When Amma came for bhajans, students from Amrita Vidyalayam were standing in line with lamps and flowers in their hands, all the way to the stage.

Tonight is Shivaratri. Amma sang with immense force and Her voice was really powerful.

Tonights bhajans were:

Krishna Govinda Gopala
Omkara Swararupini
Pelava Kaiviral
Om Shakti Om Shakti
Mano Buddhyahankara
Gange Ginta Pavitralu
Om Namah Shivaya
Kannante Kalocha
Deep Within the Soul
Jai Ma Ambe

Kannante Kalocha is always magnificent and melts the heart every time Amma sings it.

The lyrics to Pelava Kaiviral strike me as profound and beautiful, and they could as well be a Shivaratri prayer:

I long to walk with you along the vast, open space of consciousness,

Happy and excited, I will take a hold of your soft fingertips.

By swimming across the ocean of time I may at last reach the kingdom of love.

May my mind become as soft as a flower when caressed by Your eyes that resemble peacock feathers.

Please shine a ray of light in my eyes so that I am guided steadily along this lonely path of life that is like a forest.

Just like water and fire so are the body and the Self different from one another.

Let me lose the weight of the notion “I am the body” and salute Your feet forever.

The Vedic knowledge, the consciousness, is the truth within me; it is the ocean of bliss.

Through the light that flows in my meditation I explore Your ocean of love.

Vishwanath

16 Feb 2007