Yesterday a friend and I went to Flüeli-Ranft for a concert of Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Swamiji from Mysore. For 3 days he stayed for a seminar in Flüeli, organised by the Dattayoga Centre Switzerland. I had seen the Swami last January in his Dattapeetam Ashram in Bangalore on the way to the Nilagiris and blogged about his feeding birds in Shuka Vana. And I had been in Flüeli-Ranft the last time in May 2012 for the May Call Day seminar of Sri Kumar.
We went to Flüeli in the early afternoon to have some time for a walk and evening meditation. It was a beautiful summer day and the way over the mountains was gorgeous. We found a beautiful spot overviewing the valley for our evening meditation.
View down to the valley from Flüeli Ranft
While walking around images of last year popped up – the time was now so different, and there was a profound peace in the air.
The Melchtal Frutt valley behind Flüeli
Two dwarf goats were observing us and we chatted a bit with them.
View of the village hall with the church and the hotel Pax Montana where we had stayed last year.
There were already many cars around – but we had good luck to find a last free parking space on our arrival. We had our evening pick-nick at the center of the village and we could spot out the people belonging to this group – ladies in flowing dresses, saries or panjabis, men with a colourful cloth around the shoulder or otherwise easily identifiable. It somehow felt familiar, though we didn’t know anybody of the people inside the hall. It was fascinating to observe. On the sides of the hall there were posters with photos of the social activities of the Swami in India – schools, hospitals and other benevolent activities. The concert was also a benefit activity, the receipts will go for financing social aid activities. At the entrance there were tables with many of the CDs and some books of the Swami – and you could also buy cuddly parrots, the proceedings were meant for Swami’s new parrots park in Mysore – I had seen the birds park from the outside, visitors weren’t allowed.
Inside, the hall was beautifully decorated – a tree with paper flowers was hiding the climbing wall on the backside. And on the stage there was a golden disc with golden cloth draperies. And before there was the synthesizer the Swami Ganapati.
It was announced that this concert, Nada Sagara – Ocean of Sound, was the first solo-concert the Swamiji gave in public. He has been touring the world over during the years, and in the entrance hall there was a poster announcing his next concert in the Royal Albert Hall in London in September. The speaker explained that the music has a healing effect and eliminates blockages in the nervous system as well as in the subtle energy system of the Nadis.
When he entered the hall the air was filled with rapt attention. As a welcome he received a garland of flowers, which he showed to the public and threw to the floor – after the concert another garland was presented to him. He shortly wore it, jokingly looked through it and put it away…
He started his concert with some explanations about his music and then started playing. Cosmic sounds were weaving a musical carpet in the air and it seemed that all were absorbed in the musical vibrations floating through space. And I, too, was carried away by it. A very special kind of music, changing in melodies and rhythms, played in a highly intuitive way.
He played uninterruptedly for about 1 hour, and the last 5 minutes his play was accompanied by rhythmic clapping of the audience. There was a magic spell in the audience. Some of the ladies got up, full of enthusiasm. Swami Ganapati received a gift which seemed to be a bird in a bowl, and a set of tuning forks. Then he disappeared through the stage-door.
When we came out the moon in its 12th ascending phase just looked over the mountain, and it appeared as if it was burning – maybe also filled with some cosmic ecstasy.
You can find a lot of Swami’s music on YouTube, here is a video of “Healing Music” from a music concert at Hyderabad.
