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I just revised my short story based on a true story from the life of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov. I was stuck trying to think of a good teaching to put toward the end, so I thumbed through his biography and soon found a quote from master Omraam that I put in the next to last paragraph. It is the key to soulful singing.
MIKHAEL AND THE MADMAN OF VARNA
Mikhael Aivanhov was a very wise and loving boy who lived in the city of Varna. Every day after school, Mikhael would follow the other students to Primorski Park along the shores of the Black Sea where invariably the Madman of Varna could be found wandering aimlessly along the beach with a beatific smile on his face. The other children would laugh at him and call him names, but he wouldn’t get upset. He would just smile and pat them on the head. Occasionally, he would break out in song, at which the children would laught and jeer and walk away. But Mikhael and a few others would stay and listen.
The Madman of Varna would sing arias from tragedies such as Aida and Pagliacci in a language that Mikhael didn’t understand, but for some reason they would always make him cry. He felt the emotions of love and sadness conveyed by the madman’s soulful singing.
One Saturday, Mikhael decided to visit the Madman of Varna where he lived in the clock tower near the cathedral. The clock was huge with dozens of gears meshed together in a gear box, from which hung a 10-foot long pendulum that swung back and forth in the space below the clock where the Madman of Varna lived and worked as the official maintainer of the clock. His name was Leon and he once was a successful watch maker. When he wife and children were killed in the war, he lost his mind.
When Mikhael entered the clock tower, Leon was delighted.
“Good morning, Mikhael,” said Leon, bowing low and extending his welcoming hand towards a dilapidated chair. “Welcome to my humble abode. To what do I owe the honor of your presence?”
Leon liked Mikhael because he never laughed at him or called him names, and always listened to his singing with rapt attention.
Mikhael replied, “I would like to learn to sing like you, sir, if you don’t mind teaching me.”
“I would be very pleased to teach you, Michael, but in order to sing like me, you have to put all of your heart and soul into your voice, and in order to do that, you need to have suffered greatly. But I’m afraid you’re too young to have suffered much,” he said shaking his head.
“But I have suffered greatly,” insisted Mikhael. The Greeks burned down my home two years ago and I had to leave all my friends and my grandmother who I love dearly. Then last year my father died in an accident. Now we are poor and barely have enough to eat.”
Well, you have indeed suffered greatly,” said Leon. In that case, I will teach you to sing.”
From that day on, Mikhael would visit Leon every Saturday for a singing lesson. And when Leon sang in the park, Mikhael would join him in singing the songs he learned.
One day, after a lesson, Mikhael asked Leon, “Why is it that you always seem so happy even though you have suffered so much loss?”
Leon put his hand on Mikhael’s shoulder and said, “I have gained far more than I have loss. Yes, it’s true that I lost my wife and children in the war, and they say that I lost my mind. The Madman of Varna they call me. Maybe I have lost my mind, but that is good, because in losing it, I have found my heart. Before the war, I was always busy making money so I could provide for my family. I didn’t take the time to appreciate them fully, to appreciate my home or the flowers in my garden. I had a set schedule and everything in my life was regimented like the precise mechanism of this clock. I didn’t sing. I didn’t love. But the war changed all that. At first I had intense hatred for the soldiers who killed my family. One day, I and many hundreds of people had to flee the city because the soldiers were going to kill everyone. We crowded onto a lumber barge and sailed across the Black Sea to neighboring Romania, but before we reached safety, a storm arose and capsized the barge. I drowned and went to heaven where I was reunited my wife and children. Oh, how joyful I was; I didn’t want to leave. But they told me that I had to go back and learn how to forgive and love. If I could do that, they promised that they would be with me as my angels on earth, and that someday I would reunite with them forever in heaven. So, when I was pulled from the Black Sea and revived, I remembered their promise and immediately forgave the soldiers. I forgave everyone. I loved everyone, and true to their promise, they came, and have been with me ever since.
Michael was silent for awhile, then said, “So it’s not having suffered greatly that helps you to sing splendidly, it’s having loved greatly. Because someone could suffer greatly but still be bitter about it.”
“Exactly!” exclaimed Leon. “The most beautiful voices are created by love. Let yourself be filled with love and splendid ideas, and very soon the vibrations of your voice will be gentler, warmer, more tender.”
Soon Mikhael put into practice this most important singing lesson. He forgave the Greeks who burned his home to the ground. He forgave the worker who caused the accident that claimed his father’s life. He forgave the bullies who picked on him at school. He loved everyone. And when he sang, he put all his love into the words and moved people’s hearts.
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