The Heart of Devotion
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By Tri-yuga das in General Published: Tuesday, 20 November 07 - 01:11 PM (GMT +11:00) Last Updated: Tuesday, 20 November 07 - 04:07 PM (GMT +11:00) |
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Sita Pati and Vrajadhama flew in on Thursday morning as per the schedule. We spent most of the day setting up the recording gear at Urban Yoga for the program in the evening: Heart of Devotion.
In the course of setting up we cobbled together the bodies of several old and dis-used mic stands to create “the stand that should not be…”.
Despite his mutant and awkward appearance, Frankenstand is an excellent and obedient servant, able to accommodate 2 microphones at a time – 1 for voice and 1 for harmonium.
At 6 pm people started arriving for the festivities. Although we had done some extensive poster distribution around the city, the bulk of the gathering crowd consisted of regular Urban Yoga guests. This reinforced for me an observation I have made over the years that the most effective marketing is that which is aimed at regular guests and their friends, and delivered in person via friendly report.
With this sizable gathering of familiar faces things looked set for an intimate and informal evening of chanting, dancing and feasting.
Sita Pati kicked things off with a moody tune from Bangladesh, which he recently learnt from Devaki Mataji. Vijaya played his khola drum with his characteristic and extraordinary expertise, Vrajadhama played guitar, Uddhava played kartels and Adam laid down the bass-line and provided the back-up vocals
Next Adam and Jolie took turns singing a haunting tune that Jolie has been practicing regularly at the Krishna Fest.
At that point I went down-stairs to squish up about 20 mangos (it’s mango season now in Oz) for a fresh fruit drink that the cook (Bhakti-lata) had requested. When I returned Sita Pati was concluding an engaging discourse about the Holy Name.
The 3rd Kirtan of the evening was led by Vrajadhama. He sang a happy, rich tune and gradually the power of the Holy Name took over. Vraja Nari stood up and ordered (she is German) all the women around her to do the same. Those who tarried she forcibly (in a friendly way) lifted to their feet. Pretty soon everyone had followed her lead and the whole room was bouncing in Kirtan ecstasy.
When the kirtan eventually wound down and finished I made a few announcements about up and coming events including the retreat at the farm we had planned for the weekend and Le Carnival Spiritual happening in December. I then talked up the amazing feast that Bhakti Lata had prepared, inviting everyone to move down stairs to experience it for real.
There was massive gourmet pizza. There was pasta salad and green salad. There was cake and there was ice cream. And lots more.
Bhakti Lata is a very talented cook who has a lot of experience cooking at the Loft in Auckland, New Zealand. She puts a lot of effort and meditation into her art and everyone can taste it.
This picture shows Bhakti Lata and Yasmin serving out. As you can see this level of our Crossways facility has not yet been completely renovated. We hope to complete work on this space early next year and thus finally finish up the extensive renovations marathon.
The conversation over dinner was relaxed and convivial and a couple more people signed-up with Sandhini Shakti for the retreat.
Here you see (right to left) Vraja Nari (Urban Yoga’s German preacher extraordinaire), Kate (who is planning to move into the women’s ashram in the next couple of weeks), and Clemens (another German, intelligent, vegetarian and drug-free, extremely good natured, and a talented classical pianist).
Everyone pitched in and the dishes disappeared without too much fuss. All and all, a very successful evening.
1 Comment so far: |
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| i dont like the bit about frankenstand, (...) | Sara Mullally | 12/07/07 |
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Top | Reply to this Author: Sara Mullally Date Posted: 07 Dec 2007 07:17 AM (GMT +11:00) i dont like the bit about frankenstand, what if it was a person who is mutant and awkward, would you laugh and joke about them too? |
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