Global Maharishi Gandharva-Veda Online Concerts
Enjoy a front row seat in the comfort of your home!
“Gandharva music…sets forth those very natural melodies which match with the process of evolution. It provides a powerful harmonizing influence in the whole atmosphere to balance imbalances in nature.”
“The goal of Gandharva-Veda concerts is the elimination of pollution, elimination of imbalances, elimination of negative tendencies, elimination of crime, quarrels, elimination of imbalance in the physiology, imbalance in the behavior. So, all betterment in every way. Better quality of life, better behavior, better health.” – Maharishi
The Academy is pleased to present a global initiative through Maharishi Gandharva Veda music.* A global online Full Moon Festival series featuring world renowned sitarist, Reshma Srivastava will start on the November full moon, November 19. The concerts will run once a month on the full moon evening across five time zone areas, for a year, and possibly longer, in order to generate and sustain a positive, harmonising influence in the atmosphere. See times and Zoom Link below. Donations will cover the concert costs––see below.
In an historic lecture on Gandharva Veda Maharishi said, “Gandharva music is the basis of all order and harmony in nature; therefore, it has that most harmonizing, most integrating influence. It is a very precious science and art of creating harmony within oneself, one’s family, one’s city, one’s country, and the whole world.”
Scientific research is starting to objectively document the beneficial effects of Maharishi Gandharva Veda ragas on the level of the mind, body, and environment. In a paper currently in review by the journal Music and Medicine, researchers Fred Travis, Ph.D., Paul Morehead, Ph.D., and Niyazi Parim, M.A., present the results of three studies. For example, one study showed that 1,800 subjects who attended Maharishi Gandharva Veda concerts experienced significant decreases in negative emotions (feeling tense, angry, fatigued, depressed, or confused) and significant increases in positive emotions, such as greater self-esteem and vigor.
‘Sitar Superstar’ Reshma Srivastava
Reshma has been hailed by the US media as a “Superstar Sitarist”. Her performances are acclaimed as “Transcendent, Soulful, and Illuminating”. Performing professionally for over 30 years, touring in India, Europe, and USA, Reshma is considered among the top female sitar artists in the world today. Her background in music and sitar originates from her family of musicians in Allahabad, India. Reshma’s speed and accuracy in performing are phenomenal; but the depth of creativity in her improvisation and the variations of rhythms and melody deeply enrapture listeners and elevate the experience to an awakening of bliss and enlightenment.
Reshma is a long time practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programmes and teaches Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music. Reshma was recently honored by the Government of India with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award. She also received, from the Society for Action through Music, the title Sangeet Shiromani, which means “a leading contributor to the field of music.” In addition, she holds the titles of Surmani and Prayag Gaurav, which translates as “the pride of the confluence of the three holy rivers”—the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati in Allahabad. She is a member of the Academy of Arts for Enlightenment Advisory Board for World Harmony through Maharishi Gandharva Veda Music.
The Science and Art of Bliss, the Song of Nature
I had an opportunity to ask Reshma a few questions about playing and teaching Maharishi Gandharva Veda. An intriguing discussion ensued. Reshma explained that in Maharishi Vedic Science, Gandharva-Veda refers to the knowledge of Gandharva—the fundamental creative intelligence of the whole universe. In other words, “Gandharva music brings to expression the fundamental frequencies that have their home in pure transcendental consciousness, which scientists call the unified field of all the laws of nature.
“In this way,” Reshma continues, “Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music expresses the very foundation of nature. Reverberating from here, its melodies are, as if, sung and played spontaneously on all levels of creation from the most minute to the unbounded ever-expanding universe.” This knowledge of Gandharva has its origin in the Vedic tradition, which Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has revived as a valuable technology of Maharishi Vedic Science.
In Vedic Science, Maharishi clearly describes the practical application of Gandharva music:
“From morning to morning the melody of nature is changing. Gandharva music goes with the time, setting its melodies according to the changing nature. It sets forth those very natural melodies, which match with the process of evolution. It provides a powerful harmonizing influence in the whole atmosphere to balance imbalances in nature. It is the science and art of bliss, the song of nature.”
– Maharishi
The Music of the Universe
Reshma continued, elaborating on this fascinating art and science of music: “The universe we know to be an ever-expanding universe. In that ever-expanding mechanics, it’s all very rhythmical, it’s all very melodious. And this rhythm and melody is the field of Gandharva. So, we say Gandharva music is the music of the universe. It is the melody in which the fundamental intelligence of nature moves and administers and governs all the infinite diversity of everything that is there in the universe in the most orderly way.”
“Importantly,” she emphasized, “melody nourishes life. It nourishes the process of evolution, it helps everyone to evolve. This is the powerful effect of Gandharva music. It is highly integrating and profoundly nourishing.” At this point, Reshma reminded me of a phrase from Maharishi Vedic Science, “If you favour Natural Law, Natural Law will favor you.” She explained how this phrase relates to Gandharva music, “By playing the ragas, melodies, of Maharishi Gandharva Veda music at the appropriate times, balance for the individual and society is restored.”
Balance in Nature and Harmony in World Consciousness
Reshma’s tone became serious, “We want to create a positive effect for the people of our world through these full Moon Festivals. We want to create balance in nature and harmony in world consciousness.” In Maharishi’s words, “With all the problems in the international and national world, Gandharva music is a must for everyone.” Reshma emphasized that we can create this balance and harmony simply through large numbers of people listening to these melodies during concerts.
She noted that one salient feature of Maharishi Gandharva-Veda is that the musician should play the ragas according to the time of day designated by the tradition.** However, she explained, by following guidelines from this tradition, it is possible to carefully select ragas that go with all time zones and all locations. Online festivals of Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music will follow the rise of the full moon around the world. In this way, it is possible to create a global balancing, harmonizing influence.
Jack Forem, author of the best-selling book ‘Transcendental Meditation: The Essential Teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi‘, and a longtime aficionado of Gandharva-Veda music commented, “I have always believed in the transformative power of art to purify and uplift heart, mind, and spirit,” says Forem. “Great art has always done this, and that’s why it endures. Music is especially effective in this way as it works on the level of sound, the fundamental impulses of natural law.”
Maharishi illumines another delightful and compelling feature of Gandharva music: “Whether someone listens to that music or not, if those reverberations are created in the atmosphere a harmonizing influence will prevail and imbalances will become balanced. This is the value of Gandharva music”. Maharishi elaborates, “Those who listen to it, they’ll have the direct effect of it. But, even those who do not listen—the quality of the environment, the quality of the ecology rises in the character of harmony. Harmony. Integration, and that neutralizes negative trends and tendencies in the world.” Therefore, if someone is not able to listen live, they can connect to the concert and let the music play with no one listening. Anyone can listen to a raga for the appropriate time of day using the Maharishi Veda App**.
Listeners to Reshma’s Concerts say:
“It is hard to describe in words how beautiful this was… I felt more in tune with the universe.”
“PURE SITAR. A marvelous concert. Sublime energy. Opened hearts. Relaxed minds.”
“Listening to her play is transformational–a sound like no other.”
“Having experienced during every note… sheer golden light filled with changing mathematical abstractions dancing with every fraction of every note, I need no convincing of the validity of this particular musician’s absolute conformation to the laws of nature which govern music. There was never a fraction of a second during which anything else was experienced. Such a performance is truly heaven sent. The listener is swept up into the fundamental music of which the universe is constructed…all brought about by the conscious play of a Great Musician. Nothing compares to this in all the fields of Art.
“Like a breeze that blows into your soul … Amazing!”
Listeners to Live Online Concerts say:
“It was fantastic – everyone raved… the sound was better than Reshma’s live performance.”
“When I heard the first note and then felt it slide into the second and third, a very tender feeling of bliss and remembering emerged. I instantly knew this is the feeling that brings balance to nature, that brings rain. It was the feeling of Nature returning from its scratchy discordance to a memory of its deep soft holistic harmony. I also knew in that instant that Nature had shifted and was unified with me in this feeling. I knew rain would come. After that, yes, Nature did change. Rain came—deep soaking rain—two times a week in that area, relieving the drought.”
For Your Continued Enjoyment
**Maharishi Veda App (Play the ragas according to current times of day and night): www.maharishivedaapp.com/faq/
MERU Concerts: www.youtube.com/user/MERUConcerts
About the Author
Taoline Oaas, PhD, Maharishi Vedic Science, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, IA; Faculty, Department of Science of Creative Intelligence, Rajapark Institute, Thailand; Part-Time Faculty, Heavenly Mountain Ideal Girls’ School, Livingston Manor, NY, and Boone, NC, 1996-2001; Participated in several World Peace Projects applying the Maharishi Technologies of World Peace in Switzerland, India, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Thailand, Holland, and USA, 1975-2014. Advisor to the Academy of Arts for Enlightenment for Consciousness-Based Education.