Greetings all! I just wanted to make a quick post to remind everyone that I’m singing Kirtan at Shanti Om Yoga in Staunton VA tonight to celebrate Diwali. At 6pm, there will be a catered meal from Taste of India, followed by Lakshmi Puja at 7. Kirtan starts at 7:30pm.

This will also be the first appearance of the latest Basement Bhakti, Matthew Hunsinger on tablas.

I hope to see you there!

Hari Om Bhaktis!

I am thrilled to announce that next month I’ll be returning to Florida to sing kirtan at Fish Tree Yoga in Pensacola, Florida, to help celebrate the one year anniversary of Fish Tree’s opening.

There’s a retreat planned that starts Friday October 22nd, and continues through the entire weekend. Kirtan is on October 23rd at 7:30, for $25, which includes food and beverages.

For more info, check out Fish Tree Yoga’s website, as well as the Facebook Event Page they’ve created for the weekend.

I don’t blog here as often as I probably could. I try to keep the posts here focused on kirtan, and the experiences that I have in the practice of chanting. Sometimes that means there’s a lull… these are to be expected, and I’d hate to pop in once a day just to say “working on the album” or “preparing for the next gig!” I’d hate for it to become stagnant.

That said, I’ve had a few experience recently that motivated me to sit down and write. The first came a couple of weeks ago, when I received a cold contact from a person in New York City asking if I’d be interested in leading chants for 3 hours on September 11th. Initially I jumped at the opportunity; September 11th is an infamous day that effected everyone around the US, and the rest of world as well, in ways we are still coming to terms with (see the debate about the Park51 center if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about). Who wouldn’t want to spend an afternoon chanting the holy names in a place still so scarred by events of the past? What better way to promote interfaith understanding, and healing, but to chant together in the name of peace?

The thing that threw me was that the person who contacted me asked that I not perform any chants that said specific names of God, even providing a list of chants to work from if I didn’t have enough of my own that fit the description. I can’t definitively say for sure why they made this request. What I intuited from the website that I was pointed to was that this was done in the name of preventing anyone from feeling excluded or offended by the practice; as if to exclude all of God’s names, one could avoid interfering with or offending another person’s beliefs. In the end, I thanked them for offering and for the consideration, and offered to collaborate should they ever have an event where the kirtan I do would be appropriate.

Normally this sort of thing wouldn’t weigh on my thoughts long enough to compose a blog entry- though I might tweet about it . I had a similar experience today, however, that compounds the confounded feeling that the first email exchange made me feel. As I’ve mentioned, I am in the process of attempting to put together a south east kirtan tour for this year, in December. Unfortunately, the response has been a bit dry compared to the ease with which I made contact in the north east for the tour we did in June.

I contacted a studio that came recommended by a friend in the area, and the person responded happily that they would be glad to host a kirtan on the night I was looking for (great!), but not if I would be including deities like Shiva and Durga (huh?) in the chants that I performed. Sita-Rama and Radhe-Krishna were ok (incidentally, so were Jah, Jehova, Buddha, Allah, and others) but as “demi-gods” the rest were not appropriate. Don’t ask me why Jah is “ok” for kirtan but Shiva isn’t… I’m just not sure. As before, I responded politely, thanking them for writing back (it’s more than I can say for 90% of the places I’ve written to), and expressing that my kirtan was probably not the best “fit” for their studio.

I’m not sure if this is a reflection of the tense political climate that is currently gripping the US. It’s an election year, and because of the terrorist attacks in 2001, the wars overseas, and the media making dubious claims about the religious practices of our Commander in Chief, I think everyone is feeling a little bit sensitive. With an issue so personal as religion and spirituality, I think it’s easier than ever to accidentally step on the toes of our fellows, or for there to be perceived toe-stepping.

I sing kirtan because I was drawn to the practice. The first time I experienced kirtan, it shifted something in my view, both musical and otherwise. I had never experienced music in the way that I experienced it that night, and all I wanted to do was sing more and more. I know the basics about the practice, and about the pronunciation of the words. I do not claim to be a scholar of the hindu religion, or the sanskrit language. I am not a practicing hindu, but always do my best to be respectful to the traditions that laid the foundation for this bhakti practice.

I’ve never felt that my kirtan has been exclusionary. In the past, when I’ve done live kirtan with the basement bhaktis, we’ve included sufi chants, and even a few southern-style christian gospel tunes. Yes, when I sing kirtan it is primarily for Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Durga… but not because I feel these aspects of the divine are “better” than others. Actually, I don’t even consider them to be “different” from others. As I am apt to say in person, “I’m cool with all kinds of God.” My Guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda used the much more eloquent phrase, “Truth is One, Paths are Many.”

I (personally) think it’s very important that we all find an aspect of the divine, a higher power, who we feel some kind of connection with. For some, that’s Allah. Others say Jesus. Some say Nature. When I sing about Shiva, it’s because Shiva is an aspect of the divine that I resonate with, not because I think Shiva is “the best,” or because I think you should believe in Shiva instead of something that you’re more comfortable with.

As I have often said at live kirtans, the most important thing is that you feel good about what you’re doing. If you’re a sculptor but not a painter, you may be able to express your love for God, your fellow man, your country, your planet, and so forth by painting, but chances are you’re going to do your best work by sculpting. That doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you a sculptor. Because I resonate with Rama, I sing about Rama, but when someone uses another form of divinity to express their own feelings of devotion, I am still deeply moved and appreciate the experience. In fact, the person who motivated me to start singing devotional music with others wasn’t a kirtan singer at all, but the sufi singer Pir Shabda Kahn.

The best advice I could ever relay, as it was given to me is, “Always do what you love, and let that be your offering.” Love. Isn’t that what “bhakti” is all about? The names don’t matter. The details are all interchangeable. You don’t have to be a singer, a painter, a dancer, or any of that.

Love what you do, in every action, and surely only good will come to you for it.

OM,
Jayadeva

Hi Everyone!

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be taking part in the Interfaith Cooperation Circle of Central Virginia’s World Peace Day celebration. This event will be at Unity Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. For more information, and a list of other performers, check out this link: http://interfaithcooperation.org/events/

Hi everyone- I wanted to put the word out that this Friday, August the 13th, I am doing a special gig at The Haven, a homeless center/shelter in Charlottesville, Va. I am one of many performers signed up for this, an open-mic style event, with a suggested donation of $5. All proceeds are going to support The Haven.

This isn’t going to be a kirtan/basement bhakti gig. Anyone familiar with my other projects, In Tenebris, IDIL, Oh So… this isn’t going to be like that either. I’m going to be treading into territory that I don’t often get into… haven’t in about 10 years. It’s going to be special and I’m not sure when I’ll do anything like this again.

For more information about The Haven: http://www.thehavenatfirstandmarket.org/

I hope to see you all there!