28 October 2007, Italy<\/p>\n
Traditionally one does not applaud a bhajan. It is a prayer set to music. The intent of singer is not to perform for others, but to pray through song. Similarly, the listener is attempting to focus on God through the medium of the song, more often than not singing along himself. The prayer becomes as much the listener\u2019s as the leader\u2019s. But when Amma sings in Italy, the applause thunders forth regardless. Sometimes it is like the end of an opera; people whistle and shout and call out bravissimo, bravissimo! Often, there are standing ovations. The Italians simply can\u2019t help themselves. They\u2019ve been touched and want to show their appreciation.<\/p>\n
In fact, when Amma finishes giving darshan in Italy, she gets a standing ovation\u2014every time. They are celebrating her\u2014her darshan, her smile, her life. Applause is how they do that here.<\/p>\n
Often when Italians have Amma\u2019s darshan, I hear them whisper grazie as they leave Amma\u2019s arms. Again, according to Indian culture, \u201cthanking\u201d Amma may sound a little odd. But in reality could there be a response more appropriate? Amma is giving the most precious gift\u2014the gift of transformation from agitation to peace. Perhaps, a heartfelt \u201cthank you\u201d is quite called for.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow morning at the end of Devi Bhava, Amma will get a standing ovation as grand as is given in Milan\u2019s famous opera house, Teatro Alla Scala. I feel it is appropriate. After all, haven\u2019t the devotees just witnessed an atbhuta leela<\/em>\u2014a most wondrous play? Amma\u2014whose true nature is the sakshi caitanyam, the witness consciousness\u2014donning the bhava of the Divine Mother in order to uplift mankind.\u00a0 I too say, \u201cBravissimo, Amma! Ancora! Ancora!\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014Sachin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 28 October 2007, Italy Traditionally one does not applaud a bhajan. It is a prayer set to music. The intent of singer is not to perform for others, but to pray through song. Similarly, the listener is attempting to focus on God through the medium of the song, more often than not singing along himself. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-with-amma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}