Friday, February 22, 2008

Haidakhandi Aarati auf der Straße


The Kirtan Hall at Crestone
Some years ago, my amazing sister Melinda became involved with an ashram out in Crestone, Colorado. It is a sister ashram of the mother ashram in the north of India In the Kumaon foothills of the Indian Himalayas, That ashram was/is the home of Sri Babaji who, in an earlier incarnation (1861), brought us Kriya Yoga, a meditative & spiritual form of yoga that I practice.

In his most recent incarnation back in the'80s he returned to the Indian ashram he had built in previous incarnations to teach Karma Yoga.

Here is a picture of my beautiful sister at that ashram in India:

The people at the
Haidakhandi Universal Ashram are a wonderful set of devotees and decided to put together a group to travel around the country and perform Aarati for people that can't get to Crestone, at least I think that's the reason.

So it is that this intrepid group ventured forth and
found their way to St. Petersburg, FL where I was honored to be invited to attend this wonderful devotional event. It was held in the beautiful home of two devotees who live on the beach on Treasure Island. While there were but 6 or 7 of us present to enjoy the music the energy level was very high and it was a great evening of Devotion and Joy.


The Bhole Baba Bhajan Band (I just love that name!) was just phenomenal and led us in a two hour chant-fest.

They are, from left to right: Jason Almendarez (Jai Shankar) on percussion and vocals from Houston, TX; Ramloti on harmonium and vocals from the Ashram; Kailash on harmonium, dollak, and vocals from Crestone, CO; Prakash on dollak and percussion from Santa Fe, NM; and Frances Frischkorn on percussion and vocals from Colorado College

From here they tour up the eastern seaboard, back to the mid-west then home to Colorado.


The story of Babaji is available in our wonderful library system. Connect with our homepage and go to the catalog and type in the title: I Am Harmony.
ISBN:
096264210X
0962642118 :
9780962642111

It's listed with a Dewey number of:

294.543 BABAJI
There are a couple of copies in the system.

Om Namah Shivaya - Bhole Baba Ki Jai !