Notes From the Road

Here is from left to right: Manish Vyas, a local Bahamian man whom GuruGanesha befriended, GuruGanesha, and Sopurkh.



My husband and I enjoying a good laugh (probably one of GuruGanesha's jokes) ... with a picture of Swami Vishnu Devananda in the background. Swami Vishnu Devananda was the founder of the ashram that hosted the interfaith festival. He was known as the "flying swami" as he flew many peace missions with his own small airplane. One such mission was a flight over the Berlin Wall before it came down. He did this to demonstrate that there are no walls between any countries... that we are unified by the One Spirit within all. Apparantly when he landed he taught a yoga class to the East German soldiers who met him, was given lunch and treated very respectfully. The mission was widely covered by world wide media and brought attention to the situation at hand, and the importance of working for peace. Many of his missions were at risk to his own life. I enjoyed hearing the stories about his life from his disciples who are now running the ashram, and felt a deep sense of gratitude for his dedication to bringing yoga to the west and to war torn nations. He passed away in 1997, but has left a legacy with the many teaching centers around the globe.



This is a local choir in Nassau Bahamas, called the "End of Time" Choir. They were so beautiful and their songs were really soul stirring. They performed in the interfaith music festival the evening before us. I really overjoyed hearing such a good Gospel Choir. The thing that really touched me was that the pastor of the church was related to about 70% of the choir members... his children and grandchildren all took to singing and spreading the light through their singing. One thing the pastor said which I really took to heart was... "If you can't spread love, light and peace in your own family, how can you expect to spread it anywhere else?"



Here is Manish Vyas, who has recently joined us. Here we are at a concert in Washington DC, which was sponsored by Spirit Voyage Music. Manish is an incredibly talented tabla player and vocalist. We are really enjoying his presence with the tour. For more information about him, you can visit his website at: Manishvyas.com

He came all the way from India to tour with us... the food and the weather is so different then what he is used to. Although he toured in the US for a number of years, the past couple of years he has been living with his teacher in Mysore and practising meditation in an ashram. My favorite quote from him thus far is as follows. We had to leave quite early one morning and didn't have time to find a place to eat breakfast. We were all in the van quite hungry. I found some tofu at the bottom of our food bag and gave some to everyone. When I gave the slightly pale and rubbery looking tofu to Manish he closed his eyes momentarily before taking the tofu for breakfast and said, "Let Thy Will Be Done."



Here is Ram Dass, who has also joined us. He is playing piano here which he does very well... but just waint until you hear him on clarinet! He is so fluid and really carries the spirit of joy into his playing.




Here's all of us!

Until we come to your city,

Sat Nam!!!!

# posted by Snatam Kaur Khalsa @ 7:11 PM