devamitenblog

Byron Bay part three

we took these pix during a ride in a friends helicopter

surfers and dolphins...

now you can see why deva and i return every year!

back to earth, deva, john (helicopter baba), and rafia

oh i forgot to tell you, we filmed some concerts - i spent yesterday at  ‘in your face’ studios in byron, editing the footage...
it’s pretty good - we’ll post some on youtube soon.
with love and thanks,
miten

Byron Bay part two

the gayatri mantra...

recently we received an angry message:

“...I was just browsing through youtube and I was appalled to see the "singing" of the Gayatri mantra. This is not the correct way to chant the Gayatri mantra. Such a powerful mantra can have adverse effects if not chanted according to the vedas with the proper intonations. Chant it correctly or do not chant it and please don’t sing it like a song. The chanting was completely flawed. This is not my view but the view of all sages, that every mantra has to be chanted with the prescribed methods.
Vedas are Eternal...”

I just want to say here, that we have no wish to offend anyone, and our intention is only to spread the blessings of the gayatri as we have received them.
it is obvious that our singing/chanting the gayatri has had untold blessings - on us personally, of course – but also, on the many of you who have shared it with us.
my feeling is that sometimes concentrating on the ‘correct way’ of doing things can create a prison, rather than an opening.
so...with respect, at the risk of upsetting pundits and traditionalists, we will continue to share the gayatri in our own way.

there was a time when the gayatri mantra was a secret prayer, known and chanted only by a select few.
now, it is known, shared and loved by people all over the world.
this, we feel, is a good thing.
it is there to liberate us after all.
...especially in these dark times, the healing light that shines forth through the gayatri is needed on this planet, more than ever.
deva and i feel the power of the mantra itself transcends all religious dogmatic issues.

we recently had the honour to attend a ta ke ti na workshop, facilitated by founder and creator, reinhard flatischler and his wife, cornelia.
it was revelation.
‘ta ke ti na’ is transformation through rhythm.
we recommend everyone to participate in this work, whether you are a musician, or not.

reinhard is a master musician, but more than that, he is a great teacher.
his evolutionary work, through the medium of rhythm is truly inspirational.

as for cornelia, she is also a master drummer in her own right – creating the solid rhythmic pulse throughout the process, for reinhard – and the group in general, to explore the wonderful, silent, spacious, and wild world of rhythm.
i wish we had some pix from their workshop, but we were too engulfed in the music to think about taking photos.
you can see some on their home page

here’s a pic taken on their visit to us

i love drummers.
i’ve always had an affinity to them and am awed by their craft.
i guess it’s because, basically, they’re like me – crazy! – in the best possible sense, of course!
reinhard is no exception – a beautiful being absolutely sensitive to sound and silence, with a great sense of humour and a deep reverence for life...and at the same time...crazy!!

deva and i - with deep respect - just about fell in love with them both

so, that’s just about it for now.
we’ll do our best to get some pix from the upcoming chant retreat, and then we’ll see you in europe for the spring and summer tour.
rainer scheurenbrand, guitarist extra-ordinaire – now known as roshan – will be joining us for some of the concerts, so look out for him!

see you all down the road!
with love from beautiful byron bay...

Byron Bay part one

the byron bay concerts just about wrapped up our australian tour for this year.
soon we will be welcoming participants for our 4-day ecstatic chant retreat, then it’s off to fiji to meet tony and sage robbins, who have opened a temple there, dedicated to the oneness blessing, which as many of you know, is spreading, like wild fire though the community.
we will play a concert for the temple inauguration in fiji, and later in india at the golden city, where an expected one million people (!) will gather during the five day festival.

what with eckhart tolle hooking up with oprah for podcasts of up to two million people, it looks like humanity is finally ‘awakening’.
...which is a cue for a song, as we just heard that eckhart has chosen the ‘awakening’ song (from soul in wonder) to augment his latest work.

how to say where this wave originally began to rise?
for me personally, it was osho who guided me to a higher calling...but then again, so did the beatles in their way - and their teachers were the articulate rockers of america, like chuck berry and buddy holly.
and then there was dylan, whose roots you could trace back to the beats of the 50’s – allen ginsberg, jack kerouac et al – exploring the mysteries of zen and the mantric chanting of the vedas.
...not to mention the age-old folk truths that were woven into the songs of england, ireland and scotland.

all we know, is that IT is happening, (as it always was)...and that it’s a visible wave now, which more and more of us surf.

meanwhile back at the byron concert...some pix taken by our sweetheart, melinda andreas.

khalid –aka baba –aka  h.h. the viceroy of jambhangisthan, ex-tree dweller, ex vipassana junkie, ex-raw food devotee, present time osho lover and oneness giver, etc. etc... seen here doing his puja before the concert

baba and his business partner swamiji mohan (maharaja of jambhangisthan)...

say hello to the camera, swamiji!

... supplied all the beautiful statues and temple decoration for the concert from their vaults at shikara design in brisbane

it just so happens baba is also a great blues harmonica player...he joined us on stage for ‘you gotta move’ -
as you can see, manose and deva really appreciate a hot blues solo when they hear one!

the boys rock out...

...meeting mataji’s approval...(we hope!!)

great pic of manose singing...

a high moment during the concert...i love to see the little ones curled up asleep while us ‘grown-ups’ sing our way to god