Function report, from my diary- Wednesday 03 October 07

[This a description of a typical Wednesday night meditation with the
Master; this function was held just a week before Sri Chinmoy's
unexpected passing from this earth]

Guru arrived early, just after eight o'clock. He began by driving
around Aspiration-Ground a few times in his chariot. I noticed he was
wearing blue flip-flops. I also saw that he seemed to enjoy the sound
the cart made; his head bobbed up and down to the rhythm of the machine.

It was a cool evening and there actually weren't that many people
there. The weather for the past few weeks has been atrocious, and so
therefore most of our Wednesday meetings had been canceled. I sat
next to my friend Mahesh, from Florida, and Tom and Ginny, from Princeton.

After he circled Aspiration-Ground in the Chariot, he asked us all to
meditate in silence. Guru's face seemed to shine. I saw he was
wearing a cute tri-corner hat.

Mr. Ramamourthy performed first, on the synthesizer. He is Guru's
very old friend from the Indian consulate days. He performed "Jiban
Debata" several times; it was one of the most beautiful and moving
performances I have ever seen. And the standard of his musicianship
has gone up dramatically over the years. But it's not his technical
ability, so much as the heartfelt way that he sings and plays Guru's
songs, that moves me.

After that, Rashmani performed a few of Guru's songs on the violin.
She performed *really* well. She played "Bela Chale Jai" and another
song which I don't know.

After Rashmani performed, Kamalakanta and Bansidar sang a very soulful
song entitled "Gurudev". Perhaps one of them could fill us in on the
background of that song and why they chose to sing it. It is a
lovely, haunting song.

Then Ranjit and Unmesh, dressed as Indian sadhus, performed some
traditional devotional songs. I think they performed one sing by
Mirabai, dedicated to Sri Krishna, and also one song by Ramanujua
devoted to Mother Kali. Both songs were totally trance-inducing.

After that, Satyajit's group performed the song whose words were
written by Guru's brother Hriday, and whose melody was composed by
Guru himself: "Tumi je hao se hao."

I thought it to be one of their very best concerts. Guru was very
pleased with them and said afterwards that when he would go to visit
his brother in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, he would sing that song for
Hriday. He said his brother used to shed tears of joy when Guru sang
it for him.

Guru also said that once Hriday asked Sri Aurobindo, through letters,
whether it would be ok for him to learn music. Sri Aurobindo
responded, "Vital, vital, vital!"

Of course, Sri Chinmoy has used his soulful music to inspire and
uplift countless people and to awaken them to the spiritual life.

It was a very intimate, and a very soulful meditation. I felt
privileged to be there.

Mahiruha