Some days ago, Ch. SathyaDev (Sattibabu), an Indian friend of mine from Visakhapatnam, shared the “Song or Lyric on Shambala“, which he had written on 10 June 2021 – new moon day:

OM Shambala –
Sreem Shambala !
Sham Shambala –
SanMangala !!

1.
Sri Krishna Devuni
Mandra Gaanam
Sanathkumaruni
Sannidhaanam !
Maitreya Buddhula
Paramaa Raamam
– Shambala !!

2.
Maruvu Devaapi Jwaalakuludu
Parama guruvula –
Param dhaamam !
Paramaaanandam –
Paramaayushyam
Nissreyasham! Nirmalam!
– Shambala !!

3.
Kalkyavatharanam-
Janma Kshetram
Lokaa Lokam-
Moksha Kaarakam !
Divya Darsanam –
Navya Sparshanam..
Sanaathanam! Sushobhitham
– Shambala !!

Simple word meaning of the Song on Shamballa:

OM is the name of God or Para Brahma or the Almighty or the Father in Heaven.
Sreem is the seed letter of splendour.
Sham is the seed letter of peace.
SanMangala means ‘That which brings auspicious things’.

Mandra Gaanam is the Music of the Soul.
Sannidhaanam means ‘The Presence’.
Paramaaraamam is the Highest Abode.

Viraajitham means ‘That which shines.’
Supoojitham means ‘well worshipped.’
Parama Guruvulu means ‘The Masters of Wisdom.’
Paramdhaamam means ‘The Highest Abode’.
Paramaaanandam means ‘highest Bliss or Happiness’.
Paramaayushyam means ‘bestows higher longevity’.
Nissreyasham means ‘which bestows liberation’.
Nirmalam means ‘pristine and pure’.

Kalkyavatharanam means ‘The descent of the future Avatar as Kalki’.
Janma Kshetram means ‘place of birth’.
Lokaa Lokam means ’causes salvation in both visible and invisible lokaas’ (planes of existence).
Moksha Kaarakam means ‘The cause of liberation.
Divya Darsanam means ‘Divine Vision’.
Navya Sparsanam means’new divine touch’.
Sanaathanam means ‘Ancient Most’.
Sushobhitham means ‘well illuminated’.

Sattibabu wrote, “With the Grace of our beloved Master E. K… Dedicated to The World Teacher Brotherhood”. He submitted the ‘Song on Shamballa‘ to Master KPK, who answered:
“Dear Sattibabu, I just listened twice the song. I also noted Siva’s inspiration. May the effort be blessed. May you two be blessed.”

The wisdom teachings explain that number 432 forms a major key to understand greater time cycles:
The whole creation is an alternation of active and passive phases called the days and nights of Brahma. The days are again divided into sub-periods called Manvantaras which are further divided into cycles called Yugas. Each great Yuga is subdivided into four Yugas which are composed of units containing 432 solar earth years multiplied by tens, hundreds and thousands.

The apparent rotation of Jupiter around the earth zodiac is twelve solar years. Six sets of 72 years give the duration of time for Jupiter to go round the apparent zodiac 36 times and for the precession of the equinoxes by 3 degrees. This period is 432 years which forms the base number for the computation of the great cycles of Yugas and Mahayugas.
This is how Master EK (Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) explains one aspect of Number 432. It is a major key to divide time into various ages that mark different cycle and different energies.

In 2017, Chris Jordan, a photographer and artist, has created his “Mandala 432“, a beautiful artwork inspired by the stained glass rose windows in cathedrals. In the description of this artwork he writes (extract):

“One thing that my favorite rose windows do is work at the limits of our perception of color. At the edge of blue-violet/ultraviolet, our perception drops off, but right at that threshold there’s something interesting going on energetically, a kind of electric pulsing that is hard to describe but I think we all feel it.
To achieve that blue-violet effect, the designers of rose windows used lots of pure blue cobalt glass, with occasional small spots of red, and even less magenta. Yellow and green are also used sparingly within the blue, to create patches of blue-green that make the blue-violet areas feel even more rich. From a distance, these colors all combine to give the experience of that electric blue-violet space. The color space of computer monitors does not contain edge-of-perception violet/ultraviolet, but a fairly convincing illusion can be created using this mix of colors.”

In many of his teachings, Master KPK (K. Parvathi Kumar) explains the qualities of violet and working with its energy. Violet can be experienced in the interludes between the known and the unknown. It is the bridge into the subtle world. Read more about working with violet colour here.

See here my other blogposts about the work of Chris Jordan: “E Pluribus Unum” – From Many, One: A Sublime Mandala Work, Midway – A Love Story for Our Time from the Heart of the Pacific, Chris Jordan: A Slow-Motion Apycalypse in Progress.

Click on the picture (from the video, copyright Chris Jordan) to see the video Mandala 432 on his website. The music is King’s College Choir in Cambridge, UK.

Here is a sublime Sanskrit song which is part of the Madālasā Upadesha, or teachings of Madālasā. Madālasā Upadesha Stotra is the teaching of Saint Madalasa to her children. Upadesha means instruction. The stotra (hymn) is also known as Putra Upadesha Stotra or Putropadesha Stotra. The story of Madālasā is in Chapters 25-30 of the Mārkandeya Purāṇa. The Mārkaṇḍeya is one of the eighteen ‘great Purāṇas’ said to have been narrated by Rishi Mārkandeya.

The stotra is sung by Gabriella Burnel and the recording was commissioned by friends and students of the School of Practical Philosophy in Australia. Gabriella is a Sanskrit scholar and an accomplished musician and musical theatre performer; she is well-known as a composer and performer of poems and hymns drawn from the Sanskrit tradition (more info about her and the song on the website).

You find more background of the Madālasā Upadesha in German on the website of Yoga Vidya, also the text and another recording of the song together with MP3 download links on the page.

Here are more beautiful Sanskrit songs by Gabriella Burnel: Sanskrit Vedic Prayers, SANSKRIT SONG – The Wonder of Sanskrit, Sanskrit Song ‘Anandamayi’= MADE OF BLISS, Bhagavad Gita “I do nothing at all” – Gabriella and the Planets, Sanskrit Prayer to Dhanwantari, Relaxing Sanskrit Song: Tāra (ft Shiva Sutras), Life is a DANCE, Sanskrit Song for Ganesha, Shri Lakshmi Stotram – Happy Diwali, Sing Through Me- Song for Children inspired by Sanskrit Text, and many more.

Please also read the beautiful words of Gabriella about “Why I Studied Sanskrit”

Image (c) extract from the video.

A beautiful musical improvisation named “The Song of the Butterfly” (2014), inspired by Indian music, from a meeting of the Russian guitar player Estas Tonne and the Hungarian artist Istvan Sky Kék Égto in his Surya Sangíta Asram, together with two other artists. Enjoy!

“You are the infinite in your own way – the connection is within yourself…. Be the idea, be the deed… And no one of you is outside the heart of all that IS… Out of your soul be Light. For you are nothing else…” An amazing video visualising the cosmic connectedness and the etheric world.

Pic from the video (c)

The wisdom teachings describe dawn and dusk as very favourable times to practice meditation and to work with sound. There are Indian Ragas (melodies) specially composed to be played at dawn or dusk.
The French call the time of dusk “l’heure bleu”, the blue hour, since there is a particular quality of the light around sunset. In our latitudes this time is much longer than in the tropics, where darkness sets in quite fast.

Yesterday evening I was at a live performance by Mich Gerber on the River Aare, in our village. For three evenings he was giving free concerts on a little ferryboat of the Bodenacher-Fähre. He is playing electric double-bass, generating the background music with his own tunes repeated by a computer program.

When I arrived at the river around a quarter past 8 pm there were already many people sitting on both sides of the river. A few minutes later the ferryboat set out to the middle of the river and Mich started playing. The background was a tampura-sound, and he played a melody like an Indian raga.

The atmosphere was full of magic – the light of the setting sun in the background, the sound of the flowing water and the amplified vibrations of the strings of the double-bass. Other songs followed, reminding of Arabian tunes, classical songs from Europe or Jazz improvisations.

People around me took out their mobiles and started making videos. I, too, tried to do a little video with my camera, but it wasn’t good. However, the camera generated a magic picture of the “blue hour”:

While it was getting dark it started raining, adding to the mystical ambiance with the lampions on the boat and along the board of the river, made by simply putting candles into white paper bags.

People were moving to the sounds – a young father besides me was rocking his baby-son. Mich played for an hour, and I felt very happy that I had decided on a short notice to see this beautiful concert.

On his website he says about these concerts:

“Mich Gerber celebrates ‘L’heure bleue’, the blue hour. Concerts on magic locations during the blue hour, when the sky turns blue after sunset.

The blue hour comes from the French expression ‘l’heure bleue’, which refers to the period of twilight each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day.

The blue hour is the gift of the day to the night. Different cultures celebrate the blue hour in their own special way. For many of us, it’s the most beautiful hour of the day as it slowly draws its curtain and the evening begins.

It is the hour of transition when the indirect light of the evening colours the night sky. Nature’s wonderful play of light is displayed. Every evening anew.

This is the spectacle that Mich Gerber interprets during his series of L’heure bleue’ concerts. They have been taking place since a few years on special places on the water in summer time.”

Here are some videos of previous concerts on the River Aare  (YouTube-videos): A Waltz,  A silent tune, A tune with an English text, Music and Swiss German interviews, another song. And below there is a video uploaded in his name.

A little P.S.: This is the 1111th post in this blog.

Yesterday a friend and I went to Flüeli-Ranft for a concert of Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji from Mysore. For 3 days he stayed for a seminar in Flüeli, organised by the Dattayoga Centre Switzerland. I had seen the Swami last January in his Dattapeetam Ashram in Bangalore on the way to the Nilagiris and blogged about his feeding birds in Shuka Vana. And I had been in Flüeli-Ranft the last time in May 2012 for the May Call Day seminar of Sri Kumar.

We went to Flüeli in the early afternoon to have some time for a walk and evening meditation. It was a beautiful summer day and the way over the mountains was gorgeous. We found a beautiful spot overviewing the valley for our evening meditation.

View down to the valley from Flüeli Ranft

While walking around images of last year popped up – the time was now so different, and there was a profound peace in the air.

The Melchtal Frutt valley behind Flüeli

Two dwarf goats were observing us and we chatted a bit with them.

View of the village hall with the church and the hotel Pax Montana where we had stayed last year.

There were already many cars around – but we had good luck to find a last free parking space on our arrival. We had our evening pick-nick at the centre of the village and we could spot out the people belonging to this group – ladies in flowing dresses, saries or panjabis, men with a colourful cloth around the shoulder or otherwise easily  identifiable. It somehow felt familiar, though we didn’t know anybody of the people inside the hall. It was fascinating to observe. On the sides of the hall there were posters with photos of the social activities of the Swami in India – schools, hospitals and other benevolent activities. The concert was also a benefit activity, the receipts will go for financing social aid activities. At the entrance there were tables with many of the CDs and some books of the Swami – and you could also buy cuddly parrots, the proceedings were meant for Swami’s  new parrots park in Mysore – I had seen the birds park from the outside, visitors weren’t allowed.

Inside, the hall was beautifully decorated – a tree with paper flowers was hiding the climbing wall on the backside. And on the stage there was a golden disc with golden cloth draperies.  And before there was the synthesizer the Swami Ganapati.

It was announced that this concert, Nada Sagara – Ocean of Sound, was the first solo-concert the Swamiji gave in public. He has been touring the world over during the years, and in the entrance hall there was a poster announcing his next concert in the Royal Albert Hall in London in September. The speaker explained that the music has a healing effect and eliminates blockages in the nervous system as well as in the subtle energy system of the Nadis.

When he entered the hall the air was filled with rapt attention. As a welcome he received a garland of flowers, which he showed to the public and threw to the floor – after the concert another garland was presented to him. He shortly wore it, jokingly looked through it and put it away…

He started his concert with some explanations about his music and then started playing. Cosmic sounds were weaving a musical carpet in the air and it seemed that all were absorbed in the musical vibrations floating through space. And I, too, was carried away by it. A very special kind of music, changing in melodies and rhythms, played in a highly intuitive way.

He played uninterruptedly for about 1 hour, and the last 5 minutes his play was accompanied by rhythmic clapping of the audience. There was a magic spell in the audience. Some of the ladies got up, full of enthusiasm. Swami Ganapati received a gift which seemed to be a bird in a bowl, and a set of tuning forks. Then he disappeared through the stage-door.

When we came out the moon in its 12th ascending phase just looked over the mountain, and it appeared as if it was burning – maybe also filled with some cosmic ecstasy.

You can find a lot of Swami’s music on YouTube, here is a video of “Healing Music” from a music concert at Hyderabad.

An Argentinian friend sent me the link to the video clip for the peace mantra “Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu” recorded by Tina Turner, Regula Curti & Dechen Shak Dagsey on the album ‘Children Beyond’ – in Switzerland. See more on the Tina Turner blog.

The mantra means:
“May well-being, peace, wholeness and tranquility, hapiness and prosperity be achieved by all”. Sing it for peace of all sensitive beings, for calmness and harmony.

The Sanskrit text:

Om Om Om
Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu
Sarvesham Shantir Bhavatu
Sarvesham Poornam Bhavatu
Sarvesham Mangalam Bhavatu
Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

And there is another website of this project of inter-religious dialogue: Beyondsinging.com – a journey to the heart of spirituality. “BEYOND is a dialogue of religions, driven by a world-embracing language: music. Four women from different traditions united in their commitment for religious tolerance, invite you to accompany them on this journey.” See also the video linked there: “The Beyond Universe: Create your own mandala“.

Scene from the video – children singing the mantram

Cover of the CD: Children Beyond – With Children United in Prayer

I got the link to a song of Khwaja Mere Khwaja, a Dervishs’ Dance from the beautiful Indian movie Jodhaa Akbar, a scene of mystical rapture. I saw this great film at a seminar with Sri Kumar in India 2009 and later also at home. The film is an Indian epic historical drama film released in 2008. It centers around the romance between the Muslim Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great and the Hindu Rajput Princess Jodhabai who becomes his wife. The video of the song shows the scene where a group of Dervishs is performing a song to the Emperor, who at the end joins their dance and is carried away into a state of ecstasy.

Pictures from the video Jodhaa Akbar (c)

An upcoming documentary called “Landfill Harmonic” is presenting a remarkable musical orchestra in Cateura, Paraguay – a “Recycled Orchestra”, where the young musicians play instruments made from trash. The film of  The Creative Visions Foundation (CVF) shows how a humble garbage picker in the barrios of Paraguay uses his ingenuity to craft instruments out of recycled materials – – all made from recycled metal drums, tin cans, and plastic pipes. The film portrays some of the children who learned to play violin, flute, drums, cello, string bass, and how a youth orchestra is born:

“Landfill Harmonic shows how trash and recycled materials can be transformed into beautiful sounding musical instruments, but more importantly, it brings witness to the transformation of precious human beings.”

You can like the project on Facebook to spread this inspiring initiative; a longer version of the video trailer is available here.

Pictures credit (c) Landfill Harmonic