Jai Jai Jai Shri Mataji

One of my favourite bhajans!

On the way to work this morning and found the roads were extraordinarily jam, so I hooked my earphones and started listening to the late Dr Arun Apte's live performance in 1998.  This is one of the advantages of having a smartphone with Data Plan, that you can surf the web anytime, any day, anywhere.   So, I opened Youtube and since I was having a bad headache, Raag Bhoop for the Agnya was the first choice.  It was soothing and there were times, when the music suddenly climax, it feels as if the music was trying to push out something.  Clearing.  Then when that ended, I selected Raag Darbari for the Sahasrara. From a dramatic Raag Bhoop to a slower and quieter Raag Darbari, there's calmness on the Sahasrara.  And watching Shri Mataji listening to this gave a sense of security and comfort.  I wasn't listening so much to how the music was being sung, but rather was enjoying how the raga was flowing. When I first heard the late Dr. Arun Apte ...

Sharing with you what music can really do to us, especially Sahaja Yoga music. On Shri Mataji's Birthday Puja day, I was a little out-of-balance.  Rushed to the puja and was unable to clear and footsoak beforehand.  I felt a little guilty about it, then when I reached the puja venue, I placed both hands on the Mother Earth to ground myself.  Still not good enough.  Was reacting badly to a phone call. Just as we were about to start, a yogini sister's 1 year old boy came and started standing up and facing me and laughing and raised his hands up and down, as if raising his own Kundalini.  But I could feel that my kundalini was coming up and vibrations were becoming lighter.  Still slight heat but better.  He was in fact, raising my Kundalini when everyone thought he was just playing with me.  My husband was sitting behind me.  After Shri Mataji's talk, Her message was directly aiming at me, at least that's what I fel...

Past few months, I have been taking a break from Sahaj music.  I felt there were too many things on my plate.  These are the activities on my agenda: Learn mandarin Finish cross stitch (x10) for my new room Move room, arrange, decorate, etc Prepare for registration of marriage Wedding planning The big bulk of to-do comes from wedding planning.  Besides working full-time and having to face the oncoming restructuring which complicates matter and having to deal with lots of red tape, I told myself, enough is enough.  Not putting anymore things on my plate. Recently my life have been very busy.  Mainly having to deal with other people and not my own things, accommodating to other people's needs and doing things for other people.   At first, I agree to do it.  I don't know how to say NO.  Then it began to weigh down on me and putting a burden in my day-to-day life that I felt paralysed for waiting for other people's decisions, instructions, w...

Friday evening, Music of Joy was performing.  This was the first time I was watching them from the audience point of view.  Previously I had joined them to sing at International Pujas, learn a few songs from them and just listened to the CD. They were just great.  Awesome voices, amazing composition, the blend of different instruments were just out of this world.  I love all their singing and the songs.  It's just different from the Indian classical bhajan.  How they combined their voices into different tones to create harmony.  How they use different musical intruments to create a different feel.  They had the Indian instruments like harmonium, tabla, dholak and chimtar.  Then they blend it with the Western instruments like the bass guitar, saxaphone, flute and other percussion instruments.  Finally, because they were from Australia, they had a didgeridoo too to give the classic aboriginal feel.  One cannot compare Western clas...

I have never written in my blog about my personal experience with Sahaj Music.   Lat started teaching us Sahaj Music in early 2002.  She had learnt it from Dr. Arun Apte for 6 months in 1998 in the Nagpur Music Academy, India.  To be honest, before learning Sahaj Music, I remembered someone gave me a music CD by Dr. Arun Apte on Ragas and I just could not appreciate it.  I find that the music was too noisy and distracting.  I only listened to it once and then gave up. When I started to learn Sahaj Music, I began to appreciate Indian Classical Music which is the basis that is used in Sahaj Music.   I began to understand myself a bit more through music and find out about my chakras, which one catch most and which is weak.  I find music is the best medium to understand anything, for me that is because I love music and I find music is in-built in me.  I always have a song singing in my head or a rhythm playing in my ears.  It's very...

This article was published in the Malaysian Yuva Shakti Newsletter 4th Issue - Apr 2010. Basic Sahaj Music - By Yeng Chan Sahaja Yoga Music or in short, Sahaj Music, is a form of technique that uses music to clear our chakras. In this article, I will explain on the connection of music to our chakras. Sahaj Music uses Indian Classical music notation. As we all know, we have 7 chakras in our subtle system. There are also 7 music notes in Indian classical music similar to the Western classical music. These notes are Shadja, Rishabh, Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham, Dhaivat and Nishad. In short these notes can be referred as Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni. Each note corresponds to our chakras as it is given below. As the western classical music even the Indian classical share similar flat and sharp notes. The 5 additional notes are Re flat, Ga flat, Ma sharp, Dha flat and Ni flat. Flat notes are notes which are to the left of the original note while sharp notes are notes that are to the ri...

Today I would like to post about playing the harmonium because I noticed that many people who came to this blog is by searching the word playing the harmonium, which was one of my earlier post. A lot of people wants bhajan notes and how to play the harmonium tips. I started playing the harmonium in 2002 until now. I didn't learn from anyone but because I had piano background, I was able to play. In fact, it was easier to play the harmonium than a piano. I have a student, well, kinda like my student because I taught him how to play and the tips and what note to start, how's the beat and so on. My style of playing is western style because of the western musical knowledge that I have gained earlier. I just transfer this to the harmonium. Like I said, it was easier to play the harmonium in some ways because it is not rigid, unlike the piano you have to follow the rules or else you are considered like not a good player. I would like to learn how to play the Indian classical har...

Wow, I haven't been posting for the past 2 weeks. Well, I was not busy, not yet, but cannot find any topic to write about. Yesterday, we had a Music for the Spirit Workshop at MPH Subang Parade. About 20 people received their self-realisation through music. I was extremely nervous because you know...public speaking and me. But somehow, manage to pull through, sang in public and spoke without paper. It was the 3rd time for me and yet I still felt very nervous. The vibrations were flowing so strongly the whole time. Everyone who present felt something, whether hot or cool, tingling or numbness. In conclusion, music is a good method to give self-realisation, in my opinion. It makes people calmer and relaxed before the self-realisation process. My mistake was I did not practised enough before the session, and my voice started to break half way through singing. And I was so nervous in singing, my heart beat so fast, my voice started to waver. Well, I have learnt from my mistak...

Shri Mataji has blessed me with the ability to play by ear. I didn't realised how much I have taken that gift for granted until I have to teach non-musical students (students who were not expose to music much). I found myself trying so hard to explain to them how to play the harmonium according to the timing, the beat of the bhajans. I can still remember the first time I played the harmonium for the collective. The week before, Lat has told me to prepare 3 bhajans (I can choose any bhajans) for the following week collective. The whole week, I was practising the bhajans, singing in the shower, singing while driving, practising on the piano (I don't have a harmonium yet at that time). I was so nervous that I have written down note by note on my bhajan book. When it was my turn to play (took turns with Seetha), my fingers were shaking so hard, my eyes were glued to the bhajan book, and my heart was pumping so hard that I thought it was coming out through my mouth. After that, my h...

Bagus on the Piano Finally, I've found the method to post this video on my blog. The video I've promised earlier. I hereby present you with Bagus Santosa (I think that is how his name is spelt). He is really good. Can you guess what is the bhajan he is playing? Unfortunately, the sound is slower than the action or vice versa. The video is about 4 minutes long, and best viewed with broadband.