The other day, on Facebook, I posted a photograph of myself with Donovan, the 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. It inspired a wide range of responses from Facebook friends about the legendary Scottish folk troubadour who’s come a long way from his roots in post-war-torn Glasgow to international fame.
Known as a Flower Child poet/ singer/songwriter, he has been inviting us to close our eyes and dive within to the center of great peace with us. In 1968, he spent a number of months with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the guru’s ashram in Rishikesh, India by the holy Ganges River. His double-album, A Gift from a Flower to a Garden, features a photo of the singer presenting a flower to the guru.
Having found peace, he wanted to share it with his fans and the world through his music. His song “There is an Ocean” features lyrics that are intended to inspire listeners to learn how to go within to the unbounded ocean of pure consciousness. He starts the tune off like this:
There is an ocean of vast proportion
And she flows within ourselves. To take dips daily we dive in gaily, He knows who goes within himself. To experience this peace, Donovan knows, requires closing the eyes, and allowing the mind to settle down into a state of Being or pure consciousness itself. The poet continues:
The abode of Angels, the mystical Promised Land, The one and only Heaven, the God of man Is but the closing of an eyelid away.
Donovan knows by experience what the physiologists discovered when they did research on the Transcendental Meditation; namely that the experience of what the yogis call Samadhi is characterized by a state of such deep relaxation in the body that it’s as if the nervous system has quietly ceased any activity:
There is a silence of pure excellence And she flows within ourselves. To appreciate, we deactivate, He knows who goes within himself.
He knows that the great bliss that he sings about, and the Vedic wisdom of India writes so eloquently about, comes about in meditation when the conscious mind quietly lets go of all perception and thought, and enters a state of pure Being. In “Happiness Runs,” we hear the following:
Happiness runs in a circular motion Thought is like a little boat upon the sea.
Everybody is a part of everything anyway, You can have everything if you let yourself be.
He starts out with his eyes open and sees the world, then closes his eyes to the world and enters the peace of his transcendental Being or higher Self, then re-opens his eyes to participate in the world again. Or as he sang so memorably in “There is a Mountain,” Donovan’s quest to help awaken humanity has stretched for more than four decades. On his recent album, “Sutras,” (Sanskrit for aphorisms), he sings a song called “The Way,” in which we hear the following description of the One that pervades all things:
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
Out of nothing comes the one Out of one comes the two Out of two comes three Out of three comes all things
He elaborates on this mysterious One:
You cannot see when it began Follow it there is no end It has no aim it is so small It has no name it is so great It is not seen it is not heard Nothing done or left undone
Today, as chairman of the musical wing of the David Lynch Foundation to help atrisk children learn Transcendental Meditation, he hopes that listeners will be inspired to find the Enlightenment that’s the purpose of their time here on earth.
With no obstacles, and no fear Liberates herself, from illusion Now to realise perfect Nirvana Gone, Gone, Gone to the other shore O-awakening. All hail. Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana
He’s also looking to raise funds to develop Donovan/Maharishi University in Scotland. The purpose behind this venture is to bring Enlightenment to his homeland. As he sang in “Nirvana:” Thanks to this, Perfect Wisdom Arrive at full and right, universal enlightenment Donovan concludes the “Sutras” album, produced by Rick Rubin, the meditating record producer guru, with the song “Universe am I,” in which he prophetically sees the time when the world awakens
One day when the scientist he’ll see The loving energy Make Universe to shine One day when the secrets of the Sun Enlighten everyone The Universe will shine This day as I stand before you all I hear the Cosmos call
And he concludes the song with the vision of himself becoming all that is in the state of Unity Consciousness:
In the golden temple of the Sun I see the Fiery one The Universe will shine HomoSapien am I no more Beyond beyond I soar The Universe Am I