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Venerable Ananda
Ananda reciting the Suttapitaka at the First Buddhist Council
Religious career
Teacher	Gautama Buddha

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Ānanda was one of the principal disciples and a devout attendant of the Buddha.^[1] Amongst the Buddha's many disciples, Ānanda had the most retentive memory and most of the suttas in the Sutta Pitaka are attributed to his recollection of the Buddha's teachings during the First Buddhist Council. For that, he was known as the Guardian of the Dharma.

According to the Buddha every Buddha in the past and to come will have two chief disciples and one attendant during his ministry. In the case of Gautama Buddha the pair of disciples were Sariputta and Mahamoggallana and the attendant Ānanda.

The word 'Ānanda' means 'bliss' in Pali, Sanskrit as well as other Indian languages. It is a popular Buddhist and Hindu name, but popular also among Muslims in Indonesia.

In the Kannakatthala Sutta (MN 90), Ananda is identified with the meaning of his name:

Then King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One, "Lord, what is the name of this monk?"

"His name is Ananda, great king."

"What a joy he is! What a true joy!..."

Ānanda was the first cousin of the Buddha by their fathers, and was devoted to him. In the twentieth year of the Buddha's ministry, he became the Buddha's personal attendant, accompanying him on most of his wanderings and taking the part of interlocutor in many of the recorded dialogues. He is the subject of a special panegyric delivered by the Buddha just before the Buddha's Parinibbana (the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16)); it is a panegyric for a man who is kindly, unselfish, popular, and thoughtful toward others.

In the long list of the disciples given in the Anguttara Nikaya (i. xiv.) where each of them is declared to be the chief in some quality, Ānanda is mentioned five times (more often than any other). He was named chief in conduct, in service to others, and in power of memory. The Buddha sometimes asked him to substitute for him as teacher and then later stated that he himself would not have presented the teachings in any other way.

The First Council[link]

Because he attended the Buddha personally and often traveled with him, Ānanda overheard and memorized many of the discourses the Buddha delivered to various audiences. Therefore, he is often called the disciple of the Buddha who "heard much". At the First Buddhist Council, convened shortly after the Buddha died, Ananda was called upon to recite many of the discourses that later became the Sutta Pitaka of the Pāli Canon.

Despite his long association with and close proximity to the Buddha, Ananda was only a stream-winner prior to the Buddha’s death. However, Buddha said that the purity of his heart was so great that, "Should Ananda die without being fully liberated; he would be king of the gods seven times because of the purity of his heart, or be king of the Indian subcontinent seven times. But ... Ananda will experience final liberation in this very life." (AN 3.80)

Prior to the First Buddhist Council, it was proposed that Ananda not be permitted to attend on the grounds that he was not yet an arahant. According to legend, this prompted Ananda to focus his efforts on the attainment of nibbana and he was able to reach the specified level of attainment before the calling of the conclave.

In contrast to most of the figures depicted in the Pāli Canon, Ananda is presented as an imperfect, if sympathetic, figure. He mourns the deaths of both Sariputta, with whom he enjoyed a close friendship, and the Buddha. A verse of the Theragatha [1] reveals his loneliness and isolation following the parinirvana of the Buddha.

In the Zen tradition, Ananda is considered to be the second Indian patriarch. He is often depicted with the Buddha alongside Mahakashyapa, the first Indian patriarch.

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Ananda: Guardian of the Dhamma by Hellmuth Hecker

External links[link]

• Entry on Ananda in the Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names
• Biographical account of Ananda
• Ananda with the Buddha and Subhuti
• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (log in with userID "guest")
• Ananda: Guardian of the Dhamma by Hellmuth Hecker

Ananda Matthew Everingham
Ananda at 6th anniversary of Seventeen Magazine.
Born	(1982-05-31) 31 May 1982 (age 30) Bangkok, Thailand
Years active	1996 - present
Parents	John Leslie Everingham Keo Sirisomphone

Ananda Everingham (Thai: อนันดา เอเวอริ่งแฮม; Lao: ອນນັດາ ເອເວອຣິ່ງແຮນ, born 31 May 1982 in Thailand) is a Laotian-Australian film actor^[1] who was born in Thailand. Working primarily in Thai films, he is best known for his lead role in the 2004 horror film, Shutter.

Biography[link]

Ananda Matthew Everingham is the son of an Australian father, Bangkok-based photojournalist John Everingham, and a Laotian mother, Keo Sirisomphone. His parents' story was loosely dramatized in the 1983 NBC television movie, Love Is Forever, starring Michael Landon and Laura Gemser, which tells of a photojournalist who scuba dives under the Mekong to rescue his lover from communist ruled Laos in 1977. It was this movie that in 1983 also led to the senior Everingham mentoring Cork Graham, who was soon imprisoned for 11 months in Vietnam for trespassing while looking for treasure buried by Captain Kidd.^[2][3] His parents divorced in 1997. John re-married a Chinese woman. Ananda has one brother, Chester Jay Everingham and one half-brother, Zenith Lee Everingham.

Ananda was born in Thailand. He attended Bangkok Patana School. He holds Australian citizenship and visited Brisbane on school holidays. He received some schooling there while living with his grandparents Joan Victoria and late George Matthew Everingham. At age 14, while working part-time in his family's Indian restaurant, Himali Cha Cha, he was discovered by Khun Mingkwan of GMM Grammy, Thailand's largest entertainment company. He soon started acting in films. At age 16, he switched from Bangkok Patana School to a tutoring school where he would follow flexible course and times while filming.

Aside from Shutter, Ananda has starred in the horror-comedy, Ghost Delivery and the teen-slasher movie, 303 Fear Faith Revenge. In 2005, he starred in the Singaporean romance film, The Leap Years. In 2007, he played the lead roles in the romantic dramas Me ... Myself, and Bangkok Time. He had featured roles in the Singaporean film Pleasure Factory, and in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Ploy. He was cast in the 2008 film by Nonzee Nimibutr, Queen of Langkasuka. On 5 June 2008, his movie Sabaidee Luang Prabang, the first Laotian commercial film shot since it adopted communism in 1975, was released in Thailand.^[4]

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

• Anda kub Fahsai (1998)
• 303 Fear Faith Revenge (1998)
• The Brainstorm (1999)
• Kohn sang pea (Ghost Delivery) (2003)
• Shutter (2004)
• Bangkok Time (2007)
• Pleasure Factory (2007)
• Me Myself (2007)
• Ploy (2007)
• The Leap Years (2008)
• Memory เมมโมรี่​ ​รักหลอน (2008)
• Sabaidee Luang Prabang (2008)
• The Coffin (2008)
• Queens of Langkasuka (2008)
• Happy Birthday (2008)
• Charming Bangkok (2009; segment "Bangkok Blues")
• The Red Eagle (2010)
• Hi-So (2010)
• Chua Fan Din Salai (Forever Yours) (2010)

Television[link]

• Khon ruerng muang(คนเริงเมือง)
• Talay rue im (ทะเลฤาอิ่ม)
• Nai Fun (ในฝัน) as Prince Piriyapongse (เจ้าชายพิรียพงศ์)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ananda Everingham

• Ananda Everingham at the Internet Movie Database
• Ananda Everingham at the Thai Film Database

Deva Premal, mantra singer, from October 2006

Deva Premal (born in 1970 in Nürnberg, Germany) is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music which puts ancient Sanskrit mantras into atmospheric contemporary settings.

Deva met her partner in life and music, Miten, at the Osho Ashram in Pune, India in 1990, and they have been touring together since 1992, offering concerts and chant workshops worldwide.^[1]

Best known for her top-selling chant CDs,^[2] Deva is a classically trained musician who grew up singing mantras in a German home permeated with Eastern spirituality. Her albums have topped the New Age charts throughout the world since her first release, The Essence, featuring the Gayatri Mantra. Deva & Miten's record company, Prabhu Music, reports sales of over 900,000 albums.

Deva began her journey with mantra in her mother's womb, as her father chanted the Gayatri Mantra, one of the most sacred mantras of Hinduism, to her daily, and it continued to be her bedtime lullaby after she was born. Many years later, she heard a friend singing the Gayatri and was inspired to put together an album featuring it. She and Miten recorded The Essence in her mother's apartment in Germany, the same one in which she was born and where her parents had sung the Gayatri Mantra to her years before.^[3]

Deva brought this journey with the Gayatri Mantra full circle in July, 2005, when she and Miten chanted the Gayatri for her father as he was dying: "We kept singing for what must have been over half an hour, when suddenly the monitor showed that he was about to leave. I continued to sing and the last sound he heard as he passed on was his beloved Gayatri Mantra. Finally we ended with the mantra Om and the circle was complete. He had welcomed me onto this planet with the Gayatri and I accompanied him out of this physical existence with it. What a blessing this was for me! It was the first time that I was present at a death, and to be at my father’s is a memory I will cherish all my life."^[4]

In an interview with Sam Slovik of LA Yoga Magazine,^[5] Deva discussed the potent effect many notice when chanting Sanskrit mantras:^[6]

“The meaning is secondary. The word table is not the table...With Sanskrit, the word ananda is the sound vibration of bliss. In sound the energy of bliss. We have to say bliss; we have to make it smaller by putting it into an English word. Just the sound; ananda, If we were sensitive enough we’d just feel the entire scope of that energy that’s contained in this sound... It’s working on a cellular level. It’s much deeper than the mind. It’s not a language that you need to understand the meaning of before you use it. It’s a deep universal sound code that connects us all.”

Deva's chants have been used in a wide variety of settings in recent years. Cher featured Deva's version of the Gayatri Mantra on her Farewell Tour^[7] and Russian Prima Ballerina Diana Vishneva danced to Deva's Gayatri in Moses Pendleton's F.L.O.W. series.^[8] Actor/director Edward James Olmos is said to have handed out copies of Deva's Gayatri Mantra to the entire cast and crew of Battlestar Gallactica,^[9] as well as citing her music as a source of inspiration in preparing his role as Commander Adama in the series.^[10] Mr. Olmos also used Om Hraum Mitraya from Deva's album Dakshina to close his HBO movie Walkout,^[11]

Deva and Miten performed for The Dalai Lama during a 2002 Conference in Munich, Germany on Unity In Duality, which brought top figures from the scientific community together with members of the Buddhist community.^[12] They gave a concert for the full conference, and were also invited to sing for the Dalai Lama at a small pre-conference gathering.^[13] They had heard that his favorite mantra was the Tara Mantra, dedicated to the Green Tara of Compassion, and that he had asked for it be chanted recently when he was ill, and so they chanted it for him.

Deva's most recent release, Tibetan Mantras For Turbulent Times, was recorded with the Gyuto Monks of Tibet and was created as a support for mantra meditation practice, featuring eight mantras chanted 108 times each. It is a benefit CD, with all proceeds going to the Gyuto Monastery in Dharmsala, India, the Phowa Project, and Veggiyana.

Discography[link]

• The Essence (1998)
• Love Is Space (2000)
• Embrace (2002)
• Satsang (with Miten) (2002)
• Dakshina (2005)
• The Moola Mantra (2007)
• Into Silence (2008) (compilation)
• In Concert: The Yoga of Sacred Song and Chant (w/Miten & Manose) (2009) (CD/DVD)
• Mantras For Precarious Times (2009)
• Tibetan Mantras For Turbulent Times (2010)
• Password (2011)

Notes[link]

1. ^ Dubrovsky, Anna. Yoga Rock Stars, Yoga International, September 2008.
2. ^ Widran, Jonathan. Review: Dakshina AllMusic.
3. ^ Spirit of Things. Mantras Go Mainstream, Interview with Rachel Kohn on ABC Radio, Feb 2008.
4. ^ Deva Premal. Wolfgang And The Gayatri Mantra, Article, DevaPremalMiten.com.
5. ^ Slovik, Sam. Soul Balancing: Path of the Sacred Road Dog, LA Yoga Magazine, March 2010.
6. ^ Shapiro, Ed & Deb. Do Mantras Really Work, Huffington Post, Oct 20 2009.
7. ^ Tsering, Lisa. "Cher Chants Gayatri Mantra At Her Concerts", Times of London, Sept 5 2003.
8. ^ "Beauty In Motion-F.L.O.W. Part III", YouTube.
9. ^ Stailey, M. Battlestar Gallactica: All Access, DVD Verdict Legal Briefs, June 8, 2007.
10. ^ Ruby, Jamie. "Edward James Olmos: Exclusive Interview With MediaBlvd", Battlestar Aries, Aug 5 2009.
11. ^ Educate Your Thinking, YouTube.
12. ^ Tarab Institute. Unity In Duality-Tendrel Congress, Tarab Institute, Oct 10-13 2002.
13. ^ Attwood, Janet Bray Songs of the Divine: An interview from the Dialogues with the Masters Series, Healthy Wealthy nWise, Feb 2008.

External links[link]

• Official website

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2006)

Ananda Shankar (11 December 1942 - 26 March 1999) was a Bengali musician best known for fusing Western and Eastern musical styles. He was married to Tanusree Shankar.

Early life[link]

Born in Almora in Uttar Pradesh, India, Shankar was the son of Amala and Uday Shankar, popular dancers, and also the nephew of renowned sitarist Ravi Shankar.^[1] Ananda did not learn sitar from his uncle but studied instead with Lalmani Misra at Banaras Hindu University.^[1]

Professional career[link]

In the late 1960s Shankar travelled to Los Angeles, where he played with many contemporary musicians including Jimi Hendrix. There he was signed to Reprise Records and released his first self-titled album in 1970, featuring original Indian classical material alongside sitar-based cover versions of popular hits such as The Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and The Doors' "Light My Fire".

Returning to India in the early 1970s Shankar continued to experiment musically and in 1975 released his most critically acclaimed album, Ananda Shankar And His Music, a jazz-funk mix of Eastern sitar, Western rock guitar, tabla and mridangam, drums and Moog synthesizers. Out of print for many years, Ananda Shankar And His Music was re-released on CD in 2005.

After working in India during the late 1970s and 1980s, Shankar's profile in the West began to rise again in the mid-1990s as his music found its way into club DJ sets, particularly in London. His music was brought to a wider audience with the release of Blue Note Records' popular 1996 rare groove compilation album, Blue Juice Vol. 1., featuring the two standout tracks from Ananda Shankar And His Music, "Dancing Drums" and "Streets of Calcutta".

In the late 1990s Shankar worked and toured in the United Kingdom with London DJ State of Bengal and others, a collaboration that would result in the Walking On album, featuring Shankar's trademark sitar soundscapes mixed with breakbeat and hip hop. Walking On was released in 2000 after Shankar's sudden death from heart failure the year before.

In 2005, his song "Raghupati" was used on the Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories soundtrack, and in 2008 his song "Dancing Drums" was used on the LittleBigPlanet soundtrack.

Recently, 2010 and 2011, his music has been featured in a number of episodes of popular NBC comedy show Outsourced. Following is a list of episodes and music featured: Episode 103: Party of Five - 10/7/2010 - "Night in the Forest" Episode 105: Touched by an Anglo - 10/21/2010 - "Dancing Drums" Episode 106: Bolloween - 10/28/2010 - "Radha" -- inst. Episode 107: Truly, Madly, Pradeeply - 11/04/2010 - "Dancing Drums". Episode 109: Temporary Monsanity - 11/18/2010 - "Dancing Drums" Episode 110: Homesick to my Stomach - 12/02/2010 - "Renunciation" Episode 112: Sari Charlie - 1/27/2011 - "Exploration" Episode 114: The Todd Couple - 2/10/2011 - "Cyrus"

Discography[link]

• Ananda Shankar, 1970 (LP, Reprise 6398/CD, Collectors' Choice CCM-545)
• Ananda Shankar And His Music, 1975 (EMI India)
• India Remembers Elvis, 1977 (EP EMI India S/7EPE. 3201)
• Missing You, 1977 (EMI India)
• A Musical Discovery of India, 1978 (EMI India)
• Sa-Re-Ga Machan, 1981 (EMI India)
• 2001, 1984 (EMI India)
• Temptations, 1992 (Gramaphone Company of India)
• Ananda Shankar: Shubh- The Auspicious, 1995
• Ananda, 1999 (EMI India)
• Arpan, 2000 (EMI India)
• Walking On, 2000 (Real World 48118-2, with State of Bengal)
• Ananda Shankar: A Life in Music - The Best of the EMI Years, 2005 (Times Square TSQ-CD-9052)

References[link]

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (June 2007)

• Ananda Shankar Foundation Biography Page
• Rolling Stone Discography
• Ananda Shankar at the Internet Movie Database