Hazrat Inayat Khan
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Sadly we share the news of the passing of our dear friend Sarmad Barry Bernstein of Kansas City.
He was found by his youngest daughter, Sydney, this morning, never waking from sleep, from an apparent heart attack or stroke.
He was a devoted father to Leah and Sydney, husband of Rachel Sophia, champion of bringing music and rhythm to all ages from the elderly, to schools, to his traveling show as Bongo Barry, bring joy to humanity. This summer he worked with intensive schedules performances in libraries, serving the music of life.
He and I are both disciples and lovers of the same Indian music Guru, Pandit Pran Nath. He was a devoted mureed of Murshida Vera Corda and more recently Murshida Asha Greer.
We wish him great ease in unfolding his Path in his next adventure having left this plane so surprisingly, YA SALAAM! He will be sorely missed by all his community and the many, many children he served as the pied piper, Bongo Barry!
Much love,
Shabda (and Allaudin Ottinger)
When Sarmad came to Mendocino with Ganesh, from Kansas City, they had us lay on the floor and close our eyes while they played big gongs, percussion instruments and drums, creating a soundscape to take us to unexplored places. It was very beautiful and relaxing.
Then they had us stand in a circle and gave each person a percussion egg in their left hand. We received with the left hand and passed to the next person with the right hand, saying “Take one, Pass one, Take one pass one.” Once we got the hang of that, he directed us to look at the circle and see if we could see all the hands around the circle moving like a great big sea anemone. Of course we could, once he pointed it out, and then he had us repeat the zikr instead of “Take one, pass one.
“No there is nothing, except the One being.” The visual image of all of us like one giant anemone waving, or one large mouth speaking, was very powerful.
Sarmad Barry Bernstein came to Atlanta with Mariam Baker the year before he left this life, and gave us the most wonderful drum lessons. He taught us to walk, drum, and talk in several different rhythms at once. Once we got the hang of it, with tremendous concentration, (like learning to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time,) he put wazifas to it, and we had no braincells left over for thought. Aaahhh!
Choreographed, we stepped out of monkey mind and into the bliss of being.
He and Mariam complemented each other beautifully and the Atlanta mureeds begged him to commit to return every year for this workshop. We counted it a great blessing to have both teachers here together and we were busy counting our chickens before they were hatched, imagining how great it would be to have him come to Atlanta every year now that we had discovered him, and then he was gone.
Some other fortunate beings are listening to him now!
Thank you Sarmad, and may we meet again!