On Saturday evening, a group of us from the Kundalini Yoga classes at Radiance carpooled to Philadelphia for a wonderful concert at the First Unitarian Church on Chestnut St. It had rained off & on all day, the wind was whipping around, the skies were dark gray & flooding was threathened. We bravely set out on the turnpike anyway, because Snatam Kaur and the Celebrate Peace band were playing & singing. Other members of the band are GuruGanesha Singh, Manish Vyas and Tanmayo. The night was advertised as a combination "concert, chantfest, musical group meditation, a yoga class in melody" & it truly was an ecstatic experience.
Padmani (the Kundalini teacher at Radiance) often plays Snatam's music during the meditation portion of our yoga classes, and we often play her cd's in the shop as well, so we all have some degree of familiarity with her crystal clear voice, and many of the chants she led us in singing.
Here's a link to clips from the Celebrate Peace cd. Ong Namo is the chant we use at the beginning of each yoga class, to call in the wisdom of the lineage of teachers and create a safe space in which to practice the yoga. It's very similar to what we do in Reclaiming Tradition to begin a sacred ceremony or ritual, when we Cast a Circle, and call to the Elemental Guardians and Ancestors. In each case we create a container of safe and sacred space in which to do our work, and then call for support and assistance from ancestral teachers/protectors. Interesting similarities.
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