WAH! Kirtan Concert Fundraiser for Amma’s Charities

January 12, 2008

Along the clear and cool Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, well-known kirtan performer Wah! performed what has become an annual fundraising concert in Los Angeles.  The L.A. Satsang supported and organized this concert in order to raise money for Amma’s local and worldwide charities.

When asked why she felt inspired to perform this yearly seva, Wah! said, “My idea is to begin the year in service.  So instead of making a new year’s resolution for how I want to improve myself, my new year’s resolution is to try to serve on the first day possible…to go out and help somebody else or to…reach out to help other people instead of trying to help myself.  I feel like Amma does that.  So, that’s why we do it in the beginning of the year.”

The concert opened with the joyful sounds and harmonies of Bhakti Ma, a kirtan group of local Amma devotees.  It continued on with Wah!’s  soulful and rich grooves, supported by a band of electric bass, harmonium, soprano sax, drums, percussion, and other effects.  Many attendees felt compelled to dance freely, at first at the back of the hall, and eventually circumnabulating the entire auditorium!

Wah!, who met Amma 14 years ago, appeared calm and centered as she rocked the house with her music. However, she also made it a point to talk about why kirtan is beneficial for those who are listening and participating (not just to those performing), and also how to know when one has done enough chanting. "If you get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and you listen and when you wake up you should hear the chanting. If you don't hear the chanting when you wake up, that means you haven't chanted enough or you haven't chanted loud enough. If you've chanted silently then sometimes it doesn't reverberate in your bones and your cells. So the idea is to actually chant and make the vibration loud enough in your body that when you get up in the middle of the night or when you get up in the morning you can still hear the chants. That's the idea to activate the frequencies so that it goes by itself: it's called ajapa or "unstruck".music. So you want to hear the angelic realm all the time and you want to feel the angelic presence all the time. So, if you do, then you're all set. And if you don't then it just means that you need to activate it.through chanting or service or through breathing, through yoga or something that will connect you into those frequencies and.initiate the frequencies so that they are alive in you. So it's putting an altar up in your bedroom, it's placing a flower up on the dashboard of your car, it's creating windows and openings in your life, just like you do when you do yoga. You take a certain posture, you do a certain thing, in order to allow the energy to come into that area of your body. We do that in our lives as well."

Cont.

If anyone attending the concert needed a break, there were several options for them to choose from.  They could order a delicious, homemade vegetarian dinner.  They could order chai and Southern Indian snacks (one of our members was even grilling golden masala dosas to order).  They could also go shopping, either at our local Amma’s Bookstore, or at our satsang’s eclectic Boutique, including spiritual items, clothing, jewelry, and more.  Taking Amma’s beautiful example of selfless service, many Satsang members were inspired to work from the 3:30 pm set-up until the midnight clean-up. 

When asked about her own inspiration for service, Wah! also cited Amma’s service to all beings in the Universe.  “Well, I feel that there are different levels of souls and I don’t mean that to be prejudicial. I just feel that some of us are more skilled than others and carry more frequency or sometimes I say they carry more voltage.  So you know, young souls are able to build houses and have kids and have a simple life and then there are those that are more evolved.  And those that do yoga and the various practices.  And then there are people like Amma and the Dali Lama that are kind of showing the way- like how can you have an incarnation as a very evolved being ….You know Amma started out like us and has- through the practices, you know, not just through Her character, which is also pretty very (evolved), and you know, She also has such great concentration, but She has also changed the essence of Her soul.  You may not agree with this, you may feel that She came as an avatar, but the way that I experience Her is that She has greatly improved even Her own spiritual (path) through these practices and…help…hundreds of thousands through her practice and through Her concentration.  I feel like She is like a big sister in showing the way that somebody could (follow), if they chose to. They really could spend the majority of their time in service to others…Not necessarily in service to others but in service of the angelic frequencies…In serving the angelic frequencies in yourself or someone else or whatever, it generates the same energy. Time Magazine interviewed Mother Theresa, I think it was her last interview before she passed and they said, ‘What do you think? I mean it’s just amazing that you’ve served the poor all these years.’  And she said, ‘I don’t serve the poor.’  And they said, ‘Well, then, who are you serving?’  She said, ‘Well, I’m serving Jesus.’  So, it wasn’t actually that she was serving others, but she was serving the angelic frequency in them…which, again, you can get through chanting or you can get through feeding or serving or helping someone who is in a disaster. So that’s the inspiration that I get from Her. And that’s why I start the year this way.”

It was a blessing for all of us in the Los Angeles Satsang to start the year with service and with the chanting of God’s Name!  We are very blessed indeed.

"IN GOD'S NAME, a CBS primetime special produced in association with the acclaimed French filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet, will explore the complex questions of our time through the intimate thoughts and beliefs of 12 of the world's most influential spiritual leaders. These diverse and powerful voices offer provocative, compelling and enlightening perspective on myriad issues in our post-9/11 world, including the rise of terrorism, fanaticism, intolerance and war. The two-hour special will be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007 (9:00-11:00 PM,ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

"The 12 leaders featured in this special, in alphabetical order, are: Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church,  Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi), a Hindu spiritual leader, Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church,  The Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists,  Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, a prominent Shi'ite Muslim leader,  Bishop Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and President of the Lutheran World Federation, Michihisa Kitashirakawa, Jingu Daiguji (High Priest) of the Shinto Grand Shrine of Ise,   Yona Metzger, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Dr. Frank Page, President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, Sheikh of Al-Azhar and a prominent Sunni Muslim leader o Joginder Singh Vedanti, Jathedar of the Akal Takht, the Sikhs' highest authority, Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of England"

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/div.php/cbs_network/release?id=17308
This CBS release comes with photos and captions of each of the 12 leaders: http://www.cbspressexpress.com/div.php/cbs_entertainment/original/photos?id=2424&dpid=59
Naudets, CBS go on pilgrimage, Docu features 12 leaders of faiths Hollywood Reporter http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3if4dd78b5e8cb03903b346dfbfd83a76e

We've been told that it was also in USA Today on December 14th, but we haven't seen the article. If anyone has that article and can scan it and the front page header and email it to THE INDIAN ASHRAM, please do.