SPIRITUAL SPOTLIGHT
Roberta Flack
February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025
The Deeper Side of Her Soulful Singing
Roberta Flack, the unparalleled singer and songwriter, passed at the age of 88. Born in rural North Carolina to musical parents, she began learning piano at the age of nine and eventually earned a full classical music scholarship to Howard University. Best known for timeless classics such as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly", Flack’s artistry transcended genres, blending soul, jazz, R&B, and folk with a rare emotional depth. Her extraordinary career earned her four Grammy Awards and countless accolades, yet it is the spiritual essence embedded within her music and life that remains one of her most enduring gifts to the world.
It was the rare quality of Flack’s soul that allowed her to take a song with human emotion and make listeners feel something of the divine. The heart and soul in her singing that had moved audiences for decades equaled the self-same spirituality which she and her spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, saw in each other. In joy and music, there is also insight and universal understanding. This understanding transcends boundaries. Flack saw no conflict between her deep Christian faith and the teachings of Sri Chinmoy for nearly 40 years.
Like so many musicians, Flack recognized pure spirit wherever she encountered it. She described Sri Chinmoy as “a creator of peace” and “a man who came to walk the talk.” In 2008 (one year after his passing), at the reception of Sri Chinmoy’s “Paintings for World Harmony” exhibition at the UN in New York, Flack explained, “It was not a struggle for him to lead us and to guide us as artists and as thinkers. Sri Chinmoy indeed gave me the opportunity to prove that art and music are the most eloquent balms for the challenging times that we live in.”
Flack received the spiritual name “Addwitiya” from Sri Chinmoy. When presenting it to her, Sri Chinmoy shared what her spiritual name, and her soul, meant to him in a song he composed in November 1988 in his native Bengali, translated as follows:
Addwitiya
Supremely unparalleled Summit-Consciousness-Bliss,
Seated eternally at the Feet of the Lord Absolute.
Supremely unparalleled Summit-Consciousness-Bliss,
Your hunger-cry from time immemorial
Embodies the Soul Sovereign.
Dancing you arise from the silence-depths of the Universe
With Heaven’s Music-Soul-Vision
And loving, sleeplessly, Earth-heart’s purity-treasure.
On February 16, 2025, Addwitiya Roberta Flack received the Sri Chinmoy Culture-Light Award during an intimate ceremony at her New York residence. This award honors those who bring light to the human mind through music, art, literature, statesmanship and sport, through all aspects of culture and its creative spark to serve an evolving humanity. The award is named in honor of spiritual poet, artist, musician and humanitarian Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007). Previous recipients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Mikhail Gorbachev and American composer and pianist Philip Glass.
The award certificate for the Sri Chinmoy Culture-Light Award, read out by director Ranjana Ghose, includes the following poem by Sri Chinmoy which encapsulates the spirit and work of Flack:
“God never encouraged me
To learn the world-denial-song.
On the contrary,
He inspired, encouraged
And blessed me
To sing the world-acceptance-song
And dance the world-transformation-dance.”
Sri Chinmoy’s poeticism underscores the way in which Flack’s music has served as a vessel for universal truths—love, compassion and the search for inner peace. Her songs convey a sense of reverence for life’s beauty and complexity, with each lyric and melody inviting listeners to connect with something greater than themselves.
As the world continues to find solace in her songs, Flack’s spiritual legacy endures. Her body of work reminds us that music can be a prayer—an offering of hope, love and transcendence that resonates across time and space. May her soul-stirring music continue to inspire humanity to dive within to discover and manifest one’s own light to the world, filling the earth with Love—and last till the end of time.
February 10, 1937 – February 24, 2025
The Deeper Side of Her Soulful Singing
Roberta Flack, the unparalleled singer and songwriter, passed at the age of 88. Born in rural North Carolina to musical parents, she began learning piano at the age of nine and eventually earned a full classical music scholarship to Howard University. Best known for timeless classics such as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly", Flack’s artistry transcended genres, blending soul, jazz, R&B, and folk with a rare emotional depth. Her extraordinary career earned her four Grammy Awards and countless accolades, yet it is the spiritual essence embedded within her music and life that remains one of her most enduring gifts to the world.
It was the rare quality of Flack’s soul that allowed her to take a song with human emotion and make listeners feel something of the divine. The heart and soul in her singing that had moved audiences for decades equaled the self-same spirituality which she and her spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, saw in each other. In joy and music, there is also insight and universal understanding. This understanding transcends boundaries. Flack saw no conflict between her deep Christian faith and the teachings of Sri Chinmoy for nearly 40 years.
Like so many musicians, Flack recognized pure spirit wherever she encountered it. She described Sri Chinmoy as “a creator of peace” and “a man who came to walk the talk.” In 2008 (one year after his passing), at the reception of Sri Chinmoy’s “Paintings for World Harmony” exhibition at the UN in New York, Flack explained, “It was not a struggle for him to lead us and to guide us as artists and as thinkers. Sri Chinmoy indeed gave me the opportunity to prove that art and music are the most eloquent balms for the challenging times that we live in.”
Flack received the spiritual name “Addwitiya” from Sri Chinmoy. When presenting it to her, Sri Chinmoy shared what her spiritual name, and her soul, meant to him in a song he composed in November 1988 in his native Bengali, translated as follows:
Addwitiya
Supremely unparalleled Summit-Consciousness-Bliss,
Seated eternally at the Feet of the Lord Absolute.
Supremely unparalleled Summit-Consciousness-Bliss,
Your hunger-cry from time immemorial
Embodies the Soul Sovereign.
Dancing you arise from the silence-depths of the Universe
With Heaven’s Music-Soul-Vision
And loving, sleeplessly, Earth-heart’s purity-treasure.
On February 16, 2025, Addwitiya Roberta Flack received the Sri Chinmoy Culture-Light Award during an intimate ceremony at her New York residence. This award honors those who bring light to the human mind through music, art, literature, statesmanship and sport, through all aspects of culture and its creative spark to serve an evolving humanity. The award is named in honor of spiritual poet, artist, musician and humanitarian Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007). Previous recipients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Mikhail Gorbachev and American composer and pianist Philip Glass.
The award certificate for the Sri Chinmoy Culture-Light Award, read out by director Ranjana Ghose, includes the following poem by Sri Chinmoy which encapsulates the spirit and work of Flack:
“God never encouraged me
To learn the world-denial-song.
On the contrary,
He inspired, encouraged
And blessed me
To sing the world-acceptance-song
And dance the world-transformation-dance.”
Sri Chinmoy’s poeticism underscores the way in which Flack’s music has served as a vessel for universal truths—love, compassion and the search for inner peace. Her songs convey a sense of reverence for life’s beauty and complexity, with each lyric and melody inviting listeners to connect with something greater than themselves.
As the world continues to find solace in her songs, Flack’s spiritual legacy endures. Her body of work reminds us that music can be a prayer—an offering of hope, love and transcendence that resonates across time and space. May her soul-stirring music continue to inspire humanity to dive within to discover and manifest one’s own light to the world, filling the earth with Love—and last till the end of time.
