Bhagavati (Sharon) Nani – Page 68

January 28, 2023

We are made for unity

When I see videos like this, and feel the powerful energy they capture, I am convinced that a big part of why music is so powerful is because it reminds us of the truth that we are made for unity.

We truly are one.

The video above is of Jacob Collier conducting the audience in an amazing 3-part-harmony encore, at the end of his homecoming DJESSE World Tour show in June 2022.

I first heard a video of him conducting his “Audience Choir” in Singapore. Even the comments are inspiring:
🎶 It’s not the voices that move me. It’s the unity for me…….. Big Chills!!!
🎶 It’s hard to express clearly, but there’s something bigger here. It’s almost spiritual. It’s something about enough people coming together in one cause and there being enough good in all voices to fill in and uplift everyone else’s voices to a place of beauty. Perhaps this is how God hears us. When you step far enough back from the world you begin to see and hear the cohesive beauty rather than the minute chaos.
🎶 What a beautiful moment of perfect harmony among humanity. If it can be done here in this room, we can do it everywhere. Imagine.

And then there’s the group Choir! Choir! Choir!, which started in Toronto in 2011 as a weekly drop-in singing event. Participants got a lyric sheet at the door, “DaBu” (AKA Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman) taught the vocal arrangement, and a video was recorded.

Hundreds, even thousands, of strangers coming together to sing — I can only imagine what a high it must be.

By the way, even though I picked a video almost at random, I managed to choose a performance that Choir! Choir! Choir! did in collaboration with supporters of the Canadian Cancer Society. Serendipity strikes again!

Another inspiring comment:
🎶 This is beautiful. What’s more beautiful is the diversity of people… young, old, kids, races all together for one purpose. It’s the proof that music brings people together and heals. Thank God for music and for artists and talented people.

Reflecting on all this brought to mind a song we used to sing when I attended Unity church in San Francisco. I couldn’t locate a recording, but here are the lyrics (as best as I can recall after so many years):
We are one, we are one,
I am you, you are me, we are one.
And in that unity we can live in harmony
And peace will come, cause we are one.

It’s thrilling to me to see music developing in the direction of not just musical, but human harmony.

January 27, 2023

New vision for Village music

Free Hot Air Balloons Adventure photo and picture

This is what our big meeting last night was about. It went really well; I feel we’re headed in some exciting new directions.

So, this is the new vision:
To broaden and expand community singing at the Village, while also presenting the highest quality and purest musical expression possible when broadcasting worldwide.

Our goal is to have MORE people singing — and in more ways — than before the pandemic. To help accomplish this we proposed three levels of involvement, depending on a person’s life circumstances, individual inclination, and energy level. Each individual gets to choose what’s right for them.

LEVEL 1 – Community All-Sing Choir
Fun and spontaneous; melody only (or parts if you want to); once a quarter sing-alongs

LEVEL 2 – Village Choir
Community attunement; singing in parts; two evenings a month; informal performances

LEVEL 3 – Performance Ensemble
Commitment and follow through; regular weekly rehearsals; perform for Sunday services, as well as possible outreach and recording

What’s really fun is that more ideas came up during the meeting, from people who are enthusiastic about helping to make them happen — specifically regarding more involvement for children and families, as well as more support for “newbies” who are just learning the music.

All in all, it’s an adventurous new phase for music at Ananda Village.

January 26, 2023

Relieved and happy

I’m very happy to report that our big meeting about new directions for the music at Ananda Village went really well.

But what a week it’s been! I’m totally ready to crash for the night.

January 25, 2023

New beginnings

We’re finally “post-pandemic” enough to bring our full choir back online.

This is excellent news (yay!).

However, I feel like we’re poised on somewhat of a precipice, because there are things that have changed as a result of all that we’ve gone through in the past three years, and what we’re proposing doesn’t match exactly how things used to be.

I’ve never been in quite this position before. So, I’m just doing my best to tune in to “what’s trying to happen” and trust my intuition.

But, to be honest, it’s a little bit scary.

January 24, 2023

Focused intensity

Free Great Horned Owl Bird photo and picture

This day started out with an 8:00am meeting, then segued into planning music for the astral ascension ceremony (tomorrow around noon) and finishing up preparations for our annual presentation (tomorrow morning).

An email also needed to go out inviting people to our music satsang on Thursday night (Ananda Village Music: New Beginnings is the theme).

It’s been a while since I spent such an intensely focused day in the office and I’m totally ready to call it a day and go home.

January 23, 2023January 23, 2023

Saying good-bye to David Miller

Day before yesterday I wrote about recording “Secrets of Love” at Crystal Hermitage, which had me thinking about David Miller.

This afternoon I was reflecting that I hadn’t been in touch with him for a while and I wondered how he was doing.

And tonight I learned that he had passed away.

David was a big part of the music of Ananda for a long time, from way before I came on the scene. He worked closely with Swami Kriyananda on arranging the music. In fact, some of our most beautiful choir songs are his arrangements.

David was a gifted pianist, a quirky jokester, and a deep devotee. He will be missed.

Go with love, dear David. 💗

January 22, 2023January 23, 2023

Serendipitous

After a very full Sunday, which was preceded by an unusually early Saturday, I realized this was going to be one of those evenings where I didn’t have much of anything to share.

Then it occurred to me that there might be newer readers who don’t know why in the heck I’m committed to writing Every. Single. Day.

So, I went back to the very early days of this blog (which I started on Swamiji’s birthday — May 19 — in 2019) in order to share the blog post where I explain about the daily writing.

But along the way I stumbled upon a different post (about spontaneity and my tendency to overthink things). And that inspired me to share the above “overthinking” meme, which I got a kick out of but didn’t know what to do with.

Rather serendipitous, no?

January 21, 2023

Deepening my connection to Swamiji – 2

Photo of Crystal Hermitage Upper Gardens by Kent Williams

I’m not sure whether I mentioned it in a previous blog post, but one of my first big spiritual lessons after arriving at Ananda Palo Alto was that no one seemed particularly interested in the fact that I was a professional flutist.

For starters, there was already a woman in the community who played flute. And at my first meeting with Asha Praver — basically a “getting-to-know-you” chat — I described some of the musical activities I had offered at my previous church homes, including benefit concerts and the like. Her response? Pretty much no response. I mean, she might have said something like, “Oh, that’s interesting,” but I received no energy from her at all regarding my flute playing.

It took me back a bit, but it was also rather refreshing not being primarily identified as a flutist.

However, within a few months a friend in the community somehow learned more about my musical background and convinced me to give her a copy of my resume, which she then shared with the music people up at Ananda Village.

What I had no way of knowing was that they had been slowly working on a recording of Swami Kriyananda’s music using mostly synthesized sounds for the various instruments. They had a live harpist (the late Donnelle Page) and professional cellist, David Eby, had come to Ananda Portland a year or two before I arrived in Palo Alto. So, now they invited me to provide live flute to the album.

And that is how it came about that in late October 1999 I was blessed to come up to Ananda Village for a long weekend at Crystal Hermitage, recording “Secrets of Love” with music arranger, David Miller, and recording engineer, Agni Ferraro.

What a blessed experience it was! Crystal Hermitage was Swamiji’s home whenever he was in residence at the Village (although this was during the time that I still hadn’t met him because he was living in Italy). I got to stay in a small apartment at Crystal Hermitage, doing my Energization Exercises in the beautiful upper gardens and meditating in the dome.

Of course I spent hours and hours in the studio, with photos of Yogananda and Swami to keep me focused on the goal of allowing their vibration to flow through my playing. Although recording is always intense, there was also plenty of joy and laughter in working with my fellow devotees.

I was transported by the melodies I was playing, especially “Love Is the Aspiration toward Perfection” (click here to listen) and felt Swamiji close to me throughout the entire process. By the end, I understood that this was the raison d’être for all my years of training and experience as a flutist.

Thank you, God. 🙏

January 20, 2023

Happy to be vaxxed, yet again!

I still find this to be the perfect image to accompany my sense of joy and relief at getting my 2nd dose of the COVID vaccine.

It’s certainly been an interesting process, having to repeatedly remind pharmacy employees that I’m getting the primary series, not a booster. Which sometimes means waiting longer; like today, when they thawed out the booster instead of the 2nd primary dose.

Oh well, bottom line is — I got the jab. Yay!

January 19, 2023

Deepening my connection to Swamiji – 1

My first opportunity for feeling closer to Swamiji came when the Ananda Palo Alto Lay Members group spent a weekend at what was then called the Ananda Seclusion Retreat (now called the Ananda Meditation Retreat). This is the first property Swami Kriyananda purchased and where he first started Ananda in 1968.

I drove up with my friend, Marilyn (now known as Manisha). It was my first time visiting the Seclusion Retreat and I’m pretty sure it was her first time as well.

To a city girl like me, Ananda Village already felt pretty much like traveling to the boonies, and the Seclusion Retreat was even farther into the wilderness. We had gotten a little lost on the way and ended up arriving after dark. As we made our way along the dark paths, I remember being startled by a small herd of deer running right by us. We definitely were outside of civilization as I knew it!

That first night there was some kerfuffle around accommodations. One of our group members was in a wheelchair, but the door of the house to which she had been assigned was too narrow for her chair. Things got switched around in such a way that another woman and I ended up in that house instead.

Now, I heard people calling the house “Swami’s Dome,” but I assumed that was just its name. Similar to being at Ananda Assisi, where they have rooms called “St Francis” and so forth. It wasn’t until the end of the retreat that I discovered I had literally spent the weekend in Swami’s dome, where he had lived for years.

Furthermore, it was usually only available for ministers who wanted to take seclusion. So, it was only due to a completely unusual combination of circumstances that I ended up staying there, sleeping in the loft area where Swamiji slept.

It truly felt like a gift from Divine Mother. 🙏