Guest guest Posted August 6, 2007 Report Share Posted August 6, 2007 Written by someone named Phil Shambaugh: Rio third morning Yesterday was a little overwhelming here, so I did not send out a report. The first night darshan ended at 5:30 a.m., then I had the opportunity to do some of my healing seva. The second morning program was again packed, and She did not finish giving darshan until 6:15 p.m., a near record for world tours. Again, there were tour staff that needed attention after darshan, and I never even went to the room that day, going from working on the tour staff back to evening darshan. The bookstore sales are doing very well, much better than in Chile according to three of the stations I checked with. One of the odd-job sevas that I picked up was labeling CDs as they are duplicated. We made nearly 200 copies of CDs yesterday. Instrumentals and chants are doing particularly well. They are selling fine with just hand lettered labels. That seva was very interesting and gave me more insight into Amma’s workings, and how She is forcing ever more progress - better attention to detail, better focus on a task, more mindfulness – (I tried to use the word sraddha but cannot seem to spell it right so I tried to say what I mean), on Her devotees (myself included – there are many lessons in the seemingly mindless task of writing a label on a CD). Anyway, I was talking with the man who was making a new CD, Amma sings in Portugese. He was explaining the difficulties in making these CDs – he has to listen to Amma singing, and the native speakers who are singing with Her, to see if She gets the pronunciation exactly right. If it seems not, then he has to cut and paste the correct sound from another part of the recording. All of this to get the best possible job done for the customer. Amma wants to get songs in the local language as soon as possible, so each day he will re-make the CD, adding the songs She sings each night. He has had to do the same thing in 9 languages for some of the songs. I have seen the photographer do the same sort of thing, spending hours editing a video of a pada puja to give a little extra for the customer. The effort to do this repetitively is not minor. So anyway, we were talking about Amma making mistakes. He said that sometimes he is sure She does it just to see if he is being aware and to keep him on his toes. He and I agreed that She can do it perfectly the first time if She wants to, and that everything She does is for our benefit somehow. On this point I will insert a paragraph I wrote five months ago, describing my conversations with a tabla player in the ashram “He has talked about the frequent and sometimes long rehearsals that Amma holds. Tuesday he said that his back, neck, and what all were hurting, but when Amma pre-empted his complaints by saying that she didn’t sleep because of pain, he kept quiet. He held out as long as he could , then just as he was going to say something she called it a night. On Thursday, he said that they rehearsed until 3:30 a.m. (remember that she went to Sri Lanka that day). She puts emphasis on bhajans and says for example that they purify the atmosphere. What I have been wondering is: for whose benefit is the rehearsal? I just read in Volume 6 of Awaken Children, page 57, where Amma had picked up a song sheet that was being composed and sang it perfectly through all its verses, so it would appear not to be for her benefit. She puts out either special or extra energy during bhajan, so maybe it is our benefit. Or maybe it is to benefit the swamis and musicians. Who can tell?” Amma issued directions that no one was to leave the hotel grounds after 3 p.m., apparently in response to two incidents of violence in the area of the hotel. Only a road separates the hotel grounds from the beach. It is really a pretty scene, I guess I will go beach walking after Devi bhava. The Brazilians here in the hall seem noisier, more talkative and a little more pushy than the Chileans. Perhaps living under the oppressive government for so long had an effect on the people, or perhaps we are reaching a more affluent segment of the population here. The Chileans applauded the bhajans more, although after ‘Mata Rani’ last night the crowd cheered and applauded. I heard that when the Brazilians became aware that having small children could get them into special needs early darshan, some people called and had children brought – one child was used by more than one person. I have seen a lot of people using cell phones, and do not recall seeing that at all in Santiago. Back to the bookstore. Remember I described some of the airport leelas – it was even worse than I described. Some of the devotees did not arrive until 1:30 in the afternoon. In the U.S. you can ship two personal bags, but in South America it is only one. So, six bookstore bags were left behind intentionally, and another 13 had to be left unintentionally. Mother would not let us pay the $100 fee per bag to ship them. Lessons in not wasting money. There was talk last evening of limiting this morning’s darshan to first time ever people only, in the hope that Mother (and staff) could get a little rest before what should be a long Devi Bhava. Maybe She was aware of that, but somehow she managed to finish at 3:30 a.m., two hours earlier than the previous night. It is nearing 1 p.m., and there is still a good sized crowd. Now that I have figured out how to use the Internet in the hall, I expect to give you a Devi bhava update. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.6/938 - Release 8/5/2007 4:16 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 13, 2007 Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 Om Amma. Hey, everybody. Just checking in from the Ashram. Rick, thanks so much for those great reports from Brazil. We couldn't see the usual DB telecast due to a weak connection. So nice to read so much delicious detail. Needless to say we're enjoying Amma's return. Huge crowds this weekend. Independence Day this week, then Onam. Our first celebrations here. Weather is very nice, some sun, but lots of cool and occasional rain. Seems like the worst heat is March to when the first rains come, first from the east, then real monsoon from the west. And we missed the worst rains due to visiting US in June-July. Many familiar faces. Ajitha and children, Sweta from Iowa, Jeff from Dallas, Nigama from Toronto. Big French and German groups. And lots of Russians also. sending you all Amma's smiles, premarupa On 8/7/07, Rick Archer <rick wrote: > > Written by someone named Phil Shambaugh: > > > > Rio third morning > > > > Yesterday was a little overwhelming here, so I did not send out a report. > The first night darshan ended at 5:30 a.m., then I had the opportunity to > do > some of my healing seva. The second morning program was again packed, and > She did not finish giving darshan until 6:15 p.m., a near record for world > tours. Again, there were tour staff that needed attention after darshan, > and > I never even went to the room that day, going from working on the tour > staff > back to evening darshan. > > > > The bookstore sales are doing very well, much better than in Chile > according > to three of the stations I checked with. One of the odd-job sevas that I > picked up was labeling CDs as they are duplicated. We made nearly 200 > copies > of CDs yesterday. Instrumentals and chants are doing particularly well. > They > are selling fine with just hand lettered labels. That seva was very > interesting and gave me more insight into Amma's workings, and how She is > forcing ever more progress - better attention to detail, better focus on a > task, more mindfulness – (I tried to use the word sraddha but cannot seem > to > spell it right so I tried to say what I mean), on Her devotees (myself > included – there are many lessons in the seemingly mindless task of > writing > a label on a CD). Anyway, I was talking with the man who was making a new > CD, Amma sings in Portugese. He was explaining the difficulties in making > these CDs – he has to listen to Amma singing, and the native speakers who > are singing with Her, to see if She gets the pronunciation exactly right. > If > it seems not, then he has to cut and paste the correct sound from another > part of the recording. All of this to get the best possible job done for > the > customer. Amma wants to get songs in the local language as soon as > possible, > so each day he will re-make the CD, adding the songs She sings each night. > He has had to do the same thing in 9 languages for some of the songs. I > have > seen the photographer do the same sort of thing, spending hours editing a > video of a pada puja to give a little extra for the customer. The effort > to > do this repetitively is not minor. So anyway, we were talking about Amma > making mistakes. He said that sometimes he is sure She does it just to see > if he is being aware and to keep him on his toes. He and I agreed that She > can do it perfectly the first time if She wants to, and that everything > She > does is for our benefit somehow. > > > > On this point I will insert a paragraph I wrote five months ago, > describing > my conversations with a tabla player in the ashram > > " He has talked about the frequent and sometimes long rehearsals that Amma > holds. Tuesday he said that his back, neck, and what all were hurting, but > when Amma pre-empted his complaints by saying that she didn't sleep > because > of pain, he kept quiet. He held out as long as he could , then just as he > was going to say something she called it a night. On Thursday, he said > that > they rehearsed until 3:30 a.m. (remember that she went to Sri Lanka that > day). She puts emphasis on bhajans and says for example that they purify > the atmosphere. What I have been wondering is: for whose benefit is the > rehearsal? I just read in Volume 6 of Awaken Children, page 57, where Amma > had picked up a song sheet that was being composed and sang it perfectly > through all its verses, so it would appear not to be for her benefit. She > puts out either special or extra energy during bhajan, so maybe it is our > benefit. Or maybe it is to benefit the swamis and musicians. Who can > tell? " > > Amma issued directions that no one was to leave the hotel grounds after 3 > p.m., apparently in response to two incidents of violence in the area of > the > hotel. Only a road separates the hotel grounds from the beach. It is > really > a pretty scene, I guess I will go beach walking after Devi bhava. > > > > The Brazilians here in the hall seem noisier, more talkative and a little > more pushy than the Chileans. Perhaps living under the oppressive > government > for so long had an effect on the people, or perhaps we are reaching a more > affluent segment of the population here. The Chileans applauded the > bhajans > more, although after 'Mata Rani' last night the crowd cheered and > applauded. > I heard that when the Brazilians became aware that having small children > could get them into special needs early darshan, some people called and > had > children brought – one child was used by more than one person. I have seen > a > lot of people using cell phones, and do not recall seeing that at all in > Santiago. > > > > Back to the bookstore. Remember I described some of the airport leelas – > it > was even worse than I described. Some of the devotees did not arrive until > 1:30 in the afternoon. In the U.S. you can ship two personal bags, but in > South America it is only one. So, six bookstore bags were left behind > intentionally, and another 13 had to be left unintentionally. Mother would > not let us pay the $100 fee per bag to ship them. Lessons in not wasting > money. > > > > There was talk last evening of limiting this morning's darshan to first > time > ever people only, in the hope that Mother (and staff) could get a little > rest before what should be a long Devi Bhava. Maybe She was aware of that, > but somehow she managed to finish at 3:30 a.m., two hours earlier than the > previous night. It is nearing 1 p.m., and there is still a good sized > crowd. > > > > Now that I have figured out how to use the Internet in the hall, I expect > to > give you a Devi bhava update. > > > > > > > Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.6/938 - Release 8/5/2007 > 4:16 PM > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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