Sri Swamiji Blesses Pune

(Report on the Music for meditation & Healing held in Pune (Maharastra state) on 22-11-97)

by - Sanjay Chadavar, SSY Teacher, RSVK, Pune

Sri Swamiji has come and blessed us our city! The people of Poona must have really done some "Punya" to be the recipients of such an honour. The time has to be just right for such a momentous event to take place. In fact, Sri Swamiji cancelled His March visit saying "Poona is not ready yet". It took us time to prepare ourselves, but it has happened at last!

Yet this was not without its own difficult moments. When the much awaited eve came at last, the rains decided to bless us before Swamiji himself did! Some found their spirits dampened and turned back, but the majority of the crowd, i.e., 7000 to 8000 people simply stayed there, totally unfazed, determined to hear Swamiji and His healing music, come hail or high water (literally!). They refused to budge despite the fact that Swamijiís cars were preparing to leave. So when He turned back and walked on to the stage, there went up a great shout of jubilation amongst the audience! Sri Swamiji jovially commented "No one asked me to stop the rain, so I didnít!"

Seeing the rain soaked, yet eager audience, Sri Swamiji said he would begin with a heat generating raga, to warm us all up. And truly, we all felt a beautiful warmth envelop us, and by the end of it, we had totally forgotten about the puddles, mud or our soaked clothes. He and his musicians then went on to play raga ëMohanaí, which he said is very beneficial to those who find anger difficult to control and are depressed about life. We surrendered to the music and felt our anger and resentment being dissolved. He followed this by "Shantirastu Pushtirastu", which he said was very, very healing for anyone with mental ailments. The air became charged as he played this, some new awakening seemed to be taking place, and there was pin-drop silence. He then paused a while to speak and informed us that he would be singing one of his masterpieces "Brahma Brahma", and as he said this, a great cheer rang out amongst the audience. This tune is greatly revered by us all, as being extremely intense, powerful and invoking. And as he began singing this, many of us wept tears of ecstacy, feeling one, feeling cleansed ...... One cannot attempt to describe the power and majesty of Poojya Swamijiís music, its magnificence simply cannot be captured in words.

By now the audience was transported to a different realm altogether, and Swamiji went around the aisles with his crystal stick, healing the audience. The mrudangam was playing all the while, and Swamiji urged us to listen to it, as it was giving out healing vibrations. Everyone craned their necks in order to have Swamiji not miss them out! It felt strange and mystical to see Swamiji go around. We all felt something very powerful was going on here. Everyone was asked to hold up their right hand in "Chin Mudra", and not to touch His feet. This being done, he walked back to the stage and declared that all the negative vibrations had been driven away and so it was time for celebration!

He then played "Mangalam", and everyoneís joyousness grew by the minute. He then announced he was going to play a "Dancing Tune", but none of us were to dance, as it would create a lot of mess and confusion on the rain soaked grounds. But the mud and puddles were trivial things and everyone got up and danced with pure joy and happiness! Guruji (Rishi Prabhakar ji) himself danced joyously on the

stage, totally forgetting himself, laughing and smiling and radiating joy to us all!

After several "encores" the programme culminated on this joyous note, after thanking all those who had worked so hard to make the program the resounding success that it was. Swamiji too smiled benignly upon all of us, as if well pleased and then left. And of course, all the SSY meditators and Teachers remained there a long while, basking in the afterglow of it all.

Yes, it was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime chance for all Puneites and we hope everyone has the good fortune of having Swamiji come and bless their cities. Jaigurudeva.