Music of Joy
Music of Joy concert, Ho Chi Minh City
I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City one week after the very successful tour by the Sahaja Yoga Music of Joy music group from Australia (Click here for a video clip of the Music of Joy). This visit was part of the Realise Asia Tour that was conducted throughout the Asian region, visiting Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma) and China, as well as Vietnam, in July 2010.
About 1000 people had registered beforehand for the Ho Chi Minh program, scheduled for 3 July. As the hall was not large enough to accommodate such a large number, a second concert was organised for the following day. Five hundred people attended the first concert, and a further two hundred came back the next day for the second concert.
A joyful experience for the audience
After Music of Joy performed, a Self-realisation session was provided. The joy on the faces of the people attending was wonderful to behold. This joy soon expressed itself in spontaneous dancing.
Since then, follow-up programs have been held for those wishing to find out more about Sahaja Yoga and its benefits, and learn how to meditate. It was one of these follow-up programs that I was privileged to attend.
Ben Tanh Markets, Ho Chi Minh City
The session I attended was run by Katie from Malaysia, who spoke to the group in English. Her words were translated into Vietnamese by Tuyet and Giang. The subject for the day was Kundalini, the primordial energy within all of us, residing in the sacrum bone. Kundalini can be awakened by the presence of someone who already has his or her Kundalini awakened. If a person has the desire for it to happen, the Kundalini will awaken, rise through the spinal cord and come out of the top of the head, at the fontanelle bone area. When this happens, the person becomes connected with the All-pervading Power. This process is called Self-realisation.
Shri Mataji
After the session on Kundalini, which was preceded by a guided meditation, we watched a short video of a talk by Shri Mataji, the founder of Sahaja Yoga. After that, we had another beautiful, deep meditation. At the end, there were lots of questions from the participants, with people wanting to find out more about Kundalini, Self-realisation and Sahaja Yoga.
Ho Chi Minh City at night
It was a wonderful experience and a great honour for me to take part in this follow-up program. The Vietnamese are very sweet and loving people, and it was a great pleasure for me to share this experience with my Vietnamese brothers and sisters.
Opera House, Ho Chi Minh City
I was also fortunate enough to be in Ho Chi Minh City at the time of Guru Puja. Guru Puja is celebrated around the world, and is a time when we pay homage to our gurus. In Sahaja yoga, our Guru is Shri Mataji. Happily, through Sahaja Yoga we also attain the ability to become our own gurus. During the Puja, we watched a video talk by Shri Mataji where She discussed the qualities of a guru, how we can tell who is a real guru, and the qualities we need to develop within ourselves so that we can become our own gurus. These qualities include patience, wisdom and discretion.
Vietnam is a very beautiful country, and I really enjoyed my visit there. Ho Chi Minh City has many wonderful parks, gardens and street plantings, gracious old buildings, built by the French, and modern skyscrapers. It is a vibrant, beautiful city.
Vung Tau, Vietnam
I also visited Vung Tau, a lovely beachside resort city, about one and a half hours away from Ho Chi Minh City by fast, modern ferry. An International Food Festival, which attracted huge crowds, was held while I was there.
While I greatly enjoyed my visit to Vietnam and look forward to visiting again in the future, the high point of my trip was the opportunity to meet and spend time with the Vietnamese Sahaja yogis.
Editor
The Winter Magic Festival of Katoomba is on 21-22 June 2008. Sahaja Yoga will have a stall at the Festival and will have a spot in the parade. There will also be performances by “Music of Joy”, the Sahaja Yoga music group.
A large contingent of Sahaja yogis, including many yuvas (young people), returned to Woolgoolga (6 hours drive north of Sydney) in buses for the annual Curry Festival. The weather forecasts had predicted heavy rain, and even storms, for the day of the event, but we all gave bandhans and Shri Mataji created a little bubble of sunshine over the seaside town in the wet weather that seemed to cover most of the coast of New South Wales. (It’s interesting to note that since Shri Mataji visited Australia last year, and it was brought to Her Divine Attention that there was a serious drought problem in the country, it has since rained an incredible amount.) It was really a perfect day, just a tiny brief sprinkle of rain, which felt like a spray of holy water, as a local Aboriginal elder opened the event.
Two of the yuva boys started things off with a rousing drum performance and later in the day the crowd was entertained by Freya and Neesha’s classical Indian dance, Music of Joy and Jhoom Kawali. The local Bangra dancers were also marvellous. In addition to the weather miracle, at the last minute the organisers of the Festival moved the Realisation tent from a very peripheral position to a location where the crowd congregated. They also gave us a tent much larger than planned.
As at other events, the yoginis offered face painting for children, and mehndi hand decoration, which attracted people to the tent. I noticed one lady looking very intently at the yogis giving realisation, and I asked her if she would like to try it. At first she made an excuse that she had to go and get lunch. Then I felt a blast of the Cool Breeze and the lady suddenly changed her mind, coming in for her Realisation and having a very powerful experience.
Last year, members of the local Sikh population, which makes up a large proportion of the population, were reluctant to try, but this time a few Sikh ladies came in and got their realisation.
Graham Brown
(Photograph: curryfest.com.au)
The Ryde Harmony Day Festival will be held at Ryde in Sydney on Sunday 30 March from 11.30 am – 4.30pm.
Address: Ryde Park, Argyle Road, Ryde.
Sahaja Yoga will have a large tent at the festival. Among the attractions offered will be meditation sessions, face painting, colouring and Mendhi (Indian hand painting).
The Sahaja Yoga group, “Music of Joy” will present inspiring and dynamic world music between 3.00 and 3.30pm. There will also be a performance of Indian dancing by two talented young Sahaja yogis at 11.40 am.