1/31/2006

Yea, Brazil, I was doing a little tour. I went to Sao Paulo.. First I got together with some of the locals. A bassist and a drummer. We did a few rehearsals in a studio the devotees rented.. Then we did a festival of India gig in a park. There was a parikrama with Gaura-nitai deities. It was pretty nice as the park had all these paths through this thickly forested hillside. The festival site was covered by this huge tent. Vaiyasaki showed up at the last second. I joined him onstage for a super bhajan session. Then I played some of the rock stuff with the drums and bass.

The following day I went up to the Nova Gokula farm which is about 2 and a half hours away. Super place out in the brazilian rain forest .. Lots of rivers, streams, lakes for swimming and cooling down. I even saw some Tucan birds and a bunches of parrots. Not to mention the peacocks and cows all over the place. Fantastic temple structure. It looks like it fell right out of India.

I did a couple of unplugged shows for the devotees. The first one was by candle light. The night of the show there was this big storm. Typical of the region. Anyway it knocked down a tree which broke the wires. The whole farm and surrounding area was affected. I thought the show would be canceled. Then Satru Nasana came running down to my room with an acoustic guitar in his hands,"the devotees are waiting" he said!! So we did it, no electricity and by candle light. It was actually very cool. The amazing thing is these people don't know how to speak english but they were singing along to my songs. The next day the lights were back and I did another show with even more devotees present.

Then back to Sao Paulo for the Ratha Yatra. The parade was down Paulista Ave. Which is said to be the most important street in South America. We had the Festival right downtown. Sao Paulo is the 4th biggest city in the world. It was cookin' hot but towards the end of the day the sun went behind the tall buildings and shaded the sitting area. Our set was the closing act. The show went well with many chanting and dancing to sounds of the Maha Mantra and mantra rock.

So that's pretty much the scoop.

 

9/11/2005

Well with the Katrina Hurricane and now remembering the catastophy of the twin towers the summer is comming to a close. The spiritual rock group Namrock has had the pleasure to perform at numerous festivals and spiritually uplifing concerts as well as benifit concerts for the Hurricne victums. The Holy names were chanted and the best well fare work done. Namely giving Divine Songs of Uplifment to the suffering souls of this world. Songs of enlightenment, songs of peace and hope are what we need now. Transcendental sound vibration in the form of the Holy name is the best panacia for the problems of this material world. We plan to participate in more benifit concerts and raise more funds and distribute more sanctified vegitarian food (prasad).

If you have an event and need our support please feel free to contact me.

 

Titiksava Karunika Das

 

TK at the Chowpatty temple Mumbai, India    Feb. 2005

Feburary 2005:

Just got back from India. The Mumbai festival was fantastic. Thanks to Shyamasundara and Radhanatha Swami for their unequivocal support.

The events that happened at Cross Maidan were amazing.  As Ekalavia prabhu put it "like out of the C.C."  Before the festival I really didn't know if I was really going to make the journey to India or what to expect.  I was hoping to bring my band from America but that was too costly.  So the plan was for me to show up in Mumbai early and put a show together in India with local talent.  So that is pretty much what happend.  We found Dwight who played bass guitar and William on drums.  So I had my core players.  We auditioned a keyboard player but he didn't fit in so we got Sakhyarasa Prema to come down from the U.K. to cover the keys.  The back up singers were all local Bombay Guru kula girls, Yasoda, Devaki and Anuradhya.

A few days before I left for India I got a little encouregment........

Asking me to sing
12/20/04

From TKs dream folder:

I had a nice dream about Srila Prabhupada last night.  He was asking me some questions, kinda to see how quickly I learned things, then asking me to sing. "So sing something".  At first I didn't know what to sing.  One of my songs or what.  So I just started singing Hare Krishna in the simple traditional melody that he taught us.  Then he was saying how he needs someone to do his bhajans with, "I don't like to like to sing alone".

I was in a choked up state and relishing being in his presence.

Note:

This was just before I went to India for the Cross Maidan festival that Shyamasundara put together.

About this time I also had a far out vision.  One morning while lying in my bed I saw  Sri Krsna.  He came and put His arm around me then started moving away and beconing with His hand as if to say "come on, come on"  It was very short but it was like He was encouraging me to come to India, as if to say "don't worry I will take care".  He looked very beautiful, like in the pictures we see in Krsna book.  Blueish in color, yellow dhoti. Very big eyes.  Very real.

Now that I am back in the states I can see that He really did take care.  Everything that happened in India went amazingly smoothly.  After all, what took place was not an ordinary event.  People who have been to India know how hard it is to get things done.

And now that I am back in my daily routine, the trip to Chowpatty temple, the festivals, the devotee assoisciation, the concerts, they all seem a bit like dreams to me now. 

Mantra Rock Concert In The News:
Bombay Times February 16, 2005


Indian Express   February 16, 2005

'All we are high on is love for God'

American band rocks ISKCON fest, 50,000 devotees thronged the venue

Nearly 50,000 people attended the concert.
Devotees from all over the world, Europe, US, Africa, Australia and Asia to attend the fest.

Mumbai, February 15:

They kept begging for more. Crowds cheered and screamed as American band Namrock played Krishna-inpired rock-n-roll numbers last night at the Hare Krishna International festival.

The festival marks the 108th birth centenary of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) founder, Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada.

For 19-year-old Yashodha Shetty, popularly known as Yashoda 'sakhi' among her ISKCON friends, this was more than just an ordinary concert.

Performing as a back-up singer, this sprightly mass media student has been a Krishna devotee ''from the day I was born''.

Shetty was not the only one who rocked to the beat of Divine Love For The Lord at the concert on Cross Maidan.

Fifty-year-old housewife, Gayatri Sood, attended the concert with her daughter-in-law--also a bhakta. Rock musician Titikshava Karunika or TK has been influenced by the Hare Krishna cult ever since he heard former Beatle George Harrison sing My Sweet Lord in the late '70s. ''I've never seen anything like this. Everyone associates such concerts with drugs and other vices. All that we are high on is our love for the Lord,'' says 20 year-old Priyamvad Mafatlal. Mafatlal has been a devotee for the past two years, thanks to his family members who are all heavily ''into it''. Mort Sydney, a Krishna devotee, has been reading patiently about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. ''I've been reading a lot of literature on Hinduism. I think this concert is a fun way to propagate the name of the Lord,'' he says. A cheer goes up in the crowd as TK takes the final bow but promises to come back on February 18. ''The spirit is wonderful, but just preaching about the Lord's name doesn't sell,'' says TK.  ''ISKCON has been a great support in setting up this concert,'' he adds, waving to Sakhyarasa Prema who is lugging his Yamaha keyboard out of the venue.