Here are our upcoming gigs:

• Thu Feb 11 - Jai Uttal, Byron Bay Community Centre (Vraj - mrdanga) www.oneentertainment.com.au
• Tue Mar 16 - Dave Stringer, Yoga Den, Brisbane (Vraj - mrdanga, Sitapati - bass) www.davestringer.com
• Wed Mar 17 - Dave Stringer, Sacred Cow Yoga, Ipswich (Vraj - mrdanga, Sitapati - bass) www.davestringer.com
• Thu Mar 18 - Dave Stringer, Byron Community Centre (Vraj - mrdanga, Sitapati - bass) www.davestringer.com
• Mar 25 - April 18 - Madhava "Yoga is Music Tour" Australia (Vraj - mrdanga, Sitapati - bass, Krishnapada - guitar) www.davestringer.com

I sometimes jot down thoughts while on retreat. Here are some from last weekend's retreat. Looking forward to this weekend's one!

Retreat Realisations 2010

athato brahma-jijñasa
Vedanta-sutra 1.1.1

Attaining the human form and utilising its energy and abilities only to satisfy the urges of the mind and body, as all other lifeforms do, is like going to Italy, only to eat at Pizza Hut.

Attaining the human form and not utilising its unique intelligence to understand the nature of the self, the observer beyond the body and the mind, and the nature of reality, existence and being, is like going to Perú and not visiting Macchu Picchu.

Therefore, having attained the very rare human form of life, you should utilise it to inquire into and understand BRAHMAN.

So comes the question: What is Brahman?

janmadyasya yatah
Vedanta-sutra 1.1.2

Brahman is the original source of everything.

sarvam khalvidam brahma - everything is brahman.

What then can we say about Brahman? Since everything is composed of Brahman, Brahman must impart some quality to it. Just as everything that is composed of sugar is sweet, and everything that is composed of water is wet - what is the essential quality of Brahman that is imparted to everything? This we can understand by analyzing the common denominator of everything. Since everything is composed of Brahman, the quality imparted by Brahman must be shared by everything. What is the common denominator of everything? It is...

This is the fundamental quality of Brahman: Existence. Everything exists. It is. Brahman is the substance that imparts existence.

This is confirmed by the following description of Brahman: om sat-chit-ananda para brahma.

Sat - existence - is the quality of Brahman.

Indeed:

Sastra yonitvat
Vedanta-sutra 1.2.3

Scripture describes Brahman in this way.

Friday February 5th - Sunday February 7th, 2010

Springbrook Retreat 2010

==Friday==

1:00pm Lunch - Rice noodle soup and salad with a hot drink
3:00pm Afternoon tea - Pastries and Hot Chai
6:30pm Dinner - Baked spring rolls, garden salad, stir fried vegetables, peach pie
7:30pm Evening Music (Kirtan)

==Saturday==

5:00am Morning Meditation
6:30am Morning Music (Kirtan)
8:00am "Sad-Darshan: The Six Philosophical Systems of India" Part 1
9:30am Breakfast - Muesli, yoghurt, fruit salad, hot chai
12:30pm Yoga class
2:00pm Lunch - Focacia with hummus, garden salad, millet with sauce, sago with mango
5:00pm "Balancing the Real and Ideal"
7:00pm Dinner - Rice with vegetables, pumpkin soup, salad, potato/tomato/spinach in corn sauce, peppermint slice
8:00pm Evening Music (Kirtan)

==Sunday==

5:00am Morning Meditation
6:30am Morning Music (Kirtan)
8:00am "Sad-Darshan: The Six Philosophical Systems of India" Part 2
9:30am Breakfast - Wheat free muffins, yoghurt, fruit salad and hot tea
12:00pm Yoga class
2:00pm Lunch - Lasagne, salad, ice cream
3:00pm Farewells

== About the Presentations ==

~ Sad-Darshan: The Six Philosophical Systems of India ~

One can sit on the vyāsāsana only after being conversant in all systems of philosophy so that one can present fully the theistic views of the Bhāgavatam in defiance of all other systems.

- Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.7 purport

The Sad-Darshan or "Six Views", are six related philosophical schools from the Vedic culture. These schools have as a common feature that they accept the Vedic scriptures as a source of truth (pramana or "valid source of knowledge"); although they vary in how they approach those scriptures and the conclusions they draw from them.

Understanding these six systems gives a solid grounding in universal basics of philosophy such as "what constitutes valid evidence?" (epistemology), "what is valid reasoning?" (logic), and "how are scriptures to be interpreted?" (hermenuetics); as well as giving a deeper understanding of Vedic thought and its conclusions. Among more mundane outcomes, it will make you harder to fool, and safer on the internet as you learn tools to distinguish between valid and invalid information. It will also help to deepen your appreciation of the value of the Vedic scriptures, and your ability to derive and apply life lessons from reading them.

~ Balancing the Real and Ideal ~

Spiritual life is a razor's edge. On one side, unsustainable fanaticism; on the other excessive compromise in the name of "being practical". The two are always present and balance on the fine line between them involves managing the dynamic tension between the two. It's an ongoing process that calls for the spiritual practitioner to constantly rediscover their practice and their place in it. Even sometime successful spiritual practice needs reinvention/rediscovery due to changing environment, the changing nature of the practitioner, and the covering potency of the time factor. Spiritual practitioners share realizations on keeping it real, and keeping on keeping on over the long term.

==What you need to know and to bring==

The retreat is held at the Theosophical Society Springbrook Retreat Centre and Wilderness Sanctuary in the Gold Coast Hinterland. At 680 metres above sea level, the Retreat Centre is an average of 5 degrees cooler than Brisbane. It also has its own weather system with more preciptation (rain and mist) than Brisbane. This past weekend it rained frequently. You might want to bring a jumper and might like to bring an umbrella to go between buildings. (I didn't use either - inside it's quite warm, and I just didn't go between buildings during showers). Since it's a wilderness sanctuary shooting is prohibited, so leave the Winchester at home.

The accommodation consists of rooms which contain a single bed, a desk, and a lamp. A warm duvet and an electric blanket are provided, but you will need to bring sheets and a pillowcase.

The centre has its own water recycling system, which recycles gray water for irrigation. Many chemicals can interfere with this system. Do not use any personal care products (like toothpaste or shampoo) that contain non-biodegradable chemicals. Now is your chance to go out and buy some hippy environmentally-friendly personal care products.

There is no organised program for children on the retreat, and due to its location in the wilderness there are hazards such as insects, animals, and the environment. If you bring any children with you, you are responsible for supervising and engaging them at all times. If a number of a children come, then we will make an organised program for them, and their parents will be asked to participate in running it.

In Summary:

To bring:
* umbrella
* jumper
* sheets
* pillowcase

Do not bring:
* Non-biodegradable personal care products
* Unsupervised children
* Crossbows and firearms

The cost for the three days and two nights, all inclusive, is $150pp.

To book a place, or for more information: contact Param Satya on facebook, telephone 07 3137 1914, or email param.satya@gmail.com

Further to the previous post - my observation is that in her 20s a female is able to use her physical characteristics to attract partners. Once she goes into her 30s she needs to rely more on her character. Unfortunately, many women endowed with positive and powerful physical characteristics don't feel any need to invest in that, until it's too late...

• Claims 30+ single women have lonely future
• Book is creating heated debate
• Suggests setlling for Mr Second Best

WOMEN searching for Mr Right should do it in their 20s or risk ending up lonely in their 30s.

Or so says author Lori Gottlieb, who has caused a storm in the United States for encouraging single women in their 30s to settle for Mr Second Best or even Mr Right Now.

Her book, Marry Him: The Case For Settling For Mr Good Enough, is creating a heated debate.

Miss Gottlieb, a 40-year-old single mother, admitted in her book that she wished she had settled for any of the "perfectly acceptable but uninspiring" men she rejected during her search for the perfect man.

And she claimed the notion of "The One" was a myth, accusing romantic fiction and films of betraying women by encouraging them to hold out for true love.

"We're conditioned to crave that big love," she wrote in her book.

"It's painful how pervasive the fantasy is that `The One' is out there.

"We grew up idealising marriage, but if we'd had a more realistic understanding of its cold, hard benefits, we might have done things differently.

"So we walked away from uninspiring relationships that might have made us happy."

Instead, settling for Mr Second Best could make women happier in the long run, she said.

Source: news.com.au

Its seems that religion is not immune to evolutionary pressures...

If people are straying from the church, he says, it’s the church’s fault for not doing a “better job.”

“There’s a lot to be done to make worship more vibrant and to make the preaching more relevant for people,” he says. “Religion is not just ideas, it’s the bonds of community, and if you get so [insular] that you don’t hold people, you have a problem.”

- Why some Americans mix Christianity, Eastern religions, Christian Science Monitor

Another great quote from the article:

Others, though, argue that religious purity is a non sequitur.

“The thing that is forgotten in these discussions is that any single religious tradition is itself already a composite,” says Harvey Cox, a professor at the Harvard Divinity School whose 1965 book, “The Secular City,” is considered a theology classic. He considers the idea of isolated religious traditions to be “a big myth.”

“What we have are streams that have been fed by other streams and have fed other streams all along,” he says. “Even what is advertised by clerical leaders as the kind of ‘pure package’ is already the result of the collage.”

Dr Harvey Cox was a contributor to "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna: Five Distinguished Scholars on the Krishna Movement in the West".

Vasu Murti has an article by Dr Cox on his site: “A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION”: Krishna Consciousness and the Judeo-Christian Tradition -
A Guide to Interfaith Discussion.

This post is dedicated to the autotune posse

We spent the weekend on the Gold Coast. There is a lot of Krishna Conscious outreach going on down there, and it was a real pleasure to spend time with people who are enthusiastic and dedicated to sharing the philosophy and lifestyle of Krishna Consciousness with others.

We did kirtan on Saturday night in Surfers Paradise at the Bhakti Centre, and on Sunday in Coolangatta at the Country Women's Association Hall. The Bhajan Babas - Venu Gopal on harmonium and lead vocal, Yamal Arjuna on drums, and Janmastami on bass - played their unique combination of traditional melodies with a solid rock / blues groove rocking the bottom. Super mellow groove.

On the way home we stopped off in Tweed Heads to put some gas in the car. The servo had speakers at the pumps and I heard a song that was total autotune plus something else like a vocoder. Using my iPhone I googled what seemed to be the hook: "Watchya say", and found this:

When we got home I did some more google research (wikipedia), and found out that the song samples this one: Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek (embedding disabled). Below I've embedded a version of the song with the lyrics. However, if you follow the previous link and watch the video with only Imogen's mouth visible you can learn a lot about the expressive vocal techniques she employs, in addition to the melody and harmonies, to give the track strong emotional appeal.

According to the wikipedia article for this song, Imogen uses a Digitech Vocalist Workstation to get the vocal harmonies. You can see her doing it here:

The Digitech Vocalist Workstation works by taking two inputs: a vocal via a mic, and harmonic information from a keyboard via MIDI. The machine then generates harmonies for the vocal line based on the chords being played on the keyboard.

The live version doesn't sound as good as the recorded version because she is singing with a machine that effectively amplifies pitch deviations in her voice, and her singing is pitchy (=a little off-key in places). In the recorded version she has either (a) used autotune to correct the pitch of her voice; or (b) retracked her vocal over and over again until she got it pitch perfect.

I love Keka's Australia Day rants - and this guy has the right idea.

Hey, did you miss out on those awesome t-shirts during the recent Australian tour of Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits and the Mayapuris? If you are interested in getting some Mantralogy t-shirts, I have a stock here in Australia for sale.

If you are local to Brisbane, then hit me up in person. Otherwise, check out my listings on ebay. I've put two up, and I'll be putting up others shortly. Ebay links below the pictures.

Here is a recording of Janardana's kirtan from yesterday's Maha Kirtan 4.

• Janardana's kirtan at Maha Kirtan 4 (mp3, 54MB)

It is an on-the-spot mix of an SM58 on the vocal, an SM57 on the harmonium, and a pair of Behringer C2s doing stereo on the mrdangas. There is some skipping in the middle. This was the live web stream dump, and people moving in front of the computer in the temple room causes the wireless signal to drop.