USA

hi friends, a quick update from seattle
2 weeks ago we left deva's mother's in germany for omega new york and the ecstatic chant weekend.
you will know how much we love this event if you have followed our earlier blogs.
it's been called the woodstock of ecstatic chant, and to be sure, it does have a flavour of that legendary festival about it...
maybe because most of the participants are old enough to have attended the original, on yasgur's farm!

the musicians who caught our eye this year, in particular (all were excellent) was the maya puris.
jai uttal's assessment of them as the young tigers of kirtan speaks volumes.
to watch them play is to be catapulted directly into the bhagavad-gita –
their energy and enthusiasm for the music and their path is infectious and inspiring to us 'oldies'...

check out their album – mrindanga - it only hints of their live performances, but it will whet your appetite for any future kirtans, when they show up in your town.

here's a message for the musicians from omega founder stephan rechtshaffen:

"I'd like to deeply thank you all for coming together to create such magnificence for the whole weekend. I felt privileged to share such a rarified and enchanted experience created together by all of you - both embraced by and uplifting the spirit of everyone who was at omega for this time - staff and retreatants. In all our years of doing this together - I don't believe i've personally felt so moved by the depth of it all."

radhanath swami attended – and what pleasure it is to find oneself in his hilarious and sweet company.
through swami we met his good friend from berlin, swami satchitananda.
whatever magic sri krishna sprinkles on these two precious souls may be magical, but it is also very down-to-earthly tangible.

deva took this photo, and the love shayamdas, sharon gannon and swami have in their hearts for her is more than evident in their eyes and their smiles.

i guess this picture denotes what many people told us was their 'highlight' of the festival:
the moment swami joined us on stage for a funky, stonking version of mississippi fred mcdowell's great song 'you gotta move'.
none of us really expected him to join us, but deva knew somehow, that he would.
swami said he may've been able to refuse one of us, but not both!

from omega to boston to see our friends shunyam and veena.
these guys are doing great work for their community, creating kirtan events and encouraging others to create gatherings in their area.
it is always a joy to meet them and their beautiful daughters, svetly and leela.
deva dances for them in the dressing room before the concert...!

and finally - some pix from our concert at the bhaktifest in the desert sands of joshua tree, california.
manose had the idea to begin the concert with shima, as a way of honouring the native peoples of the mohave desert.
he was presented with a native american ceremonial flute some time back, and in his own inimitable way, draws the essence of the native american spirit from it.
we invited the thousands who were there with us to participate in the ritual dance...

here deva and manose demonstrate the dance

the men singing ‘fly high’ was ecstatic!

deva looking beautiful!

it was another 'ecstatic chant' event for all!

i write this aboard our tour bus
last occupant: janet jackson.
life sure is interesting!

x
m