Have been meaning to write this one for quite some time now.... Like my wednesdays, my tuesday evenings have also become magical and mystical .. in a different way..... My parents recently did an 'art of living' course...... I had myself done it years ago..... Did not really follow up .. somehow the place I did it from couldnt captivate me .... Maybe a lack of connect?! There are some aspects of AOL that i still dont and cant relate to ... but overtime one thing i have learnt is that in anything u do .. take what resonates with u and leave the rest..... So the one thing about AOL that i can relate to and works for me are their "bhajans" and the "satsang"....Even then, i remember absolutely loving their bhajans .... So this time around when my parents did their course and were told that there will be bhajans every tuesday evening at the same venue where they did the course, i had decided that i will try and attend .....
I couldnt go the first time as i had my session with a client who has been coming for the longest time on tuesday evenings.... And it so happened that the following tuesday my client cudnt make it for some reason, which now in retrospect i look at as a blessing in disguise...... So that blessed and destined tuesday i accompanied my parents... and the entire experience was nothing less than divine......
To begin with, the environment is particularly conducive given that the venue is the living room of a sprawling appartment overlooking the sea at Carter road..... The view from there is nothing short of spectacular! And the vibes of the place are lovely.....The session begins with a "guru puja" where the diya is lit along with the chanting of mantras...... This sets the mood for a beautiful evening which unfolds even more magically! There are always atleast a couple of singers per session, if not more .... Needless to say they have amazing voices....... One after another , the most melodious bhajans are rendered..... And gradually you find urself being transported into a different world altogether..... I usually sit with my eyes closed..... and after awhile I am in some other space .... and its only when i open my eyes that i realise where i am and that there are so many people around me..... That feeling has to be experienced cos words cannot really do justice to what u feel ...... Its like being in a crowd but still being in and by urself .... in a good way!!! Somewhere during this I feel connected to what people normally refer to as one's 'higher self'..... and u also feel tuned to that core within u which is silence personified and where probably ur spirit resides ..... This is the closest i have ever come to being in a truly meditative state ...... Music always does that to me but the satsang experience is truly exceptional....
Its so rightly put that " if music is the food for love .... play on......" cos u actually feel this phrase coming alive at the end of the session .... where u feel something in u has changed and is full of "love"....... U feel so light ...... Its almost magical...........A truly divine feeling.....
Personally for me, whenever a male sings the bhajans , it touches me far more than a female voice...... It may sound strange or absurd but the male voice somehow penetrates much deeper and touches my soul ..... Although the last tuesday there was this lovely lady who sang most of the bhajans and she came quite close to most of the male voices i have heard so far! The energy, the zest, the joy, the dedication and last but not the least the "love" with which they all sing is so heart warming..... 'Total surrender' is also something i have seen come alive when i see these lovely people perform........ They are so "into" the whole process that its magnetic and as the session gains momentum, the cumulative energy of everyone present becomes so electrifying that u feel like a live wire urself.....
A special quality of the AOL satsang is the fact that they are far from the typical cliched bhajans or bhajan sessions , the way we know them to be...... The first thing that comes to mind when someone says im goin to attend 'bhajans' .... is that some middle aged/old person is probably singing some very slow songs in a monotone and boring voice.... atleast this is what i used to think earlier.....But attending the AOL bhajans has completely changed that for me..... The most unique and endearing part of these sessions are that some of the bhajans are sung in 'rock' style..... I was and still am so pleasantly surprised to see and experience that...... also sometimes suddenly in the middle of a bhajan the singer sings a para or a couple of lines from a famous hindi/english number and it is so beautifully blended in the bhajan, that it always leaves me smiling!
All else apart .. the highlight of the evening is something that still amazes and amuses me..... The owner of the house where the satsang is held, has a cute little poodle..... That cute little creature comes and sits down quietly while the satsang is on and i have yet to hear a sound from that dog.... I have never heard him/her bark of even let out a sigh........ Its one of the most happy and peaceful dogs i have ever seen.....Even my parents vouch for the fact that during their entire course there, they have never witnessed the dog make a sound... It would come and sit quietly without disturbing anyone...... It almost feels like the dog mustve also done AOL and follows it closely :) There honestly is no other explanation to this one ... It never follows anyone or goes to anyone, licks them etc .. It goes only to those who call it and want to play with it or cuddle it ..... For me this is nothing short of a miracle..... Im sure the vibe of the place and the whole process must be rubbing off on the dog bigtime...... Nothing else seems to explain the peaceful and serene presence of this creature who never makes its presence felt other than doing some happy jigs occasionally where it looks so happy that it lays itself on the ground , back touching the floor and throws its body around, from one side to another ......
I am so glad to attend the satsang that i look forward to my tuesday evenings .. My client has been kind enough to reschedule our tuesday sessions to fridays .. God bless him , cos given a choice and chance I wudnt want to change this new routine or miss the satsang for anything in the world..... I can literally feel my spirit being fed ...... And God knows that it needs to be fed bigtime :)
So here's to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the AOL for this wonderful thing they started called "Satsang' .............
