Ram Dass and AWARÉ's music video "To Become Born" is a collaborative work exploring the themes of birth, life struggles, and spiritual rebirth through visual metaphor. Director Mariana Ros interprets the music through her own story of transformation, portraying a phoenix-like renewal that speaks to cycles of death and rebirth. The project embodies Ram Dass's philosophy that music—like spiritual practice—carries multiple meanings depending on the listener's own narrative and life experience.
What Does "To Become Born" Mean in Ram Dass's Spiritual Context?
The phrase "to become born" invokes a paradox central to many spiritual traditions: that physical birth is only the beginning of consciousness, and true birth happens through awakening and spiritual practice. In Ram Dass's work, rebirth often refers to the dissolution of ego structures and the emergence of a more authentic, soul-centered self. The title suggests not a one-time event but an ongoing process—becoming born repeatedly as old patterns dissolve and new awareness emerges.
This resonates with Ram Dass's long history of exploring death, rebirth, and the cycles of consciousness. The music video translates this abstract spiritual concept into visual narrative, showing a character moving through struggle and transformation, ultimately emerging renewed—much like the mythological phoenix that dies and is reborn from its own ashes.
How Does Collaborative Art Deepen Spiritual Meaning?
Ram Dass emphasizes that "To Become Born" was created through collaboration, and that this collaborative spirit was essential to how the project unfolded. Rather than imposing a single interpretation, he intentionally gave director Mariana Ros freedom to tell her own story through the music. This approach reflects a deeper spiritual principle: that each being has their own unique relationship to truth and meaning.
By inviting multiple creators—composer Ram Dass Khalsa, collaborators Bogdan Djukic and Matías Da Via, director Mariana Ros, and a full production team—the project becomes a collective meditation on rebirth. Each person brings their own narrative, their own wounds and awakenings, into the creative vessel. The result is not a fixed message but a living container that different viewers can enter with their own stories.
This echoes Ram Dass's teachings about the nature of love and service: that true spiritual work happens in relationship, in the space between self and other, in the willingness to be changed by encounter. Collaboration is not merely a production method but a spiritual practice.
What Is the Visual Language of Birth, Struggle, and Renewal?
Director Mariana Ros interprets the musical composition through visual metaphors of birth, struggle, and phoenix-like rebirth. The video portrays a character (actress Elyss Castro) moving through cycles of pain, dissolution, and transformation. Rather than depicting birth as a single, clean moment, the narrative shows the ongoing, messy process of becoming—the struggle inherent in growth.
The choice of a female protagonist and the attention to visual detail (styling by Vetadas, makeup by MUA Gio Lozano, cinematography by Renata Arzac) creates a specific, embodied story. This is not abstract philosophy but lived experience translated into movement, costume, light, and shadow. The visual metaphor of the phoenix—a creature that must burn to be reborn—suggests that spiritual transformation requires the dissolution of what came before.
Ram Dass's recognition that "every person should have their own story" about this music acknowledges that viewers will project their own experiences of loss, struggle, and renewal onto the images. A person grieving will see one story; someone emerging from illness another; someone shedding a former identity yet another. The video holds space for all these interpretations.
How Does Music Carry Multiple Spiritual Meanings?
Ram Dass states plainly: "Music can carry many meanings depending on the context. I have my story about the music, but every person should have their own story." This principle challenges the idea that art—or spiritual teaching—should deliver a single, definitive message. Instead, music functions like a mirror or a doorway: its meaning shifts based on who is listening and what they bring to the encounter.
The composition itself, created by Ram Dass Khalsa, Bogdan Djukic, and Matías Da Via, combines nylon guitar, violin, synth bass, and vocals. The instrumentation choices—the warmth of acoustic guitar, the soaring quality of strings, the grounding of bass—create an emotional landscape rather than a conceptual argument. The listener's nervous system responds before the thinking mind categorizes meaning.
This approach aligns with contemplative music traditions, where sound is understood not as information delivery but as a direct transmission of state. A piece about rebirth might induce feelings of vulnerability, strength, sorrow, joy, or all of these in sequence—depending on the listener's own inner landscape.
What Role Does Production Craft Play in Spiritual Art?
The credits reveal the scope of the production: cinematography, lighting design, color grading, animation, drone work, and meticulous post-production. This level of craft might seem at odds with spiritual simplicity, yet it serves an important function. The care taken in every technical and artistic choice—how light falls on the actress's face, how the color palette shifts through the narrative, how animation punctuates moments of transformation—communicates respect for the viewer's attention and the depth of the subject matter.
In this sense, the production craft is itself a spiritual practice. The director of photography (Renata Arzac), the head of lighting (Edgardo Trigeros), the color grader at 414 post—each is making moment-to-moment choices about how to render truth and emotion visually. This is not vanity or distraction; it is the medium through which the message travels.
Why Is Personal Story Central to Understanding Rebirth?
The description emphasizes that director Mariana Ros was given creative freedom to tell her own story through the music. This is significant: it suggests that rebirth is not a universal formula but a profoundly personal process. Mariana's story—whatever struggles, losses, or transformations she has experienced—is woven into the visual narrative. Similarly, each viewer's story becomes part of how they receive and interpret the work.
In Ram Dass's teaching, this recognition of individual narrative is crucial. The spiritual path is not about conforming to a template but about conscious engagement with one's own unique journey. Rebirth looks different for each person because each person's death—the dissolution they must move through—is different.
The video, by remaining open to interpretation, honors this diversity of experience. A viewer is not told what rebirth should mean; they are invited to discover what it means in their own life.
Where to Go from Here
To deepen your engagement with "To Become Born," consider listening to the music multiple times with different intentions. First, let it move you emotionally without analysis. Then, watch the video and notice what stories your mind constructs about the protagonist's journey. Finally, reflect on your own experiences of birth, struggle, and renewal—literal or metaphorical. What does "becoming born" mean in your own life right now?
You might also explore Ram Dass's broader teachings on death, rebirth, and the cycles of spiritual practice. His work emphasizes that awakening is not a destination but a continuous process of letting go and coming into presence. The song and video are invitations to that process, not instructions for it. Your story, brought to the music, completes the art.
