The Art of Living
I wanted to start my new year blogging with this interesting little story. It's about one of Prachi's friends 'D', who like many other ordinary girls of her age, completed her B.A in Psychology and went to UK to complete her M.Sc in the same subject. She came back to Mumbai on completion of her course and took up a job, working under some famous Psychologist. But all along, she carried with her a hobby that would provide her with a perfect recluse at end of a hard day and kept her busy through her boring weekends - Singing.
As years passed, she discovered that she actually had an inherent talent for singing and wanted to take her hobby to the next level. So, she joined WAYE (World Alliance for Youth Enpowerment), a NGO that was founded by IITians in association with the Art of Living foundation and YES+ (Youth Empowerment and Skills) organization, to do exactly what the name stands for - Empower the Youth. Here, D volunteered to sing satsangs and bhajans at the various functions that was organized by her team.
Then one day, the guys from WAYE decided to do something different. They wanted to promote the musical talent that existed within their ranks and also appeal to the larger youth of the country and came up with an innovative concept - a concert organized by the volunteers themselves which involved songs, not of the bhajan type, but instead of the filmi type. Thus, the "Bhakti Concert" came into existence. An event, that according to the founders promotes three important elements necessary to live a happy life - Gyaan (Knowledge), Gaan (Music) and Dhyaan (Relaxation).
Now, D was heavily involved in all this and was enjoying her time, hanging out with a group of people who loved their music and dedicated all their time to see others happy. But, her job as a consulting psychologist was becoming more and more tedious and required her to put in odd hours of work which not only affected her overall lifestyle, but also her singing traits. So, one day, she finally decided to quit her only source of income and follow her heart instead. She joined her friends to form a band by the name 'Reverb' and also became a full time volunteer with the WAYE program as one of the many singers of the Bhakti Concert.
Hence, as the Bhakti Concert came to Bangalore, we were given a heartious invitation to come and attend. We were told that this concert is open to all and to be honest, I simply wanted to go there to hear D sing. We decided to take a few friends along with us and at around 5 pm or so, on a fine Sunday evening, the four of us with our happy jobs and decent salaries rode into the 'Art of Living Foundation' ashram on Kanakpura Road and met up with D, who, apart from the usual talk, admitted to being 'jobless' and 'broke' but sported a smile that no amount of money could buy. A smile that you would only see on the face of a person, who is really content and happy with what she was currently doing. She guided us to the amphitheater and told us to make ourselves comfortable as she got busy on the stage.
The concert was supposed to begin at 5, but was delayed for over an hour. This delay gave us the perfect opportunity to help ourselves to a small portion of masala rice and a sweet khichdi, which was being served as a prasad. Finally, at around 6:30 pm the program started and soon I discovered what the concept was all about.
Here was a concert that was composed off some 30 odd melodious songs taken from Hindi, English and even Tamil films where the musicians and singers were doing their bit, not because they were paid to do it or were asked to do it, but simply because that choose to. More importantly, the whole concert was witnessed to by over a hundred people in the audience, who swayed to the music and occasionally got up to dance to the bhangda or even did a little bout of bharatnatyam, without a single worry about who is seeing them or judging them. All in all, the whole atmosphere was ecstatic and it felt great to be surrounded by a crowd of people who were there for only one reason - to follow their heart and Enjoy!!
Now, I am not sure of what Sri Sri teaches or preaches. I am even not sure of how different people interpret this whole concept. But, what I witnessed yesterday evening, for me, was truly the 'Art of Living'
As years passed, she discovered that she actually had an inherent talent for singing and wanted to take her hobby to the next level. So, she joined WAYE (World Alliance for Youth Enpowerment), a NGO that was founded by IITians in association with the Art of Living foundation and YES+ (Youth Empowerment and Skills) organization, to do exactly what the name stands for - Empower the Youth. Here, D volunteered to sing satsangs and bhajans at the various functions that was organized by her team.
Then one day, the guys from WAYE decided to do something different. They wanted to promote the musical talent that existed within their ranks and also appeal to the larger youth of the country and came up with an innovative concept - a concert organized by the volunteers themselves which involved songs, not of the bhajan type, but instead of the filmi type. Thus, the "Bhakti Concert" came into existence. An event, that according to the founders promotes three important elements necessary to live a happy life - Gyaan (Knowledge), Gaan (Music) and Dhyaan (Relaxation).
Now, D was heavily involved in all this and was enjoying her time, hanging out with a group of people who loved their music and dedicated all their time to see others happy. But, her job as a consulting psychologist was becoming more and more tedious and required her to put in odd hours of work which not only affected her overall lifestyle, but also her singing traits. So, one day, she finally decided to quit her only source of income and follow her heart instead. She joined her friends to form a band by the name 'Reverb' and also became a full time volunteer with the WAYE program as one of the many singers of the Bhakti Concert.
Hence, as the Bhakti Concert came to Bangalore, we were given a heartious invitation to come and attend. We were told that this concert is open to all and to be honest, I simply wanted to go there to hear D sing. We decided to take a few friends along with us and at around 5 pm or so, on a fine Sunday evening, the four of us with our happy jobs and decent salaries rode into the 'Art of Living Foundation' ashram on Kanakpura Road and met up with D, who, apart from the usual talk, admitted to being 'jobless' and 'broke' but sported a smile that no amount of money could buy. A smile that you would only see on the face of a person, who is really content and happy with what she was currently doing. She guided us to the amphitheater and told us to make ourselves comfortable as she got busy on the stage.
The concert was supposed to begin at 5, but was delayed for over an hour. This delay gave us the perfect opportunity to help ourselves to a small portion of masala rice and a sweet khichdi, which was being served as a prasad. Finally, at around 6:30 pm the program started and soon I discovered what the concept was all about.
Here was a concert that was composed off some 30 odd melodious songs taken from Hindi, English and even Tamil films where the musicians and singers were doing their bit, not because they were paid to do it or were asked to do it, but simply because that choose to. More importantly, the whole concert was witnessed to by over a hundred people in the audience, who swayed to the music and occasionally got up to dance to the bhangda or even did a little bout of bharatnatyam, without a single worry about who is seeing them or judging them. All in all, the whole atmosphere was ecstatic and it felt great to be surrounded by a crowd of people who were there for only one reason - to follow their heart and Enjoy!!
Now, I am not sure of what Sri Sri teaches or preaches. I am even not sure of how different people interpret this whole concept. But, what I witnessed yesterday evening, for me, was truly the 'Art of Living'
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