Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Big Yawn

Vancouver, British Columbia

"You were yawning." He said, but not in a defiant way. He was referring to my mouth widening when he was singing. In the midst of our conversation, this remark skipped out of his mouth which drew some embarrassment from me. It was mutual though. As I was talking to Gaura Vani, the walla (guy) who made the remark, he yawned himself, which triggered the statement in the first place.

Gaura Vani, a master of kirtan, has always been respectful to me. He reminds me that I used to babysit his wife when she was a baby. The reminder makes me feel a bit older than I feel. Again, no disrespect is intended on his part.

Why was I yawning? "I had no sleep the night before. Too much excitement in the air." I explained.

Truly the relationship between Gaura Vani, and I is devotional. And when he sings, he does so with devotion. In fact, "devotion" became the theme of our topic. He has been contemplating on producing music not limited to traditional mantras, but also remaking famous devotional songs that are mainstream but are devotional. He asked my opinion and I concurred that it was a great idea.

There is a shortage of devotion, or bhakti in the world. To define it could be "spiritual love". After all, it is universally appealing, but it is so lacking.

In fact, the vacuum of spiritual love is such that we have a big hole in our world. So whatever can be done to wholesomely fill that hole should be done. This hole is so huge that it is like a "big yawn" that is hoping to close.

12 KM