Global Full Moon Festivals of World Peace

Bring Balance in Nature and Harmony in the World

“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.”

Maharishi

A global online Full Moon Festival for World Peace series featuring world renowned sitarist, Reshma Srivastava and sponsored by the Academy of Arts for Enlightenment and TM for Women began on November 19, 2020 and has been broadcast on each full moon since. 

They are broadcast as the full moon rises in the evening across five time zones. See time zones and Zoom Link below. Donations cover the concert costs.

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 now objectively documents the beneficial effects of Maharishi Gandharva Veda ragas (melodies) on the mind, body, and environment. In a paper recently published 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. One study showed that 1,800 subjects who attended Maharishi Gandharva Veda in-person 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”. Performing professionally for over 30 years, touring in India, Asia, 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 explains that“ 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.” 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.” Interestingly, this understanding has been echoed by Einstein who wrote, “We are slowed-down waves of sound and light, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into space. We are souls dressed in sacred biochemical garments, and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.“

Balance in Nature and Peace in Our World

Inspired by Maharishi’s words, “With all the problems in the international and national world, Gandharva music is a must for everyone,” Reshma, TM for Women and the Academy of Arts for Enlightenment have joined hands to offer these online concerts with this intention: “We want to create a positive effect for all the people of our world through these Full Moon Festivals!

One salient feature of Maharishi Gandharva-Veda is that the musician should play the ragas(melodies) according to the time of day designated by the tradition. Therefore, these online festivals of Maharishi Gandharva-Veda music 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. 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.”

Join the Full Moon Concerts:

Concerts are broadcast in the evening each month as the full moon rises in these time zones: Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Africa, North and South America. Starting times can vary. They always start at 8:30 pm Amsterdam time for Western Europe/Africa and 8:30 pm Eastern time for North and South America. 

The link stays the same each month.