Jai Shri Mataji !
Dear Yogis,
The first week of the North East Asian Tour has ended, and now the Tour moves from Taiwan to Japan.
Please find attached a report from Michael Staniforth the Coordinator for Taiwan, and his report of the second half of the “Jago” Taiwan Tour.
Congratulation to the Yogis of Taiwan for all their hard work in organising the Tour, and to the Romanian Bhajan Group for travelling and supporting this Sahaja work in North East Asia. The Romanian musicians came to Taiwan as visiting Yogis, but have departed as family
Sincerely
Shri Ganesha Puja Hosting Countries
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Dear all, Fantastic news from Korea.
The Romanian troupe will surely be blessed for helping to open up Korea to Mother’s love.
Today, they departed Taiwan for Japan and the loving care of Hitoshi and the Japanese collective. It has been an immense pleasure for all the Taiwanese to host them for the Bhandan around Taiwan (Jago) tour and it was quite a tearful farewell at the airport.
Sorry to see them go after so much joy in Taiwan, yet excited for Japan and Korea. We all pray that their experience there will be as blissful as it has been in Taiwan.
I am now trying to catch up with updates from the Taiwan tour. Much prolonged ear-pulling for not being able to get to this sooner.
Michael
Tai Dong – Taiwan
Following the performance in Hualien, we were able to visit the Taroko Gorge National Park before heading south through the Eastern Rift Valley to TaiDong. As we pulled in to town, we turned on the external speakers on the bus and while playing Sahaj music we announced our arrival and the concert that evening. With Mother’s picture 3 feet high on the front of the bus, we really felt like we were on a campaign to vibrate Taiwan. This south-eastern city is fairly small, but is home to a large Indigenous population. Once again, the ever present rain had been at work but it eased a little when we arrived so that we could prepare the open air venue for the concert. Among giant aboriginal wood carvings and alongside traditional aboriginal fishing boats, the stage was set for the concert.
Though, the moist conditions kept some away, there was still a reasonable turnout to watch the concert and once again, the Sahaj Group from Romania poured out divine music in to the evening air. Once again, there was dancing to the divine sounds of Sahaj music. Even some of the local artist community came and took part in a rousing dance together with the visiting yogis. This concert was certainly different from the Taipei and Hualien concerts, but was still excellently received by the people of Taidung. We all hope and pray to Mother to allow Sahaja Yoga to develop well in this town from now on.
Chia Yi
The following morning, we set off again. This time traveling around the bottom of the island stopping for lunch in Kaohsiung en-route to ChiaYi. ChiaYi lies on the Tropic of Cancer and the tour made a brief stop to view an exhibition dedicated to this fact. After a wonderful Japanese lunch at the restaurant of one of the ChiaYi yogis (preparing for the next country in the tour), we retired to the center to prepare for the evening’s performance.
This took place in a large school hall in ChiaYi city, where a few hundred of ChiaYi’s residents came out to enjoy the music program and to receive our Mother’s blessings. The now routine interviewing method of introduction was again used to good effect bringing in the audiences involvement. This allowed the audience to receive their realization while enjoying the beautiful music of the Sahaj Group on stage. I am sure that many of them are surprised to hear Indian music from Romanians, and all must be as impressed as we all have been at how wonderfully they perform. Once again the evening ended with getting the audience to their feet to join in the dancing that has accompanied every performance on the tour.
It has been a desire for over a year that we could invite yogis from overseas to come on a tour of Taiwan.
To see it come to fruition like this is amazing.
Many thanks to Chris, the generosity of our Australian brothers and sisters and of course to the Romanian collective and especially the Sahaj Group for making this possible.
Michael
Hsin Chu Day five
contributed by Sarvesh Su.
Driving down to Hsin-Chu program after work from Taipei to meet the team, it was heavy rain in Taipei the entire week to drizzle only at Hsin-Chu (75 Km south of Taipei).
The concert hall was in National Chin-Hwa University starting at 7:30PM.
The scenario is pretty similar to public programs in Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts USA in the late 1980s; the students were very much in their Agnya and not showing up at the concert.
However, the audience came in all ages from the vicinity outside of Science and Technology Park where the university located. The master of ceremony as this tour develops in Taiwan take one yogi and one yogini in cross-talk style to introduce Sahaja Yoga and the Indian Bhajan music.
At one time, MC asked the audience “have you felt the vibration in you?” one little boy replied “No!” and the MC began the self-realization process right away. The cool vibration permeates immediately the entire concert hall.
Everyone was in joyful mood and clapping their hands with the rhythm from beginning to the end.
Although this may be a first time for the audience to hear such Indian classical music, but somehow our Romanian musicians’ voice has reached listeners at an emotional and spiritual level that is universal judging from the hilarious joyful expression on every face there.
The Sufi style Kawaali again and again touched the high note on every attendant’s heart.
Final Days in Taipei.
Following the HsinChu program which had very nice vibrations, the tour bus came back to Taipei to stay at the center. The following day, Friday, was spent with a little sightseeing for the Romanian Sahaj Group.
During the day, the weather was pretty bad. It was doubtful that the evening program could go ahead as it was planned to be held open air, in a park in Taipei. The Peace Park.
Contingency plans were investigated to hold the evening program in an indoor venue, but it was already too late to advertise this fact. So we applied many Bhandans during the day in the hope that come 4PM we would be able to know if the concert could go ahead as planned. The extremely high humidity and the risk of rain were a major concern for the Romanian musicians They did after all, still have two countries to perform in!
So during the morning, the group was able to visit first the National Palace Museum and get in some gift shopping there. Followed by a late lunch at the Grand Hotel in the same place where Mother stayed during her first visit to Taipei way back in 1990. Fond memories to those that were there, and still a very special place. The ornate hotel is a most impressive building and it was a good break for the Musicians before going to the park to investigate how we might put on a concert in the rain.
With determination and a lot of running around to prepare the stage and draft in some replacement instruments, it was decided to go ahead with the concert anyway. Fortunately the stage was covered and was arranged in such a way as to allow the musicians and part of the audience to sit under cover for the performance. Therefore, substituting Harmoniums, and tablas for Dholoks, a new set was improvised, and the concert was on.
Though there were not that many Taipei residents who braved the elements to come out for the concert, it was more than we could have hoped for given the conditions. And a wonderful, different but still uplifting performance was given. A brilliant last performance to end the tour.
That evening , the Romanian musicians made it out for Hot Pot dinner in one of the cities night markets, followed by late night socializing with their Taiwan brothers and sisters until the wee hours of the morning.
Even enjoying very nice massages from the Taiwanese yogis.
The final day saw an amazing transformation with the weather. Blue skies and super clear air following the near miss of the Typhoon and all the rain the country had received throughout the tour It seems that the desires of the Musicians: to see the Taipei 101 could be realized. A fitting reward for a wonderful weeks work.
Straight from the 101, the musicians were whisked away to the airport to catch the flight to Japan.
Reluctantly, we had to let them go, and it was just like leaving Cabella. Tearful, yet joyful. We made deep and lasting relationships with the Romanian group and we definitely hope they can come this way again next year.
Michael Staniforth and the Yogis of Taiwan
“Thanks again to you for the vision and resolve to make it happen and all the Australians who have given so generously to make this possible. Of course we have to give a big thanks to our dear Romanian Sahaja group who have come all this way to spread the love of Shri Matai through this joyous music. We pray that the forthcoming programs in Japan and Korea will be as successful as the ones in Taiwan. We will make a video of the programs here in Seoul and hope that we can produce a video for the whole tour to present to Shri Mataji on the occasion of Christmas puja. We really hope that we can make this an annual event as it is clearly what our Holy Mother wants us to do!