Kirtan at Shine Studio

Haribol!!!
This morning I awoke a bit late and barely had time to do my sadhana before it was time to start cooking a huge feast and getting so many little preparations in place for the kirtan program that was to begin at noon.  At 9am I started chopping veggies, making rice, make chaunces (curries), and cooking up something dagone good for the Supreme Personality of Godhead's pleasure.  I had to move quickly by the end, but somehow got everything ready and forgot nothing (which is very rare for me).  I picked my brother up and made it right on time to set up before people arrived.  We got everything set up, I lit some incense, tuned my guitar, looked over my notes, and people started to flow in.  The Shine Studio is an excellent space, very bright and airy, spacious, and quiet, not being next to any major roads.  Very conducive space for this kind of thing.          
All together 8 people were there, and my brother Kent, visiting from Los Angeles was also there, which was fun.  All the rest were women of various ages and backgrounds.  
We sat in a big circle and I began with speaking a bit about kirtan and Bhakti and how to engage in kirtan.  I passed out flyers showing the mantras we were to chant.  Then we began.  The kirtan started out very soft with Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya then the maha mantra.  The ladies soft voices singing in the kirtan sounded to me like heavenly angels, it was really so harmonious and light.  We sung various Vaishnava mantras and changed melodies occasionally, and they went through it well.  I felt very focused and was savoring being there and leading the kirtan.  It lasted about 40 minutes and I didn't want to stop, but had to stick to a program, so ended it softly.  After that I spoke about Bhakti and Vaishnava culture for some time, just kept it very basic and simple.  They asked a lot of questions, which is always nice.  Then we closed with a brief but potent singing of Hare Krishna.  After that I busted out loads of prasadam and everyone ate to their full satisfaction and I heard a lot of "whoa", "wow" and "how did you....!"  It's Krishna's mercy, everytime.

Some of the participants of the kirtan.  Maria the head of the studio in center.

The woman on the right was a practitioner of siddha yoga years ago and very much appreciated the program

Giving a talk on Bhakti and loving every second of it profusely

Praying to Krishna and my spiritual masters.  This is my life of utter ecstasy.  

Serving out some prasadam after the talk

Mercifully allowed to serve

PRASADAM!!!!!!!!!!

Everybody was totally getting down......

Kim is on the right and was very enthusiastic.  She wants to help us schedule Bhakti programs at the Unity Church.

That's my brother Kent on the left, materially my exact opposite but similar in heart!

Jai

 One of the best aspects of the whole event was meeting these two women who are members of the local Unity Church.  They were perhaps the most enthusiastic of all about the whole event and one of them was part of a yoga tradition years ago that chanted.  One of them, Kim, was enthusiastic when I brought up that I wanted to put on programs at the Unity church.  She was very eager to help with this, which was excellent.  I'd been wanting to do something like this for a long time.  I'm thinking that when Yugala Kishora comes (really hoping he does!!!) we can host him at programs at Shine Studio and at the Shine studio.  Harinama Sankirtana ki Jai!!!  So it was all around very sweet, personal and potent.  My brother looked like he was in a trance, lol.  His comments just now "The music today was pretty...it sounded like a Krishna......Hare Krishna Hare Krishna..." He's pretty spacey and fun.
So it was an absolute success and a sweet, sweet conclusion to an utterly tumultuous, challenging and difficult week of drama, troubles and my mom getting major surgery for cancer.  Thank you Krishna.  Your causeless mercy and kindness on this fallen little silly soul is ever-increasingly sweet and relishable.  Please help me desire nothing else.