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Rye Interfaith Festival November 2008
As part of the Rye Interfaith Festival, the Shiva Ashram was involved in three events. Over the weekend of November 21 and 22, the ashramites and community worked and attended the first interfaith festival to be held on the foreshore at Rye.
It is a spectacular location, although on Saturday the severe weather meant that all events had to be moved indoors. Luckily by the afternoon chanting program, the main tent was filled with devotees from many faiths and cultures. First up, the Shiva Ashram bhajan players got events underway. It was blissful and great to hear the musicians play, knowing their weeks of practise. Following this, the ISKCON chanters had everyone dancing in ecstasy while the traditional dancers from the Shiva-Vishnu Temple were amazing in the intricacies and rhthyms of their dancing. The Chinmaya Mission closed the program on a reflective note with their acapella chanting of Vedic mantras.
Immediately following from this, we had Satsang with Swamiji. On a cold and wet night, Swamiji gave an introduction to meditation, we had chanting and also darshan with Swamiji despite cold and wet conditions.
On Sunday Devi Ma spoke as part of a panel discussion with representatives of the Sikh, Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths. It was an interesting way to hear about the commonalities that so many people share despite their different faiths.
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