Category Archives: Music
Year Of The Dance
One of my favorite representations of the Divine is the Nataraj, god(dess) of dance. I can’t imagine a better theme for 2016. Travels take me East this first day of the New Year. Let the adventure begin!
Pausing a moment for one last look back at 2015, just to smile and say Thank You. It’s been a great year, impossible to predict, full of adventures and surprise around every corner. I am grateful for it ALL. I turn now to face the way ahead. The sky before me is clear, an empty canvas waiting for what will be. Best wishes to everyone for a magical Year 2016!
“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty. You want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it … Let this be the criterion always: Anything that makes you festive, anything that gives you celebration, anything that makes you dance and sing to such an extent that you disappear in your dancing, in your singing, in your celebration — is the only true religion I know of.” Osho
There have many postings of the USA tour photos already on Facebook and the Meetup sites, but these collections are some of my favorites. I realize while it’s hard to capture all the many wonderful highlights with such a narrow selection, scrolling through these galleries gives a good sense of the magic, however indescribable it may be.
The tour really does move in what Osho describes a vertical dimension, where timelines don’t procede predicatably horizontal, but from peak to peak. It really is true, and I’ve said it many times, every year I can’t imgaine how the next can possibly top the previous. But, I am always humbled. And also grateful. Because so much goes into making it possible: from all the planning and logistics that start twelve months before, to all the organizers who do this from the goodness of their heart and the simple joy of sharing; to the band, the amazing musicians I am fortunate to play with; to the flow of searching souls who find their way to the venues from all corners of the USA and World. Indeed, it is quite a galaxy of details that must mesh seemlessly. Quite a miracle, to say the least.
It amazes me each year that I am never able to see ahead how things are going to be and look. It is like staring at a blank canvas, or looking deep into a night sky with no stars. Then at some point, quite suddenly actually, things start rolling. And by the first chords of the first event, it is all happening as if a switch is remembered, flicked, and the carnival lights go on. And it just goes and goes and goes, building momentum like some giant wave of energy as we move from place to place. Then, in the blink of an eye things come full circle, it’s over, and I find myself again alone. Yet, something beautiful has moved inside me and I realize, smilingly, a fresh, new perspective has bloomed, shining from the inside out. Ahhh … what to say? Except …This!
New York
Chicago
Atlanta
Dallas
San Diego
Osho RISK Summer Festival 2015 Cabaret Skit featuring Milarepa as Core Dash eeKhan
“A little foolishness and a little wisdom is good, and the right combination makes you a Buddha.” Osho, Returning To The Source
I conceived this skit for the cabaret variety show that happened on the last evening of the Osho RISK Summer Festival 2015. It stars Nadiya, Nikhil, Sudas, and myself (Milarepa). Subhuti is giving the introduction. I play Core Dash eeKhan, a parody of the mega-famous Indian Bollywood star, Salman Khan, often seen in films wearing impossibly short, tight cut-off jeans and sporting a super-ripped physique. He is also a master of all manner of pelvic thrusting when he dances.
I was a little worried (to put it mildly) whether I would be able to manage some semblance of a sculpted physique for the show. I shamelessly admit that a week before the performance I did fifty sit-ups every morning. I am not sure I suceeded in converting my one-pac to a six-pac, but kudos for trying. Once the lights went up and the show was on, all these sorts of worries vanished in a flash and there was nothing else going on, either in my mind or unhinged hips, except the immense fun we were all having.
The storyline runs like this: In the first half of the skit, Nadiya is holding Core’s mirror in which he is constantly admiring himself. Enamored with his own image, he can hardly be bothered with the two women constantly buzzing around him vying for attention. The women don’t give up easily. In fact, the more they are ignored, the more determined they are to make him take notice. However, Core being Core, refuses to let himself be distracted. He is always going back to the mirror from which he can continue admiring his image. At some point, Nadiya becomes bored and fed up. Ditching the mirror, she decides to join the other girls, and at one point says to Core with a wink: “Hai, kem cho. Majama cho?” which translates from Gujarati to English as: “Hey, how are you? Are you happy?” At this point, the two other “women” take off their costumes, revealing themselves to be none other than Nikhil and Sudas, two male Osho RISK residents. The dancing shifts into high-gear as all four break into full-on “bhangra masala”, a take on the traditional Punjabi folk-dancing style.
It was really fun doing this. Everyone enjoyed a lot. It was something creatively different for me to be involved in other than the music which I am usually doing for the festival. I would like to say thank you to Nadiya, Nikhil, and Sudas for being good sports, and courageous enough, to support me in this little bit of intentional madness. Hahaha … life is a play indeed. Enjoy! Click here https://www.youtube.com/
When I close my eyes and think about the festival I see a rainbow: a kaleidoscope of color, feeling, and emotion — a Great Affair of the heart as Osho might say. And beyond, the vastness, the sea, the sky, the silence. The festival felt like a natural progression from the previous Family Constellation Training, a flow of energy that transitioned effortlessly into meditation, lightness of being, openness, and celebration. What a gift. Transformation was still present in the eyes of those from the group who stayed on. Dynamic Meditation with Riktam, Tai-Chi with Zarathustra, and Morning Satsang with the musicians set the tone each morning for the day’s adventures which included: Bhangra Masala Dancing and Theater Improvisation with Bodhi Svaaha; Born Again with Haridasi; Mystic Rose with Alexandra; Past-Life and Family Constellation with Darshan; a singing workshop with Vatayan; Shamanism with Carlos; Heart Dance, Sannyas Celebration, and many more wonderful highlights. Highlights such as this: one afternoon before Kundalini Meditation, the event overflowed yet again when a big box of just-baked custard tarts arrived (the famous ones from Belem!) from one of the event’s sponsors. This was enjoyed, of course, with port wine. Mmm … Portugal. Simply the best. And the band, wow! Thank you guys: Vatayan (keyboards), Bhavesh (drums), and Carlos (guitar). The music was divinely off-the-charts. Special thanks to Darshan and her incredible Heart-Team. Obrigado a todos e vê-lo novamente em breve.
It has been now three weeks since the Family Constellation Training in Lisbon. The Osho Heart Festival followed on three days afterward, so it has been a busy time without much opportunity to share impressions. I can say that since the training, every day brings new insights and understandings of myself. Some of these insights are not without pain. It is as if the expansion of my soul is stretching the limits of what I ever imagined possible. Call them “growing pains”.
The group was not especially conducive to photography. The few photos compiled can never adequately show the transformations of those seven days, how lives were touched and changed, the renewal and sense of freedom, the power of love, the coming home to oneself; nor the many miracles that shower from seeing “what is”. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone in the group for the courage you showed, for your sincerity and honesty — all of which inspired and helped me take the steps I needed for myself and my own life-direction. And thank you Darshan: for your love, for your great passion for the work, and for holding the space for us all to explore, go deeper, and fly higher. What an adventure.
Too many words do no justice to affairs of the heart. But one more word here is necessary here: Osho.
The Osho RISK Summer Festival, always a highlight of the Europe summer tour, was indeed again a gathering of fellow travelers from around the world — an energetic, kaleidoscope of color and transformation. At the end of the first day, the musicians and I marveled, “Wow, and this was only Day One!”, so full and overflowing was the feeling. The new building, Kabir, with its beautiful, upstairs group room allowed for two events to happen simultaneously giving participants a choice. These were not always easy choices as every single event was so juicy, fun, and interesting. Of the many highlights, all too numerous to mention here, were Tarisha’s “Singing Medicine” workshop; Rishi’s off-the-charts “Trance Dance”; the popular “Jazz Cafe” evening hosted by Harisharan; Subhuti’s play “Journey To Kailash”; the “Cabaret” which this year included a crazy skit by me playing a self-absorbed Bollywood flimstar/dancer that ended in some spirited Bhangra (Punjabi Folk Dancing) led by Nikhil. Then there was the canoe trip and … so much more. The kitchen was firing on all cylinders, the cooks keeping our bodies nourished and strong. Anjee, Ashika, and Subhuti, this year’s organizers, plus their attentive, caring staff did a great job.There were many behind-the-scenes people helping and supporting in so many ways — cleaners, office staff, meditation and event facilitators, and more — all seeing to it that the festival ran smoothly, the facilities looked pristine, and that everyone who came departed with a full heart and positive experience. Finally, to my most-awesome and beloved band — Chandira, Harisharan, Nadiya, Palash, Rishi, and Tarisha, I bow and say Thank You!
When I was young, I would sometimes visit the mountains with my father and brothers. It was always a wondrous time. He would often recite poetry in the car while driving us. He was very fond of Wordsworth, Walt Whitman, Tennyson, and Byron. The words and cadences were difficult for my young mind to grasp, nonetheless always touching some sweet soul-spot deep inside me. I remember this feeling as if it were yesterday. And then the Nature. Ahh, the Nature: so majestic, humbling, shimmering. The Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia have this effect: a timeless quality that goes on giving, nourishing, and refreshing.
On our hikes, one of my favorite things was finding the freshwater springs. I was fascinated by the way water mysteriously flowed out from the earth. In autumn time especially, the springs would often be hidden by fallen leaves. I would enjoy to use my hands to clear away the leaves. This of course made the water cloudy but oh, the joy of watching how after few minutes the dirt would settle and the water would become clear — all so very magical to a young lad like me from the city.
One never knows coming into an event such as last weekend’s “Presence of the Master” meditation retreat in Upstate New York which direction things will take. We all arrive late Friday afternoon, everyone coming from all our many different lives and realities. Yet inevitably, the meditations start, and magically the dusty, dry leaves from one’s inner springs clear away, uncovering fresh waters within… which become clear and flowing again, merging with those around us, each of our individual streams meeting, joining, first with one, then another…the flow picking up momentum as the days progress, and suddenly we are one big river moving us all towards what can only be described as an “ocean of being”. It is then that the unexpected begins to happen, that which can’t really seen or predicted before the event starts. Hearts open, silence is touched, roots seek out deeper sources of ecstasy while spirits fly skyward. Yes, I know it sounds poetic. Yet, without a doubt, it is something very tangible, real and precious; something that gives one courage, clarity, and strength to move back into the strong current of Life, embracing its many challenges with a fresh, new perspective.
Arpana, Priya, Viramo: namaste for organizing and making the practicals manifest and flow. Gail: namaste to you and your helpers for the nourishing and delicious food. Musicians Sharabo and Urjo: namaste and thank you for the inspiring music that touched us all. And to everyone, and everything, else: namaste for a really great event. Its ripples will surely resonate on … and on and on.
As this post’s title suggests, the New Family Constellations workshop in New York City last Saturday was a day of transformation. Some things are hard to describe, and in context of what transpired in this group, phrases like this seem small and even inadequate. How to describe things like genuine tears of awakening? Or positive openings and life-changing insights? So it was with this event: an energetic, healing process illustrating the powerful, shamanic nature of this amazing work, a process that paves the way to freedom, moving lives forward, unbound by self-imposed limitations especially with regard to family issues and situations.
Darshan, I want to thank you personally for bringing your magic and insight to America. It is a real gift having you here and visiting us. And thank you, Svaaha, for organizing all the many practical things that made the workshop a smooth sail.
Every block of Manhattan is a universe unto itself. After the event, we celebrated New York City in style, thoroughly enjoying, exploring, and sharing some big city adventure. One such adventure was the opportunity to hear the virtuoso drummer, Omar Hakim, playing with his band in the small, iconic nightclub, The Iridium. Those of you who have seen and heard Sting’s “Dream of the Blue Turtles”: Omar Hakim was the drummer. His solo at the end of the song, “I Burn For You” is the stuff of legends. Wow, what a super show!
Looking ahead, there will be a seven-day New Family Constellation Training in Lisbon, August 2-8, followed by the OSHO Heart Festival, August 13-16. Portugal remains Europe’s hidden gem. So if you haven’t discovered it yet, this is an ideal chance: to enjoy a transformative holiday exploring (and celebrating!) one’s inner world and the magic of Portugal. What could be better?
