Listening to good music – relaxing – chanting – laughing – singing – practicing a few yogic breathing exercises – sharing with others an experience of peace … I experienced all these in one evening a few weekends ago at a concert performed by Snatam Kaur.

And it was awesome!

Snatam Kaur came to Palo Alto as part of her Celebrate Peace tour, “a global effort to bring peace to the hearts and minds of individuals everywhere” according to the Celebrate Peace web site. I’ve written about how much I enjoy some of her music in this post and this post, so I was prepared for an enjoyable evening. I wasn’t disappointed.

She walked to the stage with the other performers, dressed in pure white Sikh garb, and after seating herself by her harmonium, right away conveyed a connection with the audience – a sincere desire for all to experience peace that evening. I’m sure the high-tech sound system as well as the good acoustics in the church didn’t hurt any, but from the moment she opened her mouth to sing, her – dare I say angelic – voice seemed to pierce the air and directly enter the hearts of everyone there.

She was accompanied by some excellent musicians. On guitar was GuruGanesha Singh, Snatam Kaur’s producer and founder of Spirit Voyage Music, Manish Vyas, renown musician and master of the tabla, and Ram Dass Khalsa on keyboards and clarinet, an inspiring example of a young person developing his talents and spiritual devotion.

The Music

Like other kirtans that I have participated in, this one involved a lot of audience participation. That’s all part of the experience for the audience as well as the performer. But whereas traditional kirtans primarily involve call and response chanting, in this concert she had everyone singing/chanting along with her. It deeply contributed to the sense of union between everyone there in the church. There were a few English songs as well, and though not quite as repetitive, the words were still easy to pick up and follow along with.

Cool Breathing Exercises

At one point, she had the audience participate in a few Kundalini Yoga breathing exercises. You might imagine that this would have involved a break from the concert experience – a sort of time-out for some mechanical activity before getting back to the music. At least that’s what I expected – but I was wrong.

With tabla and guitar keeping a steady rhythm, Snatam demonstrated the first technique and had the audience follow along. The first exercise involved holding your hands up by your shoulders, palms facing up, and then twisting your wrists while breathing out. OK, this is easy, I thought. But once everyone understood what to do, she would say “Now catch the breath” – which meant that the breathing would take off in earnest at about twice the pace! Whoaah. And all the while GuruGanesh kept playing this jazzy-Indian guitar riff to keep everyone on track.

She repeated the process for the other exercises – the demonstration and audience follow-along, then “catch the breath” and off we went. Each exercise lasted awhile, and the ironic thing was that, instead of this being a break from the rhythm of the concert, the breathing exercise actually fell into the natural flow of the evening. And the end of it I was even more energized than I was just from the music alone.

Sikh-based, Yet Universal

No surprising, there were several people of the Sikh tradition there. To be honest, I don’t remember seeing any Sikhs at any other kirtan that I’ve attended. How could I tell? Well, for those unfamiliar with this spiritual tradition, Sikh men wear the turbans and usually have long beards. These are Sikhs – not Arabs, and not Muslims. The turban and beard are worn as a reminder to live according to the spiritual principles to which they are dedicated.

But even with this background, the concert was actually a very interfaith-type experience. All were made to feel welcome, regardless of religious beliefs. One thing that she did that made me feel more connected was to explain the meaning of the chants. It emphasized ideas that are universal across all faiths. The following are a sample of common phrases that were incorporated in several of the chants/songs.

Ek Ong Kar: The Creator is one
Sat Nam: Truth is God’s Name
Siri: Great (used as a title)
Waheguru: Praise to the Divine here and now, which brings you from darkness to light

The Audience Experiences Peace

This concert touched me emotionally more than any other that I had been to. You could feel the love radiating from the stage, vibrating within the music, and filling everyone as they chanted in unison. There are many avenues to take to pursue peace in this world, and Snatam Kaur is definitely pursuing an effective route by sharing her music in a way that allows everyone to experience a taste of the peace and unity that can transcend cultural differences. At the end of the concert, it was difficult not to feel motivated to pursue peace in our hearts, in our homes, and in the world.

While no recording can really do justice to the live experience, here are a couple of videos (available for download from Snatam Kaur’s website) from her Celebrate Peace tours in Barcelona and Vancouver.

In the video from Barcelona the song is Aahkan Jor from her CD Shanti.
In the video from Vancouver is a song from GuruGanesha’s CD Pure Ganesh, called Ma.

Do a Google search for ‘raising vibration’ and there is no lack of information available. But in the spirit of the ‘high vibes game’ meme started at OptimistLab (I’ve just been tagged … twice), I’ll give my take on it as well as five things I do to ‘raise my vibration’.

But first, the following individuals with great websites tagged me within a day of each other, before I had the opportunity to work on this post:

Jonathan Bankert from JonathanBankert.com
Pamm from My Secret Spiritual Dance

Five Ways I Raise My Vibes

Raising your vibration means different things to different people. To some it means increasing your level of good feelings, to others it means increasing your level of spirituality. From my perspective:

The closer you are to who you want to be, the better you feel and the more things in life just seem to fall into place effortlessly. That said, these are the things that work to help me be in that place:

• Meditation/Breathing Exercises

  As a daily practice, I like to start the day with meditation and some Kriya Yoga pranayams, or breathing exercises. This puts me in a positive frame of mind for the day.

• Modified Five Tibetan Rites

  These exercises do not take much time to perform and are great for generating rejuvenating energy. There are plenty of instructions on the web, but I perform a modified version taken from the book Your Hands Can Heal You, by Master Steven Cho.

• Kirtan/Chanting

Whether with well-known Kirtan chanters such as Krishna Das, or with a local group which gets together once a month, an evening of Kirtan leaves me so hyped up with energy that I can be a bit overwhelming with my family after I get home.

• Listening to inspiring music

Krishna Das, Wah!, Jai Uttal, and Snatam Kaur are among the artists that I listen to. Their music always puts me in a peaceful, positive, mood.

• Unselfish acts

In an episode of Friends, Joey tells Phoebe that there is no such thing as an unselfish act. In a sense, I have to agree. While family and friends provide plenty of opportunities to do things for others that do not bring immediate benefit to myself, the mere fact that they benefit is meaningful. Why? Because we are all connected, and if something happens that makes another happy, why is it any different than if it were happening to me?

Spreading Good Vibes

As part of this meme, I’ve tagged and submitted the following posts to the website High Vibe It, which functions like the community-based Digg website for articles/posts/news, except that the intention of High Vibe It is to focus exclusively on positive-oriented content. Some of these writers might already have been tagged, but I felt it good to draw attention to these posts anyway.

• Are you Using the Language of Love?

  By Mark at The Naked Soul, this post is a good reminder about being aware of how we speak to those whom we love.

• Installing the Love Software

  By surjit at gurushabad, computer geeks (and others, too) will find humor and meaning in this post about the ingredients for love.

• A compass tells you what you want most

  JackDirt at excommunicate.net tells how to tap into your subconscious for answers.

• A Better Way to Unleash Your Potential

  Lee over at absolutelee.com shows why our failures are no reason for giving up on a dream.

• Gardening for Your Soul and Your Success

  Joseph Bernard at Explore Creating a Meaningful Life relates gardens to our current life and beyond.

One of the things I like about listening to internet radio at work, is that I get introduced to artists that I would have otherwise overlooked. Snatam Kaur is one of those. I had seen her CDs in music stores, but was never moved to check them out. But then while at work I kept hearing this one song over and over – Ek Ong Kaar – and it got a hold of me. The more I heard it, the more I became mesmerized by it until I had to find out who the artist was.

That was when I was re-introduced to the devotional music of the Sikh faith.

I had attended a spiritual event at the new Sikh Gurdwara in San Jose a couple of years ago and for some reason could not get into the music. Perhaps it just wasn’t the right time, although I did enjoy being in the temple and witnessing the ceremony. So I was surprised when I found out about Snatam Kaur’s Sikh background, and that her songs were inspired by that faith. The words to that song that has haunted me are actually the words of Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru:

The ironic thing is that the melody has a very wistful feel to it. If there is anything sad going on my life or in the life of someone close to me, that situation is felt strongly whenever I listen to Ek Ong Kaar. Yet the meaning of the words are not sad at all, but very inspirational:

The Creator is One

You can hear the song in the first part of this video I found on YouTube:

Or listen to a short audio clip here:

Her songs actually show quite a bit of variety, relatively speaking. Some are in English, and they are all easy to listen to. She is scheduled to appear in Palo Alto on 5/19 and I’m definitely going! I’ll be sure to report on my experience.

Be sure to visit Snatam Kaur’s very beautiful web site: Snatam Kaur

Actually, the exact words spoken by Krishna Das at a recent kirtan were “Dust is us”. That was before he led the crowd at the church through the process of removing that dust – removing ourselves.

What’s that about- removing the dust? You’ve heard the song Dust in the Wind, by Kansas, but that comparison of humanity with the fleeting existence of dust is not what is meant here. Instead, the comparison is to dust on a mirror, which prevents us from seeing our true selves. Seeing our true selves is the key to internal happiness and peace. Unfortunately, we get in our own way of achieving this. It’s our external ego and concept that we have of ourselves that interferes with our ability to see who we truly are at the core, at the heart.

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to spend a few hours removing some of that dust.

The Magic of Kirtan

Kirtan is a form of call-and-response musical chanting of Sanskrit mantras that contain the names of God – specifically Hindu names such as Ram, Rama, Shiva, and Krishna. I know many Christians would consider this blasphemy, and that it involves invoking false gods and even demonic influences, but I completely disagree with that. It is a misconception that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion. All the various names are intended to draw attention to different aspects of God. Even the Bible refers to God with a number of different titles such as The Almighty, Father, Creator, God, and Jehovah. Hindu theology has just created stories around their various names to further explain a particular quality of God.

Another aspect of Hindu teachings is that they are primarily based on empirical observations of the effect that various actions and practices have on spiritual growth. One of their observations is that certain sounds have a positive spiritual effect when spoken, and some of these sounds are the basis for the divine names. It is said that every time a divine name is uttered, a little spiritual progress is made.

But what I get out of it is the opportunity to relax and practice letting go of my thoughts in a manner similar to meditation. In fact, it is said that in this day and age, the practice of bhakti (or devotional) yoga and the singing of kirtans and bhajans is an easier way to achieve the same benefits as meditation. All I know is that it does alter my awareness, it usually hits my emotions, and I always enjoy the experience.

Now the beauty of all this is that you don’t have to accept any of these concepts in order to enjoy the experience. The crowd that attends is a mixture of young and old, and everyone has their own way of participating. Some do sit quietly and absorb the music, but others let the music take over and in response they get up and dance in the aisles. In many ways it is not unlike a holy-roller Christian revival meeting. I’ve been to church services where there was music and singing, and many of the faithful would raise their hands to God in song. The sight at a kirtan can be very similar. And perhaps the same processes are involved.

Kirtans with Krishna Das

Krishna Das is regarded as the one of the best known American singers of Indian kirtan-style devotional music. His deep voice adds a fullness to the mantras that can fill any auditorium or church. Locally, I’ve gone to see him when he’s performed in San Francisco and then just recently in Santa Cruz.

Each song, or bhajan, lasts about twenty minutes. Believe me, after twenty minutes of repeating the same lines over and over again to music that is inspiring, the united voices of everyone else adding to the vibration, you can’t help but get lost in it. The words are Sanskrit, so they offer no blatant meaning to distract you; yet the constant flow keeps you from getting too distracted with other thoughts. What’s left is an experience that is beyond thought. And so you end up reaching a part of yourself that is hidden by the constant onslaught of worries, plans, problems, and dialogs that your mind is usually filled with. This is the part of you that is at peace, and – well, happy.

In between songs a few moments are taken in silence, to allow you to continue soaking in the vibrations. I definitely feel a buzz throughout my body during this time.

The entire session typically lasts two to three hours. It’s a very energizing experience and afterwards I usually feel a little hyped up and buzzed. It’s a positive feeling. During that time, any problems that were weighing on my mind are forgotten, and I am once again reminded that within myself is all the happiness I need. And for me, a little dust is indeed removed.

Recommendations:

“Live on Earth … for a Limited Time Only” is a good introduction to the music of Krishna Das.