers, and usually also as the keyboardist) — and I’m singing it to Him again (and all of you!) here. It is one of my favorite songs at this time of year. For me (starting with Judy Garland's original film version), it has always been an emotion-filled song, by turns joyful, playful, nostalgic, and wistful — so that is how I sing it here. This song as a bridge to God. In Beloved Adi Da’s Company, everything (from Mickey Mouse to cookie-making) becomes “a bridge to God”. ADI DA: “You must Awaken and discover the Divine World wherein everything is a bridge to the Infinite, One Being.” And so for me, the words of this song have always taken on a significance beyond the usual secular understanding of the song. They lead me through a consideration that I’ll share with you here. Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on our troubles will be out of sight Have yourself a merry little Christmas Make the Yuletide gay From now on our troubles will be miles away. Here we are as in olden days Happy golden days of yore Faithful friends who are dear to us Gather near to us once more Through the years we all will be together If the fates allow Hang a shining star upon the highest bough And have yourself a merry little Christmas now. That wistfulness: Raymond’s problem. On the surface, the words of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas are purely joyful — "faithful friends" coming together each year in a joyous Christmas celebration. And yet, one of the emotions I feel when I sing this song is wistfulness. So where is the wistfulness coming from? It's that big "IF" in the song: "if the fates allow". In fact, as every one of us knows (more and more, with each passing year), fate (conditional existence) only allows such reunions for a limited number of years. As I sing, I have a vision of a photograph of a gathering of friends, from a Christmas or Danavira Mela many years ago, and, in this vision, each face in the photograph — one by one over the years — turns "ghostly", either through our circumstances (high school, college, living near each other) no longer being shared, or life paths that have moved in different directions, or the passing on of that person. My awareness of that inevitable reality is the source of the wistfulness and nostalgia. The inevitable disappearance of the (mortal) loved one is “Raymond’s problem”, a phrase Adi Da uses, based on the central character of The Mummery Book. Danavira Mela: A Divine Celebration in the midst of a conditional universe. The joy and playfulness of the song comes from the celebration we can still have together, even in the midst of an ever-changing, conditional universe. One of my (and many other devotees’) favorite quotes of Beloved Adi Da has always been this extraordinary prayer, from “Death is a Perfect Insult” in The Enlightenment of the Whole Body: “Let us surrender into Infinity with all our friends and hold on to no thing or condition that ever appears. Let us forget all things in present Happiness, and so forgive the universe for all its playful changes. Let us always love one another, and so forgive one another for appearing, for changing, and for passing out of present sight. So be it.” When I sing this song, I hear it giving further guidance for just how to do this. The line, “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough”, is a call to a sacred puja, that “surrender into Infinity” of the separate self. The “highest bough” is like the reference to a “Higher Power” in the AA tradition: however you understand God or what is greater than you, surrender yourself to That, commune with That, and allow that Communion to transform you into a “shining star”, a radiant light that you share with others during this season. For devotees of Adi Da, of course, that “highest bough” is the Very Divine, in the human form of Beloved Adi Da. Just as the word “light” has two senses, so the admonition, “Let your heart be light”, has two meanings. The first meaning is: “Be light-hearted”. This is a call to self-understanding, released of the primary knot of self at the heart, and so free of all sense of dilemma. “Our troubles will be out of sight”: the dilemma we thought we were in vanishes when the heart is unknotted. The second meaning is: “Let your heart be Light”. This is a call to the heart to commune with the Divine, and so be heart-awakened by the Divine, and thereby serve as a “shining star”, a “light”, a radiant beacon of light and love for all, through feeling to Infinity, feeling to, through and beyond the changing (including all the mortal beloveds) to the Changeless (the Immortal Beloved who is all of us), in all directions in every moment — the call to serve the awakening of Light in everybody. And so it is in this spirit that I sing this song and this wish for all my friends: “Have yourself a merry little Christmas”! ADI DA: Know that I Bless you through and beyond time and space. Live a life of celebration. True life, ego-transcending life, is a celebration, a joyous occasion of meeting with others in the universal circumstance of prior unity and in the joy of Communion with the Indivisible Divine Reality. That is why I look forward to this season every year. It is the greatest season of the year. It is a marvelous season. I hope it is a happy time for you and for all of your friends. Poster: AdiDaUpClose   Post Date: December 23, 2023 Length: 03:49   Views: 567   Views This Month: 25   Views This Week: 8 Language: English Tags: Danavira Mela