Dear Friends,
It was a privilege to dance for His Holiness Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the Founder Guru of Art of Living fame, when he undertook a rare visit to Kuala Lumpur on 25 March, 2024.
Gurudev commanded a full house of easily more than 3000 devotees who thronged the Plenary Hall of the KL Convention Centre. Intriguingly, when the cavernous hall started filling, it was clear that the majority of the audience were Chinese. Neither were they the usual rowdy lot but were the cultured and ‘in the know’ tribe, joining effortlessly in singing the bajans. They seemed to be completely ‘with it’. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed.
Sutra fulfilled the request that we should dedicate our dance to Lord Rama, as the latter seemed to be the favourite since the new Rama Temple of Ayodhya was installed early this year. We therefore complied and presented a new work which transformed our old Shankabaranam Pallavi of Pankaj Charan sir into something rather pleasantly fresh and compelling. The beautiful contemporary Ramayana paintings of Odiya artist Kishore Sahoo added to the magic of the dance presentation. The packed audience was suitably pleased with our dance.
Gurudev, the featured agenda of the evening, effortlessly presented an insightful talk to his adoring audience. He spoke of mental health issues, how to bring tranquility and centredness to a noisy and disturbed world.
Gurudev fielded questions easily. It was clear that he was not about propagating a religion but one who was focused on expounding the Art of Living.
Gurudev’s presentation ended with a relaxing meditation where he took his devotees on a beautiful meditative journey of the relaxation of mind, body and spirit.
His main message was the celebration of Life – that we should endeavour to achieve a violence-free society and disease-free body etc – a universal message of positiveness.
Sutra