Ravi Shankar California Memorial Service
Dec 21, 2012
The 90-minute Ravi Shankar Memorial was held at the Self Realization Fellowship meditation center in Encinitas, California under palm trees swaying in the sunshine.
Widow Sukanya Shankar joined Olivia Harrison, Ravi Shankar's daughters Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones, director Joe Wright, violin maestro Yehudi Menuhin, jazz legend Herbie Hancock, conductor Zubin Mehta, and many friends in memory of Ravi Shankar who died at 92.
"My father loved spending time here so much," said daughter and sitarist Anoushka Shankar. "It feels so right for us to celebrate his journey in this beautiful place."
The two friends are now surely playing incredible music together again in a higher dimension.
Grammy-winning producer and Hawthorne, California native Olivia Harrison spoke of the famous friendship between her late husband and Shankar.
"They were like father and son as well as brothers," said Harrison. "They made each other laugh as if they shared a secret."
"They exchanged ideas and melodies until their minds and hearts, East and West, were entwined like a double helix," she added in reflection.
"Ravi was one of the great citizens of the world. I cannot think of a more illustrious or elegant person," Harrison emphasized.
"Ravi laid the stepping stones from West to East that led George to new concepts, alternative philosophies, and completely transformed his musical sensibilities," she recalled emotionally.
Norah Jones, as all know, is now a Grammy-winning superstar.
For decades, the Shankars and the Harrisons were like one single family, even considered as such by fans of both musicians.
Olivia Harrison is the mother of George Harrison's son, rock musician Dhani Harrison, whose first name is from India.
A music video by Dhani Harrison was named Best Music Video of 2012 earlier this year by Californiality.
During the Ravi Shankar funeral service, prayers were chanted by Dr. M.N. Nandakumara of London's Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Institute, who also eulogized the late Indian-Californian music icon.
"I do not know another musician who has understood the Eastern and Western music the way he understood it, and interpreted it in such a way that people around the world were mesmerized by it," said Nandakumara.
"He brought people of various countries, communities together to his soul-stirring music, which was matchless," he added.
2013 Grammy Awards
- Ravi Shankar is nominated for Best World Music Album for The Living Room Sessions Part 1.
- Anoushka Shankar is nominated for Best World Album for Traveller.
- Ravi Shankar will receive the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.
Watch the following video of Olivia Harrison's eulogy, which continues up to the point where she starts to cry, which is far enough for such an emotional reflection upon the life of a passionately spiritual soul, the late Ravi Shankar.
Olivia Harrison | Ravi Shankar Eulogy
