Heaven Is Here
by MC Yogi (featuring Matisyahu)

Album: Only Love Is Real (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • MC Yogi wrote "Heaven Is Here" after experiencing an epiphany about his own happiness.

    In an interview with Songfacts, he explained, "Heaven is actually a state of mind that we can really dip into right here and now at the present moment if we have the tools and the technology to get out of our way and to really clear the mind and reconnect with what's shining in the centre of our lives, and start having this experience of being at peace and feeling bliss and feeling connected and less attached and less angry and less stressed out."

    As he'd been looking back at his life, Yogi realized that the emotional peaks didn't come in record sales or big shows. "All those things are wonderful," Yogi said, "but the happiest moments of my life was when I were with my grandparents, or with my dog."

    Yogi wanted to capture that realization in song, reminding himself and his listeners that happiness is something to be had here and now, once the mind and spirit are disciplined and at peace.
  • Matisyahu, long an influence on MC Yogi, guests on this track.
  • This is a unique song in Yogi's catalog because it makes distinct use of Jewish/Christian religious thought. Yogi has always incorporated Hindu and Buddhist religion into his music, but here he adds Old Testament wisdom, as well.

    The lines, "Take the mind to genesis, exodus to the space," are allusions to the first two books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus. In addition to Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, they also make up the Pentateuch, or the "five books of Moses."

    There is also talk of a "promised land" and being "lost in the desert," which are also allusions to Genesis and Exodus. It's in these books that the ancient Jewish people are sent out to wander in the desert.

    The natural assumption is that Matisyahu penned this portion of the song, but Yogi actually wrote the whole thing. He was thinking of the Catholic tradition into which he was born but abandoned as a teenager. His grandmother was a Catechism teachers, and Yogi received Catholic Confirmation and Baptism.

    "So, to me," Yogi told Songfacts, "all the great religions of the world, whether it's Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism - if someone is really, truly, sincerely practicing their faith, then you know that all these paths are pointing toward the same truth, which is a universal connection and unity in nature and an all-encompassing energy of love and connecting and pointing at the same thing."
  • The song also references Greek mythology:

    Fly into the sun like young Icarus born from the dust
    Rise up like a phoenix does


    First, there is the myth of Icarus, son of Labyrinth creator Daedalus. Icarus and his father construct wings out of wax and feathers to escape Crete. Ignoring his father's warnings, Icarus flies too close to the sun. His wings are destroyed and he plummets into the sea. The myth is often used a moral lesson to young people to stay humble.

    Yogi's reference to Icarus is intriguingly ambiguous, maybe even cryptic, as he acknowledges the tragic end of Icarus seemingly as a requirement to "rolling the mind back" in order to experience the Heaven that is here. In the song, this tragedy leads to the rebirth of the Phoenix.

    In Greek mythology, the Phoenix myth is about a bird associated with the sun that rises again and again from the ashes of its predecessor. It's a symbol of rebirth and renewal.

    Yogic tradition has it that the ego must be tamed if we are to experience bliss and wisdom, so this portion of the song seems to imply that part of this journey requires us to succumb to the ego and spiritually "die" so we can be reborn again.

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