BANGALORE: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar once said, “Music is food for emotions, knowledge is food for the intellect and meditation is food for the soul.” The Art of living, organised a concert which was a melange of music and meditation called Sumeru Sandhya by Rishi Nityapragya on Thursday at St Johns Auditorium. Rishi Nityapragya with his gifted voice and great sense of humour put the crowd in a state of trance and transported everyone to a world filled with joy and inner peace.
Listening to his delightful voice, the crowd forgot about all their worries and danced to express their happiness with the rest. Rishi opened the concert with a bhajan, which was sung by the audience as well.
The bhajan had depth and meaning; and with Rishi’s bold voice, it felt like God was singing to mankind, even though it was the other way round. The main idea of the concert revolved around preparing people to face 2012 with an open mind. Rishi used his sense of humour and cited numerous examples of spiritual people and their journey to inspire the crowd.
The bhajans and talks were energetic and surrounded with positive vibes. Rishi also dedicated a few old Bollywood numbers to Sri Sri as a token of appreciation for his works in various countries. Even though, Rishi is soft by nature, his energy on stage proved that he was nothing short of being a rockstar. However, he was treated like a rockstar by the crowd, as requests for bhajans kept pouring in.
That is when he said, “I have given so many performances before. The thing about music is, no one will be satisfied no matter how much we get. In all my performances, I was never satisfied, so I understand what you are going through. We have to all remember, what Sri Sri taught us, be happy with you get.”
After each song, Rishi shared his experiences during his time at the ashram or reminded people about the teachings of Sri Sri, before he continued with the next song. Rishi Nityapragya, has conducted many concerts all over the world under Art of Living. In 2012, this was the first concert conducted in our city.
Rishi is not a trained singer, he said , “You don’t have to be trained to sing. As long as you sing with your heart, people will enjoy it.” The night was filled with lots of such quotes and spiritual teachings of Sri Sri. Along with this, the concert also had a small but effective breathing practice session which was conducted by a member of Art of living.
People often have the wrong notion that age takes them to art of living. But, in the concert, there were all kinds of people from kids to grandparents, everyone thoroughly enjoyed their evening.
No matter how people came in, they all walked out with a smile and different attitude. The concert was conducted to raise funds for the new workshop at Koramangla called Temple of Knowledge which will be conducted from January 13 to January 15.