It turns out, surprisingly, that this has been a very busy time musically for GuruGanesha. After years of focusing on his high energy mantra rock band project, the GuruGanesha Band, the pandemic forced him into a new, more isolated reality. Spending less time traveling and organizing, he devoted those extra hours every day to refining his acoustic guitar skills and writing deeper, more reflective songs. He also struck up a wonderful songwriting collaboration with his longtime friend (‘niece in divine’ he calls her) Karan Khalsa. It turns out that Karan is a lyricist of incredible depth and sensitivity. Two of GuruGanesha’s new singles, ‘Mysterious Pathway’ and ‘Undying’ are a manifestation of that dynamic new collaboration.
How are you feeling at this stage of your life?
GuruGanesha: I feel like I’m in a very beautiful part of my life. Something about turning seventy has been very positive for me. In light of the upheaval that hit our spiritual community in early 2020, I’ve been doing a lot of deep self-reflection, and if I’m totally honest with myself, reconstructing my own sense of identity. A big part of that has been accepting and making peace with aspects of myself that I either pushed away or judged as not worthy. I’ve also realized that I was a rebel/non-conformist hippy in the late 60s who joined an ashram and became a member of a spiritual community that established an intense ideal of conformity. I’m now returning to my non-conformist roots, but in a decidedly more conscious way. Music has truly become my go-to medicine. When my head and heart are in the music, whether it be playing it, writing it, singing it, or working with Karan on crafting a new song, that’s when I feel the most like me. That’s when I feel fully present and spiritually fulfilled. It’s hard to put into words how deeply healing it is!
We know your most recent release ‘Undying’ was particularly meaningful to you, can you tell us why?
GuruGanesha: My prayer for this song is that it provides peace, comfort, and hope to all who listen to it, particularly those experiencing their own mortality perhaps for the first time and especially for those who are grieving the painful loss of a loved one.
The first couple of lines, ‘Rain is falling. The ethers are calling. This Soul is longing to fly away’ expresses a deep longing that arises within me periodically (particularly as I’ve gotten older) to leave life behind and merge with whatever comes next. No one needs worry as I have no plans to depart prematurely, but I’ve accepted that these feelings are real, important, and deserve attention. It’s human and honest to feel that way on occasion. These feelings have resulted in a softening of my heart that has opened me up to all the suffering on the planet and God knows, there is so much of it these days. The rain has been falling…. the ethers are calling. So many folks, people we all know, have met that call and left us behind in this wounded world. The ethers are calling eventually for all of us. I certainly can’t prove it, but I have this deep sense that it will be an amazingly beautiful experience, and this song fully expresses that belief as well: that ‘love does not die, it becomes the sky’. I do believe that the deep love we feel during our lifetime lives on and on and on.
We’ve heard wonderful comments from teachers and other great artists and musicians about your evolution as an artist reflected on ‘Undying’. What do you feel has changed in you musically these past years?
GuruGanesha: I’ve stopped trying to become Jerry Garcia or anyone else for that matter. I’ve given myself permission to fully accept and love being me exactly as I am, and the new music is a reflection of that.
You have a very special connection with your audience, always inviting them to go deeper with your music and inspiring conversations. What would you like listeners to feel through your music?
GuruGanesha: Their heart. I’m hoping that the music will help them bypass the intellect even if only for a few minutes and feel the goodness that is at the core of their being. I hope to help them feel they’re enough and to experience their eternal self, their infinity, their undyingness. I first made an attempt at this message with the song ‘The Soul Within’ using Rumi’s poetry: ‘I’m not my hair, I’m not my skin, I’m the soul within’. I’m somebody who is really working on becoming more kind and loving. I know that sounds like a cliche. I just want to help people be more peaceful, feel more loving, feel more accepting of the parts of themselves that they’re sad about, that they may not love. I hope that when people listen to the music, they go, ‘ah, that feels better, that feels like me’.
Music is one of the most powerful catalysts of change, what would you like to see in the community that surrounds you?
GuruGanesha: I’d like to see us do a better job listening to each other with less judgment, to feel safe expressing stuff that we’ve been afraid to express for decades, and be more loving and more supportive of each other through that process. I personally need a lot of work in that department.