“Does being a yogi get any better than this?”

[From Lene on behalf of the MOJ group, who are on their way to the Yangtze River – the Kundalini of China!]

Jai Shri Mataji!

All of us on the tour have been talking about how we wish to share our amazing experiences over the past 6 days with everyone, but how difficult it is to put into words all the incredible events that have already taken place. We cannot find enough time to even share with those present here all the love and joy we have had with so many little individual experiences apart from the amazing concerts we have been part of. The fact that I had to ask my room mate Karuna if I had taken a shower last night shows how this whole experience could turn into a gigantic blur if I don’t start writing it all down. Sometimes we have to just double check with each other as to exactly which city we are in today and what the time actually is! Here are a few impressions of our incredible journey so far:

After 24 hours spent in various airports and on three flights we literally hit the ground running as we touched down in Ho Chi Minh city Vietnam. Even as we stood in a random looking queue to get our visa on arrival we knew that in less than two hours we were meant to be sitting on a stage in Saigon and performing. But after all the travel and hanging around airports for 24 hours, we all could not wait to start up the music and get into the vibrations, as we had no chance for any other form of clearing.

We were greeted by the beautiful local yogis and the Tan family who had come from KL to support the Vietnamese yogis. When we pulled up at the hotel we were greeted by an ‘army’ of yogis all dressed in red and white T-shirts and it was incredibly moving.

Luckily there was no time to get sentimental as we were rushed to a change room in the hotel venue where we put our performance clothes on, over our travel weary and sticky bodies. It was like a dream to be immediately sitting on stage in the 300 seat room which was packed. Due to overwhelming interest the collective had to arrange a second concert the next morning for the other 3-400 people who had collected tickets! There was also TV cameras present and after the concert John and myself were interviewed by a lovely young TV presenter from a show called ‘Smile Vietnam’ – you can imagine the discussion over John Smiley’s surname.

The audience was gracious and beautiful. John decided to give our new Chinese song a go, as apparently quite a few Vietnamese understand Mandarin. The applause at the end indicated that they had really liked the song and one person was singing along. The program was presented by a local yogi and yogini who looked incredibly graceful in her traditional Vietnamese suit. The stage backdrop was a fantastic design by Ramesh Tan with Lotus flowers, chakra chart, kundalini, band photo and a map of our whole tour. It was quite useful for us as many of us had not really had time to study where we were actually going!

The vibrations built up steadily and Auntie Katie presented the realisation process in English and translated by Giang. The meditation was beautiful and the new seekers were invited up to the front for vibrations while we continued singing. We all felt completely refreshed by the beautiful vibrations and the long journey to get there seemed a distant memory.

After the concert, we travelled to the office building where Giang has her office and where the weekly programs are being held – with hungry eyes we caught our first glimpse of a horizontal sleeping opportunity (that is a real bed) – a boys and girls dorm had been set up for us with comfortable mattresses etc! But first a wonderful collective eating area had been set up on the floor and a yogini had cooked traditional Vietnamese chicken with beautiful herbs, delicious dipping sauce and a very comforting rice porridge soup, which was the absolute perfect remedy for our throats. It was a most beautiful feeling sitting there and eating with our Vietnamese and Malaysian brothers and sisters. From the time I hit the pillow to falling asleep would have been about one millisecond.

After a relished collective meditation in the gym, which is the yogis meeting hall, we had a most delicious Vietnamese meal before heading back to the venue for our second concert scheduled for 9.30 pm. Some of us took the conventional form of transportation of Saigon, that is the motorcycle and we decided that Lyndon really looked the part on the bike with helmet and sunnies. It is a beautiful city – shopfronts a lot like India but a small town feeling with beautiful parks, French lampposts, and incredibly dangerous looking electrical wiring hanging in huge bunches like black spaghetti! The atmosphere of this city wad really gentle and friendly – Just like its people. There are two main cities in Vietnam, in the South (Saigon) and North (Hanoi), and many yogis had travelled down for the programs from Hanoi. These beautiful brothers and sisters were saying how much joy we were giving them and it was difficult to explain to them with their sometimes limited English (and our complete lack of Vietnamese) just how reciprocal this feeling was.

The second concert was really enjoyable because we all had some much needed rest. The meditation was incredibly deep and silent. At the end of the concert, we taught them the simple steps to Haida, and the whole hall was up and dancing in lines around the room. It was sheer joy … At the very end of the concert every single tour member was presented with a stunning Vietnamese lacquer work plate with an inscription commemorating our incredible 24 hours in Vietnam, and this along with all their gracious love will be in our hearts forever!

The night before, the TV presenter had asked very intelligent questions about the link between music and meditation and it gave us great opportunities to explain how music aids us in reaching the state of joy – at the end he said to me ‘wow music of Joy is really exactly what you are – it is the perfect name for what you do!’

When we returned to the Sahaj centre all the rooms were decked out on all available floor spaces with a smorgasbord of Vietnamese delicacies which looked incredible, and tasted even better. So all local and guest yogis sat down at the same time and we all ate way more than we could. At the end of this incredible collective meal, the Vietnamese performed two traditional dances for us and the room was just rebounding with joy and laughter. We then presented a set of clapsticks and a photo of Shri Mataji to the Vietnamese collective.

We are starting to realise that this tour is going to be mostly 1. standing in airport queues 2. Performing music on stage and enjoying blissful vibrations 3. Eating (people are already talking about switching to a fruitarian diet) and what we will be doing the least of will definitely be 4. Sleeping!

We had a two hour window to visit a local market where we browsed around for one hour with a few dollars trying to pick up something uniquely Vietnamese – although Peter was trying to coach us in the mantra ‘shopping is evil’ – due to some difficult negotiations with our BUDGET airlines (with a capital B here = no movies and you have to buy your own water!) The luggage dramas have followed us on every leg of our journey so far and we have left some excess items at KL which we have to work out how to get home later. So far though at the end of the day Shri Mataji has (of course) worked out everything perfectly!!!

Jean Michel turned out to be the expert haggler (we all want to shop with him). He drove a particularly hard bargain with one lady in a shop who looked increasingly distressed as he halved the price she would not give him! But then he gave her realisation and she could feel such cool on her hands that she was totally overwhelmed and her face transformed into joy. She asked him ‘What is this?’ She appeared to have sensed that the crowded market was not the ideal place to experience this new awareness, so after Jean Michel told her about the local yogis she said with great determination ‘I am going there right away so that I can experience it’.

Soon we were back to the airport – Karuna and I went on motorcycles which was such fun although we had some trouble getting inside the terminal and the group was starting to get a little worried. That night, we travelled to KL where we had 3 hours rough sleeping on the airport floor (and in the guide to sleeping in airports this budget terminal rates amongst the worst). But of course when greeted the next morning by the yogis in Guangzhou and Hong Kong all our weariness faded quickly away.

That is all for now – our plane is about to land in Wuhan, in the centre if China (known as the heart of China) where we are performing outdoors on the Yangtze River – the Kundalini of China! Does being a yogi get any better than this?

Much love from Lene and of course all of MOJ (typing on her phone, so please forgive any typos)!

Wish you were all here!

Bolo Shri Adi Shakti Mataji Shri Nirmala Devi Ki Jai!!!!!

Sent from my iPhone