Pranava Magazine: The Art & Culture of Kirtan in the West

Pranava Spring 2015

Hono!ng " Divine Child

Dave Stringer Rocks the Radiance Sutras Inside:

Matṛkā Śakti Nada Yoga

The Good Son The divine child

The Golden Embryo: The Mystical Birth of The divine child

$5.95 Spring Issue 2015 No.5

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Pranava ~OM~ The Primordial SoundVibration of the Life-Force in motion The Divine Word of God-Dess

Editorial Note In Honor of the Divine Child, I present to you our 6th Issue; welcome to Pranava Magazine, Spring 2015!

Within the world of kirtan, we find the divine child holding a central position, and playing a vital role. I’m certain that one of the very first bhajans (devotional hymn) that was ever written was in loving honor of the divine child archetype, which represents the individual soul.

Pranava Magazine: The Art & Culture of Kirtan in the West www.pranavamagazine.com

Editorial

As an offspring of the primordial Mother-Father Duad, the Divine Child represents the Third force to offer an neutralizing presence, in order to harmonize the Duad.

Yet as the Two unfolds into Three, the Third begins to feel a bit isolated and too individualized, so much so, that the longing of separation begins to swell in its heart.

Editor in Chief: J.Yochanan Russell

It is this longing of separation that has inspired devotees, poets, lovers, and musicians for ages. We’ve heard their words expressed through romantic songs, ecstatic poetry, and in spiritual bhajans and gospels. The trails of the yearningbroken heart that’s been separated from its beloved is what moves most to seek a deeper meaning of life. It is this longing of the heart that leads us back to wholeness. Here we discover the purpose and mystery of the ubiquitous Divine Child.

Matura beautifully states in his article ‘The Divine Child’:

“The divine child archetype is a recurring mythological idea in many of the world's cultures. The divine child represents the regenerative force that leads us to wholeness, which in psychological terms is called self actualization.”

To highlight our theme, we have a most revolutionary interview with our cover kirtan wallah, Dave Stringer. In our conversation, you’ll discover illuminating insights that speaks to the rebellious role that kirtan plays in bringing chanting out of the temples, and into the streets, and now prisons in our modern time!

Dave shows us how to expand our view of kirtan culture, and how what we usually think of as “traditional”, could in fact be conditional, and binding.

Assisting Editor: Shannon Chambers

Lay out & Design: J.Yochanan Russell

Head Columnist: Shanti Shivani & Anandra George

Senior Contributors: Matthew Matura Bennett & Geoffrey Earendil

Media Partners: Bhakti Fest, Give Back Yoga Foundation, & Mantra Movie www.bhaktifest.com www.mantramovie.com www.givebackyoga.org

For Article Submissions & to To Request our Media Kit:

With the addition of two new columns, ‘Nada-Yoga’ by Shanti Shivani, and ‘Matrika Shakti’ by Anandra George, it is my wish that you find our current issue to be inspirational, and provocative, as we dive deeper into the undercurrents of kirtan culture in the West.

Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu!! ~J.Yochanan Russell

Table of Contents Dave Stringer Rocks the Radiance Sutras p.15 Matṛkā Śakti p.12 Nada Yoga p.28 The Good Son p.21 The Divine Child p.6 The Golden Embryo: The Mystical Birth of The Divine Child p.24 Cover Photo Credit Robert Sturman

pranavamag@gmail.com

Our Contributors Anandra lives on Kaua’i island, Hawaii, and teaches mantra workshops and intensives worldwide. For nearly 20 years, she’s been on “the path” and has been teaching and seeing private clients since 1999. Her sole focus is YOUR true freedom, and she prefers to let her clients’ and student’ testimony speak for itself regarding the effectiveness of her assistance.An internationally respected mantra teacher, she is frequently invited to teach and lead chanting/kīrtan at the world’s largest yoga festivals. Her students from online meditation groups, workshops, and teacher trainings speak highly about their experiences. www.truefreedomcoaching.com

Shanti Shivani is is a singer/nada yogini/sound healer, internationally acclaimed seminar leader and recording artist. She is one of the few Western pioneers bringing the sacred traditions of Nada Yoga and Dhrupad, the most ancient style of Hindustani classical music, to the West. Shanti has been leading kirtan & singing Buddhist, Sufi, Gregorian & Hebrew chants internationally since 1993. She brings a wealth of vocal, meditative, and movement experience to her classes. She has several albums to her credit and has been recording as a solo artist and in collaboration with many World Music artists since 1993.She currently lives in Eugene, OR. www.shantishivani.com As a gifted teacher of Bhakti Yoga, Author and a Certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Counselor, Matura has conducted hundreds of classes, and lead uplifting kirtans in America, England, Australia & India, inspiring others to seek and serve the Conscious Spiritual Reality that is the basis of all world faiths. A preview of Matura's forthcoming book "Absolute Abundance" can be previewed here: www.abundantlives.org

Geoffrey Earendil has been teaching Hatha Yoga for more than 15 years. A student of the common roots of Chi Kung, Hatha Yoga, and Ayurveda he is an initiate of a traditional Kaula Tantra lineage. He teaches physical practices to support the subtle body from Long Beach, CA. With Gratitude to Chogyam Trungpa, Dr.Robert Svoboda, Vamadeva Shastri, and Nisha Bhairavi.

Find him at: www.vajradeha.com

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!e Divine Child

By Mat"ew Matura Benne#

!e Divine Child

By Mat"ew Matura Benne#

The divine child archetype is a recurring mythological idea in many of the world's cultures. The divine child represents the regenerative force that leads us to wholeness, which in psychological terms is called self actualization. Spiritually we are more acquainted with the term self realization. When Christ delivered the Sermon on the Mount he referred to the idea of becoming as a little child, and pointing to the children playing nearby, said "the kingdom of God is made up of ones such as these". He was referring to the natural, unaffected state of innocence and gentleness that is the nature of our soul in purity and spiritual completeness.

Christianity has a long history of venerating the divine child in the form of child and infant Jesus.

In Hindu culture we also find the divine child manifesting in various forms such as Ganesha, Kartikeya, Vamana Deva the child brahmin Vishnu avatar, and of course the most famous divine child in Hindu culture: Sri Krishna. The Bhagavat Purana which is one of India's most loved scriptures composed by the sage Veda Vyasa some 5,000 years ago gives a detailed account of the lilas (pastimes) of Sri Krishna. The 19th century Bengali theologian and shuddha-bhakta devotee, Bhaktivinode

Thakur gives a detailed devotional analysis of these pastimes of Sri Krishna from the archetypical outlook and interestingly describes these pastimes as allegorical representations of the souls journey from illusion to illumination and completion in self-realization, portraying the demons who oppose Sri Krishna in His divine pastimes as obstacles on the path to devotion.

Sri Krishna's birthday is celebrated in India as the holy annual festival of Janmashtami, celebrating the appearance of Lord Krishna, approximately 5,000 years ago in 3228 BC at Matura, India.

Krishna is worshiped across many traditions in India and by more than 800,000,000 people worldwide. While many Western scholars recognize Krishna as an avatar of Vishnu, most Vaishnava devotional lineages consider Krishna to be svayam bhagavan, or the Original Supreme Conscious Being of eternity, knowledge and bliss, (satchit-ananda), Reality the Beautiful. Although Krishna is revered throughout the Vedic literatures as the Supreme all-powerful Deity, He is often depicted as a beautiful infant, or as a young boy playing a flute as in the Bhagavata Purana.

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re'nerative force "at leads us to wholeness,

which in psychological Also he is most famous as the youthful prince giving direction and guidance to His friend and devotee Arjuna in the classical devotional sanskrit scripture Bhagavad Gita (The Song of God). The stories of Krishna appear across a broad spectrum of Hindu philosophical and theological traditions. They portray him in various perspectives: a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero and the Supreme Being. The principal scriptures discussing Krishna's story are the Mahābhārata, the Harivamsa, the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana.

The traditional belief based on scriptural details and astrological calculations gives the date of Krishna's birth, known as Janmashtami, as either 18 or 21 July 3228 BC. Krishna belonged to the royal family of Mathura, and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva. Mathura was the capital of the Yadavas (also called the Surasenas), to which Krishna's parents Vasudeva and Devaki belonged. The evil king Kamsa, Devaki's brother, had ascended the throne by imprisoning his father, King Ugrasena. Afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of Devaki's eighth son, he had locked the couple into a

prison cell. After Kamsa killed the first six children, and Devaki's apparent miscarriage of the seventh, being transferred to Rohini as Balarama, Krishna t o o k b i r t h . S i n c e Va s u d e v a believed Krishna's life was in danger, Krishna was secretly taken out of the prison cell to be raised by his foster parents, Yasoda and Nanda in Gokula.

Two of his other siblings also survived, Balarama (Devaki's seventh child, transferred to the womb of Rohini, Vasudeva's first wife) and Subhadra (daughter of Vasudeva and Rohini, born much later than Balarama and Krishna). According to Bhagavata Purana it is believed that Krishna was born without a sexual union, by "mental transmission" from the mind of Vasudeva into the womb of Devaki.

Hindus believe that in that time of Dwapara Yuga (prior to 5,000 years ago), this type of union was possible for highly spiritually realized beings.

Nanda was the head of a community of cow-herders, and he settled in Vrindavana. The stories of Krishna's childhood and youth tell of his mischievous pranks as Makhan Chor (butter thief), his foiling of attempts to take his life by evil yogis sent by King Kamsa, and his role as a protector of the people of Vrindavana.

terms ( called self actualization.”

Krishna is said to have killed the demons like Putana, sent by Kamsa for taking Krishna's life. He also tamed the serpent Kaliya, who previously poisoned the waters of Yamuna river, thus leading to the death of the cowherds.In Hindu art, Krishna is often depicted dancing on the multi-hooded Kaliya. Krishna is believed to have lifted the Govardhana hill and taught Indra—the king of the devas a lesson—to protect the cowherd people of Vrindavana from persecution by Indra and prevent the devastation of the pasture land of Govardhan. Indra had too much pride and was angry when Krishna advised the people of Vrindavana to take care of their animals and their environment that provide them with all their necessities, instead of worshipping Indra. Overriding the orthodox forms of worship of the Vedic gods such as Indra, Krishna advised the community to worship the cows and Govardhan Hill and demonstrated His divinity by lifting Govardhan Hill and subjugating the angry pride of the demigod Indra.

The stories of Krishna's adolescent play with the gopis (milkmaids) of Vrindavana became known as the Rasa lila and were romanticized in the poetry of Jayadeva, author of the Gita Govinda. These became important as part of the development of the Krishna bhakti traditions worshiping Radha Krishna, that were extolled by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in His great renaissance of Krishnabhakti that took place in the fourteenth century.

On his return to Mathura as a young man, Krishna overthrew and killed his uncle, Kamsa, after avoiding several assassination attempts from Kamsa's followers. He reinstated Kansa's father, Ugrasena, as the king of the Yadavas and became a leading prince at the court. During this period, he became a friend of Arjuna and the other Pandava princes of the Kuru kingdom, who were his cousins. Later, he took his Yadava subjects to the city of Dwaraka (in modern Gujarat) and established his own kingdom there on the famed island off the coast of western India. Krishna married Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha, by abducting her from her wedding on her request. According to S r i m a d B h a g a v a t a m . K r i s h n a ’s

principle queens were Rukmini, Satyabhama, and Jambavati. Krishna subsequently married 16,100 maidens who were being held in captivity by the demoniac Narakasura, to save their honor. Krishna killed Narakasura and released them all. According to strict social custom of the time, all of the captive women were degraded due to being abducted by Narakasura, and would be unable to marry, as they had been under the control of Narakasura, however Krishna married them to reinstate their status in the society. In Vaishnava traditions, Krishna's wives are believed to be forms of the goddess Lakshmi— consort of Vishnu, or special souls who attained this qualification after many lifetimes of austerity, while his primary queen Satyabhama, is an expansion of Radha.

Once battle seemed inevitable between the Kurus and the Pandavas, Krishna offered both sides the opportunity to choose between having either his army or simply himself alone, but on the condition that he personally would not raise any weapon. Arjuna, on behalf of the Pandavas, chose to have Krishna on their side, and Duryodhana, chief of the Kauravas, chose Krishna's army.

At the time of the great battle, Krishna acted as Arjuna's charioteer, since it was a position that did not require the wielding of weapons.Upon arriving at the battlefield, and seeing that the e n e m i e s a r e h i s f a m i l y, h i s grandfather, his cousins and loved ones, Arjuna becomes doubtful about fighting. Krishna then advises him about the battle, with the conversation soon extending into a discourse which was later compiled as the great scripture Bhagavad Gita.

The Bhagavad Gita (Sanskrit meaning"Song of God") is one of the most important Hindu scriptures. It is revered as a sacred scripture of Hinduism, and considered as one of the most important philosophical classics of the world. The Bhagavad Gita comprising 700 verses, is a part of the larger historical epic Mahabharata. The teacher of the Bhagavad Gita is Krishna, who is regarded by the Hindus as the supreme manifestation of the Lord Himself, and is referred to throughout as Bhagavan—the divine one.

The content of the Gita is the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna taking place on the battlefield before the start of the Kurukshetra war. Responding to Arjuna's confusion and moral dilemma, Krishna explains to Arjuna his duties as a warrior and prince and elaborates on different Yogic and Vedantic philosophies, with examples and analogies. This has led to the Gita often being described as a concise guide to Hindu philosophy and also as a practical, self-contained guide to lifeIt is a lighthouse of eternal wisdom that has the ability to inspire any man or woman to supreme accomplishment and enlightenment. During the discourse, Krishna reveals his identity as the Supreme Being Himself (Svayam bhagavan), blessing Arjuna with an awe-inspiring vision of his divine universal form.The Bhagavad Gita is also called Gītopaniṣad, implying its having the status of an Upanishad, i.e. a Vedantic scripture. Since the Gita is drawn from the Mahabharata, it is classified as a Smṛti text.

However, those branches of Hinduism that give it the status of an Upanishad also consider it a śruti or "revealed" text. As it is taken to represent a summary of the Upanishadic teachings, it is also called "the Upanishad of the Upanishads". For more information on the philosophy of the Gita please visit scsmath.com. Later at a festival, a fight broke out between the Yadavas who exterminated each other.

Krishna’s elder brother Balarama then gave up his body using mysticYoga.

Krishna retired into the forest and sat under a tree in meditation.

While Vyasa's Mahābhārata says that Shri Krishna ascended to heaven, Sarala's Mahabhārata narrates the story that a hunter mistook his partly visible left foot for a deer and shot an arrow wounding him mortally. Though Krishna is spiritually beyond birth and death He displays such earthly pastimes for the benefit of His devotees.According to Puranic sources, Krishna's disappearance marks the end of Dvapara Yuga and the start of Kali Yuga, which is dated to February 17/18, 3102 BC. Vaishnava teachers such as Ramanujacharya and Gaudiya Vaishnavas held the view that the body of Krishna is completely spiritual and never decays which is also the perspective of the Bhagavata Purana.

Krishna never appears to grow old or age at all in the historical depictions of the Puranas despite the fact that Krishna was well over 100 years old at the time of the Kurukshetra war. The Mahabharata also shows in many places where Krishna is not subject to any limitations as through episodes such as when Duryodhana tried to arrest Krishna when His body expanded unlimitedly showing all creation within Him. The worship of Krishna is part of Vaishnavism, which regards Vishnu as the Supreme God and venerates his associated avatars, their consorts, and related saints and teachers. Krishna is especially looked upon as a full manifestation of Vishnu, and as one with Vishnu himself, the original Vishnu and the original source of all Vishnu manifestations. Most Vaishnava traditions recognize Krishna as the original source of Vishnu, the all-pervading godhead; others identify Krishna with Vishnu; while traditions, such as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Vallabha Sampradaya and the Nimbarka Sampradaya, regard Krishna as the svayam bhagavan, original form of God, or the Lord himself. Today the faith has a significant following outside of India as well, with more than 800,000,000 people worldwide acknowledging the Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Bhakti, meaning devotion, is not confined to any one deity. However Krishna is an important and popular focus of the devotional and ecstatic aspects of Hindu religion, particularly among the Vaishnava section. Devotees of Krishna subscribe to the concept of lila, meaning 'divine play', as the central principle of the Universe. The lilas of Krishna, with their expressions of personal love that transcend the boundaries of formal reverence, serve as a counterpoint to the actions of another avatar of Vishnu: Rama, "He of the straight and narrow path of viddhi or rules and regulations." The Bhakti movements devoted to Krishna became prominent in southern India in the 7th to 9th centuries AD. The earliest works included those of the Alvar saints of the Tamil country. A major collection of their works is the Divya Prabandham. The Alvar Andal's popular collection of songs Tiruppavai, in which she conceives of herself as a gopi, is the most famous of the oldest works in this genre.

The Vaishnava bhakti movement spread rapidly from northern India into the south, with the Sanskrit poem Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (12th century AD) becoming a

landmark of devotional, Krishna-based literature. While the learned sections of the society well versed in Sanskrit could enjoy works like Gita Govinda or Bilvamangala's Krishna-Karnamritam, the masses sang the songs of the devotee-poets, who composed in the regional languages of India. These songs expressing intense personal devotion were written by devotees from all walks of life. Many devotee-poets, like the Alvars before them, were aligned to specific theological schools only loosely, if at all. But by the 11th century AD, Vaishnava Bhakti schools with elaborate theological frameworks around the worship of Krishna were established in north India. Nimbarka (11th century AD), Vallabhacharya (15th century AD) and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (16th century AD) were the founders of the most influential schools. These schools, namely Nimbarka Sampradaya, Vallabha Sampradaya and Gaudiya Vaishnavism respectively, see Krishna as the supreme god, rather than an avatar, as generally seen.

Rupa Goswami, a direct disciple of Sri Chaitanya Deva the founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava school, has compiled a comprehensive summary of bhakti named Bhaktirasamrita-sindhu.

Since 1966, the Krishna bhakti movement has also spread outside India. This is largely due to the Hare Krishna movement, the largest part of which is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The movement was founded by Srila Prabhupada, who was instructed by his guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, to write about Krishna in English and to share the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy with people in the Western world. This western movement of Krishna consciousness was further defined and refined by the ontological and spiritually philosophical conclusions of His Divine Grace Srila Sridhar Maharaj, the senior godbrother of Swami Prabhupad and the founder of the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math (http://www.scsmath.com) as well as His chief disciple and successor Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaj.In the Dance and the ArtsFrom the 10th century AD, with the growing Bhakti movement, Krishna became a favorite subject of the arts. The songs of the Gita Govinda became popular across India, and had many imitations.

The songs composed by the Bhakti poets added to the repository of both folk and classical singing.The classical Indian dances, especially Odissi and Manipuri, draw heavily on the story. The 'Rasa lila' dances performed in Vrindavan shares elements with Kathak, and the Krisnattam, with some cycles, such as Krishnattam, traditionally restricted to the Guruvayur temple, the precursor of Kathakali. The Sattriya dance, founded by the Assamese Vaishnava saint Sankardeva, extols the virtues of Krishna. Medieval Maharashtra gave birth to a form of storytelling known as the Hari-Katha, that told Vaishnava tales and teachings through music, dance, and narrative sequences, and the story of Krishna one of them. This tradition spread to Tamil Nadu and other southern states, and is now popular in many places throughout India.Lord Krishna’s birth celebration known popularly as Janmasthami is the most significant Holy Days of the Vedic Faith.The spiritual glories of the Reality of Sri Krishna are extolled in the ancient Scripture called the Bramha Samhita. ~abundantlives.org

Exclusive Pranava Column

Matṛkā Śakti

By Anandra George

Matṛkā Śakti

From the banks of Mother Ganga in Rishikesh, we bring you the first of a series of articles by Anandra George, internationally respected mantra teacher and musician.

Matṛkā Śakti Saṁskṛtam (Sanskrit) means “to put together subtle form.” The Sanskrit alphabets (matṛkā) are literally the elemental powers and forms that vibrationally create all the varieties within the manifest universe.

Through this column, my hope is that you’ll discover that the Sanskrit alphabet is more than a collection of sounds… May cupid’s arrow strike your heart and make you fall, nectarous with love for the 50 sounds, expanding your mantric palate of vibrations from 26 letters to a blissful 50!

You see… from a tantric perspective it is the delightful creative play of consciousness into form, as well as the resolution of form into consciousness.

Here’s an overview: 16 vowels are the primary energies and the inner experience of Śiva.

25 consonants as the primary elements and the body of Śakti Gutturals - Mahābhutas - Gross Elements Palatals - Tanmātras - Subtle Elements Cerebrals - Karmendriyas - Organs & Powers of Action Dentals - Jnānendriyas - Powers of Perception Labials - Antaḥkāraṇa - Inner Instrument

breath drop in to your pelvic bowl. Notice any tension in your jaw and let it become a little slack.

With the breath arising from the belly, let the corners of your mouth turn up in a slight smile and open your mouth to say a short, one count “A.” Close your eyes, and say it several times, noticing the effect on your energy. Simple, sweet, and grounding, this letter represents “cid śakti,” or the power of infinite awareness.

Where there is awareness, there is bliss, which brings us into the expansion into ecstasy that is Ā… the letter which represents ānanda śakti. Drop your jaw slightly further and let the Ā resound for two full counts. Say it several times, for the full length of your breath, so you can really feel the resonance. Make microadjustments in your posture to find the purest sound, especially in the way your head sits upon your neck. (There’s a divine purpose to everything in India, even the famous head-bobble — which keeps the neck and occiput energy fluid — as I’ve discovered in my long years of study here!)

The movement between A (cid) and Ā (ānanda) is the expansion of infinite awareness (Śiva) to infinite creative bliss (Śakti)… the pulse of nothing into something, which then proliferates into every created form.

A few Sanskrit words and mantras where Westerners commonly pronounce A and Ā without precision: Bliss, commonly pronounced ananda is ānanda (with the blissful long ā beginning the word).

The hero of the Rāmāyaṇa, Rama is Rāma (notice how the longer ā opens your heart more?!).

Physical yoga posture, asana, is āsana.

4 Semi-vowels are that which goes between, the internal state of limited puruṣa, the prisons of consciousness which constitute both the barrier to freedom and the gateway to creativity.

In this mantra, Lokaḥ Samastāḥ Sukhino Bhavantu notice how the “a” at the end of “Lokaḥ” is short, and at the end of “Samastāḥ” it’s long.

4 Sibilants are the expansion of the heat of Śiva’s own nature; exploring the most subtle distinctions between Self and Universe.

Summary

Plus the special character Kṣaṁ as the potential for infinite combinations of śakti + śakti; the infinite varieties of form.

Devotion Includes Developing Skill Therefore, when we’re chanting Sanskrit Mantra, it’s of profound importance to attune to the precise letter that was intended. One small change in pronunciation makes the difference between consciousness and bliss, water and fire, your right and left foot.

If your only concern is the cry of the heart, as in some definitions of bhakti yoga, then pronunciation doesn’t matter. The all-gracious Lord is beyond all names and forms, and will answer any heart’s sincere call. (A further discussion of the pros/cons of learning Sanskrit is in my free ebook at www.truefreedomcoaching.com.)

However, if you want to taste the subtle essence of the myriad names, and unify instantly with those forms, meditation on the matṛkā is fundamental. In the same way a musician would need to learn to dissolve into the exact pitch (neither flat nor sharp), or a yogāsana master would need to consciously engage a precise set of muscles, a mantra yogī must attune to the special qualities of the consonants and vowels.

So, let’s start at the very beginning… A and Ā Sit comfortably with your crown directly above the base of your spine. Relax your breath, your neck and shoulders, and let your

I am not a Sanskrit scholar; I simply love mantra, and after more than a decade of chanting without knowing the alphabet I was astounded to discover the worlds within worlds that are the alphabets. Now I’m hooked! My emphasis has been on direct experience; profound meditation and a daily discovery of the subtle effects of the alphabets on my energy, my capacity to attune to subtle names and forms of the infinite Divine, and even on my physical body.

What my students and I have discovered is that when the sounds themselves come alive in our direct experience, mantra is no longer a distant, mystical subject with random effects, but a dynamic harmonizing celebration of life. We have a subtle palate of energies to attune to for meditation, healing, and balancing.

Even one utterance, mental or verbal, of any name of God brings an instant at-one-ment with that unique quality.

Before learning the Sanskrit alphabet, I had been trying to tune into a heavenly radio station for years, getting vague static mixed with divine glimpses of the powerful sounds. Now, there’s a whole channel available, anytime! Join me as we discover the magic within each mantric syllable!

For more about Anandra, her international teaching schedule, the world's first entirely sound-based Yoga Alliance 200-hour RYT course, and to receive the bounty of free mantra-related gifts she offers, visit www.truefreedomcoaching.com

Dave Stringer

"There's a space in the heart where everything meets.

Come here, if you want to find me!" ." -- Sutra 26

Rocks the Radiance Sutras

Pranava: Thanks for offering your time, right before your kirtan here in Corvallis!

Let’s discuss where you're at right now in this moment of your singing career, and how things are unfolding for you.

D a v e : Ki r t a n h a s a l w a y s b e e n a movement of bringing mantras out of the temples and into the streets. In a lot of ways, the message of Kirtan is "quit trying to sort the universe into pure and impure, sacred or not sacred". People get all tripped up about purity and tradition, but my experience is that the tradition is not interested in purity.

(Laughter) There are a lot of philosophies that you can study, there are a lot of paths that you can pursue. This practice says "come together as a community and sing!" All the doors open from that initial act. Instead of signing up for a belief system, or reading a series of books, or practicing a dogma, the perspective of Kirtan is that everything is already present in your heart. You are the writer, the book, and the one who is reading it all at once. So look into your own experience, see what happens for you, and start there.

What we're trying to do is provide an experience for people in which they can feel transformed by the act of singing in community. People often come in loaded with all kinds of images or preconceptions about what kirtan is or is not. All that drops away in the face of the experience of what it feels like to sing, and then to be immersed in the buzzing contentment that arises from it.

Once people have had that experience, then the conversation can open in another direction.

When people hear me playing Kirtan with a full on rock band, they sometimes say, “this is not traditional!”. And I respond, "You don't understand the tradition!".

Ki r t a n h a s a l w a y s b e e n k i n d o f confrontational, marching down the street saying, effectively, “I Am God”.

Now that’s a pretty radical thing to do!

Just to say that truth and love is something that’s discoverable inside of you; this alone upends social and religious structures, and political systems. It’s pretty revolutionary. What yoga is talking about is universal. It doesn't belong to anybody, yet it is essential to everyone.

Photo Credit: Mitchell Manz

Pranava: Do you see yourself as a form breaker??

Dave: No! It’s funny because people see me as a form breaker but I'm actually very traditional! This is the tradition!

(More laughter)! If you feel a little bit upset by this, then that’s the tradition!!

Is it provoking you to re-examine your conceptions? If so, then that’s also the tradition!! It's worth noting, however, that I'm from a Shaivite lineage. From this perspective, all forms are temporary, and the end of one form prepares the ground for new creation.

I might be using a sound palette that adds other textures and instruments to what you would hear in India, but the way I develop a Kirtan remains straight out of the Siddha Yoga gharana. The progression begins slowly and spaciously, causing participants to slow their breathing, relax, and become absorbed in the chant. Then the rhythm begins to speed up, eliciting a feeling of anticipation, with every round increasing the sense of elation.

When the chant reaches maximum speed and density, we cut the rhythm to half time, and suddenly there is a feeling of being unbounded and weightless. At the end, everyone falls naturally into a place of stillness, connection and intense awareness. The experience and the effect are the point. You can use any number of musical instruments to achieve it.

We now have all these Kirtan festivals in the West.

There are all these different experiments with sound and style as people from different traditions connect with one another. In India, normally you just follow one teacher, and are never exposed to what’s going on in another ashram. Every one of them has its own style. In the Western Kirtan movement, we now often have people from Vaishnava tradition playing with people from Shaivite tradition. On an ethno-musicological level, people are sharing techniques and methodologies of stimulating people to experience ecstatic states.

Pranava: And they're meeting on the common ground where its truly universal!

Dave: Right, right! So in this way the kirtan tradition is going through a profound renaissance.

Pranava: These ancient chants are now being applied within modern music: rock n' roll, blues, hip hop, different styles emerging that are signatured as 'American'. The mantras and sacred chants are enduring no matter what! They will always penetrate every era because they are the ancient stream of where all language of consciousness and sound emerges from. I love that you're speaking to this.

Matura: You’re dialed into the substance over the formality.

Dave: Yes, and the quest is for me is to ask what is the substance? Is there any substance? Because the profound mystery that I can’t get over is how something arises from nothing. Why should there be a world at all? And now that it’s here, how does it develop this mechanism in which it turns back and looks at itself, and then asks why it is here!? (Lots of laughter)! The whole thing is absurd!

Matura: Consciousness experiencing itself!

Dave: I'd like to shift this conversation a little bit into that realm of pure philosophy. Now we live in the age of neuroscience, and that gives us new tools to examine at what Kirtan is. I’ve recently been looking at kirtan as a very old form of investigation into the nature of consciousness, and as a practice of shifting on how we experience it.

Pranava: As I've written in my article on Mantra, I say that the utilization of mantra was probably one of the first tools used in psychotherapy.

Dave: Yes. I've always seen Kirtan as a modern art form, but I frequently see posters advertising the ancient aspect of chanting mantras. While I can understand the appeal of connecting with something timeless, I don't think we should be trying to elevate the ancient world as somehow being better or more authoritative than the present era. In the ancient world, your teeth were rotting out of your head by age 35! People often lived short, brutal lives. In the modern era, we have much more time and liberty to contemplate what our lives mean, and how we should live them.

My deal is to try to keep the door open and talk about Kirtan in language that people can easily grasp. People come to kirtan all the time without knowing a thing about it. I know there

are guys wandering in with a yogini girlfriend. She may have told him she would go to the ball game if the guy would come to the Kirtan. My job is to speak to that guy and ease his sense of confusion or discomfort and find a way that I can reach him. I figure if I can get him with me, then the rest of the crowd will come right along. All it takes is a few people to get excited and it becomes contagious.

This plays into the question of ‘what is consciousness and how does it work?’ The whole Kirtan is a model of consciousness. It turns out that we can assist each other in making these shifts. One person making the move helps to bring everyone else along. Consciousness may in fact not be something that any of us possess individually - we feel like we have it, but no one can say exactly where it is - so maybe we have been looking in the wrong place. The kirtan is a model that points to how consciousness may be that which connects us together.

Matura: So you're giving people the experience, rather than philosophy, helping them step into a tangible experience of transcendence.

Dave: Yes! The experience and the philosophy are one, just as the singer and the song become one. We must have the direct experience, otherwise it’s just an abstraction that doesn’t mean anything.

Pranava: Lets talk about your alignment with the Call & Response Foundation. (Call & Response Foundation is a charitable organization that organizes and sponsors Kirtan and meditation in correctional and psychiatric institutions) Dave: Before I became a professional kirtan singer, I did a long period of seva teaching meditation, bringing kirtan and hatha yoga into prisons. At the high point of it, around 1995-96, we were operating in about 12 different correctional institutions in California. This was a pivotal experience for me, because it taught me to speak a different spiritual language. I once led a kirtan at Folsom Prison, from the same stage where Johnny Cash made his famous album, backed by a three piece inmate rock band. It was amazing!

The thing was to enter that space putting aside my concept of what’s sacred and not sacred, who was a seeker and who was not. The question for me was what compelled these guys to pay attention to this? One of the few rights that prisoners enjoy is the ability to practice their religion. So they do have the right to come chant and meditate. But I had to change up my language about it in order to connect. Prisoners have limited patience for spiritual bullshit. They'll just get up and walk out if you begin spouting New Age jargon! So either you're speaking from experience and in language that connects, or you're just wasting your time.

I met a lot of people locked up for drug violations, people serving long sentences. People who use drugs are often seeking bliss, or trying to anesthetize some spiritual pain. In prison, these people had all the time in the world to meditate and practice, like living in a monastery. I found that some of these guys were really serious about it. If you're looking at a twenty year minimum sentence, you have to find a way to equanimity and peacefulness, to move through what is often a dangerous and violent world. I remember thinking, wow, these guys have the opportunity to practice yoga at a level that I don’t!

Pranava P.16

A HEARTFELT FILM ABOUT MUSIC, MEDITATION AND CHANTING!

Help us make this film a reality; Invest, Donate or Sponsor to help spread a new movement of inner peace.

This heartfelt film, now in production, will explore the growing phenomenon of chanting and meditation and the stories and science behind it. Showcasing both intimate Kirtan gatherings and large concert performances. Visit the website for more information.

Featuring: Deva Premal & Miten with Manose, Krishna Das, Snatam Kaur, Jai Uttal, MC Yogi, C.C. White, Lama Gyurme & Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Dave Stringer, Donna De Lory and more...

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From & !e

Ra$ance Sutras "All this talk of purity and impurity — these are just opinions. Beyond them are the astonishing energies of creation." -Sutra 100 "Raise your glass, close your eyes, toast the universe." ." -- Sutra 49 Photo Credit: Lakshmi Grace

Pranava: You have a new album, Elixir, that was recently released by Sounds True. It's not a Kirtan album, but it's based on translations of the Vijñana Bhairava, a classic text in the Tantra tradition. How did that come about?

Dave: I first read the Vijñana Bhairava when I was living at the Siddha Yoga ashram in Ganeshpuri, India in the early 1990's. It pointed toward an understanding of self and universe that I resonated very closely with, but the language was very dense and difficult. I encountered the text again in 2007 at a yoga and surfing retreat in Mexico, where yoga teacher Denise Kaufman invited participants to get up and read verses over grooves that I and the other musicians improvised. She was working with Lorin Roche on the translations that would become the Radiance Sutras, his ecstatic and poetic interpretation of the 112 meditations that comprise the heart and practice of the Vijñana Bhairava. I was struck by how accessible and practical the language was. It flowed so easily into song. The words spoke so eloquently of our ecstasies and agonies, from a point of view so unbounded by them, I was literally leaping with joy.

As it turned out, my wife, Dearbhla Kelly, an Irish yoga teacher and philosopher, also knew Lorin, and I asked her to introduce me. Subsequently, Denise, Lorin, his wife Camille and I

began staging a series of Sutra Jams at yoga studios around the USA. We'd ask audience members to pick out verses they liked, and then read them over grooves we created on the spot. Joni Allen and Donna De Lory (the singers I collaborated with on the album) and I would repeat certain phrases, and sing them as choruses. We'd keep track of the memorable moments, and found that certain motives would recur. Sometimes these choruses would have a mantra quality to them, in English, that merged aspects of kirtan and popular song.

I was astonished at how much art and joy and originality I witnessed in the people who got up and rocked a Sutra at one of the jams, many of them reciting poetry with musicians and a crowd for the first time. This process eventually led to some formal writing sessions with Donna and Joni, where we worked with the Sutras that had the most impact on us as a point of departure. Sometimes we would use the translations verbatim. Other times, we needed more text to flesh out the song, so we would make a further journey with Lorin into the original Sanskrit to extract more shades of meaning. We tried to remain faithful to the meaning of the text, but also felt free to experiment and play with it, so that it could have resonance as it took the form of verses and choruses and bridges.

"Immerse yourself in the rapture of music. You know what you love: go there." ." -- Sutra 18 "Passion and compassion, holding and letting go.

This ache in your heart is holy." ." -- Sutra 98

The Sanskrit of the Sutras is like a kind of DNA, coiled and dense with information. DNA is a blueprint, but it's not entirely determinant. It interacts with environmental factors, so that all beings are a product of both nature and nurture.

Elixir arose from the Radiant Sutras in the same way. What we recorded are just versions - there are so many ways to do them. Our hope is that these versions will inspire other to do the same. Radiance Sutra Jams and Kirtans seem to fit easily together. They're both interactive practices that produce the experience of ecstasy in the participant. They see the great artist in everyone, and every life form as the expression of that art, both imminent, and transcendent.

Pranava: Thanks so much, this has been a beautiful conversation. davestringer.com pranavamagazine.com

Photo Credit: Lakshmi Grace

ELIXIR Ten eclectic, modern songs inspired by The Radiance Sutras, Lorin Roche’s poetic interpretation of the Vijñana Bhairava Tantra, one of the most ecstatic and iconoclastic texts of yoga philosophy. Elixirunites the talents of leading ecstatic chant artists Dave Stringer and Donna De Lory with contemporary singer / songwriter Joni Allen. From stimulating bhangra grooves to country anthems and sultry ballads, these are songs to be danced with and meditated upon.

“There’s a space in the heart where everything meets. Come here, if you want to find me!”

“Immerse yourself in the rapture of music. You know what you love: Go there.”

“All this talk of purity and impurity — these are just opinions.

Beyond them are the astonishing energies of creation.”

“Raise your glass, close your eyes and toast the universe”.

“Passion and compassion, holding and letting go. This ache in your heart is holy.”

The Radiance Sutras “If you love Rumi, Hafiz, The Tao, if you love words dancing out of the mystery, welcome to The Radiance Sutras: these are among the most profound, exquisite and luminous verses you will ever read.” – Jack Kornfield, Author of A Path With Heart “Lorin Roche’s rendition of the Vijnana Bhairava is truly radiant, filled with insight and poetry, and illumined by the power of his practice.” – Sally Kempton “Like feeling and reading Shakti in print. I read a little bit each day, then close my eyes and do the exercise, or ponder the thought. I let the warm sweet loving words and imagery wash and heal my many layers of self.” – Lilias Folan “Lorin Roche’s Radiant Sutras Present the most inspiring translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Sutras I have ever encountered. It is juicy, hip, intelligent, inspiring and the best companion for your daily life. We all need daily reminders to “Celebrate the boundary where body meets infinity.”.This book is a must read!

– Margot Anand, author of The Art of Everyday Ecstasy and The Art of Sexual Ecstasy.

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By Geoffrey Earendil

T h e G o o d S o n

The Good Son

By Geoffrey Earendil The Divine Child is never separate from the Mother and the Father.

Never outside of relationship, we cannot discuss the Child as somehow separate from the Parents. TheParents are the Source, the Cause. The Father and Mother unto themselves may be Causeless, but they are merely Lovers at play with out reference to the Child, and the nature of the Child infers theParents. The Divine Child is the primordial product.

The Child of Uma Parvati and Lord Shankara, Ganapati is the epitome of Matter, the perfection of Substance. Scraped from the skin of his Mother, the dirt of her body mixed with sweet scented oils, sandalwood and turmeric molded into a lump, little Lord Ganesha is the embodiment of the Earth Element, the essence of solid and heavy.

Formed of the Mother, he is the Mother as Form.

The big bellied Lambodara Ganesha celebrates, delights in the generosity of the Mother as the Earth Element, the abundance of her forms. He is a sensualist, a lover of beauty and music and dance, a gourmand, a glutton. Voracious for the sweetness of life, he would have eaten the Wealthy Kubera out of house and home if the Lord of Riches had not been told that a humble offering of parched rice would satisfy the chubby little elephant-headed boy in a way that luxury and decadence could not.

The spawn of Shiva and Shakti, he rules over the manifest world of objects as Crown Prince. Lord of the Universe and Master of everything solid, heavy, inert he is the personification of Resistance; not just the Remover of Obstacles (Vighnahara) but Vigneshwara, Lord and Ruler of Obstruction. He can arrange the building blocks of the material/experiential world as he pleases, destroying obstacles or presenting resistance at his whim.

Resistance or obstruction is not necessarily something bad, something to be avoided at all costs. In fact resistance is an absolutely essential quality of the material world; resistance promotes growth and strength. Resistance provides protection, and establishes boundary, defines form. Resistance shapes the shoreline, raises mountain peaks.

Parvathi places Heramba, her Beloved Son, at the threshold of her inner chamber, and charges him to block entrance through her door; for inside she is bathing, naked, vulnerable and exposed.

“Let no one enter.” She whispers. Just newborn, still wet behind the great ears, Sarvatman Shambavi, Ganesha theProtector, fulfills his Mother’s command.

The Mother descends into the waters of her bath and Her Child, heavy and dense as a block, guards the way to Her. Not even the Lord Shiva can get past him. A rock, a hulk of earth, a mountain even as a little baby boy. Unbudgeable. The father doesn’t know the son, nor does the boy know his Da. The little self (jiva) does not recognize the Big Self. Shiva is insulted. Shiva gets pissed.

Ganapati doesn't even flinch; he ’s just doing what his Mother commanded.

This trinity, this family, this cell is the first Kula. The first clan, the first pod, the first primordial atom.

Kula is a complex sanskrit word with layers of nested meanings. It is a singular unit of energy and information, self-contained and independent, and yet combined with other distinct and seperate Kulas function as the building blocks and moving parts of greater Kulas. Kula suggests both a singularity and a multiplicity. It is a tribe, a clan, a brood, a heap, a bunch. A unit, like a family unit, comprised of smaller, dynamic elements, smaller units, held together by an identification with the whole and organized around an innate intelligence.

Each individual element that makes up the parts of a Kula, has its particular role or function, its Identity or karma within that community. It is at the same time an entire Cosmos, an entire Kula, whole and complete, a constellation of ever smaller particles, smaller Kulas.

A Kula could be particulate matter; an atom with its neutron at its center and its play of dynamic tensions, attractions and resistances. A Kula could be a living cell, with its nucleus as intelligence. A Kula could be a complex, biological organism, a living body composed of countless colonies of specialized cells. A Kula could also be a communal body, a social group, like a pod of dolphins, a hive of bees, or a herd of elephants.

The ancient (pre-aryan and pre-vedic), tribal peoples of Southern and Eastern India lived in close proximity to the wild herds of Indian Elephants, and observed their social structure with reverence and deep respect. The leaders of the Elephant Kulas are the Matriarchs, the Great Mothers. The Mother-worshipping Shaktas, the early Tantrikas noticed that when the herd was threatened, the Matriarchs would gather together with the babies of the tribe, while the young fierce bulls would form a protective ring around them. The sons of the Kula circling the center, defending the Tribal Mothers with their very bodies. The Matriarchs are the life line, the life support of the entire clan.

Elephants migrate, in harmony with the seasons, marching ahead of the dry hot summer, following the greening of the land ahead of them, escaping the parched, withered earth behind them.

Listening to the season cycle of their own bodies, of their own wombs, the Great Mothers set the timing of the herds migration.

The Patriarchs, theFathers, the Bulls who have sired several generations, now passed over for younger studs, tend to wander off like sadhus, to fend for themselves in solitary contemplation.

The Mothers embody wisdom and the dynamic renewal of life at the center of the Kula, like the nucleus of the cell, and the Son manifests, take it in hand, to define and defend the perimeter, the circumference, the cell wall.

In some of these same tribal cultures, the Queen of Elephants is Matangi Devi, the dark skinned, the Outcaste. Intoxicated, always dancing and eating leftovers, Matangi is the Mother as Untouchable, unclean. She is not just the energy of Abundance, She is the Overflow, the Excess, She is theRemainder. Her wisdom wakes us to the understanding that as the Mother, as the Source of Everything She is present and alive in Everything, including the waste and the filth, the blood and the guts, theater of Life; the stagnant, rotting mud and fetid waters that alone spawns the lotus.

Matangi is usually depicted playing the vina, a stringed instrument related to the sitar, and as an embodiment of speech,

music and song she is often considered an esoteric, tantric manifestation of the goddess Saraswati. Whereas, in Vedic tradition, Saraswati is identified as the Consort of Vishnu, Matangi wears a crescent moon in her hair to signify that she is eternally in union with her consort, Shiva Chandrashekaraya. As lover of Shiva, and as one of the Dasha Mahavidyas, the 10 Wisdom Mothers, Matangi is identifiable as an emanation of Kali, and thus she is Kulakamini, Lady of the Kula; Benefactress; Kulini, She is of the Form of the Kula; . the Kula is her body.

The Kula, the Circle derives it's shape from the dynamic tension, the attraction and resistance between the center and the circumference, the relationship between the inside and the outside. The Divine Child is the product of the Union of the Mother and the Father, the effect of Their love play, the sign of their dance amongst Form. Whereas His Mother is identified with the sound vibration of spoken language, Vac, the Mother as Wisdom Streaming in Speech, Ganapati is the The Lord of Scribes and Scholars. He is the Mark maker, the Historian, the Record Keeper, the Describer and Definer. As the Organizer,the Sorter, He is the Master of Fortune, because He balances the Books, He settles accounts.

Serving His Mother as the Mother of All Form, Ganesha serves Her in Every form She assumes. He serves Her and worships Her as Abundance and as Excess, Laxmi and Matangi, as Wisdom and Emptiness, Saraswati and Kali, as Form and Matter, Maya and Prakriti. Enthroned at the Root Chakra, Ganapati Oversees the Path of the Seeker. From his seat at muladhara, He is Gatekeeper of theSecond Chakra, the First step on the Path. He can bar the Way. He can open the Way. Remember, he stands between Shiva, who resides in the Crown, and the Mother, Shakti who sleeps as Kundalini at the base of the spine. It is only by Ganesha's grace that the way to the Mother is cleared, that the pathway opens for the Kundalini to rise. ~vajradeha.com

The Golden Embryo: The Mystical Birth of the Divine Child

By J.Yochanan Russell

The Golden Embryo: The Mystical Birth of the Divine Child

By J.Yochanan Russell

One does not have to dive to deep to discover the ubiquitous theme of the Mystical Birth of the Divine Child, that is born of a virgin mother. We find this theme repeated in nearly every sacred tradition of the world; Horus of North Africa, Bhagavan Sri Krishna of India, Mithras of Ancient Persia, Lao Tzu of China, Buddha Shakyamuni of Indo-Asia, Quetzalcoatl of Meso-America, etc., were all said to be miraculously born of a virgin, all the way up to our most modern reference of the Christ, Son of God, incarnated as Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mother Mary. Even his cousin John the Baptist is famed to be born of a Virgin Mother as well.

It is within esoteric streams of wisdom that we discover these myths as practical allegories that emphasize within their narratives a symbolic process, which actually takes place on the inner/spiritual/psychological levels of the spiritual seeker.

The Birth of the Divine Child is a direct experience that unfolds within one striving on the path of awakening and liberation.

These allegorical myths, with all of their so-called historical figures, serve only as sign posts, guiding us along the initiatic path.

The Virgin Mother lives within us all, longing to give birth to the Divine Child, which is also present within us as the divine potential, the Golden Embryo. For it is the Divine Child that comes forth to provide for us salvation.

It is within the Rig-Veda, one of the oldest scriptures of the world, that we hear of the self-generated ‘Hiranyagarbha’ (Golden Embryo), that serves as the egg/seed ‘Soul of the Universe’ from where all things manifest. This very Soul of the Universe is Brahma, the Creator. As above, so shall it be below. We are the microcosm of the macrocosm, and all that happens above, must happen below, within the depths of our very own consciousness.

and project our selves to be, (the ego and personality), which are only the progeny of ignorance and delusion. All the suffering that we experience is a direct result of identifying with these aspects of the conditioned mind, which are false.

As we begin to inquire deeply into the nature of the soul and its reality, we discover that what, and who we truly are, is a spark of divinity, or a seed potential of the Inner-Most (Paratman), endowed with luminosity, clarity, and bliss.

The wisdom traditions state that this spark of divinity is just a seed that has been planted within Creation, and it utilizes the 4 Vehicles (Physical Body, Vital Body, Emotional Body, and Mental Body) in order to gain experience, knowledge, energy, and sophistication.

We are in essence a Seed of the Tree of Life that has not yet sprouted. Regardless of how many incarnations we’ve taken and will go on taking, what we remain in the end is nothing but a seed, an embryo, a spark-potential, unless we’ve chosen the Revolutionary Path. The Law of Evolution does not work in favor of sprouting this Seed; what it takes is the Conscious Revolution, Aspiration and Effort of the soul; a deep longing to Revolt.

As stated within the teachings of the transmigration of souls, the seed-spark has to evolve throughout all of kingdoms of nature, beginning in the mineral kingdom, until finally reaching the humanoid kingdom. Once this spark of divinity reaches the humanoid kingdom, it is given 108 chances in order to Self-Realize.

The Self-Realization of the Inner-Most is the purpose and destiny of the soul, and for this, it needs to manifest as the Golden Embryo.

The Golden Embryo

These teachings, along with their inspiring myths of wonder, are the longing voice of the soul that aches in, what seems to be an of exile from its home, its source within the Absolute, where every struggle between the opposites ceases forever.

The Golden Embryo is the product of what is known esoterically as the Great Work. The Great Work is the Initiatic Path.

The virtue of the soul is the devotional longing to reunite with its Mother-Father-Source. In order for this feat to take place, we must bring forth our soul with it’s virtues. An inner birth must take place, and for this to manifest, we must die (before we die) to all that which is false. We must give up who we think

The Golden Embryo is the first defined Seed of Virtue that has developed through the observance of Yama & Niyama of RajaYoga, the Eightfold Path of Sutrayana, the transformation of Energy of Tantrayana, and the Six Paramitas of Mahayana; in other words, the Golden Embryo is the outcome of Ethical Disciple, and Psychological Equilibrium.

“In order for the Soul to fulfill its purpose and duty within evolution, it needs Initiation, and initiation begins with the Awakening of the Consciousness.”

The Soul It is commonly and currently misunderstood that we as humans, are born with a full grown soul.

It is clear that we are given at birth, a physical body, a vital body, an emotional/astral body, a mental body and a spark of soul-consciousness that pervades all four bodies, however it cannot be verified that any ordinary person within this humanity has a full grown, or better if we say, a fully developed soul, no matter the age. Why is this so?

These Seven Bodies have many different names according to the tradition; they are referred to as the ‘Wedding Garments’ in the Gospels. ‘To Soma Heliakon’ are what the Greek Mystics called them. The ‘Merkabah’ in the Hebraic Mystery Tradition; they are called the Illusory, or the ‘Rainbow Body’ of the Trikaya in Tantric Buddhism. It’s called the Sahu in the Egyptian Mysteries, etc.

All those Twice-Born heroes of every myth are real and they possess these Solar Vehicles.

Let us understand what the term ‘soul' actually implies.

These Seven Solar Bodies are the outcome of Sexual Alchemy, which employs the art of Trans-Orgasmic Sex.

Again, soul is that particular spark of divinity that arrives here upon Earth from Above in order to evolve.

The Divine Mother and the Golden Embryo

This spark of divinity is known by called by many names within many Wisdom Traditions: The Embryo of Soul; The Tathagatagarbha; The Buddhata; Our True Nature, The Jiva, etc...

In order for the Soul to fulfill its Purpose and Duty within Evolution, it needs Initiation, and initiation begins with the Awakening of the Consciousness.

In Sexual Alchemy, we activate the Divine Mother. She is Tara, Mary, Devaki, Isis, Tzonatzin, Maya-Devi, Stella-Maris: the Virgin of the Sea, etc., etc.

She is the Virgin Mother of every Christ, Buddha, and Bodhisattva; for She is the One the Gives Birth to the Golden Embryo. Without Devi-Kundalini, there is nothing, no creation, no soul, no salvation.

Devi-Kundalini is awakened by the couple who truly know how to Love.

To 'Initiate' simply means to begin.

Initiation belongs to the soul, and not to the personality or ego. No one’s personality, or ego has ever been the Initiate.

Understand that the Soul does not acquire Birth or SelfRealization through the mechanical law of evolution, only a Conscious Revolution can produce these results.

The Awakening of the Consciousness has Three Primary Factors: 1. Mystical Death- The Psychological Death of the "I", the Myself, the Ego 2. Mystical Birth- The Birth of the Soul by Way of Sexual Alchemy 3. Mystical Love- Selfless Sacrifice for Humanity When these Three Factors are present and perfected, then the Soul can come forth as the Golden Embryo to be fully developed.

The Factor of Birth is the foundation of Initiation, and the Science of Esoteric Sexuality is never missing, no matter the tradition.

The fully developed Soul, being Septenary, is endowed with the Seven Solar Bodies.

In order to Awaken the Divine Mother within out of Her Slumber, we need the Third force that is found within the Sexual glands.

Thanks to the Divine Mother, the sexual energy contains within it all of the Living Archetype of of the Golden Embryo that we must generate and embody. This is the miraculous outcome of Sexual Alchemy. When Jesus says that we must be born again of the Water & the Spirit, he was referring to the Alchemical Work, not the ritual of being dunked into a river or some tub.

A couple united sexually can perform the rites of Alchemy (transmutation), and this is how Devi-Kundalini is Awakened.

The Virgin Mother is The Virgin by virtue of Scientific Chastity.

So as we can see, all of the iconography of the Holy Family, and the stories of how the Virgin Mother is mystically impregnated, are teachings that imply that the Soul is the product of Sexual Alchemy.

This is how we bring forth the Divine Child from within. These are the teachings of the Universal Mystery Schools of the World. ~Join J.Yochanan on retreat in June (see next page ad)

Pranava P.26

Nada Yoga Exclusive Pranava Column

By Shanti Shivani

Nada Yoga - The Yoga of SoundBy Shanti Shivani Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound, is an ancient spiritual practice that is part of Raja Yoga and ayurveda, the science of life. Nada Yoga means union (yoga) with the nada or nadam, the primordial sound which is the primal, omnipresent, omnipotent vibration of the jagat (the universe in sanskrit) that has no beginning nor end. In the Rg Veda, the oldest text of the 4,000 year old vedic scriptures of India, sound is called nada (sound in skt.) brahma (the Hindu God of creation) which means the sound of God. It is the sound of silence, the sound of the void, and it is perceived by the yogi who contemplates the unborn, the unstruck sound, the anahata nada, or by the householder practitioner whose mastery of the outer sound through music, dance or theater combined with deep devotion leads to hearing the unstruck, inner sound.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika IV, 1 says: NAMAH SHIVAYA GURAVE NADA-BINDU-KALATMANE NIRANJANA-PADAM YATI NITAM YATRA PARAYANAH. "Salutations to the nadam, which is the inner guide and the inner life, the dispenser of happiness to all! It is the inner guru, appearing as nada, bindu and kala. One who is devoted to the inner guru, the nada, the inner music, obtains the highest bliss.

The Gospel According to Saint John 1:1 says: "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and God was the Word."

The great Sufi teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan, said: "Creation is the music of God." In other words, the world arises out of the music of God, that resounds and manifests itself in all of nature. Pythagoras called it the "music of the spheres". In all mystical traditions sound plays a vital role, as it is the bridge between the lower and higher worlds, the unconscious and the conscious, the form and the formless.

There are many forms of Nada Yoga in India. The two main streams are the path of the renunciant, the one who has renounced the world, and the path of the householder. Within these two main streams there are many different lineages with different practices.

A very important householder lineage is that of the singer, instrumentalist, drummer, dancer and poet. The ultimate goal is the same: Self-realization through the unstruck inner sound, through which the individual consciousness merges with the I AM consciousness. We experience our true Self, we experience union with the Absolute I AM. The renunciant nada yogi meditates on the inner sound current, thus traveling into the more subtle realms of his being by focusing on the increasingly subtle sounds until merging with the unstruck sound, the anahata nada, thus connecting more and more deeply with the true Self, Brahman or God. The householder who lives in the world focuses on singing or playing the outer pure sound on an instrument to connect with the inner sound current. The anahata nada is connected to the anahata chakra which is the heart chakra.

The lotus of the heart is the seat of Brahman, our true nature. This would explain why devotion is so crucial to being able to connect and merge with the anahata nada.

Because I have been a householder practitioner of the Dagar lineage of Dhrupad music since 1981 and I like to talk from experience, I will mainly be speaking about the nada yoga of our lineage. But let me first give you an introduction to Dhrupad which is little known in the West.

Dhrupad is the most ancient style of North Indian Classical Music and nada yoga is the core of this devotional, classical music. There are two interpretations for the word Dhrupad. One is that it is derived from dhruva, the steadfast evening star, and pada which means poem. The other interpretation is that the word dhruva means fixed and pada means poem which makes it into a poem set to music. Its origins have been traced back to the Sama Veda, one of the four sacred scriptures of India. The form developed through the sama gaan, the chanted transmission of holy texts. Sometime during the first millennium A.D. the chanting developed into the singing of chhanda and prabandha. The modern form of Dhrupad is said to have emerged out of the prabandha style of the 12th to 14th century. Dhrupad was originally only sung or played on the veena by Hindu Swamis. It was and still is an act of worship during which the priest or musician communes with Brahman or God and invokes the rasa (essence, flavor) of the raga (musical mode). The intention is to put the listener into a state of contemplation and inner peace.

During the 12th and 14th centuries the language of the compositions changed from Sanskrit to Brijbhasa, the language ofBraj, the area around Vrindavan. About six centuries ago Dhrupad came under the patronage of the royal Moghul courts, where it was adapted for performance, thus evolving into a refined and sophisticated art form. The compositions became more secular though and were often praises of the emperors, whereas before they had been solely devotional and philosophical in nature. Dhrupad reached its peak in the 16th century during the time of the legendary court musician of the Emperor Akbar, Tansen, and Swami Haridas who is said to have been the guru of Tansen. Swami Haridas was a Dhrupad singing saint who lived as a hermit in the forest near Vrindavan. The most important schools of Dhrupad are the Dagar and Vishnupur banis or lineages. To this day a Dhrupad recital is not seen as a performance.

It is a communion with Brahman or God in his or her many aspects in which the listeners take part.

I had the great fortune to have been accepted as a parampara student of the lineage of the late Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and his younger brother, the late Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar but I received most of my training from Pandit Ritwik Sanyal, one of the main disciples of both of the above-mentioned Ustads, with whom I started studying in Benares, India in December of 1981.

I will never forget the first time I heard Dhrupad vocal music. It was Mahashivaratri, the "Night of Lord Shiva", during the February new moon of 1981. This is the most important time to worship Lord Shiva, and I was living in the worldly abode of Lord Shiva in Benares or Varanasi, India. I was studying sitar and classical vocal music with Pandit Ramakant Mishra, in whose family house I lived. The annual Dhrupadmela was taking place in a big tent on Tulsi Ghat for 3 days and nights and all of my friends were attending. I had never even heard about Dhrupad music, but found myself totally transported listening to two Dhrupad singers in jugalbandhi (duet),an older man, Zia Fariduddin Dagar and his younger disciple, Ritwik Sanyal.

I had grown up with classical Western music, but this music took me to a whole other dimension that I had not experienced before. The intricate embellishments consisting of subtle sliding from one note to another, the oscillations on one note creating the finest microtones, the powerful pulling from very deep notes, the interweaving of the notes, the entire unfolding of the raga that lasted more than one hour created such a deep mood that it was truly a spiritual experience. While going on this mystical, musical journey with them I was overcome by the realization that this was the music I had always be looking for and that these two men, the elder and the younger, were my teachers.

That evening I found out that the younger singer, Ritwik Sanyal, was teaching classical vocal music at Benares Hindu University and teaching Dhrupad privately. I met one of his students that evening and asked to be introduced to him but she declined, saying that he would not accept me as a student if I didn't commit to a minimum of 5 years of study. But Dhrupad was my destiny, and so it was that 9 months later the same student agreed to make an appointment for me with Ritwik Sanyal for an audition, because she realized that I was very committed to studying Indian Classical music. Since our first meeting I had been studying khayal style of singing with one of the greatest devotional musicians of Benares, the bighearted Bhole Nath Mishra. I had gotten my first taste of kirtan (devotional singing) in 1977, while living with my first spiritual guru, Bengali Baba, a Shaivite sadhu, at the Hanuman Bhowri in Pushkar, Rajastan. We would sing every night around the dhuni (holy fire pit) with the villagers and those evenings were quite ecstatic with my boyfriend playing guitar to the chants. Bhole Nath Mishra who was a true devotee of Lord Shiva rekindled that devotional passion in me which is crucial, if you are to sing with total surrender. And as I would find out much, much later, singing ragas demands that you become an empty vessel for Brahman or the I-Am consciousness to sing through you.

I will also never forget how profoundly I was effected by my first meeting with Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, the greatest rudra veena player of Northern India, had on me. I met Ustad (Master in urdu) for the first time in 1982 at the Dhrupad mela (festival) in Ambejogai in Maharastra, a small village with a college in the middle of the desert. It was the first Dhrupad mela dedicated to women in Dhrupad. Nancy Lesh (the now well-known Dhrupad cellist Nancy Kulkarni) and I were accompanying our guru, Ritwik Sanyal, to the mela and we were to meet "Bare Ustad", for the first time. Being in Ustad's presence touched me to the core and I felt an incredible reverence for him as a human being and an artist. I believe it was also at this particular Dhrupad mela that Ustad's performance on the rudra veenacatapulted me out of my body into the cosmos. At the end of this quite amazing mela when Nancy and I were sitting in the back of a rickety, old bus, leaving Ambejogai, my thoughts were with "Bare Ustad" and I felt extremely sad that I only got to spend a short period of time with him. In the middle of my sadness Ustad appeared before my inner eye and jumped into my heart. I was overcome with joy, almost ecstasy, and I knew he would be sitting in my heart forever.

In India, vocal music is considered the highest form of music, as the voice possesses the magnetism that the instruments lack. The body itself becomes the instrument when we sing. The tambura or tanpura, the drone instrument, rich in harmonics, that the Dhrupad singer accompanies himself with, is built according to the proportions of the human body. When carefully tuned, all of the shrutis or microtones can be heard. The tambura not only provides the tonic note or "Sa" of the middle and lower octave as well as the lower fifth as a point of reference, but also puts everyone hearing it into a state of relaxation, even contemplation, because it balances the left and right brain hemispheres. (I might note, that medieval Western music and the church-modes of Gregorian chants which preceded the even-tempered scales of Western classical music had the same relationship to the tonic.) The tambura also regulates the inner rhythms of the player and the listener. This is why it is so important to tune it correctly and to play it with a constant rhythm.

As we tune the tambura, we also tune our bodies through posture, breath and specific vocal techniques. These practices anchor the voice in the perineum with the help of the breath and allow us to sing all the notes, from the the lowest to the highest notes with the entire body. Singing in this way vibrates every cell of the body, thus attuning our physical and subtle bodies. The nada yoga of theDhrupad tradition is considered to be kriya yoga (purification yoga). We purify our physical, emotional and mental bodies through singing the pure sound and align them with our spiritual body. Through speaking or singing we manifest ourselves in the world and are thereby able to be in the world but not of the world. The nada yoga practices of Dhrupad are also of great therapeutic value. When one begins this practice as an adult, the

first thing one experiences besides a state of relaxation is that repressed emotions arise. The emotional healing is very deep, especially when doing the early morning kharaj(lower octave) practice which consists of singing the lower octave of your personal fundamental note before sunrise for approx. 45 min. I will talk about my personal experience with this practice below.

The first few years as a student of Dhrupad, I was always searching for a nada yogi to initiate me intonada yoga as I did not know that singing the pure sound could connect me with the inner sound current. That is until I started hearing various forms of the inner sound current after several years of devoting myself to doing many different forms of vocal practices, learning compositions in various ragas and singing alap, the slow evolution of the raga in call-andresponse style with Ritwik Sanyal.

The first inner sound that I perceived on a regular basis was like the sound that crickets make. Later it turned into a humming sound like the sound of bees that has pretty much stayed with me.

Much later I had the one-time blessing of hearing the sound of the celestial flute. I don't know how it happened nor what brought it on. All I can say is that it was Grace. I suddenly heard one longdrawn high-pitched note, a note of such exquisite beauty and divine vibration that I found myself in the deepest state of bliss that I have ever experienced.

For me, the most powerful practice was the kharaj practice of singing the lower octave down to the low "Sa" or "do" (in my case lower octave G) one hour before sunrise. Like many meditation practices this practice is done while it is dark, because the pineal gland which is responsible for heightened awareness is awake when it is dark. When the day breaks the pineal gland goes to sleep. When doing the kharajpractice I felt as if I was a mole digging a tunnel down the center of my body. I suspect that I was clearing blocks in the sushuma, the central channel of the body, because a great emotional clearing process started happening within a few months of my beginning this practice. I was experiencing the most intense mood swings ever. Deep grief and anger surfaced with such an intensity that I thought I was going crazy. Unfortunately, my teacher could not explain what was going on as he had never had this experience, because he started singing when he was a boy of 8 years of age. I had to realize that starting to sing this yogic music at the age of 31 yr. had its pros and cons.

These intense mood swings went on for several weeks, but I consider myself very fortunate that I got to experience the power of these singing practices and the initial great emotional cleansing that it facilitates.

But years later the kharaj practice took me to a whole other level. It was the summer of 1989 and I had not been able to go to India for 4 years as I had given birth to my daughter, Tara, in Germany and couldn't find the time to do my early morning kharaj practice as a single mother. So, my first opportunity to study Dhrupad again was in the South of France at Sheela Raj's Centre Chakra. She had organized the first 10-day Dhrupad retreat of several to follow. This first one was with Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar, a cousin of my two Ustads who was a master Dhrupad singer and nada yogi. Fahimuddin Dagar's father, the late Ustad Rahimuddin Dagar, had dedicated himself to the in-depth study and practice of nada yoga. He had taught body movements to open up the breath and body to the subtle powers of sound to his son, and Fahimuddin passed them on to us during this retreat. I had already experienced the profound relationship between movement and sound in the course of interpreting and assisting FrĂŠderic Leboyer, the father of the "birth without violence" movement during his seminars.

Leboyer taught a series of movements distilled from his lifelong hatha yoga and tai chi practice which had produced an incredible opening of my voice. Lo and behold, the movements that Fahimuddin Dagar taught us were almost exactly the same. So, there I was, ecstatic to have the opportunity to focus on my beloved Dhrupad music again for 10 days, starting with the kharaj practice in the morning one hour before sunrise. I was very happy when I realized that nothing had been lost and I was able to almost reach the low "Sa" (lower octave G), but then one morning the unexpected happened. I sang the low "Sa" with ease for the first time and suddenly exploded into white Light inside and out. This was an incredibly cosmic moment that seemed like an eternity as this kind of experience transcends time and space. Bathing in the white Light feels like a complete purification of all of your bodies and past karma. Once you come out of this state, you feel totally reborn and as if the past has been dropped. I had had this experience of being one with the Light once before in McCloud Ganj, H.P., in 1979 while falling asleep. I was in a deep state of depression because I was missing my new partner who I had left behind in Germany. As I was falling asleep I found myself plummeting down a dark tunnel, but instead of hitting the bottom and waking up I exploded into white Light. The next day I felt as if I had been reborn and instead of dwelling in the past and being depressed, I focused on being in the present moment. I attributed this experience to the grace of a tantric yogi, the rainmaker of H.H., the Dalai Lama, Nagpa Yeshe, who I would meet on my walks in McCloud Ganj. He had the most heart-opening, happy smile I had ever seen and I was always filled with joy after crossing paths with him.

Much later I realized that I had to have this life-changing experience because I was meant to let go of my life and relationship in Germany and start walking on the path of the nada yogini. Only when it happened I didn't know that that was what it was all about. Literally two days later, I met my tabla teacher-to-be "by chance" because my friends wanted to sit in on a tabla lesson and I decided to join them. And this was the beginning of my journey into the nada. ~shantishivani.com