{"id":413,"date":"2007-07-23T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-23T11:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/413\/grand-finale\/"},"modified":"2014-12-29T23:04:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T17:34:59","slug":"grand-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/2007\/413\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Mata Rani Grand Finale &#8211; (finally!)<\/span><br \/>\n<st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Toronto<\/st1:place><\/st1:city><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Tonight was the second night of the Toronto Retreat \u2013 the last stop on the North American Tour. <span>  <\/span>It would be the last chance for us to hear Amma sing Mata Rani \u2013 if the Divine Mother\u2019s Grace and Will wished it.<span>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">And so as the darshan line was ending, around 2:30am, it was on everyone\u2019s mind: \u201cWould Amma sing Mata Rani? Would the East Coast get a chance to sing in bliss with our Beloved Amma as She did in Seattle and San Ramon?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Our hopes rose up, and so did our internal radars. <span>  <\/span>We were looking for clues. <span>  <\/span>As the darshan line got shorter and shorter, people started to move in closer in anticipation. <span> <\/span>A few of us saw Swarna go over to the sound system to talk with Santosh. <span> <\/span>Something was up.<span>   <\/span>Hmmmmm\u2026. Is it happening? <span> <\/span><span> <\/span>Then we saw a harmonium being moved into place on the stage. There was no doubt now!<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">After the last person came for darshan, Amma began\u2026. \u201cMata Rani ne kripa basayi, mere har gar puri hundi ayi\u2019.<span>   <\/span>Amma rocked back and forth \u2013 Her arms raised high, index fingers pointed upwards, beaming at Her children gathered closely around Her. <span>  <\/span>\u201cMeri Ambe Ni\u2026\u201d<span>  <\/span>The crowd shouted responded with a resounding \u2018Whoooooo\u2019 at the top of their lungs. <span> <\/span>Back and forth, verse after verse, in ecstatic call and response. <span> <\/span>Everyone was in bliss \u2013 beaming at Amma, shouting, screaming out the words, bouncing in their place to the rhythm. <span>  <\/span>With Amma\u2019s Grace, everyone in was sitting except for those on the sidelines &#8211; so there was a clear view all around \u2013 both for Amma, and for everyone else. <span>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The music got louder and  louder.<span>  <\/span>A few times, Amma shouted out \u2018Brrrrrrrrrrrrr\u2019 with indescribable joy and almost lost Herself in bliss. <span>  <\/span>And then it ended.<span>   <\/span>Amma rose out of Her seat and headed out of the hall up to Her room. <span>  <\/span>It was wonderful.<span>  <\/span>Everyone was so happy. <span>  <\/span>A beautiful grand finale for the North America Tour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Sri Pati<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">23 July 2007<st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">, Toronto<\/st1:place><\/st1:city><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mata Rani Grand Finale &#8211; (finally!) Toronto Tonight was the second night of the Toronto Retreat \u2013 the last stop on the North American Tour. It would be the last chance for us to hear Amma sing Mata Rani \u2013 if the Divine Mother\u2019s Grace and Will wished it. And so as the darshan line [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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-413","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\/413","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}