Music Transports to a Different World

27 June 2007 — Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Travelling the width and breadth of the globe, Amma often stresses the importance of reviving and nurturing native cultures. Amma says she appreciates the depth, beauty and harmony inherent in those ancient ways of living and therefore encourages their nurturing and revival. To Amma's delight, during the celebration of her 50th birthday in 2003, dozens of nations made offerings to Amma of artistic performances from their cultural heritage: the Gaelic culture of Ireland, the Native American culture of America, the Aboriginal culture of Australia,

music and dance from ancient Japan, Malaysia, Germany, Spain, and of course from all over India. Last night in Albuquerque, another such cultural performance was offered to Amma, that of the Robert Mirabal Band from Taos, New Mexico.

Mixing the indigenous music of the Taos Pueblo people with rock and other influences from around the world, the band played for more than an hour, singing in a mix of English and Robert Mirabal's Native American tongue of Tiwa. For the most part, the songs were about reconnecting with nature and living a life of peace and harmony—seeing the beauty inherent in all things.

Aside from being an renowned performer and storyteller (with an appearance on a Grammy Award-winning album), Robert Mirabal is also famous for making traditional Native American flutes, and during the performance for Amma, both he and his brother Patrick played a variety of such flutes. Most often the instruments were used to invoke the songs of birds and other sounds of nature. The other two members of the band played electric guitar and synthesizer, the synthesizer providing electronic rhythms.

In between songs, Robert Mirabal frequently paid his respects to Amma and recited traditional Native American prayers. At the end of one song, he said into the mic, "Amma, I want to go with you," which caused a large round of applause from the devotees.

Throughout their performance, Amma's face was shining. She was constantly turning around to watch Mirabal's traditional dance moves and to see the flautists when they were perfectly replicating birdsongs. "They are very beautiful songs," Amma said.

At the end of the performance, Amma offered the band some words of her own. Translated and read into a mic by Swami Ramakrishnananda, Amma said: "With their music, Robert Mirabal and his group really transported us to an entirely different world, beyond time and space. That music was full of love. It was really like a river of love—flowing. We were all like honey bees, enjoying the honey." Amma then offered a prayer that the band would receive the strength to make everyone happy, in the same way that they had made all the devotees in Albuquerque happy that night.

—KaliCharan