Concert integrates music with love
Thursday, October 6, 2011 12:00 am
Concert integrates music with love By Raymond Wang / Contributing Writer
DailyTargum.com
Dana Gillespie, an English singer with more than 60 albums recorded under
her name, will be spreading the love on campus Oct. 9 at her concert in the
Nicholas Music Center on the Cook/Douglass campus.
The “Love the Love” concert is a tribute to Sathya Sai Baba, a spiritual
leader in India whose followers included Gillespie herself. Sai Baba passed
away six months ago on April 24, said Sunil Lekhi, one of the organizers for
the concert.
“The intent [of the concert] is to spread love. Love is the beginning,
the crux and the end of it,” he said.
Gillespie is still unsure of what she is going to sing at the moment
because it will depend on how she feels during the performance and on what the
audience wants, Lekhi said.
“She’s letting the spirit move her,” he said.
Dr. Samuel Sandweiss, Sai Baba’s psychiatrist, said Gillespie performed
an extraordinary concert at the University of California, Irvine.
“[Gillespie] sang with 17 world-class musicians, and everyone just had
rhythm and drive that you couldn’t imagine,” said Sandweiss, a producer and
organizer of the concert in California. “The sounds [were] just phenomenal.”
Gillespie sings a combination of Eastern, Western and New Age music, with
sounds from East India and Asia, Sandweiss said.
He calls Gillespie’s music and style of singing especially inspirational
because he believes it speaks to people across the globe.
“It’s something you really want to hear — it’s full of a lot of life and
brilliance,” Sandweiss said. “Because it’s an amalgam, people will feel
comfortable with the live rhythm. It really brings people from all walks of
life together because music speaks to everyone universally.”
Lekhi describes Gillespie’s music as sincere and would not be considered
mainstream, but unique.
“The main thing is that you feel something in your heart,” he said.
“While doing that, you’re actually being who you are. It’s natural and
relaxing, and [it] brings yourself closer to your true self.”
The concert is in large part an effort of the Sathya Sai Baba Society, an
organization of the spiritual guru’s students, Lekhi said.
The purpose of the organization is just to promote values, said Lekhi,
who is also a student of Sai Baba’s teachings. Truth, righteousness, peace,
love and non-violence are the basis for individual and world peace.
“We just try to carry Sai Baba’s message by spreading
love. The inspiration is there, and we try to carry it out with our
lives,” said Robert Bozzani, a member of the Sathya Sai Baba Society.
Bozzani said a key aspect of the spiritual leader’s message is to stress
less and live in harmony.
“As we begin to love, everything gets better,” he said. “If
you want the world to change, change yourself.”
As an expression of his spiritual teachings, Sai Baba has taken on
several public projects, including the creation of a free education system,
free medical care and a program that brings clean drinking water to people in
need daily, Lekhi said.
Sai Baba’s school, which runs from kindergarten to the Ph.D level, is
based on character development and leadership and is one of the top colleges in
India, he said. Meanwhile, his hospitals provide complicated heart and kidney
surgeries for free.
“If you look at the definition of love, it is really to give without
expectation. Giving unconditionally — that’s the kind of love we all have in
our hearts. The question is, how do we express and expand that love and share
it with others?” Lekhi said.
For some, the answer is music.
“Music has a very special place,” Sandweiss said. “It’s the language of
angels, it touches the heart really quickly. When it gets in there, you start
to feel inspiration and love and hope that things will get better.”
He said students who attend Gillespie’s concert could leave with a
newfound sense of peace.
“You must leave [the concert] with a smile. You’ll feel it, it’ll make
you happy,” Sandweiss said. “When you feel unity and it makes you smile, that’s
worth a million bucks.”
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56th Anniversary of the SSS General Hospital Puttaparthi
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Prasanthi Nilayam.... the Abode of Peace. That heart leaps at
the very mention of the Name. How we long to be there! We greet with joy those
who are just returning from there, hoping that some of the lustre and grace of
the Sai drenched devotees may rub off on us.
To me, Prasanthi Nilayam means, simply, Home. It is my
Mother's Place. When Mother calls, i go to Her. She knows what is needed. She
gives it, namely Her Ananda in plenty. One returns from Mother rested and
restored, and refreshed in body and spirit always. Many of the trees in the
Nilayam can be recognised in mediaeval paintings, depicting scenes from Lord
Krishna's career on earth. Near the Mandir, on the west side is a beautiful
tall tree, which blooms around early Dasara and waft the lovely fragrance into
Mother's Room. This tree can be noticed in many of the Rajasthan miniatures
painted by mediaeval artiste devotees as well as the Deccani and Early Mughal
painters. The neem, the coco nut, the tamarind, the banana, the rose, the
jasmine and mogra bushes all offer their beauty and their scent for us to
admire and offer gratitude to the Mother.
Mother's Darshan in the morning! A flash of red, the graceful
Form arrives, closer and finally, a deep look and a compassionate smile, —can
any mother on earth, cause such an ecstatic flutter in all hearts? Mother is
loving, yet, detached—every movement, gesture, flash, smile has a meaning and a
lesson. Only Mother knows the agony of each of us each step, especially to
those of us who have already taken the wrong ones. If Mother smiles, all is
well; the heart is light and filled with joy.
But, let her turn away or look over us into the beyond, then,
gloom descends. "What have I done, now?"...a great deal of interpretation and
interrogation, in the quiet of the room. And, soon, the answer comes. A prayer
for forgiveness, a promise not to repeat the mistake, and a renewed dedication,
to please the Mother and the Mother only—regardless of what others may say or
think. Please her, with each little thought, word and deed—and, Peace reigns
again.
Mother smiles, at the afternoon Darshan. Ah! I was right!
Even the slightest deviation from the path towards the ideal is noted by Sai
Mata, for, She is Omnipresent. She is everywhere, in us, with us, beside us and
behind us. A poem written in the room to Her, reaches Her as soon as line is
formed in the mind. A wish, a thought, all is known and if only you trust in
Her, she keeps the lines straight and true. She is the world's greatest teacher
of the art of Positive Thinking. As soon as you grasp the Universal Laws of
Love, Service and Compassion, as taught by Her, Mother takes you closer. She is
helpful; you make less mistakes. Sai is pure Bliss. Mother, i love Thee.
Since at Mother's house, I am care free of kitchen chores.
Mother has a lovely Dining Hall, with many varieties of delicious and
nutritious dishes, very lovingly prepared by devoted hands. Out of sheer
happiness, I had all four meals on the first day—breakfast, lunch, tea and
dinner. But, it was really too much. I restrained myself to one meal a day,
with some banana and curds, now and then. Mother spoils us thoroughly with Her
Love. She knows that we must relish the stay with Her, away from kitchen
chores. She is such a practical Avatar.
The Gokulam Milk is the world's most blessed milk. It is
rich, sweet and sustaining. Behind the Hill Is a Tree, behind the Meditation
Tree, and this is the place I go to, in the early dawn. Just before sunrise,
the hills are purple and the dark green forests and fields oblige us to give a
glimpse—a silvery glimpse—of the river, Chitravati. The golden sky is streaked
with pink and orange. Oh! How Mother would enjoy a morning walk in the cool
crisp air listening to the tinkling of the cow bells, as She used to do for
years in the past and as Krishna in Brindavan! I am wrong in believing that
this is not being done now. She must be with me now, as I watch these skies and
fields, for, how can I visualise the beauty if She did not reveal it to me? She
has taken upon Herself the heavy burden of saving Mankind. Multitudes are
following Her whenever She goes or stays. Mother is busy with prayers from all
around the globe; She has to watch every child of Hers while it sleeps. The
child may forget the world, but, the Mother cannot forget the child.
The day of departure arrives. The tears well up, the hand
quivers, as Sai Mata comes for a last look and smile. Ma! Ma! I am going,
today.... "Accha!".... She is off. In a trice, teaching us the higher Truth,
the Reality, that She is in every atom of the Universe, and that we cannot go
to any place where She is NOT.
Prasanthi Nilayam...leaving Mother is so hard. The last
glimpse of Mother, among Her, children.... and the last cry..."Mother! Call me
again soon!"
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Aum Sri Sai Ram
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