Meditation - A Flower for Everyone's Heart

‘‘Human history is full of suffering. So many painful events have tormented so many hearts across continents and centuries. Every country had more or less its own fair share of historical anguish. But human heart is a miracle. The pain, the misery and the anguish could not crush its indomitable spirit of life and it has learned to sing and dance in all adversities. It has learned to be grateful to existence.

Shokichi Kina is a famous rock star from Okinawa of Japan - a land that has been witness to a tumultuous history. An Osho disciple, Kina is also known as Swami Upanishad. Together with his band Champlosse, he has been invited by the Government of India to perform at Siri Fort auditorium in the capital on 12th of February. With heavy heart he has witnessed the historical suffering of Okinawan people. Twenty years ago he wrote a song in his native language, which became hit not only in Japan but also in most parts of the Far East. 

Shokichi Kina is a charismatic singer, a crusader and an evolved human being who has a message of peace and universal brotherhood. Kina holds a utopian vision of 21st century that will be free from the threat of war and nuclear weapons. He subscribes to the notion that we cannot "simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."

He travels around the world to sing his songs healing the wounded humanity. The song that he wrote is called 'Hana' the original version of which was featured by Ry Cooder in 1980. He has been covered ubiquitously by singers across Asia and as far away as Madagascar.

Hana means a flower. "A Flower for Everyone's Heart" reverberates the auditorium as his son sings, 
"River flowing, where does it go? 
People flowing, where, where do they go? 
When the flow comes to the end, like flowers, let's make them bloom ... 
A flower can smile because it's a flower 
A human cry sheds tears because we are human 
It's all part of the songs of nature 
let's all make the flower blossom in our hearts 
cry, laugh, one day, let's all make the flower bloom 
I wonder where flower wants to go 
I wonder where human wants to go this flowing, 
I would like to welcome it, as a flower. 
inside myself 
cry, laugh, 
one day, let's make the flower bloom." 

Swami Upanishad wants this song to be translated and sung in all the languages of the world. His long (and somewhat rebellious) history of peace and environmental activism has taken him around the world to form alliances with oppressed peoples and those working for an environmentally safe future. His latest effort involves a roundup of Okinawans and Hokkaido's indigenous Ainu. They'll meet in Tokyo and sail across the Pacific in a huge white ship laden with musical instruments. The message: "Lay down your weapons, take up musical instruments."


Swami Chaitanya Keerti