Narad: Good afternoon, today is the 25th day of February 2015. And it is my great honor and pleasure that we have Vasanti with us once again. Namaskar Vasanti. 

Vasanti: Namaskar. 

Narad: where do we begin, I think I would love to begin by Om. 

Vasanti: Om, you see many years ago once we had to, some of the girls, it was to be a girls chorus. For one of the programs of the ashram, maybe some performance on the 1st. But our chorus was to be there at a certain point in the program. And it was just that the whole singing was only Om. But it was a melody; there were steps and all that. The melody was there and then she said, we gathered around her,

Narad: Mother, Mother came. 

Vasanti: Mother was standing to tell us first, to prepare us for the singing. So we were, of course she spoke in French. So then she said, you have to say, Oooom. She made her mouth like that, the lips around it, rounded thing and OOOM. It has to be fully OOM, clearly Om. And when you say Om, that hmmmm has to be prolonged. It just has to be extended like that, that humming, hmmmmmm. Om. That hmmm was to be quite long. She insisted on that, that was important that humming that hmmm sound. So that was the way she wanted us to sing, it was a melody it was for 2 or 3 different kinds of voices. So we sang that, it was not a long chorus but she was very particular about that, the pronunciation of OM the projection of that hmmm sound for a long time. So that's what struck me, that Om in Om that hmmm shouldn't be shortened.

Narad: Good, good.

Vasanti: Yes, it should be, because there is a humming sound in the universe and that is how the word Om was created in the first place. Hmmmm from there. And in some way it is there in all the religions, when they say aaah man something like that. And Ommm there actually the word in Sanskrit for it. The Omkar is there but that hmmm sound with the breath that is called a Homkar. Because it is hmmm. The yogis, Sometimes some of the Yogis were very dynamic produced that Homkar.

Narad: Just a few days back, someone from Australia sent me a recording, a video recording of the sun and they were able to capture the Sun's sound and it's Om. 

Vasanti: You see that the sound, there is a sound there in the cosmos in the creation it's close to this kind of sound and all the mystics and all the rishis and all the things have included that. Otherwise the world had no meaning; afterwards they gave the meaning like it is from these syllables. A stands for this U stands for this then hmm yes. So this the way Mother, the way she formed with he mouth you know, rounded O she did and showed us and that's the way we had to make mouth. 

Narad: And Sri Aurobindo has written mostly OM. 

Vasanti: Yes, because that is the way OM. 

Narad: Not AUM. 

Vasanti: No it is written AUM because this double vowel is pronounced O. 

Narad: Ok.

Vasanti: AUM stands also for OM. What is interesting for me is that, for me this AUM is like the seeds sounds of our Gurus names. In all the tantric things, in all the gods and goddesses have what is called the beej akshara. Akshara is one letter, long names are composed of many letters. But when they make the mantras they make it the beej akshara. Beej is seed, akshara is the vowel or the sound or the syllable. The seed sounds. Now for instance for a devi they say aum aim hrim shrim for different aspects of the devi have got different of those things. Aum hrim aim shrim so different combinations are there, for Durga, for Kali, for Shiva and others. So these are the seed sounds which people in those days put into the mantra when the whole names could not be included in the mantra. Beej aksharas, seed sounds.

Narad: Now you said our Gurus.

Vasanti: Because Aurobindo A U R O B I N D O, the first syllable. AU is just the first akshara, AU.

Narad: Aaah yes,

Vasanti: And ummm for mother, maa mother, whatever you call but the m is there important. And it is the shakti which creates and it is the projection of the force, the energy which creates the universe, which manifests everything in the universe. So this Aum. That's why your Aum choir has interested me so much, I missed when I stopped coming. You still have it in the art section on Wednesdays?

Narad: Fridays. 

Vasanti: Fridays, well next time you come I’ll be there with you.

Narad: Good.

Vasanti: I have missed it. So that was something which helped me and here of course we had to sing it, it was a melody, it was in steps. Yes, and there was little stylized dance there, I think it was for Yvon play, le pericle d'or, the golden journey. All the music was given by her and naturally the words there were all these different things and accordingly Mother read the role of the Purusha, the he, and Yvon read the portion of She, the shakti. And Anu-ben was called to be she, the part of the Shakti and Kumud the part of he. 

Narad: Oh, how beautiful.

Vasanti: It was all dance drama and the whole recitation was, it was in verse, like blank verse, but it was poetry and she wrote this and Mother liked it very much and when it was produced it took about four hours I think and Mother sat in the theater throughout that. And Yvon had also she was an artist, she drew the pictures, the characters, the various characters and their dresses and everything. Then she told me that Medhananda told me I am to participate, Yvon also told me that I was chosen for the role of the angel musician, ange musicien, you see. Angel musician, there I didn't sing or anything, this Aum was recorded the things were recorded only the dance, the dance also was nothing, not Bharatnatyam, nor Kathak, nor ballet nothing. Those movements also were taken, taken from an entirely from a different plane I don't know what style, there was no style, it was her individual style. She taught the steps to Kumud, she taught the steps to Yvon. And I was very fortunate when Yvon decided to have for the recording just the Tanpura background. So I went with my Tanpura and Mother recorded her speech also in the background of my Tanpura. So it was such a grace you know. This recording was done upstairs in the first room that comes. You know there is that little darshan room and in front of the darshan room there is a hall, there is sofa where Sri Aurobindo used to sit and with the stool of the lotus shape you know, that kind of design. And Mother's chair near the staircase, Mother's chair, you don't know that?

Narad: Right, where we yes yes.

Vasanti: While sitting on that sofa he could look out of the window at the sky and all that. You see Sri Aurobindo's room there were three rooms, one what we call Sri Aurobindo's room now, it's only his bedroom, the middle room he used to walk up and down, that's where all the clocks were there and once the clocks stopped and he said, he protested yes. But the other room which opened to the sky opened on to the inner courtyard of the ashram and that room near that chair she sat, Mother sat and Yvon was with her and Mother's part had been written to her, we had written for her in large characters large handwriting, because she had said everything has to be written for me because she didn't use spectacles you see. Written to read and then Yvon did the part of Prakriti or Shakti, the Purusha was Mother for Kumud's part she did and when they read those things I was quietly to sit on one side and near's feet and play the Tanpura. Yes I played the Tanpura and in the beginning of Mother gave her blessing and all that, Mother was nothing if not humorous, after she recited that, twice a week or thrice a week I don't remember we would do the recording. She asks me, “can you come, will you have the time?” Now I thought that, what are you saying, who wouldn't give up everything else just to spend some time, to be in her presence. I said, “Oh Mother what are you saying,” that's what I meant, what are you saying. I said of course I’ll come. She says, can you make the time, do you have the time she asked, to make and all people were just thirsting for her company you see. So when I just did that Tanpura and that recording went on for about an hour or so and I was just in another world, because the words were also such. It's been translated into English, called the golden journey. Whole thing was performed and more to come for the angel was the witness, the angel musician was a witness to the play of the divine and his Shakti. So at different levels the two were one played and those things were depicted there. And that time on the wings, suppose to be, a small place on the wings were shown the audience could see it. The angel musician sat on a little swing with the Tanpura and an orange robe was given to me to wear. It was neither male not female the angel musician was sexless you see. The angel was just angel. So when Yvon asked, can we ask, I am thinking again and again when I write this role Vasanti's picture comes before my mind, so can we ask her? She said Mother said immediately, It's absolutely the right choice, she said that in French. Absolutely the right choice. Yes she will have. And my measurements were taken the gown was meant for her. And for the swing, how big was the swing to be, not big, it had to be small. I was extremely thin at that time, so before Mother. Mother just held her hand like that near my waist to see how the ring had to be, elle et tres mince, she said, she's very thin. So only this much, or something. So the swing was made to that measurement and I sat on that swing during rehearsals, strumming, except when the songs came. She wrote the songs too, and she wrote the music for those songs. It was a very strange experience but as I sat there playing that, I became really the witness to the play of the Divine and his Shakti. Because naturally Mother's reading also was full of power and Yvon of course was immediately out there, it was good. It was all in French, but I began to see the whole of creation as their play in every relationship of the Purusha and Prakriti those things were depicted. So you felt the play, when it was stationed and rolling before your eyes. So it was as if I was a witness that was my role. My music accompanied the play that is just to show that there is music which accompanies everything it's the lila. So I sat and played and at that time I got the experience of seeing the divine everywhere and in everything. It was such an important thing because after that I began to look at everyone like a manifestation of the divine because in different relationships, in different forms and under different guises. It was only those two who are one, who are at play; there is nothing else in the universe. Everything is made up of only those two. So it lasted, the practice lasted, the recording lasted quite some time, then the practice whole month of November because it was the program for December first. 

Narad: Wonderful. Vasanti would you talk a little bit about your experience in America?

Vasanti: Yes, you see in the beginning I didn't think Madhav or I would ever be outside the ashram. We had come here for good. He also hadn't expected. He used to get invitations even when Mother was there, from different places in Europe, different universities and also some other centers and Lois also wanted Madhav to come to America but afterwards she took Purani there. Purani went.

Narad: Lois Duncan,

Vasanti: Lois Duncan, she wanted Madhav to come but he said, you know I don't go out and besides Mother was there he didn't want to go anywhere. But she then invited Purani as one of the older disciples. Purani, she arranged the tour for him.

Narad: I was there 

Vasanti: you were there, so then he came back. Now after Mother left her body even then Madhav had no idea about going anywhere at all. In a strange way it happened that he agreed to go to Singapore. You see the Singapore center was run by Nandalal Patel and they were Deva Nair. Who was one of the top political leaders at that times, party leader. He had not yet become the president but he was close to becoming that. And he was in jail, the British had put him jail, because Singapore wanted to be free. Then in jail he read the Life Divine. And this strange combination came a communist becoming a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. The communist principles were there for social and political reasons. But he had an experience and he became a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. So when Navajat wanted to establish a center there, Deva Nair, Nandalal Patel and then there was Chinese, that Chinese man had read Madhav's book and had great respect for him. So they all felt that Madhav should come to their center and give it some, infuse some strength into it. And the letter they wrote was such, they wrote to him, we know that you don't go out and you have refused all other invitations but still we beg you to reconsider because after the Mother has left the body, the disciples outside badly need the presence of an old sadhak, older sadhak, to give them courage to go on. Everyone can't be at the ashram so we feel that at least to instill hope, for a week at least please come. So somehow Madhav, though he had said no, somehow he said alright they also personally some of them came here. And tried to persuade him. Finally for a week he said Ok, that's alright. So they arranged for us to go for us for about ten days or so, because journey this and that, visa and all that. The strange thing was we had no suitcases we had nothing because we never thought we would travel. Everything had to be got and then when we went there Madhav was given such a reception, though in Singapore University it was communism that dominated the lecture was arranged even in the university because of Deva Nair. They listened to him in pin drop silence and some of the questions were allowed and all those questions Madhav filtered in a way that they couldn't find fault in them, so they couldn't protest. They just remained quiet because there was such a presence and for them it was something new and lots of journalists also came and there were headlines in the newspapers; a lot of publicity was given to that visit. Then Deva Nair said you know, A week is not enough we have to arrange in so many other organizations, they want to have you there, having come they want to have you at the Ramakrishna mission, they want to have you at some other spiritual center and other socio-political institutes also. Because they felt that Sri Aurobindo had a message for everybody, he was not just a old type of spirituality. Foundations were the same the super structure on it was different and they felt to suit the modern conditions. So a large number of people started coming and halls were packed and they even overflowed, people spilled over and Madhav was surprised at that reception. And many people came to know about him and about his books. He was asked to speak on those things. It was very very surprising for him. And as I said it was not enough, we should extend it, at least for a week more, otherwise people will be disappointed. And there were meetings at their center also. So we were there for a fortnight and for the first time Madhav felt that the world of devotees outside also needed Sri Aurobindo. And the ashram we were you know we were so, it was a community which was busy with its own life, people came we allowed them but this also was necessary he felt but he had no plans for further resorts but when I was in Singapore it was a strange thing, the Chinese gentleman's wife was a nice woman, they were excellent people and they we Deva Nair's wife took me shopping. They bought; I was wearing only cotton sarees because that was what I was used to in the ashram. They bought me about 8 synthetic sarees of such beautiful colors, sky blue, pink and golden, suitable to wear at the performance of spiritual music. But I don't need so many sarees I told them, they said no you will need them when you will go to America. I said but we have no plans to go to America. But we feel that you will be going to America. They were quite sure that we would be going to America. This is only the first time, and when we were going Krishnalal made a special painting, when we were leaving the ashram special painting, he showed Madhav in his dhoti and all, in Singapore he didn't have to change his dress because it is tropical. So same dhoti and kurta and shawl he could wear. And I in saree we are there and we are holding something in our hands which looks like Mother's flag and there is a plane in there, we are about to get into the plane and that was how he wished us Bon voyage. 

Narad: Do you still have the painting?

Vasanti: It must be somewhere in that collection at Madhav's, there are thousands of pictures there. He did that and he gave, and it was very touching that a fellow ashramite like that, instead of being critical that someone was going outside the ashram had felt that this was something that was needed to be done and this was his way of showing his approval. And that is how our tour started; actually those 8 sarees were the only ones I took to America because I didn't have time to iron the sarees or anything like that. But these sarees could simply drip dry you see. And even when it was cold I could wear them because it was nylon. Very strange thing, now when we came back from there, invitations started coming we got invitations from Sri Lanka, immediately. They wrote to the Singapore center and got all details and said, now we must have you. Because Mr. Murugesu there was a great admirer of Madhav's books. We didn't know him personally but they had heard of him. Wherever we went people had heard of him earlier, and were eager to see him. Whether it was Germany, France, Switzerland or Spain or anywhere people had already heard of him. And because his books were simple to read, he made everything simpler. For instance when he went to Calcutta, because invitations from India also came. Madhav had opened both these centers Singapore and Colombo both these centers and Mr. Murugesu belonged to a very distinguished family and he was totally devoted to Sri Aurobindo, he had his own experiences and all that. He came here, then he invited Madhav to Sri Lanka, Colombo. That also was very near Madhav thought it was very near just in 45 minutes or 1 hour from Chennai we would be in Colombo. So he said he wouldn't be away from the ashram for long that was his consideration. We agreed to go there and then we went there, there again he got tremendous reception and lot of Media coverage and all that, again very shocked well it may have been a pleasant shock or whatever. And then we, very prestigious Ananda College, Ananda was the principle disciple of the Buddha, very close to Buddha because it's a Buddhist college. We didn't expect the Buddhists to call us. 

Narad: What year was this?

Vasanti: It was 1976.

Narad: I have one question before you continue. Did you sing?

Vasanti: Yes, everywhere I was made to sing. Mr. Murugesu said, we have got a recording we could sing. But we explained to him by letter before we went, You, Murugesu he was a Tamil Sri Lankan. I have learnt a few compositions of Carnatic music by the great poet saints like, Tyagaraj, Muthuswami Dikshitar and others, Muthuswami Dikshitar's on the goddess were simply extraordinary in beautiful ragas. I just learnt them from the director of all India radio here who was from my native state and whose grandfathers also had been one of the great composers. So he taught me some selected things but otherwise my base was Hindustani music. So Mr. Murugesu wrote but Sri Lanka the Singhalese people learn only Hindustani music I am sure they will love your presentation. So I agreed, and we have Tanpura we have the instruments, you don't have to bring anything. So we went there and invocation was done. At first the center didn't have a place, Murugesu had a large hall which was separate he had turned into the center which had been opened by Navajat earlier. And which of course even the prime minister of Sri Lanka the education minister, the education minister had been a classmate of Mr. Murugesu who was a lawyer, a brilliant lawyer. He had a company of lawyers a firm of lawyers. He was from the upper classes you see. So he had friends from those upper classes. They all attended the function and Nishanka who was the education minister, was specially interested and liked very much my presentation of the verses, the Pali verses of Dhammapada on Buddhism. Which I just prepared within two or three days because it is like Sanskrit and so it was not difficult for me. They were very surprised that it was Pali, but they felt it was a separate language. They didn't think that to learn anything from India but I could see that everything was from India. But at that time the anti Indian feeling had started developing. They were looking askance at us so they were. Still afterwards the Singhalese began to come. When they saw that I was presenting the Buddhist thing also along with the Sanskrit things. Though to me both are the same, one derivation of the other. So we were shown a special full moon pooja of the Buddha, it was done specially do show the guest, that is Madhav. How they celebrated these things. They wanted to show their own cultural and religious things before us because after all they admired the Indians, though they didn't like them, they wanted the appreciation from him. And the member of Murugesu's sent, who also was quiet a distinguished person, sat next to me to explain what was being done, what was being said. Now I could see the different things, it was in the open, it was a full moon night. Buddha was worshiped every full moon, they had special worship. Pooja they would say puya, puya day. Now I knew very well that that Ja has become Ya it is like that in some European languages also. J becomes Ya, you know it changes. Just as junger something like that becomes younger you see along with y. I find this kind of a thing there also. So it was not pooja day but puya day and they told me now this is offered not the flower being offered and the mantras they were uttering were totally the Pali translation of the mantras we say here and he was explaining that, translating that in English to me, to show how they did and how different it was from you see. Of course I politely nodded and said because every word I could understand what they did, you know. But it was a beautiful ceremony we like it and saw it. Then we were invited to Candy that is the place where there is suppose to be the temple of the tooth, Buddha's tooth, the relic and it's a very famous temple. It’s also a very beautiful town Candy, with a hill and all that. We were all there and then we were taken to the famous Buddhist monastery where Madhav was to speak. Then there was a woman minister in the education ministry who had accompanied us. We all sat on the dais I didn't want to sit on the dais, but they made me sit on the dais so I sat in the corner. And the meeting was about to begin the lady minister turns to me and said, please sing an invocation. Though we had traveled I don't know hundred or two hundred miles I don't know it was quiet a distance. All the while I was dizzy and my throat was dry, I was not a robust person and suddenly nothing, just stand on the stage and sing. Would any musician do that? I don't know but I had to do things which here you know I sang with Shobha-di chorus, there were instruments accompanying me our own people putting the mike in front of me, they were used to my voice. And I was all surrounded by my own people, ashram family. But I said to myself, I am not going to be nervous. I can't say, Madhav had told me the person who accompanies me has to meet the situation like that and has to perform. Just has he was sometimes asked to say a few words and immediately he could speak but then he had been speaking for many years. I was only singing within this small community you know at the ashram theater. And suddenly I was exposed to the wide-wide world. But I didn't say anything, now I understood why. All the during the drive I had the Dhammapada in my hands and there is the invocation to the Buddha, Aum namo bhagavate asa bhagavato" in Pali but this bhagavate comes there. And salutation to him and then the couplets of the meter of the Gita. And where the main principles of Buddhist philosophy had told, what do the tagatas say? Those couplets were there and I was again and again reading those. About ten verses from that again and again reading during the journey. And I read them and they impressed me so much, so when they asked me to sing only those verses came to my mind. I couldn't sing in Hindi I couldn't sing in Bengali, they wouldn't have understood. Before me in a very large hall were all ocher clad monks, Buddhist bikkus, watching me with grim faces. I summoned my friend, the one who explained to me, you see the monks they don't salute the others the others salute them. AS we were passing them in the corridor before going to the hall and taking our places on the dais, Madhav whenever some monk looked at him he had saluted because that is how we greet and specially sanyasins the ocher clad people, we are suppose to salute. And they would just look and pass, it may have embarrassed that lady minister but she explained you know, the monks don't salute anyone. She must have felt embarrassed that the chief guest's salutations went unacknowledged. Of course seeing them, like I didn't salute them I just passed behind these people. But I saw that they didn't like our coming they thought their own religion was the best and they didn't want these Indians to come and show their superior knowledge, what can they give us! I could see that there were a few hundreds of them all below sitting all with glum faces. I said I have never seen sanyasins with such faces. Sanyasins have a serenity and well they don't look so unfriendly and I was asked to sing an invocation before these people. So I didn't think of anything. The first line, it was Pali counterpart of "Aum namo bhagavate", it starts like that and it is some Buddha's same pattern. So I started, and even the pitch at which I had to start even that I didn't know you know. I used to feel nervous to sing suddenly because I had very large tonsils and often my throat would be dry. I needed a little bit of something like that. But I didn't think of it I didn't have any of it, they put on the podium a glass of water but I had started this "Aum namo bhagavate",  and some Buddha's words. The moment I said those words with closed eyes, thought I better close my eyes. Immediately I felt some kind of a stir in the audience and then total silence. Then the couplets, the couplets had a different melody. It was my own tune that had come to me there spontaneously but in the lines of the way we do the Sanskrit chants raga based. The next couplet and the next couplet, the next couplet and the next couplet. I went on singing and finally I stopped at a proper point where one line of thought had stopped but Buddha had stopped. And not only that I knew by heart only those lines, it happened like that. An invocation is not a concert so invocation has to be short, I could stop. I stopped and then opened my eyes, my god all those glum faces were smiling some were grinning in fact, they were all smiling, all smiling, the whole hall was smiling. Mr. Murugesu was very happy, he didn't know whether I would be hackled or what would happen. And nobody had expected that I would sing to the Buddhas and explain the verses of the counterpart of Bhagavat Gita, Buddha's philosophy, the way he describes it in couplets. The same kind of couplets as the couplets of the Gita. All of them were smiling, all of them, hundreds of them, oh dear. So I said my god so much is there. Then we got up, some small speech was given by Madhav, he also understood that there was not much that he could say only some general things of philosophy he said and then we were taken to another part of the monastery, where they had to show us many things, library and things. And on the way the inner courtyard it was vast, because it was a big monastery inside there was a vast inner courtyard, with lawn, and pathways and all that. And as we passed everywhere people were looking at me and folding their hands and here the education minister had said that monks they do not salute anyone else, lay men had to salute and everywhere all grinning and saluting. Everywhere they were holding their hands and grinning, what a thing. Murugesu told me afterwards, it was your day, you saved the day that day. 

Narad: Let’s take a break for just one minute, and we'll continue. 

Vasanti: I don't know whether this is interesting or not.