Yoann is The Voice!

Yoann Freget, a 25 year old Sahaja yogi, wins The Voice 2 of France on May 18, 2013. The talent from the Garou team, beat his competitors in the public voting. Yoann has won realization of his first album and the hearts of the big audience. He prevailed at the end of the final stage where he performed hits like “In Another World” by Celine Dion and “Earth Song” by Michael Jackson. In his duet with Zaz, Yoann reprized the song “I Want” together with his coach Garou, and sang “Amazing Grace” by Elvis Presley.

His sensitivity, his soul, his heart and his generosity have captivated the audience. In his backstage interview to the MyTF1 Yoann said about the message he wanted to deliver, “Always and forever: Love… for the final show I wanna give love…”

Will.i.am, the leader of the famous American hip hop band Black Eyed Peas, who sang that evening with all the four finalists, announced that he will create a single for the winner of the Voice 2. So it is Yoann who will be working with will.i.am, and his upcoming new single will be the first part of will.i.am’s concert in Paris in December.

Enjoy the video of the “Earth Song” performance by Yoann at the Voice grande final.
“Amazing Grace” (Elvis Presley)
“Free” (Stevie Wonder)
“It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” (James Brown) sang by Yoann at the semifinal.

 

Eternal Attraction of Mona Lisa

Today we are celebrating the birthday of the great polymath of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452). Born-realized, with his Inner Energy awakened, he is one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. Among his paintings, the Mona Lisa is the most famous, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied portrait in the world. Let’s see what stands behind such brilliant artwork.

In the course of the talk, Shri Mataji mentions many times that people who get their Self-Realization are able to identify real art easily because they can feel the cool vibrations it emits. “So those who become higher persons have higher aesthetics, higher values and higher type of compassion. The higher aesthetics come with the feeling of these cool vibrations. Like Mona Lisa is a beautiful painting because she emits vibrations.”

“…those who get Realization start feeling the knowledge which is absolute. Seeing the knowledge, knowing the knowledge… The whole aesthetics are worked out through vibrations. All the beautiful things, as I told you last time, of the world, real beautiful things have vibrations. Like Mona Lisa I told you the other day, if you go and feel her vibrations, she has vibrations. Now the one who has made her has put his joy into her and she emits vibrations. And that is the thing that gives joy to you because you are at a level where you can feel those vibrations.”

“When you see a beautiful picture, say you see a Mona Lisa, you think this Leonardo Da Vinci what he must have done, how much it will cost, this, that, all those things. But a realised soul does not think, he just looks, looks at it without thinking. The joy of the creation of that beautiful painting absolutely is reflected in his mind like in a ripple-less lake; all that is surrounding it is completely reflected. That’s how the sense of beauty and aesthetics change absolutely. And we have had so many great people who were born-realized before.”

Unveiling The Mystery of Gioconda’s Smile

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy. The woman in the painting is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. The portrait is also known as ‘La Gioconda’, which means “jocund” (“happy” or “jovial”), or literally “the jocund one”.

Shri Mataji explained the story behind Gioconda, “I’ll give an example of Mona Lisa. If you see Mona Lisa – I mean I don’t know, she cannot be an actress, she cannot win any beauty contest, I think. She… her face is very serene, very motherly, very pure her eyes. And why is it that she’s eternally so much appreciated?”

The reason is in the pure principle in her. Shri Mataji said, “She’s a mother, and the story about that one is that this lady had lost her child and she would never smile, she would never cry. And one little child was brought to her, and when she saw the child then the smile that came on her face of that love for the child is being depicted by this great artist. And that’s why people are appreciating it.

And you have seen in the West, though the people don’t show much interest in the mother-child relationships, anywhere you go, is the mother and child theme is the best… They have to have mother and the child principle acting otherwise that picture is not regarded as something great… I haven’t seen any picture, as such, of those days where these principles are not there. Even Picasso has used it. Even people who have been quite modern had to use this principle to popularize… Despite the fact people have lost their morals, but still they would like to have Rembrandt, they will have to have Leonardo da Vinci, they would like to have such artists who have done mother and child…

So this principle is the most pleasing principle, is the most pleasing principle for human beings to see the children, to play with them, to enjoy their company. Why? Because it has that sweetness of a child. It’s really, I should say, tickles joy within you when you see a child. Immediately, the face becomes different.”

Learn more about vibrations

 

The Divine Artist

Today we are celebrating the birth anniversary of Michelangelo Buonarroti (March 6, 1475).

“Like I would say Michelangelo was a Realized soul… when I see the Sistine Chapel in Rome, I don’t start seeing in a way normally people see it, but what I see – the the joy of the artist, as well as the great artist behind him who has created that beautiful painting in this Sistine Chapel. So joy of matter, which the creator has put in it, manifests within our mind, when we are thoughtless. You forget what race you come from or what education you have had, it’s pure joy that is within you, which starts flowing within you.”

“If they are born Realized, like Mozart, from childhood they are geniuses. Like Michelangelo, you can say, is a great personality. He has shown Christ in a real way, if you see the Sistine Chapel, that is the Judgment he’s shown so well… Christ standing like a strong man there…”

“You see those people who have been Realized souls have created eternal art. Like we can say, Michelangelo was a realized soul. So his work is eternal art. And they produce art which creates vibrations. You can feel vibrations from him… When you go to Sistine Chapel and see his work, the whole thing fills you up with vibrations. They are creators of vibrations. Imagine!”
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

The Last Judgement at the Sistine Chapel

In the course of a talk, Shri Mataji mentioned Michelangelo and how great he was and how he and William Blake were her favorite Western artists. Someone said, “But he wasn’t particularly happy, was he?”

Without a pause she replied, “Who would be?”

Looking back through history at the period in which he lived, there was tremendous unrest and violence. Although Michelangelo was employed by the Catholic church for 50 years, he secretly followed ideas that were considered heresy to the church and punishable by death. Even though he was glorifying the Catholic church with his art, his heart and mind were filled with doubt and dissent. He was friends with those who were involved with the Reformation, specifically a secret group known as the “Spiritualists”.

At this time, Martin Luther cried out against the moral decadence, the excessive wealth, and corruption in the Catholic church. In letters written to a friend, Michelangelo, a Catholic, yearned for religious reform. In one letter in particular, the artist supports one idea central to Luther’s attack on the church – that Divine Grace cannot be bought. You cannot pay the church, or build a chapel, or pay for masses to be said to save your soul, and expect that is going to save you. When asked how his soul could be saved, the church basically said to him to do good deeds and support the church, but the Spiritualists believed that only through faith alone, salvation could be achieved. Michelangelo took the spiritual view on this delicate question. If he questioned the theology of the church, then he must have also questioned his role in furthering it. In private drawings, they center on Christ and leave the church completely out of the picture, bringing Christ directly to the people.

Pieta: Jesus on the lap of His Mother Mary

In 1536, Michelangelo was hired full-time as the Vatican’s supreme architect, painter, and sculptor. In 1541, he finished the fresco of The Last Judgment, but there was a verbal assault on the work by the conservative Catholics (the leader of which would eventually replace the current Pope against his wishes) saying the naked bodies were obscene and immoral, totally inappropriate for a Christian chapel. The artist was devastated. He wrote in anguish, “What judgment shall be so barbarous as to deny that Man’s foot is nobler than his boot, and that his skin is nobler than that of the sheep with which he covers himself.” His sensibility was the essence of the Renaissance. The focus was on the man, not the church.

Fortunately, the current Pope immediately came to the painter’s defense and offered Michelangelo another high-profile Papal commission. These later frescoes in the Pope’s private chapel, outraged the conservatives even more for their lack of depicting the church hierarchy at all – no bishops or cardinals, only Christ with the people. The artist owned a Bible and, in his day, to own a Bible was considered a crime against the church. Only the clergy were allowed to have the Holy Book. Michelangelo was sharing signs with other Reformers who wanted to take the power of the church and return it to the people, that it was possible to reach God directly and without paying the church.

In 1543, the secret Spirituality group published a book outlining their ideas that salvation was directly through faith and that it implied that the church and its sacraments played no role in the salvation of Mankind. Michelangelo was present at this meeting. As soon as the book was circulated, the church declared it heretical and censored it. The artist had to keep his feelings hidden or face possible death as the Inquisition was reinstated.

Tomb of Pope Julius II

In one of his last works, a sculpture of Pope Julius II for his tomb, the sculptor shows the Pope with head bowed, minus most of his ceremonial garments. Michelangelo believed the best expression of papacy or any religious or spiritual figure would be to distance oneself from imperial grandeur and dedicate all ones energy to the private and urgent meditation of faith. Even his famous statue of Moses for the tomb was altered 40 years after he originally carved it and turned the head away from the altar to reinforce his current belief that man’s direct relationship with God was what mattered, not the role of the priests. Michelangelo transformed this papal tomb to reflect the beliefs of “The Spiritual”.

The Deposition (Florence Pieta), detail

In his last sculpture, created for his own tomb, the artist carved himself as Nicodemus, the man who visited Christ on the cross at night because he didn’t have the courage to worship him openly by day. In this very personal sculpture, the sculptor clearly lamented his own torment at being unable to express his true faith in public. As Michelangelo felt death approaching, he burned almost all the letters and drawings he had left. He wanted no one to know his most intimate thoughts.

Comforted by his illegal Bible, he passed away in bed, February 18th, 1564. His body was hushed out of Rome under bails of hay and returned to his native Florence, hundreds of his fellow citizens gathered in tears to pay homage to the man they called, “The Divine Artist”. Only in death did Michelangelo finally escape the city at the heart of his inner turmoil. He spent a lifetime immortalizing and serving the church, but all the while, the remarkable painter, sculptor, and architect was struggling for the courage to openly represent his faith.

 

Sometimes, Words Speak Louder than Pictures

An elegant ad for an upcoming newsletter quotes a student in the Bronx. Can you summarize your Sahaja Meditation experience in a sentence like this? Tell us in the comments section below.

 

William Blake’s “Good and Evil”

During my first stay in Pune, India, I was just beginning to learn how to meditate.

A friend from the Sahaja meditation class recommended I check out the works of William Blake. As I browsed one of his books translated into modern English, I found myself intellectually unprepared to fully appreciate the genius of Blake’s words and his reverence for the arts. As I was about to take the book to the library return bin, I noticed this amazing painting titled “Good and Evil” on the back cover of the book. This stunning visual captured my imagination:

image credit: Simone T

This painting presented a simple yet powerful key to the mechanism of human liberation: the good angels will always rescue the children of the world from clutches of negativity, because they, themselves, are truly free. (Notice the clamp on the evil guy’s leg). No matter how seemingly powerful dark forces are, only the enlightened triumph in the rescue mission, as they themselves are truly free.

The dark side may look very powerful on the outside — but it is limited, hollow and temporary.