The One Is Indivisible
The Truth Is The Whole
Not so long ago,
An American using literary symbols
For evil and/or good
Repaired to The Bible
Or Church iconographic history.
Now, an American
Seeking such symbols
Repairs to fiction:
To Lord of the Rings,
To Star Wars, Harry Potter.
The same American mourns
American decline, because?
The Lord will protect in all ways and at all times those who worship Him in complete and uncontaminated devotion (bhakti) — just as a mother protects her infants, a cow saves her calf from danger, and the eyelids guard the eyes effortlessly and automatically. When the infant grows up into an adult, the mother won’t pay so much attention to its safety. So too, the Lord doesn’t pay much attention to the wise one (jnani). The devotee of form (saguna bhakta), like an infant of the Lord, has no strength except the strength of the Lord. For the realized soul (jnani), their own strength is enough. Therefore, until one can rely on one’s own strength, one must be an infant in the Lord’s Hands, as a devotee of the form, right? No one can become a devotee of the formless Supreme (nirguna bhakta) without having been a devotee of the form.
Sathya Sai Baba – Prema Vahini, Chapter 48 / Daily Email, Sai Inspires: Subscription
Βασιλεία του Θεού
Update 1: Just yesterday I was remarking this to my wife, who agreed, that movies today lack actual music. The night before, I watched The Magnificent Seven, largely to hear Bernstein’s magnificent music. In one scene, where Chris and Vin come to tell the old man to move from his cabin, Bernstein even puts a classical theme — Bach or Beethoven, I forget which — in the base under his own movie main theme in alto and soprano.
An elegant melody, usually moving stepwise, frequent modulations, and counterpoint make music, and their absence makes noise.
The great American composers of the 20th Century wrote for Broadway and Hollywood. Such used to write for churches and then for concert halls. That great composers no longer produce for Broadway and Hollywood means culture is not in those institutions. Some other proscenium is emerging, I know not where or what, but with the fine cohort of organists now present, and their encouragement by Daniel Roth at St. Sulpice, perhaps the churches are returning as the proscenium of music and culture generally. That would be reasonable to expect.