leonardcohenforum.com

He passed away on December 11.

He was such a phenomenon.

I remember my first hearing of blink..............blounk.............blik in front of huge bemused an raptured audience.

Rest in peace Ravi Shankar.

Great interview on NPR - sitar player Brian Silver provides insight into sitar playing within the context of Ravi Shankar's music.

audio:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlaye ... =167064453

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/12/167064397 ... vi-shankar

Here's Ravi Shankar's phenomenal performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk60ObnbIOk

Kush and John Etherington, your posts are very agreable and much more suitable for such a subject - far more better than my onomatopoeia - really Thanks!

That was quite brilliant John E. Enjoyed it thoroughly. R Shankar in his pomp, and very well filmed as well. Thanks.

Tchoc, how fine it is to see you back around here with your flowers and your pearls:-) !!

I look forward to catching up with these delicious-looking links.

Diane! What a pleasure to read you, as usual!

I just listened to the 1967 concert of Ravi Shankar while doing something else, yesterday. The little I saw of it was all the contrary of my memories, of what I had in mind writing the first post. All was clean, clear, bright, well ordered rows (and rows, and rows) of chairs, quiet audience, people moving slowly and gracefully. All was harmony. But I was just a scoolgirl in 1967 and a young woman at the time of "my" concert. Other time other place maybe. Or maybe it was just the marijuana. Joke. Not even a trace of smoke in the pristine air. I must say I had appreciate the concert just the most.

Besides, who cares for all the mud in the video? As :

"The lotus (Sanskrit and Tibetan padma) is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols and one of the most poignant representations of Buddhist teaching.

The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment.

Though there are other water plants that bloom above the water, it is only the lotus which, owing to the strength of its stem, regularly rises eight to twelve inches above the surface.

According to the Lalitavistara, "the spirit of the best of men is spotless, like the lotus in the muddy water which does not adhere to it."

According to another scholar, "in esoteric Buddhism, the heart of the beings is like an unopened lotus: when the virtues of the Buddha develop therein, the lotus blossoms; that is why the Buddha sits on a lotus bloom." "

Source :

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/symbols/lotus.htm



May a perfect memory of a beloved perfume enchant your spirit.

I first saw Ravi Shankar in Pune India in 1978 at an outdoor venue and it went to 3am. We had blankets and it was divine....warm night under the stars. I saw him one more time at one of the Womad Festival and was magically taken back to that first time I heard him play. Ravi Shankar is one of a kind and a legend indeed. May his music live on...
Leslie

John Etherington wrote:Here's Ravi Shankar's phenomenal performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk60ObnbIOk

Thanks for this video, which also reminds many of us of 1967, the SUMMER OF LOVE, quintessential event of the sixties/flower power generation.

Here is a link to another performance at that same festival , by two legendary artists in their own way,SIMON & GARFUNKEL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6K8wfyz ... E&index=19

Wow, I did not know that he created harmony in that way too :

http://www.artofliving.org/ca-en

I think that is a different person Tchoc.

That would make more sense, Kush. Even by delegating major responsibilities to other people, building such a career as a virtuose and being a busy yogi at the same time would be an almost impossible enterprise.

Nevertheless I am... ravie to have found out about the second one.

Good for you . I dont have a particularly high opinion of these so called guru/philosopher types and godmen. There's one in every street corner in India and most or all are pretty dubious characters.

Nice to chat with you again Kush.

I never went to India but nowadays so many reporters and documents of all sorts are avalaible. I watched a documentary, among other things, about those pullulating self-made gurus in India. What characters they are.

There is a few gurus who are really great, also.

The words are nothing in those matters. Only the acts speak.

The first example that came to my mind to this effect, is this mass-murderer that we had on September 4, around here : fortunately he was stopped before any mass murder can happen - althought the guy who stop the mass murderer were killed by him. This is so sad, a tragedy this death. Well, figure it out, now : that mass-murderer guy said that he is the soldier of the Christ. He may be a mad man, but he is not the only one like that. To begin with, Jesus never have soldiers and his commandment is "you shall love your neighbor as yourself". It takes a really mad spirit to mix up things in such manner that loving God turned out to kill in his name. Turning self responsibility into an act of God, so to speak. You see, it seems so much easier to ditch the God and to keep the madness intact in a virtuous effort to avoid problems.

Fortunately, some among those people who truly believe in "something higher" are acting congruent to their words. And some, like in any other fields, are virtuoses in this art.

I mean, it may be with human imperfections and mistakes, but, at least, it is done.

Oh! I don't want to enter such a subject furthermore.

You know what they say : don't speak about politic, sex and religion. - if you want to keep your furniture intact.

Better come back to our Ravi Shankar number one. Plink-plounk and all.

Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar accept posthumous Grammy for Ravi Shankar


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS8rwRwmwRE