Spirituality
"Things went very quick," he says. "I felt like a leaf that fell off a tree and right into a river, and the river just kept rolling along. I never had to paddle, it just always took me to where I wanted to be."
Santana watched as other rock musicians he knew became instantly famous (Hendrix, Joplin, Morisson)and just as quickly self-destructed. "People were overdosing left and right on fame, success, and overindulgence." In a radio interview he explained that when Jimi Hendrix died he was on tour in Canada. Once the news came out you could hear all the drugs being flushed down the toilets. Overnight success had not made him happy. He had bought his family a big new house had taken care of them, had all his material needs, yet he says that he frequently ended up crying miserable and unhappy. But he kept his head and sought a deeper foundation for his music and life in Eastern mysticism.
In 1971, jazz guitarist Larry Coryell stayed at Santana's house. Coryell had a picture of his guru Sri Chinmoy, a little-known Hindu teacher whose disciples included guitarist John McLaughlin, singer Roberta Flack, and producer Michael Narada Walden. Carlos took things easy at first and it was not till he was absolutely sure that he decided to cut short his lengthy locks and start wearing white clothes.Santana became a disciple of the guru in 1972, taking the name Devadip,which means "the Lamp of the Light of the Supreme." As his appearance radically changed so did his music, he opened up to jazzier music though still keeping his latin roots.
His meditation seemed to provide a fresh stream of inspiration and new albums like Caravanserai, Welcome, Borboletta and Lotus were recorded. The music seemed to come from a totally different planet than the first 3 albums.Though less commercial, it was more groundbreaking stuff, and some of these albums are now considered classics.
Over the next few years, he recorded a series of solo albums, which were based on Chinmoy's poems and had esoteric titles like "Love, Devotion, and
Surrender" with John Mclaughlinand "Oneness, Silver Dreams�Golden Reality." Santana gave money to Chinmoy and promoted his work. But he parted with the guru in 1981. Carlos still pursued the goals which he had discovered under Sri Chimmoy, a one on one relationship with God. In 83 I believe he became a Born Again Christian but I think that Carlos will take what agrees with him in these practices and like in everything else he will be very individualistic and true to himself. |
