I got to perform with Steve Gold and a group of world-class musicians for massive outdoor yoga classes led by Shiva Rae and Janet Stone, as well as do a concert with Steve and talk with press and fans about the Yoga Revolution CD, a project which embraces many of the same qualities of Wanderlust (especially if you listen to it in nature). I also enjoyed talks and workshops on Anusara with John Friend and the Power of Sound (one of my favorite subjects) with my friend Alex Theory. Some of the musical highlights included Moby’s acoustic set, Kelli Scarr and the Mayapuris. Of course, it was a pleasure, as always, to share in the great musical vibes of friends Dave Stringer, Shaman’s Dream and Donna De Lory. If I had one thing I would like to see differently, it would be to have more full live performances by line-minded headline artists for the late night sets on the magnificent outdoor main stage. Maybe with the great success of this year’s festival, and the increased numbers of yogi’s attending (classes and workshops were completely sold out on some of the days) Jeff might be able to afford to do that next year.

The charity supported by this year’s festival and the Yoga Aid initiative was Off the Mat (www.offthematintotheworld.org), a great organization headed by highly inspiring yoginis and teachers Seane Corn, Hala Khouri and Susanne Sterling. Off the Mat, Into the World uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious, sustainable activism to ignite grass roots and social change.

Below is a quick rough video Kasey from Yoga Aid and Mastin from Daily Love put together from Sunday’s activities, including Shiva’s Sunday morning Blues/Gospel class and asana practice that I played for with Steve Gold and friends.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking one of Shiva Rae’s Sunday morning classes at Sacred Movement in Venice. The class was packed to the brim from her teacher training students and accompanied by singer/musician Steve Gold and friends. In addition to a few mantras, and Shiva infusing the asana flow with breathing and sound, Steve closed with everyone singing along to a beautiful song that has become Steve’s calling card – “So Much Magnificence”. What was more impressive to me, however, was how Steve and Matt carried the majority of the class with a simple and extremely soulful blues vibe that disappeared into the background and seeped into the unconscious fiber of my being as I moved through my practice.

Next weekend, I head off to Lake Tahoe to joins hundreds of yogi’s and musicians for a full-on festival combining live music and yoga – The Wanderlust Festival. It is my first year to attend and I am looking forward to it. Aside from my personal soul-feeding experience of sitting in with Steve’s band, as well as Donna De Lory and Shaman’s Dream, I am excited to see how the combination of thousands practicing to various configurations and styles of live music in an incredible natural setting can help carry and expand the positive energetic force that is growing in the Western yoga movement.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although it would be impractical to try to share in this short blog what he already condensed from his 40 years of study in India and his translation of more than 20 books on the subject of Bhakti Yoga and the Pathh of Grace, I would like to share one lesson that I brought away from the day:

On one of the breaks, I took time to talk to Shyam Das about a subject that has been present for me lately  - the concept of doubt. I had shared a long discussion on the same subject with my teacher Jeffrey Armstrong in Vancouver last week and wanted to get Shyam Das’s take on it. Shyam Das and I started to both delve deeply into the subject, contemplating where doubt comes from and how it undermines our energy, focus and faith.  Our fascinating discussion was cut short when we had to return to the workshop, but he promised he would go into the subject further in the remaining time left in the program.

When we returned to the room and the group to wrap up the last 45 minutes of the day’s event, I sat with great anticipation for Shyam Das to provide me with more fruits of wisdom and deeper knowledge on the Bhakti teachings related to the concept of doubt. He sat in front of the circle and his harmonium.  We all launched into a round of kirtan lead by an emotionally playful and ecstatic Shyam Das, singing and playing, while interjecting, over the music, explanations of the meaning behind the mantras and many humorous antidotes. Rather than simply being fully present to the Bhakti experience, I kept wondering when he would return to his discourse and reveal more knowledge about the teachings and the subject we had touched upon in our break.

Well, needless to say, the joyful singing of mantra and the sharing of collective devotion with deeply felt emotion continued to build and took us right up to the end of the workshop.  There was no more discourse, no more lecture, no more answers for my small mind needing to know the meaning of life.

The lesson, like the practice itself, of Bhakti Yoga, is not one of knowledge as information but one of knowing through experience, the deeply felt emotional love and desire to unite with the divine source of all things joyful and beautiful, and actual expression of that desire with our entire being, not simply with the contemplation of our mind.

When the light lit in my own head, I was able to let go of my expectation and truly embrace the experience, as well be reminded again of one of the key teachings of Bhakti.

I had a similar experience (meaning that I had learned this lesson once, if not many times, before) in India a couple years earlier.  I was at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India with Saul and a group, attending the Internaional Yoga Festival.  We were also exploring the teachings of Bhakti, the subject of the festival and of our immersion for the week.  One of our esteemed guests was Sri Swami Vishwananda, who had promised us he would take time with our group to give his insights into the teachings and path of Bhakti Yoga.  Days went by with Saul trying to coordinate a time for us to hold our private class with Vishwananda, until it was late on the next to last night of the Festival.  Walking back from the evening’s homa and festivities, we ran into Vishwanada.  When Saul inquired about time with the group, Vishwananda simply answered “let’s go now”.

So we followed the guru and his followers out into the dark night, toward the bank of the Ganges. There, with the moonlight and sound of the flowing river in the background, we all sat and awaited to hear some great words of wisdom.  Vishwananda, and his men, said nothing.  They simply pulled out their instruments and started to sing and dance.   It wasn’t long before we all joined in and were swallowed into the celebratory experience of kirtan and dance that filled the next couple hours of the evening, re-tuned our inner vibrations and filled our longing hearts with joy and gratitude.

There are many books on the subject of Bhakti Yoga that offer us incredible knowledge, but the lesson that I keep learning is that the true knowing of the bhav comes through the deep emotional and joyful experience of devotion we only feel by participating in the celebration of that connection through music, singing, dancing and full expressions of our love and soul’s desires.

I am just returning from Vancouver, where my dear friend, author, vedic scholar and teacher – Jeffrey Armstrong, along with Beyond Words publishing (The Secret), celebrated the release of Jeffrey’s new book: “Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar”. Through the pages, Jeffrey eloquently helps us understand the original meaning of “avatar”, as well as many other ancient concepts presented by Cameron in the film, and reveal the spiritual teachings behind them.

The film, Avatar, has provided contemporary audiences with fascination and inspiration, as well as opened a great opportunity to bring the teachings that provide the foundation of yoga to a far greater audience. Jeffrey’s book offers those curious enough to go deeper, a chance to explore deeper into the rich teachings that lie behind the story and the film. Learn more about Jeffrey Armstrong and the new book here.

I have just returned from a ceremony in the sacred Indian land of Taos, New Mexico (held on the auspicious night of the full moon lunar eclipse). One of the performing groups was a very talented all female Mariachi band called Mariachi Buenaventura. In addition to the great performance and beauty of the musicians, I was impressed to see an all female group in such a male-dominated genre.

The powerful energy of the evening made a great set up for the re-launch of the renowned, all-female, Lilith Fair Tour and music festival in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) which features a stunning array of talent, including Erykah Badu, Sheryl Crow and festival founder Sarah McLachlan.

Three of the artists on the Yoga Revolution charity CD are featured on parts of the Tour, which runs through August 16th: Sheryl Crowe, Donna De Lory and Sarah McLachlan. Many of the East Coast shows will also feature the amazing talented and socially-conscious Nigerian newcomer Nneka, who I just recorded as part of the international collaborations for Beat the World.

Lillith Fair was founded in 1997 by Sarah McLachlan and Nettwerk Music’s Terry McBride and Dan Fraser and became the highest grossing touring festival in that year. In it’s first 3 years (1997 – 1999), the tour raised over $10M for women’s charities throughout North America. A new CD from Nettwerk Music: The Best of Lilith Fair, features highlight from those shows.

I highly recommend checking out one of the shows and supporting Sarah and the other founders in their effort to raise the stage for the angelic voices and powerful music of these great female talents and the voice of the feminine divine that flows through them. I look forward to joining them in Vancouver for the July 1st (Canada Day) festival.

More info and schedule at http://www.lilithfair.com/

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yoga Revolution is the first in a series of benefit albums that bring together musical icons (Sting, Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow), international artists (Snatam Kaur, Angelique Kidjo, Anoushka Shankar) and rising kirtan stars (Krishna Das, Deva Premal, Donna De Lory) to raise funds for yoga-based fitness programming for youth. In addition to supporting a great cause, my goal was to use the transformational power of music to inspire and encourage people of all ages and backgrounds, far beyond the yoga community, to experience the positive benefits of yoga. In the sense that the essential meaning of yoga is to connect, I considered all of the artists I selected to be yogis. Many do practice the techiques, but each has created their music from a place deep within themselves, in connection with spirit and with an intention to help each of us, as listeners, become more deeply connected to ourselves and one another.

The impetus for Yoga Revolution began when my friend Johannes shared his vision to bring the power of yoga to the masses by offering free yoga and health education through a program he created called Yoga Month. Through the national Yoga Month campaign, Johannes and his Yoga Health Foundation set out to teach the general public about yoga’s many health benefits and to support in-school yoga programs for youth. I knew from the beginning that music could contribute meaningfully to the cause. I had also long wanted to create a yoga-inspired CD that could reach the far beyond the yoga community, while still having the highest integrity among devotee’s.  When I shared my vision for a compilation CD with Nettwerk Music CEO and yogi Terry McBride, he agreed to Executive Produce the project and release it, donating the net proceeds to benefit the Yoga Health Foundation’s yoga and fitness programs.

It is an eclectic but universally appealing collection of music that I guarantee will positively affect your system just by listening. I recommend keeping a copy in your car for your next long drive or traffic jam. As quoted in Yoga Journal: “Yoga Revolution merges music by Sarah McLachlan, Michael Franti, Ziggy Marley and Sheryl Crow, along with cross-cultural collaborations between Sting and Anoushka Shankar, Peter Gabriel and Angelique Kidjo and Seal and Guru Singh, while mixing in new material by rising kirtan stars Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Donna De Lory. The CD flows seamlessly through an inspiring and diverse 14-track mix ranging from Irish folk, a rock anthem and bilingual world music to 5,000 year old Vedic chants over hip hop beats, including a kirtan reworking of the Yardbirds 1965 hit: For Your Love.”

You can learn more about the project, order the CD, get a free download or sign up for free yoga at www.YogaRevolution.org, where I will be sharing more music and info about the many amazing artists who contributed.  You also learn about similar projects at www.EarthTones.org and receive a free Yoga Revolution CD for a donation of $25 or more.

Join the Revolution and enjoy the music!

Kirtan is an ancient devotional vedic tradition in which chants are performed to bring the singers, through the vibration of the mantras being chanted and the emotional dedication of the participants, closer to the divine. Kirtan is traditionally performed in a call and response manner between the leader or Kirtankar, and the participating audience.  Traditional musical acompaniment might be a harmonium, percussion, hand cymbals and a tambura for a drone, though many Western Kirtan artists have added more contemporary instruments like guitar, bass, drums, etc.  Kirtanam is the practice of recreating sound vibrations that is said to shift the entire vibration of the body and mind into the vibrating energy of the transcendental. Traditional Kirtan in India was a major practice in the Bhakti and Sikh traditions.

So how did this esoteric practice start to become popular in the West?  Some claim Paramhansa Yogananda introduced Kirtan when he performed sacred chants with a full house at Carnegie Hall as early as 1923. Kirtan became more popular in the 60′s thanks to Swami Prabhupada as well as the Hare Krishna movement, the latter of which helped to inspire George Harrison and John Lennon with thieir renditions of mantras like Hare Krishna.  In recent years, new rising kirtan stars, like Krishna Das, Jai Utall, Deva Premal and Donna De Lory have mixed traditional Kirtan music and practices with more modern Western music, contemporary instrumentation and even some english lyrics, making it more accessible to new audiences and further increasing it’s popularity.  Although traditionalist sometimes claim that altering the the mantra from it’s original melody changes the vibration and effectiveness, it could also be argued that the participants ability to more easily connect to and emotionally engage with more familiar musical styles makes up for that, if not increasing the transformational effect on the singer.

Kirtan events (large and small gatherings where a musical/devotional leader leads a call and response practice with the audience, have been popping up with far more regularity across the US and Western Europe and more and more yoga asana teachers are incorporating mantra and chanting into their classes and workshops. I had the pleasure of performing last year at the first Bhakti Festival Joshua Tree, California, which brought together dozens of kirtan artists and performers for a couple days of aounnd-the-clock performances involving audiences of thousands. Some record labels, like Nutone, White Swan and Spirit Voyage, have focused on providing new music for audiences looking for devotional music and mantras as used in Kirtan events.

Kirtan offers, through the vibrational power and emotionally engaging qualities of music, another way to meditate and free oneself from the daily chatter of their own mind and to more deeply connect to one’s inner self and true nature.  Any musical tradition that does that in a time when so many forces in the world are pulling us in the opposite direction, can’t be all bad.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

* The Yoga Revolution CD (to be released in early 2110) features an incredible mix of original songs by well-known pop stars and international recording artists, all brought together to promote the benefits of yoga, music and a healthy and balanced lifestyle and to raise money for programming for at-risk youth. More info at: http://earthtones.org/projects/yoga-revolution/