Thursday 10 January 2019

Saturday, January 5th, 2019

Brampton, Ontario

Standards

New music students, forty or so, came to our seminar on kirtan standards at ISKCON Brampton.  It was a full six hours of learning, with an enthusiastic group hearing about traditions in the matter of the mood and technical approach to chanting. A portion of the seminar engaged students in the playing of harmonium, mrdunga and kartals.

Why are these lessons so important?

They provide guidance and engagement.  People feel the social need to project, interact and make their hearts happy.  It is through chanting, stream-lined through devotion (bhakti), that the human's needs can be met.

I believe the populous is looking for a deeper fulfillment in life, and that is sometimes hard to come by in the world in which we live.  We have become very secular, mundane and materialistic.  You can ‘talk dirty’ in practically any venue, but don't dare talk spiritually.  If something is indeed sacred and beneficial in so many ways, shouldn't it be shared?

Later in the evening, I attended a sangha in Brampton.  The couple, Sanatana and Kamala, stocked up their home for the night with people.  We indulged in the Gita9.6.  "Understand that as the mighty wind, blowing everywhere, rests always in the sky, all created beings rest in Me."  We had an amazing time there in dance, chants, sweat and sweets.  

I had little to no energy when I entered their door but in due course, energy came to me.  It's like I tell people when they ask, "Don't you get tired from walking?"  The answer is, "No I get energy from walking."  Output is input.  However, for today, no walking but lots of driving.

May the Source be with you!
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