Vagabonds and Bedouins meander in moonbeams through midnight streets of squalor as antediluvian cadence and meter collide in mantra. Primordial resonant renderings conjured before there was a before, an organic element in the soundscape of Calcutta…now Kolkata. The city of joy, whose name is synonymous with human degradation and suffering in the age of Kali.
But the source of the sacred Sanskrit song as prayer is my iPod. The location is my loft on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. The mantra is Krishna Das’ Mahamantra Meltdown from his Pilgrim Heart cd whumping from my integrated sound system.
K.D. chants the mother of all mantras, the maha mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. (Oh Lord Krishna, Oh energy of the Lord, please engage me in Your devotional service).
It’s the sound of love this vibrational incantation as spiritual conduit. The music of bhakti yoga…the yoga of devotion. The fast track to Divine love, if you will.
I recently asked kirtan all-star Krishna Dass his intentions.
“My intention is to access the presence of love,” he says, “The presence of a kind of vast love that is not personal but is more intimate than an ego driven kind of love. My intention is to enter into the kind of love that my guru has, which is universal love. An equal love…a compassion that’s for everyone. A love that’s based in truth and not in personality. So that’s where I’m aiming when I sing. To keep entering into this more and more deeply…into this presence where all beings live.”
Unknowingly drawn to bhakti yoga through mantra, I initially only intuitively understood that I was trying to find a way to love God.
The K.D. CD’s are a little different, aesthetically speaking, from the Praubhupada ‘beginner cd’ from the Govinda gift shop at the Krishna Temple in Culver City. That’s like a Beefeater Martini. You have to develop a taste for it. I’m just not there yet. And besides, you can’t sing Deon’s, “A Teenager In Love” to it. Oddly both renditions have the ability to transport me to a cave in India thousands of years ago.
Krishna Das’ Limewire savvy opened the back door to mantra for me and apparently lots of others.
My embryonic meandering in mantra was, of course, not serendipitous. I was available to the call. Unknowingly courting the frequency. Seeking the vibration devotion. Nurturing the resonance of ancient Sanskrit prayer. Coming to know my desire to love God through the music.
Mantra is a mystical tradition present in every form of bhakti yoga on the planet. Wailing to Jesus from a Baptist choir in Mississippi or the almost imperceptible murmur of sacred names of the Supreme Being barely passing the lips in Bangalore, it’s the same – only different. It’s mantra - yoga, focusing the mind on the Supreme.
The Vedic mantras call to me the loudest. Steven Knapp explains why succinctly in The Eastern Answers to the Mysteries of Life: The Vedic mantras are especially powerful and effective in uniting us with the spiritual realm. However, a complete yoga process is generally a blend of a few yoga systems. Therefore, bhakti-yoga...also includes mantra-yoga, or the process of concentrating on the sound vibration within a mantra.
I’ve looked for love in a yoga studio before. Maybe not the most enlightened motivation, but hey, what ever gets you on the…okay?
Like a hobo to a pie cooling on a windowsill, this time I followed mantra to yoga studios and unlikely non - sectarian venues to see some of the western kirtan all - stars currently performing live on earth: Krishna Das, Deva Premal, Karnamrita, Jai Uttal and Snatam Kaur for starters.
Up steep stairs lined with abandoned vegan shoes into rooms with polished hardwood floors usually dedicated to postures, now filled with hard - body kirtan groupies, sardine - canned together, sitting effortlessly erect. Still developing my own core strength, I wished I had brought a lawn chair when Krishna Das took the stage with his band.
“K.D., K.D.”, a balding, doughy 60 year-old guy in a shirt from the spiritual gear section at Fred Segal in Santa Monica stalks him as he makes his way to the stage. We are in Hollywood after all. Yoga Works on Larchmont to be specific, so I’d need to focus on my intention and what had drawn me here – love. The Divine kind and the heart opening and purification I’ve received from chanting, from bhakti - yoga. That is not to say that I’m opposed to stumbling onto a more material love in this room full of physically fit spiritual souls having a material experience. Perhaps if I keep chanting I’ll move into a more advanced state where that’s not an issue, but I’m not there yet. No saffron celibacy at this point in time.
In a MySpace world in the age of Kali, these mantras have websites. If you fall in love with a mantra, you can get on a mantra’s email list. It’ll hit you up every week. Or you can google your favorite kirtan road dog and their greatest hits and find creative Sanskrit translations. Find out just what tradition they’re working with. Deva Premal is Osho, Snatum Kaur is a Sikh, Karnamrita is a Krishna Devotee, Krishna Das and Jai Uttal are followers of Maharaj-ji Neem Karoli Baba. All are bringing it to the people in person and through the I-waves.
Kirtan Road Dogs
Jai Uttal (www.jaiuttal.com)
Radha-ramana Hari Govinda jaya jaya.
Glory to Krishna, whose delight is Radha.
Jai Uttal has been touring since 1971. He’s old school and he shows up all over the place in collections and remixes. Once you hear his decidedly evolved vocal renderings it’s hard to mistake – somewhere between Cat Stevens and Vaiyasaki Das. It’s stunning.
His kirtan experience grew out of a modest local practice and snowballed into one of the most identifiable recording / touring kirtan road dogs around. These days he’s winding down in Northern California, with a wife and young son, hard-pressed to leave his domestic bliss for the rigors of the road, so you better get it while you can if you’re so inclined.
“As far as singing kirtan I find that I go through phases.” Jai says, “For several months I’ll just be drawn to singing to Shiva, Om Nama Shivaya. Then for several months I‘ll just wanna be singing to Radha and Krishna. I guess that the Ram and the Krishna mantra are the ones that are a little but closer to my soul. But you know, that changes. However, the internal mantra that I use for japa… for meditation, for repetition, is another thing. In that I think I just prefer to keep in my intimate self. But it’s one mantra that I’ve been saying since 1971 or so.”
How is you private practice different from what you do on stage?
“My private practice is the same as I do publicly. “Singing kirtan. Singing mantras. Praying. Singing. Maybe it’s a little quieter. God’s names have a super transformational effect and energy, particularly in the area of the heart, whether it’s listened to on records or whether you’re in a room singing it. That’s one of the reasons that I do it all the time. It’s one of the gifts that the ancient people gave to us.”
To what do you attribute the continually expanding appeal?
“It’s that more and more people are being touched by the bhakti, wanting to connect personally…intimately with God. And finding the healing in that and finding the emotional release in that and the emotional connection in that. People who have tried so many ways to either shut down their emotions or on the other side to access their emotions in so many psychological ways, and in so many meditation ways and are still so very, very stuck. Aside from the super - esoteric, subtle - esoteric aspects of mantra and kirtan, just on the more psychological side, it is so great for getting in touch with and liberating feelings.”
Snatum Kaur (www.snatamkaur.com)
Waheguru Waheguru Waheguru Wahe Jio
Great Beyond Description is the experience of God’s Wisdom. Wahe Jio: Great Beyond Description is the experience of God Blessing the Soul. (Words by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru of the Sikhs)
Snatam hit the road in January 2005 with the Celebrate Peace Tour. Before that she worked for Peace Cereal, who now sponsors her tour. Sweetly pristine and pure truth, I would follow her melody anywhere it led. Snatam’s chops are transcendental. Her intention impeccable.
Pronounced, “like sun and autumn,” she told me. “We share songs of peace and mantras from the Sikh tradition, which all dedicated to peace on the planet.”
She rotates mantras regularly. They appear at the right time corresponding to what’s going on in her life.
“One of the mantras from the Sikh tradition that has really been with me and I sing a lot is Wahe Guru. Wa means ecstasy or bliss like, wow, and he means it’s here and now. It’s real. It is. The essence of Guru means from darkness to light. And so it really means an experience of bliss, experiencing the One and moving from that space of darkness to light. Jio is very beautiful because it means soul. So you say Wahe Guru, Wahe Guru, Wahe Guru and then Wahe Jio and you bring the experience into the touchstone of your soul.
What about a novice who can’t even read Sanskrit yet?
“Even if your pronunciation isn’t so great…to have them in you and to have that realization is the most powerful thing. For example…if I’m in a stuck in a security line in the airport…there’s that split second when I can say, “Oh s-h-i-t,” or I can say, “Oh, Wahe Guru.” The whole idea behind these sacred chants, in my view, is when that moment of pressure comes, you say Wahe Guru. Then they are the temples. They become the sacred being. They are that magic that people go all the way to India seeking.”
Dasi Karnamrita (www.karnamrita.com)
Mangalacaran (prayer to the divine teacher)
Om ajnana timirandhasya jnanam salakaya caksur unmilitam
yena tasmai sri gurave Namah Namah om visnu-padaya krsna-presthaya bhu-tale srimate bhaktivedanta svamin iti namine
Namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani pracarine nirvisesa sunyavadi pascatya desa tarine
My dear spiritual teacher, thank you for opening my eyes from darkness into the light of knowledge.
Karnamirita Dasi grew up in an ashram in West Virginia. She made her CD, Dasi Prayers by Women, as part of her coarse of study in college at Antioch. She studied classical music in India for six years. Karnamirita is lovely and so is her CD. Her decidedly melancholy voice has the ability to make time stand still. It’s magic.
“My practice is being of service by sharing what I learned from my teacher with others.”
I ask also her how mantra has entered the mainstream. “I think there’s probably a lot of people who are responsible for that,” she says, “Krishna Das. Deva Premal. Even local kirtan [singers], in India…they call them Walla. I’ve been a part of that nationally and internationally, especially in Australia.”
Karnamirita is part of a small group of people who have taken up the kirtan mantle on a broader scale.
“The saints throughout history wrote these Sanskrit prayers that help us connect to them,” she says. “I think there’s a lineage of maybe a hundred and fifty of us who connect modern day iPod listeners to the original writers and the original Sanskrit poets.”
I wonder if it has the same effect through Pod technology as it did originally?
“I find that recorded music is a lot like photography in that you can take it with you. A person has many dimensions and many levels to them.” She says “A photograph snaps one second of them. There’s a difference between hearing my sound and hearing the iPod...still the mantras have a lot of power, and yet I think sitting with someone or in a group of people singing live there’s a resonance that you can’t replace through an iPod.”
But if you’re ready, it could still be a good point of departure… right?
“I think that reflects your consciousness, your state of readiness to receive that. When the student’s ready the teacher comes. They’ll grab you no matter what. The higher the awareness, the more that the mantras reflect in your mind and resonate in your heart.”
But, there’s nothing like being in the room.
“When I get onstage I close my eyes and I sing. I hear thousands and thousands of people singing back and I get lost in the chanting together. The vibration goes so far beyond what you could ever do in a studio. The reason that I studied classically in India for so many years, is because sound vibration has an essence that…it’s like that picture that you miss.”
Deva & Miten (www.mitendevapremal.com)
Om Bhur Buvaha Suvaha Thath Savithur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayath
Praise to the source of all things. It is due to you that we attain true happiness on all planes. It is due to your transcendent nature that you are being worshipped and adored. Ignite us with your all - pervading light.
Golden-throated German-born Deva Premal is the reigning deva of mantra. Add partner / musician singer-songwriter Miten to the mix and you have one of the most successful mantra - touring acts ever. Though she’s not technically a Western kirtan all - star, her big American presence transcends international boundaries. And though they don’t specifically adhere to the kirtan form, they still belong to the tribe.
“As you know there are myriads of translations. Here are two I love most.” Deva told me about the Gayatri mantra, a staple of hers and partner Miten’s work. Deva’s father sang it to her en utero and throughout her childhood.
The Divine awakening of the Gayatri mantra is seen by many to be one of the most powerful ways to attain God. It is a most highly revered mantra consisting of the prefix: o bhur bhuva sva, a formula taken from the Yajurveda, and the verse 3.62.10 of the Rigveda (an example of the Gayatri meter). The Gayatri mantra is found in all the four Vedas. Also called Savitri, as it invokes the deva Savitar.
“There's no doubt about the particular favorite, it is the Gayatri mantra. [It’s the] cornerstone of our work,” Miten adds. “Probably the oldest prayer known to man and the prayer that has blessed our life and many others, if the amount of mail we get in praise of it is anything to go by.”
What do you do and how did you come to do it?
“What we do is to sing our prayers,” Miten continues. “We used to sing for meditations, exclusively to the sanyasins, Osho devotees in Osho meditation centers. And then one day we looked up and saw the room was full of people we didn't know. It just grew from there, as the CD's became known.”
What is your practice?
“The music we make is our spiritual practice. It reminds us of why we are here and helps us to make some kind of sense out of this weird and crazy – and amazing – world.”
Krishna Das (www.krishnadas.com)
Maha - mantra
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Oh, Lord Krishna, Oh, energy of the Lord, please engage me in Your devotional service."
Krishna Das is the most identifiable figure in the current incarnation of the Western kirtan movement. A sort of patriarchal presence, he started playing with people in New York in 1994, his first tour was to San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1997. He’s recorded a gang of CD’s. In a sense, this kirtan road dog has done more in terms of bring it to the people than anyone. Perhaps it his reedy pipes that speak to the masses. Maybe it’s partly his cache. Rick Rubin produced one of his CD’s and Sting sings backup on his Mountain Hare Krishna version of the maha mantra. Or maybe it’s the grooves that earned him his street cred. I think it’s something else. He’s got an amazing gift for co - opting the sacred and transmuting into a voice that transcends the studio and live venue and resonates with the masses.
I asked him if there is particular mantra in the forefront of his practice, or if there is one that speaks to him most.
“No. They all mean the same thing – love,” he said matter of factly.
Do you need to understand the meaning of the mantra to use it?
“People take medicine, they don’t understand how it works, but it has an effect,” he says, “Practice of the name is medicine. We do it because we’ve been told it’s good for us.”
That sounds familiar. So can you hear it in your iTunes?
“What each individual hears, they hear according to their own karma,” he tells me, “According to what seeds have been planted in our own karmic streams previously. A lot of it has to do with who’s doing it and why – mostly why. What the intention of the person is who’s doing it [chanting] and what they bring to the moment of practice. Most people out there singing mantras now, including myself, are a mixed bag of intentions. We have a lot of different things going on in our lives, and we’re doing things for many different reasons. That also has a big effect on what the effect of the practice will have for us and for others.”
So it’s about intention. What’s yours?
My intention is to access the presence of love,” he says, “The presence of a kind of vast love that is not personal but is more intimate than an ego driven kind of love. My intention is to enter into the kind of love that my guru has which is universal love, an equal love…a compassion that’s for everyone, a love that’s based in truth and not in personality. Into the presence where all beings live.”
And chanting manifests that intention?
“Mantra is, for me a doorway into that presence. Into my own heart and in the hearts of all. The universal self. The One. It’s not about building a personal castle of mantra from which you can attack and hide from the world. You’re planting the seeds of universal truth in yourself. They say every repetition of the name has an effect. Sooner or later that effect will become apparent to us. It may not be apparent right away. For most of us the real effect is not apparent yet. But it will be. In that sense the expansion of kirtan practice is a great thing for people.
