The Waldorf Channel, 1/27/08

Kristie Karima Burns hosts this wonderful website. She is featuring the Neohumanist children's story: The Fairy's Flowers on her radio show. Snuggle up with your little ones, and take a listen.

Ananda Kanan Winter Retreat, MO, 01/03/08

My family and I just spent a wonderful vacation up north, first stop, a few days in the charming, European mountain town of Eureka Springs, AR then onto Willow Springs, MO where we celebrated the New Year in true yogic style.

The Winter Bliss Retreat was one of the most peaceful ones yet, with angelic kiirtans and deeper meditations day and night. We had the honorable presence of a wonderful Prabhat Samgiita singer, Arunji Jacobson from NY. He is the proprietor of the award winning Long Island Progressive School. Not only did he share blissful Prabhat Samgiitas, bhajans (with his sweet daughter by his side) and rhythmic kiirtans, he humored us with stories of how kiirtan can affect the lives of others in the most unexpected ways...

Our cultural programs, as always, reflected songs, dramas and dances from around the world. A note-worthy Mexican folk dance was lead by my dear sister Amrita with several compadres. Sister Lagima and Dada Pranesh sang a revolutionary Haitian song; and yours truly participated with Prabhat Samgiita; a Brazilian duo with Dada Pranesh; and a social song in Spanish that had my Latino brothers and sisters cheering for more! My little Prashanta, now 6, nicely accompanied me on the tabla, charming all with his 'Zakir Housain-like' expressions.

I left the retreat gaining a deeper sense of sadhana and what it means to honor our spiritual practices. While there, I challenged myself to sit longer and go deeper into the realm of meditation. I am always grateful for the time spent at this magical place.

James Hansen - Climate Change:
The Latest Science, 10/24/07

The Progressive Forum was held at The Wortham Center, home to the opera and ballet. The speaker for this event was James Hansen, one of the leading scientists on global warming who works hand in hand with the former vice president of the United States, Al Gore. The mayor of Houston, Bill White, gave the opening speech, and I was able to meet with them both.

It is a great honor to be invited to sing for this forum, and this was my second event. I chose a Spanish song that calls us to take care of the earth. I also sang the Neohumanist Prabhat Samgiita, Sumukher Pane and kiirtan. The songs were well received, and the organizer commented on the “soulfulness” of the selection. Over 1,200 people attended.

Yoga for Peace Conference, 2007, 10/20/07

The Yoga for Peace Conference was held in the pristine Houston Garden Center Auditorium. Around 400 people attended throughout the day. There were two very good speakers giving talks on ahimsa – non-harming to all living beings; and astaunga yoga – the eight branches of yoga. I sang related Prabhat Samgiitas, bhajans and kiirtans in between speakers, and spoke about the relationship between bhakti and seva. Several people sang along with the bhajans and kiirtans; and purchased CDs.

I shared a table with Janis Blue of “Go Vegan Texas” (KPFT Pacifica Radio), and talked with her about our many projects. She is interested in learning meditation, and doing radio interviews. We had a warm time together, as she is also very passionate about ahimsa.

Toward the end of the day, there were several demonstrations of yoga asanas. Sister Daivi gave a very good demonstration on yoga for children, including imagery and chants in English and Sanskrit. The Hare Krsna Youth performed the grand finale with much sweetness and devotion. Many good contacts were made for future endeavors.

Texas Bioneers Conference, 10/19/07

I performed in the beautiful gardens of the Emerson Unitarian Community Center at the Texas Bioneers Conference in Houston. Around 300 people attended. Before my set, I befriended a group of autistic teenagers from a private school who were curious about the sound equipment. I spent time talking with them, and giving them much affection. As I began to sing, they stood in front of me mesmerized. I felt the positive vibrations of the kiirtans and Prabhat Samgiita affecting them deeply. At the break, a few children put dollar bills in my jar. I was very touched by their gesture. Their sweetness and innocence enhanced the beauty of the colorful garden.

As I sang, I heard in the distance the sweet sound of a clarinet, playing a Middle Eastern tune. I sought out the musician, and invited him to play with me. He blended in most beautifully with the Prabhat Samgiita. I attended his workshop in Middle Eastern drumming, and could see the relation between Indian music. I explained to him the history of music; how it was organized by Lord Shiva and how originally music was created for spiritual development.

Many people commented on the good vibrations created by the music. I was invited to perform for the evening program, but declined due to previous commitments.

Gloria Steinem:
The Progression of Feminism, 9/17/07

By sweet grace, representing WWD-F, I opened for Gloria Steinem at The Wortham Theatre in Houston. The event was hosted by The Progressive Forum. Over 2,000 people were present. I was then able to sit and listen to her speak, and witness the participation of audiences questions and comments. There were as many brothers as sisters in the audience, which was encouraging. Many women and men spoke on the good projects they are doing in the Houston area including: actively changing negative advertisement against women; organizations for women's mental health; National Organization for Women which is active in changing many things for the rights of women including a fair wage, child care, and social security benefits for married women.

Gloria Steinem has been active in changing the rights of women around the world for over 30 years. What I enjoyed about her speech was her sense of globalism, Neohumanism, and her keen knowledge of world history. She went on at length about the Native American societies (as we are on the ancestral grounds) and how they operated in a democratic fashion. The men respected the women's wisdom, and they worked in "coordinated cooperation". Many things she said were what visionary Shrii Anandamurtiji has said regarding women: their tender nature, and their lack of rights in society.

Gloria Steinem said that Indian [from India] women were the greatest organizers in the world. I was pleasingly surprised to hear her advocating for women around the world; understanding deeply and giving much reverence to their way of being.

I later learned, after speaking to her, that she had spent much time in different communities around the world, especially in India. She is a transformed soul, able to bridge the gap, and help others see the universality in us all. Ms. Steinem is 73 years old, still writing and giving lectures. I can see in her later writings that she has learned meditation and encourages us all to do our inner work – to meditate, build networks and stay active.

I presented her with a CD of songs produced for WWD-F, and was able to talk with her about our dynamic women and projects. I also had the opportunity to do outreach with others at the event.

EarthDance 2007, 9/15/07

I was honored to participate in EarthDance 2007, an event that happens simultaneously around the world at numerous locations. It was held at the Hare Krsna Garaunga Hall. This year, the theme was “Healing the Waters”. We opened with a global collective chanting of the mantra “Om”, which brought us all to a higher state of consciousness. Around 500 people attended this event.

The spiral dance was most fun – hundreds of people linked together hand to hand, creating a human spiral to live drumming. The spiral goes in, and then it comes out again. It was challenging and exciting to see how to keep yourself linked up without bumping into others.

I closed the evening with Prabhat Samgiita and kiirtan. Fellow musicians from the Hare Krishna Youth group accompanied me, as well as my two children on tablas. The crowd went wild, crying out for Krishna after I sang. The organizer was most pleased with my performance and has agreed for me to direct the music for the next event.

There was good coverage of the event with newspaper articles and interviews on KPFT Radio. Sydney, the organizer, gave an important talk on water, the importance of conservation, and the effects of our actions on the waters of the world.

Vermont Festival of the Arts, 8/15/07

The 24^th Annual Prabhat Samgiita Retreat was held August 6-12, at the pristine and verdant Mad River Valley as a part of the Vermont Festival of the Arts. I was called to teach at retreat, which extended to a full week, in honor of the Silver Anniversary of Prabhat Samgiita. What a wonderful gift to be able to teach the very thing that you love. I co-taught with Avtk. Ananda Vibha Ac., who is well versed in Prabhat Samgiita, as she was there when our beloved guru was first giving the songs. Around 40 people attended.

Several jewels came out of the experience of teaching. Many participants expressed that they were able to go deeper into the songs, as tal, melody and isolating difficult phrases was emphasized. A few expressed that they previously had resistance to learning Prabhat Samgiita and its intricacies, but felt more relaxed with this style of teaching. Others expressed the desire to further learn, and we encouraged everyone to create more retreats in their units.

Savory, healthy food was tirelessly prepared by Ac. Cirasmita Devi. She kept us all fed with wonderfully diverse, vegetarian meals, including delicious cakes for three different birthdays!

Amidst the intensive teaching schedule, an evening performance was planned. Collectively, we decided how the evening would go. We wanted audience participation, so we chose a few songs that were simple enough for all to sing-along. I wanted the participants to be able to sing the songs they had been learning all week, so we featured those. It balanced out with performances by the Kundalini Express; and two beautiful dances.

The night was completely magical! The hosts set up a screen projecting the words to the songs. The audience was completely mesmerized and sang along with sweetness and devotion. There is immense charm and beauty in Prabhat Samgiita, which I am certain, was felt by all.

Much gratitude goes out to Giridharaji, Didi Cirasmita Devi, Tapasji, Dhyaneshvari Devi, Ciranjiva, and all the Vermont Margiis who made the retreat and performance an extraordinary experience for all.

For more information, please go to Prabhat Samgiita where you can listen to enchanting, timeless songs and learn them online!

Palo Alto Daily News, 07/12/07

I want to thank my California friend for referring my MySpace Music page to this Palo Alto newspaper: Palo Alto Daily News

New Thought Songwriters Workshop & Peace and Justice Department Fundraiser, 4/30/07

What a lovely weekend! I spent Friday and Saturday at the New Thought Songwriters Workshop in San Marcos, Texas, where around 25 artists participated. We spent much time presenting our music in the round, supporting one another, and getting aquainted. In the evening, we held a concert for the local community.

The musicians of the New Thought (or True Thought we decided to call ourselves) movement are artists creating positive music to make a better world. There was so much love, support and acceptance from this group, not to mention all of the positive vibrations created from the music. Most of the musicians were quite accomplished in their field. It was a treat for me to sing with such celestial music makers. I made several new friends and hope to perform with them over time.


Saturday afternoon, I drove back to Houston, where I performed at the Peace and Justice Department Fundraiser. There I met a fellow Portuguese American woman who is helping war struck children from Iraq. She was instrumental in helping to get new limbs for a child whose arms had been destroyed by bombs. Marie is also raising her grand daughter at age 67. What an amazing and inspiring woman!

There, I also met and spoke at length to a Russian immigrant who fled the country during the communist regime. Her husband was protesting against the government, when they had to leave to avoid being jailed. She lost both her husband and son over the last few years to cancer. In honor of her family, she sells artifacts from a Tibetan temple to support the Tibetan monks. (Her husband and son were Buddhists).

These are the things that leave deep impressions on my mind. The human heart is such a mysterious thing. My new Russian friend lives a life of service in honor of her family. This way, she doesn't think so much about her loss. The human heart....

Spring Travels, 4/10/07

Ah, Spring... time to breath in deeply the prana of outdoors and the sweet fragrance of flowers. Everything just feels different, no? Dolyatra has come and gone, and now we look forward to Ananda Purnima, the birthday of Shrii Shrii Ananda Murtiji. His auspicious birthday falls on May 2nd, one day before my precious jewel, Prashanta - turning six on May 3rd. Each year at Ananda Purnima, my overgrown gardenias bloom out in full! It is a blissful phenomenum.

We took a wonderful trip to northern Missourri, back down again through Tennessee all the way to Asheville, NC. I sang songs that I had learned as a youth along the way. We stopped in Joplin MO overnight, and I just couldn't believe it! I'd been singing Route 66 for years before, "Well you go through St. Louis, Joplin Missourri..." And while in Kansas City, like a mantra the song just would not stop, "Going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come...". Well, we did go through St. Louis - what a beautiful town. And down we headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains, "Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains...". It just made perfect sense to me why they wrote these songs. Asheville was heaven on earth, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and progressives, oh my!

I am overwhelmingly graced by people downloading my songs from MySpace and putting them on their pages. I thank you all humbly for allowing the sweet vibration of kiirtan to flow from your pages, or the images of strong and spiritual women in the world; and the feeling and knowing that "Love is All There Is." I am so happy to be able to serve in this way. Please go to http://www.anandamarga.org/ to find out more about the spirit behind the music; the practices that create a subtle body and mind, compassion in our hearts and infinite love for all....

African Kiirtans, 11/02/06

A few weeks back, I had a most wonderful house guest from Congo, Africa: Dada Gunamaya, an acharya (spiritual teacher) of Ananda Marga. Dadaji spent one week with our family. We gave a presentation of African kiirtans at The Harvest School, and performed at the Te' House in downtown Houston.

During our week together, I heard the most intriguing stories of his life in Africa. It seems he was born with the desire to meditate, thus he told his father as a small boy. He also had some intuitive knowledge of India, to his father's great surprise, and wanted to visit there. As a teenager, he was led to a Hatha Yoga teacher, and practiced for several hours a day, until it began to interfere with his studies. His teacher had told him to be on the lookout for a meditation guru, thus he was quite alert when introduced to the path of Ananda Marga as a young man. Dadaji soon became an acharya and was most successful working with the people on his continent.

Dadaji told me of the Baba Nam Kevalam kiirtans in Africa. While working in Africa, he asked the devotees of different countries to develop their own kiirtans (spiritual chant). He then created annual competitions to see whose were more lively and melodic. The African kiirtans are sung without any other instrument than drums. They are call and response, with beautiful harmonies. I recorded Dada's kiirtans in my home studio and was transported back to the days of singing for Brazilian Carnaval. I could feel the roots of Brazilian music in these African kiirtans - the pulse coming from Mother Africa. What joy to sing and dance kiirtans from a different continent!

Dada Gunamaya is a most sincere practitioner of yoga and meditation. He arises bright and early, singing devotional songs and kiirtan before beginning meditation. He practices meditation 4 times a day, and takes only two meals a day. Dadaji has a sweet smiling disposition and seems to be immersed in a deeper state of consciousness. This subtle vibration emerging from a human being can only bring joy to others around him.

Y'all Stock Art & Music Festival

Cypress Creek Center

09/16/2006

Y'all Stock Festival was created by visionary Bob Messer as a celebration of poets and music, vendors and activitists working together for peace.

The concert hall at the Cypress Creek Center is a magnificent cathedral with great acoustics, a fabulous sound system and colorful stained glass windows - a place that I had often visited, and had longed to perform in. Be careful what you wish for....

I did a well received, mixed set of devotional songs, Prabhat Samgiita, and kiirtans, with percussionist Miguel Clark. Other noted performances were by master story teller PK McCary, and music by Chapman Stick[ist], Jim Kam.

Ozarks Retreat & Prabhat Samgiita Seminar

I have had a most blissful month, starting with a trip to Missourri for our summer retreat at the Ananda Kanan Ozark Retreat Center. Jyotsna La Trobe, a singer/songwriter from New Zealand, lead a group of us in a kiirtan choir. She had just returned from a 6 month stint in India where she studied the kiirtans of Rarh. She came back with a 70 minute long performance piece from which we performed a few songs live with a circle dance; and recorded one late night. We sang non-stop, day and night for all presentations, cultural programs, and for evening kiirtans.

Last week, I flew to Vermont to co-teach at the 23rd Annual Prabhat Samgiita Seminar with Jyotsna. Here is a synapsus of the event:

We gave a two day Prabhat Samgiita workshop in Vermont where 40 people attended. The retreat was held in the pristine, woodland home of Ciiranjiiva and Parashakti. Margiis came from all over the sector.

Kumar Das added a rich and rhythmic tal with his tabla. Jagat Bandhu and Dada Gopalkrisnananda added the beauty of harmonium to the melodius songs. We gave a varied presentation of Prabhat Samgiita from deep, reflective songs, to lively Prabhat Samgiita kiirtans. The workshop was given outdoors, under a porch canopy, while rain fell all around. Several Margiis told reflective stories about Baba in the rain; and Prabhat Samgiita. Delicious meals were lovingly prepared by Ciiranjiiva. All had a splendid and blissful time.

Saturday evening, the Margiis hosted a 3 hour, public akhanda kiirtan at a local yoga center. Over 60 people attended and enjoyed the celestial vibrations.

Jyotsna, myself, Jagat Bandhu and Rainjan finished up the last pieces to a production of mesmerizing Rarh kiirtans, Red Earth Fusion, that were recently recorded at the Ananda Kanan summer retreat.

Dances of Universal Peace,

Unitarian Universalist Church

The Woodlands, TX

Last weekend I attended the Dances of Universal Peace circle lead by two women of the Sufi tradition. We danced several dances from different cultures, each with a chant for peace. My favorite was Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. I had brought my guitar and asked the facilitator (a friend of mine) if I could offer some kiirtan to the circle. She was pleased to have me there, and asked me to play after the break.

After the break, I wrote the words, Baba Nam Kevalam on the board, and one of the leaders became very excited! “I learned that kiirtan in Russia!” she said. It seems that when she went to Russia, promoting Peace Dance circles, one of the places she visited was an Ananda Marga jagriti! Small Universe…

Well, needless to say, dancing kiirtan with this group was a hit. They didn’t want to stop. We did a short meditation after the kiirtan. Again… they didn’t want to stop. It was quite nice being with a group of people who could really enjoy His kiirtan and meditation. I was asked to sing something at the closing, so I thought, “Why not another kiirtan?” This little group was really blissed out and enjoyed a taste of His grace.

ASHA & AID Event

Saturday night, my husband and I performed downtown at an event for ASHA & AID, two organizations that provide education and development projects in India. It was a wonderful evening, with a mostly Southeast Asian crowd. Several of our friends attended, and we felt blessed to have their company.

We performed Prabhat Samgiita - Songs of the New Dawn - spiritually invoked songs, composed specifically to aid one in spiritual practices. I also sang kiirtan, a universal mantra that is repeated over and over, and creates a vibration of Divine Love. Several people were moved by the songs, which created opportunity for deep and meaningful conversations.

Unbeknownst to me, one of the speakers, on the behalf of ASHA, was the husband of a well known author, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, whose book I had just finished reading the week before. He approached me, as I had sung in Bengali, her native tongue. When I found out who his wife was, I was surprised, as this was the third time I was to hear about her.

When I first read about Chitraji a few years ago, something drew me to her; I was curious to meet her - I even considered taking one of her classes. I was at the library last week, and the librarian recommended a book to me. It was written by Chitraji. Now, here was her husband, inviting me to their house for dinner, If only I promised to sing a set of songs in Bengali;)

There were three other phenomenal performances by a harpist; a female sitarist out of Austin, who does documentary work on women in India; and a wonderful sarod player, accompanied by our dear brother, Partha (Uncle to the children) on the tabla.

KPFT Outreach Meeting

On Monday, I was asked to sing at the KPFT Outreach Meeting downtown. The organizers wanted to create an atmosphere of harmony, and felt my music would do that.

I was excited as Rev. Robert Muhammad, a peace activist and radio programmer who had worked with Rev. Martin Luther King in the 60's, was going to be speaking. I have heard him numerous times on the radio, and find his unabashed, political humor to be warm and familiar.

The meeting was quite powerful. Brother Muhammad started off by cutting-to-the-chase. He thundered like a lion, letting us know that we all had to work together and support one another during this time of change in the world. The room filled with his majestic presence as he spoke.

Hitaji Aziz, another programmer was also there and spun her magic web around us all with a wonderful synapses of how people can undermine others - how we need to have unity amongst diversity, even when we don't agree with one another. Sister Akua H. suggested that we be documenting our strong, black leaders of today - that we left off in the 60's with MLK, and others.

The rest of the meeting went off smoothly. The organizers thanked me for my contribution, and felt that the music definitely transformed the vibration to one of peace.

Incredible India

The Houston International Festival (Ifest), 2005

Houston, TX

The Natarajan Family performed at the International Festival where thousands of people attended. This year, there was one square street block dedicated to India. We performed both weekends at a small booth hosted by Sur Samgiita, school of Indian music. SS Dada Tiirthananda accompanied us, and helped out by singing in the audience. A family visiting from Bengal expressed their pleasure at hearing such beautiful songs in their native language.