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Premanand Trikannad
(Interview Continued, page 2 of 5)
Bhajan Singer
Founder, Satsang Foundation, SatsangFoundation.org
PTHC: Can you remember when you first heard about sadhana, and what it meant?
Premanand Trikannad: The value of Ram Nam was always emphasized and Ram Nam was a natural anecdote or remedy for any kind, any sort of illness, calamity, crisis, etc. So a faith, in a most natural and simple way was part of our daily life. But the true sense of ‘Sadhana’ I came to understand and appreciate only after I started to live in the ashram in 1957, when I was 18 years old. Papa made sadhana very simple, very easy and very pleasing – to sing, chant or silently recite Ram Nam: Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram!
PTHC: At what age did you realize that bhajan singing was a form of sadhana?
Premanand Trikannad: Again, without a deliberate effort, when I started singing bhajans in the Ashram, I started enjoying an indescribable bliss. By Papa’s making me know and be aware of the meaning of the bhajans – some of them truly reveal what God is – the more I sang bhajans, the more my joy multiplied. As I said, without a deliberate effort on my part but most truthfully, by the sheer grace of my Satguru, my Papa, that bhajan became the sadhana, unbeknown to me!
PTHC: Now that you have been doing bhajan singing for all these years, on each Thursday at your home, funerals, pujas, etc., do you still sing every day, how / where?
Premanand Trikannad: I have an handicap, if you can term it so; I cannot sing bhajans without an harmonium. I started my singing with the harmonium and so my voice needs the support of the harmonium. Life in San Diego used to get quite busy, often hectic. Still, I did get opportunities once in a while to sit in our prayer hall and sing bhajans. But in Pune where we are moving to, I have ample of time and can sing bhajans to my heart’s content! I look forward to it!
PTHC: They say meditation is a technique to merge with the truth, to experience peace, joy and the realities of the inner self; do you consider bhajan singing to be a technique similar to meditation?
Premanand Trikannad: I have not made serious efforts to practice any techniques of meditation but all that you have described has been experienced in singing Ram Nam and bhajan.
One of the bhajans that was Papa’s favorite was composed by the great mystic saint and poet, Kabir. In that bhajan, he advises to enjoy the Supreme, the Divine in a most natural way – as natural as one’s breath. He admonishes not to undergo any physically torturous methods of sadhana, not to shut the eyes but to open them and behold the Divine pervading everywhere!
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