Fragrance of Devotion

 

Fragrance of Devotion

Written by Bless The World Family

2^nd June 2013, was marked as a memorable day indeed for the entire Bless The World family. The launch of first ever music album sung by the devotees of Mohanji, expressing their deep love and gratitude towards Him, which otherwise is so beyond words.

The journey began when during the Power of Purity meditation in Muscat, Nandita Singh, one of the BTW members (resident of Gurgaon) saw a vision of many people performing Aarti of Mohanji. Nandita kept this to herself on that day. Next day when she visited Mohanji again, Mohanji said “Aarti has been written by someone and is in Pune.” Nandita understood the message. The vision was then shared with others, and then there was no looking back. ONE STEP TAKEN BY A DEVOTEE WAS SUPPORTED BY THOUSAND STEPS OF THE MASTER.

He paved the path and showered guidance at every step from there on. Within next 24 hours Harshini, another devotee had the Aarti written. This was unexpected for our human minds. Yet Grace and the devotee’s devotion failed the mind. We all then started looking around for singers and musicians. Word was spread over. But Master didn’t want to wait! Within minutes of spreading the word, one devotee ‘happened’ to visit Shirdi Sai Baba temple at Lodhi Road, and her attention was taken straight to the singer performing there.  She asked him, and he agreed to sing the Aarti. NO DELAYS! The first Aarti was sung and recorded over the mobile phone! Master’s plan had started to take shape in front of our physical eyes. This first Aarti created ripples in the hearts of many, and touched the devotion unexpressed in them.

Looking back it seems this Aarti triggered many devotees and gave them the way and opportunity to express their otherwise indescribable love for their Master. All stored emotions oozed out and took shape of many more Bhajans. The GLOBAL BTW family came together; Master was simultaneously working through all. HE became the lyricist, the musician, the technician, the coordinator and even the producer. Suddenly all were empowered and one could just step aside and see the flow of this phenomenon in complete awe. Bhajans started to flow in from across the globe. Now we needed a professional studio with musician. This was meant to be much bigger than we thought. It was not just one Aarti, but a collection of many Bhajans, and definitely not just one CD. Our list of Bhajans was extending with every passing day.

We soon found a recording studio. Aartis and bhajans were recorded again, with lot of rehearsals and in professional supervision. Before we knew we were working on almost 3-4 CDs, including CDs in Mohanji’s voice. He graciously accepted our request of coming to the recording studio and gave His voice to chants. The CD is in the making.

The production and preparation was a zero tamas activity. There was no scope of delays as it was happening at a break neck speed. One technical challenge that we faced at the last moment was the production of the CDs. When the final songs were recorded and finalized, there were only four days left for the launch. We approached Moser Baer for the production and they agreed to give it in this short time. Usually their minimum time line is two weeks. But it meant that they had to be giving all the cover designs, labels, etc in few hours! Tamas was beaten to death and four CD cover designs and CD labels were made in just four hours and delivered to Moser Baer! This certainly is unheard of in the music industry! And again, the design work was also done in-house and was the expression of love and devotion for the Guru

What was next! THE LAUNCH of this ‘phenomenon’.

A historic event indeed! Three albums were released; Fragrance of Devotion

 …M

and Mohanji Gayatri Mantra.

These CDs are a collection of Aartis and Bhajans; written, composed, and sung by His devotees, expressing their deep love and gratitude for their beloved Master.

The guest of honor was Mr. Dipak Haksar, COO of ITC Group. The singers shone with bhakti by having live performances and Mohanji Himself gave satvic prasad from Madhuban to all. The event was further graced when Mohanji presented Mementos of appreciation for inherent selflessness to all the volunteers. It was a day of immense love, grace and celebration for all.

The day ended with million smiles, love flowing in every heart, and a deep sense of gratitude, however the events of the day tried their best to deviate us from it all. This was a special event, first of its kind, for every member. The entire family was working as ONE to bring it together. Be it the production of CDs, preparation of venue, organizing the prasaad, or managing the event on the day. Few members got together even a night before to prepare the small packs of incense which were given to the people as a small token of ‘fragrance of devotion’, to label the CDs, to run through the list of ‘to do things’. It felt like a wedding in the family 🙂 The morning of 2^nd June started off well, the venue was dressed and decorated with flowers, musicians came, volunteers were all dressed in Indian attires adding to the flavour of the evening, singers rehearsing, with Master’s pictures in the background.

The entire ambience was only to be felt, HE was in every atom in that moment, so visible. Then the physical form arrived, Mohanji reached the venue 30 minutes before the scheduled time. From our experience of organizing events in Delhi, we knew there was a reason to this, too. He quietly went into the library of Sri Ramana Kendra (the venue) to wait for the event to start. People were walking in, volunteers welcoming them with tilak and a small pack of incense. All were seated, eagerly waiting for Mohanji to enter the main hall, when JUST THEN WE HEARD SOME BLASTS. One after the other and we had a sudden power cut at the venue.

The main electricity unit of the building had caught fire. Everyone ran to the unit and there was a sudden panic due to the fire. Mohanji was informed and He immediately walked to it, too. In the meantime the fire extinguishers from across building were brought in, and the fire was put to rest. Mohanji stood there, SMILING, almost GIGGLING, and we knew who did it 🙂

And then we witnessed one of the most amazing things of the evening, NO ONE PANICKED ABOUT HOW THE LAUNCH WILL HAPPEN WITHOUT ELECTRICITY. Everyone was calm and composed, and certain that the live performances will happen as scheduled without microphones, audiences will sit without fans and air-conditioning in the Delhi heat. And just then Mohanji announced that we will go ahead without the electricity and WE DID!

Master has His own ways! With this incident, we cannot even comprehend what He removed from so many of us. His ways are beyond our minds, all we can do is have FAITH, Surrender to His Divine sports and allow ourselves to flow. Launch evening was the perfect example of this.

Even without the electricity we had the most beautiful evening of Devotion. Devotees sang from their heart, which needed no microphones and speakers to reach the heart of others. About 60 people took turn to perform Mohanji’s aarti, with loud singing from hearts, high beats of claps with tabla and harmonium, we all experienced an indescribable HIGH.

We are certain that the lives of all those who are a part of this ‘phenomenon’ have changed. Bringing this collection together was no less than a miracle. None of these singers or composers or even the producers, had ever stepped into a recording studio in their lives before this. Their inspiration is Mohanji and their intention is to share with the world the joy and transformation they experienced through Mohanji. When the hearts were open, the words flowed, the music came, shy housewives sang, corporate officials turned writers; a group of novice not-even-musicians followed the call of their hearts and sang praises of their Master, every word expressing deep Gratitude and Love

 

Mr. and Mrs. Ranjan – Composed and sung Bhajans for ‘Fragrance of Devotion’, share one of their many experiences.

I was driving in my car to office, one and a half hours drive from my home in Gurgaon, when there was a strong urge to write and sing a Bhajan for Mohanji.

Sitting in the back seat of the car, my eyes closed, it was as if words started filling me. In just a matter of 30 minutes the words for the Bhajan were with me. I have never in my life written even a poem what to talk of Bhajan of three stanzas but here it was – ‘Hum Sabke Ke Pyare Mohan’.  I instantly knew that my desire was given words by some divine power – who else could it be but Mohanji Himself!

I had an old Hindi Bhajan and I found that the words given to me were fitting beautifully to that. I discussed with my wife Vibha and we decided to sing it. We thought the song came out quite well and we were eager to present it to Mohanji. Nandita then informed us that a CD of Aartis and Bhajans is being planned but that the music should not be a copy of any song; and it should be original! She then said just take Mohanji’s name and try new original music and it will come! Neither me nor Vibha are music composers nor we have that in us. But on being coaxed by Nandita we sat with the harmonium and there was an absolute miracle. The music flowed and in less than 5 minutes the Bhajan in its present form was before us! We were totally overwhelmed with emotions at Mohanji’s help!

It was a exhilarating experience to sing the Bhajan live in Mohanji’s Divine presence on 2nd June at the launch of the CD at the Ramana Kendra.

Arihant Gupta – Singer and Composer for the Album ‘M’, shares his journey of the making his debut album.

Birth of “M “(Music Album of devotional songs)

There is so much to tell about the experience of working of our father Divine Mohanji with me that one finds it difficult from where to start. But I would like to start right from the beginning.

Our group of BTW family members in Jammu started our journey to Kud  ‘Mohanji’s Dham’ in J&K by passing through Udhampur, as Mohanji had to meet the children in ISKCON temple there. I had decided a long time back that I will seek my Guruji’s opinion regarding my deep interest in music so that He suggests me which path to follow, as my efforts were useless otherwise. Finally when we reached Kud and were sitting with Him next morning I got the opportunity and I told Him. To my surprise Mohanji’s response was so quick and positive that without even thinking or testing me for once He straight away asked me to create an album of devotional songs for BTW family and most importantly He had so much of faith and confidence in me about my capabilities which no one had, not even my own parents. Even though they always have been a big support but they also feared if I would be able to handle such a huge responsibility.

I was overwhelmed with happiness and the confidence my Master had in me. He also mentioned that in SIX MONTHS time the album will be finished and launched. Then every bit of detail, like number of songs and title of the album, source and matter for lyrics etc. were automatically taking place in the same manner.

From there started the journey and Birth of “M”. I had my own bit of doubts that how everything will go and take final shape. But since my Master had so much of confidence in me I became fearless and started working on the album. I wrote the first lyrics and then composed my first song ”O gracious one” which gave me inspiration to work further. Despite such a busy schedule with my studies, I was working on this album with a lot of interest and many creative thoughts started knocking at my door. It was clearly visible how Master was working through me and managing everything. 

I would also like to mention that whenever my thoughts were clear and surrendered to Master only then His Grace would flow in me. At times when mind was occupied and I felt as if I was out of connection with Him, doesn’t matter how hard I tried nothing happened. It was only when my heart was clear and thoughts channelized that music, lyrics and different compositions came within me.

One of the most astounding of all experiences was of composing of “Hare Krishna“.  We had come back from Kumbh Mela and I had a strong feeling that something really big has to happen. The very next day as I was sitting in my room alone after dinner and trying to sleep, suddenly a thought to play guitar came in my mind. The lights were all off and as I connected with Mohanji and started strumming on my guitar something out of the world happened. I started chanting Hare Krishna, which had completely taken over me during Kumbh Mela and with my eyes closed I first experienced white light. The words and chords automatically started flowing and so did the framing of song structure. It is hard to believe that the whole song was composed and designed in just 15 minutes, which is impossible as compared with the quality of the composition formed.

I was speechless and in a state of complete bliss!!!

Then came the time of final exams in college and I still had five more songs to work on. I started getting restless and a bit hyper as to how the things will go further. But with my faith in Master, the things went so easily, comfortably and beautifully.

Finally the composition part was done and now we were left with recording the Album in studio, but unfortunately I fell sick and was hospitalized. Constant thoughts of completing the album were always on my mind. There also with divine grace of Mohanji I recovered so quickly, that everything happened on time once again. Soon we started with recording of my vocals and guitar. Since time for producing the CDs needed at least 5 days, we were running short of time. But with Mohanji’s grace and His presence all the time we were able to give music to all 9 songs in just 18 hours. On last evening I and Guna (our studio guy) started at 1pm and completed the work at 6am the next morning. I still remember that even after working the whole night I had so much of energy in me that I was completely fresh without any urge to sleep or rest.

As Mohanji was in Delhi at that time, I went to meet Him after completing the work. He had just taken his bath and came out the room, we both had an eye contact and smiled. He, with such humbleness and simplicity, asked me, ‘how did it go? Are you satisfied?’ I was overwhelmed with happiness, wanted to tell Him everything I experienced, but His smiled conveyed that He knew already.

My father told me once that I and your mother may not be there with you forever but one thing you must know, that you have your divine father Mohanji is with you and will always be there with you forever.