STOCKHOLM—On Monday, April 6, Dr. PK Mahanandia and his wife, Mrs. Charlotte von Schedvin, attended the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden.
“It is a wonderful show. I have never seen anything like it in my life. It is from the soul and body, not only … ,” said Dr. Mahanandia, who fell silent and pointed to his eyes.
Shen Yun is New York based company that performs traditional Chinese music and dance with the aim of reviving the semi-divine nature of China’s 5,000 years of civilization.
Dr. Mahanandia is from India where he found Charlotte, his soulmate and love of his life. But she was Swedish, from a noble family, and he belonged to the “untouchable” caste. When she returned to Sweden, he had no money to follow her there. He overcame that obstacle by riding a bike from the jungles of India to his love.
It took him almost five months, but now Dr. Mahanandia has lived in Sweden for 40 years. He grew up, however, steeped in Eastern traditions, and saw spiritual elements in Shen Yun.
“I enjoyed the beauty and elegance. It is like the show has connected earth to heaven. We came from the heaven and we are going back to the heaven. That is realistic; you should not forget it.”
Both the opening and closing of the Shen Yun performance is about our connection to heaven, and this connection is present in the show, Dr. Mahanandia said. It is possible to get back to heaven.
“It is a nice message. Through love, through compassion … I wish every human would see Shen Yun, receive the message. The same message is within us, but we are forgetting it, and it is reminding us.”
‘They do a great work for humanity’
Mrs. von Schedvin also spoke of the message of the show.
“I think the spark, the divine spark, is flowing through everything they performed,” she said. “I am very happy that they tour around the world to spread this message. That is very important, especially nowadays. They do a great work for humanity.”
PK Mahanandia became an honorary doctor at the Utkal University of Culture in his home state of Odisha in 2012 for his human rights work. He is now Odisha’s cultural ambassador to Sweden.
“I am basically an artist, but I am retired now. I was teaching painting and drawing,” he explained.
Charlotte von Schedvin used to be a music teacher, but retired a year ago, and is now teaching yoga.
She also spoke of how she was deeply moved by erhu virtuoso Mei Xuan’s performance.
“Wonderful. It went straight to my heart,” she said. “That subtle sensitivity she conveyed was deeply touching. I felt that she was one with her instrument.”
“It was love, unconditional love,” she said.
As a music teacher, she was also interested in the songs. Shen Yun’s website says that the songs “give voice to hopes that have shaped Chinese culture for centuries.”
“It showed their capacity,” she said. “We have inexhaustible powers.”
Speaking of the stories told in some of the dance pieces, she also added: “This is always present: light and darkness. As human beings, we create this with our thoughts. It’s always good that goodness triumphs.”
Reporting by NTD Television and Barbro Plogander
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reaction since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006
