Welcome to the Celebrate Peace Tour Newsletter!  So many inspirational and uplifting events have occurred in the past two months!  We are most excited about Snatam Kaur’s extraordinary new CD, LIVE in Concert which was released on October 9th.  We have a review and feature article, written by Spirit Voyage Records’ CEO, Karan Khalsa, as well as the audio clip from the CD and video clip from the DVD, Path of Peace.

Snatam Kaur and the band performed at the Omega Ecstatic Chant Weekend and then toured throughout Europe, and Ram Dass has chronicled that in the Celebrate Peace Tour News.  Snatam Kaur will share her experience of Japji, the Song of the Soul, and GuruGanesha will delight us with his stories in his column, “Adventures on the Road to Happiness”. Manish Vyas, master tabla player, who has been enchanting audiences throughout the tour, has written a beautiful article called Music and Spirituality.

Enjoy, and we hope to see you at a concert soon!

Blessings,
Gurujot Kaur
Editor

By Karan Khalsa – CEO Spirit Voyage Records

Buy "LIVE in Concert" Now!

Snatam Kaur’s “LIVE in Concert” Album – Some Magic to Take Home with you...

The first time I heard Snatam sing was long before she ever recorded an album, before her band took to the road touching people’s hearts along the way, before she became a name recognized by millions around the world.   We were both teenagers, sitting around a campfire, and Snatam was playing her guitar, singing a sweet song about rising with the sun and giving her heart to God.  I was moved to tears by her voice and since that day, the moments when I get to hear her sing in person are the most precious.

Every time I go to one of Snatam Kaur’s concerts, I experience something so deeply moving that words do little to convey it.  At every concert, people ask me why we don’t record the concerts.   There is something mystical that happens at Snatam’s concerts: the music and her voice come alive in a magical way and create an aura that spreads around the room uplifting every person there.   You don’t just hear the music, you feel it.

We decided it was time to share the magic with people who couldn’t make it to Snatam Kaur’s concerts as well as create a way for people who have been there to take some of that magic home with them.  And that’s how this CD and DVD idea were born.  We started recording every concert at concert halls, churches and yoga studios as Snatam Kaur and her ensemble traveled across North America.  You’ll hear performances which soar to the heights of the sacred spaces where they were performed. The biggest challenge was choosing only 72 minutes of all those hours of recording to put on this CD.

The album opens with Azure Salver, a prayer translated in the book Peace Lagoon. This song has been a favorite at her concerts, but has never been recorded before. This song is highlighted by the clarity of Snatam's voice, the poetry of the lyrics, and the expert instrumental accompaniment.

The live version of Snatam's Ong Namo takes the recorded version into the ethers. Sometimes when Snatam is on stage, she goes into a deep meditative space and spontaneously weaves improvisational poetry into the songs. Ong Namo has a beautiful example of this.

On Ong Sohung, Gobinda Hari and Adi Shakti, the dynamic interplay of the entire band is highlighted to perfection with incredible musical conversations between Snatam Kaur, Manish Vyas and GuruGanesha Singh, fantastic solos on guitar, violin, tabla and clarinet, and the lively experience of a slowly building rhythm that is unique to the live Kirtan experience.

Shivoham is a track composed by Manish, and you will be singing this track for years to come. A beautiful duet between Snatam and Manish, this track has an an addictive energy and purity of sound that you will want to listen to again and again.

The DVD, Path of Peace, contains rare concert footage as well as a behind-the-scenes view of what it means to Snatam and the band to be touring and sharing this music with the world.  A beautiful montage of their lives on the road, you don’t want to miss watching this 45 minute documentary.

It is truly a blessing to share this new release.  I’m sure it will find a special place in your home to be treasured for years to come.

Click Here for a Slideshow of Celebrate Peace Tour, Omega and Europe

Text and Photos by Ram Dass

The Omega Institute

Snatam Kaur and the Celebrate Peace Band played to over 500 people at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York for the institute’s Ecstatic Chant Weekend in September and left feeling utterly fulfilled.  The event featured concerts by Snatam Kaur, Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Miten, Jai Uttal, and many others.  Attendees participated in three magnificent concerts with Snatam Kaur and the band including a performance where Snatam invited her dear friend Deva Premal and the brilliant Indian flute player Manose onstage.  The evening prior, Deva Premal and Miten’s set concluded with Snatam and the entire band onstage along with Jai Uttal, Carioca, Shyamdas and many other sacred music artists featured in the event. The entire weekend was truly “ecstatic” for the participants as well as the performers.  Snatam has already been invited back for next year’s event, so mark your calendars and join us next time!

European Tour

After the Omega Institute weekend, the band hopped the Atlantic Ocean to Switzerland to begin a rigorous month long tour in Europe.  In total, the band played to sold out audiences in 12 cities in six different countries.  After playing in Bern and Zürich, Switzerland as well as at a Sikh Gurdwara in Langenthal, they headed to London.  England has a very large Indian Sikh population, and Snatam played in a series of Gurdwara programs in London and Birmingham, as well as a private concert in the city.  From London, they headed to Germany for a marathon weekend, playing consecutive standing room only concerts in Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Munich.  The concert halls held between 400 -700 people, and the promoters are already planning to get venues twice as large the next time Snatam performs there! After Germany, the land of poets and thinkers, they flew to Amsterdam for a concert in nearby Utrecht where they performed a concert they considered to be one of their best.  Their highly improvisational style was at its peak— every solo was powerful, rich, and meaningful and helped the energy of the music flow freely.  Next, they arrived in Sweden for two workshops in Solna and a concert in Stockholm.  After a day of rest, Snatam and the band flew from Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula for concerts in Spain where they received their largest audiences on the tour.  In just three days, Snatam Kaur and the Celebrate Peace band played for nearly 2000 people! First they held a concert in a beautiful cavernous church in Barcelona just blocks from the famed Gaudí cathedral, the Sagrada Familia.  Despite the presence of a translator, Snatam Kaur was committed to speaking in Spanish as much as possible to connect to the warm hearts of the Spanish people. Her efforts paid off as she was called back for an encore.  After a drive, she and the band played in Valencia then headed through La Mancha to play their final concert of Europe in Madrid.  Snatam Kaur, GuruGanesha, Manish, and Ram Dass could not be happier about the outpouring of love they experienced from the people of Europe.

Upcoming News: Southwest Tour and Release Party

Snatam Kaur and the Celebrate Peace Band are pleased to announce the beginning of their final tour of 2007.  They will play in various cities in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California. 

On October 30th in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we’ll be having an official release party for Snatam Kaur’s amazing new CD, LIVE in Concert. It will be a wonderful evening including a concert, and a viewing of the DVD, Path of Peace, the moving documentary chronicling the behind-the-scenes view of the Celebrate Peace Tour.

For the full tour schedule, see spiritvoyage.com or snatamkaur.com and be sure to tell your friends!

By Snatam Kaur

Japji to the Rescue!

10C... that was my seat this time.  I maneuvered my carry on bag through the aisle, keeping an eye so as not to bump up against anyone’s legs. At the other end of my journey, Thomas Barquee, the very talented producer, was waiting in LA to start work recording my next album.  Finding my seat, I sat down in the little blue chasm, closed my eyes, and tried to take a deep breath.

Before I could get half way through an inhale a lady in a black velvet dress with dyed jet black hair came clamoring down the aisle.  She stopped right there at the tenth row and, with annoyance, exclaimed, “Oh God, these are our seats!”  I realized that this was her way of saying to me, “Excuse me, I believe that we are sitting next to you.  Would you mind letting us in?”

I got up from my aisle seat and smiled at her, although she didn’t seem to see me. A man, who I assumed was her husband, trailed behind her.  He sat next to the window and immediately transfixed his attention to whatever was happening outside: the fading sunlight, the suitcases being loaded into our plane, the black tarmac, anything other than the fuming woman who was next to him, and now me, as she took the middle seat.

I glanced over at her and felt a sense of sadness and compassion for this woman who I imagined at one time in her life was kind and beautiful, but now seemed to emit negativity and anger. As the plane surged into the sky, she surged into a seething attack on the man at her side.

“How could you have gotten us these seats?  I should never expect you to be able to do anything with that thick brain of yours!  I can’t believe how much pain you put me through, and now I’m stuck here in this stupid seat.  I can’t believe how stupid you are!”  On and on she went. Her husband just kept looking out the window.

This was very sad and painful for me to witness, and I was going to be sitting with them for another few hours.  I wondered what to do.  In a moment of desperation, when most good ideas seem to come to me, I remembered Japji.  Japji, the Song of the Soul. I reached into my bag, pulled out my Nitnem (daily prayer book) and opened the pages.  She didn’t seem to notice as the beautiful Gurumukhi script unfolded itself before me.  I began to recite under my breath.  She still didn’t seem to take notice.  I kept reciting, and as the words passed over my tongue, a warm sensation passed through my heart center and for the first time since she sat down next to me I took a deep breath.  Feeling a sense of relief, I kept reciting, envisioning the words healing my heart, and sending my prayers to the woman next to me. The first pauri, second pauri, third, (she was still ranting on), fourth and then fifth.  That is when the miracle happened.  As I felt a deep peace take over me, I felt it pass on to her.  Her head tilted to one side and suddenly she fell into a deep sleep. Just like that.  It was amazing, magical.   At that moment I prayed for her, and the man, and prayed that this vibration of Japji might give them some healing.

Every day, I read Japji and other daily Sikh prayers. Sometimes I can feel a tangible affect on my environments like the story above, and other times the only transformation that seems to take place is inside of me.

Japji is called the Song of the Soul, because the soul relates to Japji as the touch stone.  One of my favorite sayings of Yogi Bhajan is that we are “spiritual beings here to have a human experience, not human beings here to have a spiritual experience.”  Japji is a conversation with the soul, an opportunity for the soul to converse with God.  In our daily life, we give so much attention to the body and the mind.  But, Japji is for the soul!  There are forty steps or stanzas called Pauris, each describing the journey of the soul to its merger with God.  The words are extremely beautiful, and as a musician, I am completely enthralled with the rhythm and beauty of the sound of the words.  It is quite possible to take just a few lines from Japji and just meditate on them for an entire lifetime!  The beauty within Japji is without limit.

Japji is a morning prayer, and it is recommended that it be read upon rising in the early morning hours as a part of one’s sadhana, or daily practice. By setting the frequency of our communication to the high vibration of Japji every morning, we are then blessed for the whole day. Yogi Bhajan taught us to read Japji in our group sadhana, in a call and response format, with the women reciting one line and the men reciting the next.

I highly recommend learning Japji, listening to it, and reciting it.  One of my most favorite recordings is by Matamandir Singh, and you can find it on spiritvoyage.com.  He recites it in English and in Gurumukhi, the sacred language of the Sikh scriptures.  It is absolutely beautiful.  Enjoy!

God Bless You.

Sat Nam.

By GuruGanesha Singh

Wow!!  We’re just back from an amazing six country European tour and I’m still feeling waves of gratitude to all our hosts, producers, and friends for the unforgettable warmth, hospitality and love that was showered upon us from the moment we arrived until the moment we left.

There are so many wonderful stories to tell.  Here’s a very special one that happened in the beautiful and magical country of Germany. We had an amazing weekend of successful concerts in Germany, produced by Gurbasant Singh and his energetic associates.   We played in Hamburg on Friday night to over 750 people and then to over 500 on Saturday night in Frankfurt and 500 in Munich on Sunday night. This was especially impressive considering that this was our first visit ever to Germany. Clearly Gurbasant Singh and his team had left no stone unturned in their vigorous marketing of these events.  In fact, he was sprinting right to the finish line.  On the Tuesday before the concert weekend, I received a message from him letting us know that there were still about 50 tickets left for the Saturday night concert in Frankfurt and he had an idea for filling the auditorium.  He had just discovered that a local yoga center was putting on a street festival in downtown Frankfurt that same Saturday afternoon. He had spoken to the directors and they were enthusiastic about our dropping in to play a tune in the late afternoon.  He was hoping that we would agree to do this to help sell the remaining tickets. He was determined to deliver three sold out concerts!

Initially we were a bit hesitant.  We admired his determination and creativity, but at the same time we knew how grueling that day’s schedule was already looking. There was a late concert the night before, a five hour drive from Hamburg to Frankfurt during the day, followed by a pre-concert sound check that usually takes 1-2 hours.  How could we possibly add an appearance at this festival to our already exhausting schedule and still deliver a quality concert that night??  We debated the situation at length and finally concluded that it wasn’t a good idea.  The only problem was that we didn’t have the heart to pick up the phone, call Gurbasant and say ‘no’.  How could we say no to a guy who was working day and night to make our concerts a booming success?  After a bit of soul searching and tuning into the limitless energy of the divine, we decided that I would go to the festival with my guitar while everyone else went to prepare for the evening’s concert.

We arrived in Frankfurt at 4 pm that afternoon, after a longer than expected drive from Hamburg due to major road construction.  Gurbasant’s wonderful wife, Avtar Kaur, immediately loaded me and my guitar into her car and we set out for the street festival while the others went inside to help set up the stage and prepare for the sound check. As predicted, I was feeling physically exhausted from the prior 24 hours,  so I started chanting to Guru Ram Das in my mind the entire drive there, praying for the energy and love to gracefully serve at the festival.  15 minutes later, I’m on stage outdoors in downtown Frankfurt with a microphone on my guitar, a microphone on my voice and a big smile on my face filled with love and energy for the 50 or so beautiful souls that I was meeting for the first time.   One miracle after another started happening, the first of which was that they laughed at my jokes!!  The second was that I received the inspiration to lead the chant, ”Hari Om, Dear Lord,  Sat Nam, Holy Name,  When I Call On The Light Within,  I Go Home”.  I hadn’t played that chant in many months.  Very soon after I started the chant, I looked to the side of the stage and was pleased to see that the two festival organizers looked absolutely ecstatic and were enthusiastically chanting and clapping with the music.  This was contagious and soon everyone else joined in.  Before I knew it, the crowd had doubled in size to about 100 and it was starting to sound like an outdoor version of the Omega Ecstatic Chant Weekend!!!    What I didn’t know was that I had been inspired to play the perfect chant for the occasion.  You see, the festival organizers’ yoga center just happened to be named ‘The Hari Om Yoga Center’!!!  Chanting ‘Hari Om’ had them blissed out!  I had no idea!!!   One could call it a stroke of good luck but I call it God’s Grace!!

One last thing to share….at the end of the chant, I made the comment, “The important thing in life is how much light and love you have, not how much money you have.”  As I got off the stage, a group of 5 young people came up to me expressing the desire to come to the concert.  One of the young ladies looked at me with a smile and said, “We have lots of light and love, but not much money, and we’d love to go to your concert!!” I offered to leave a note at the box office that all five of them could come for the price of 3 tickets. They were delighted and immediately said it was a deal. The concert that night was a huge success.   I have no idea how many people from the festival actually showed up but the place was so full that people were sitting on the floor right in front of us.  In fact, the best part for me was that those same 5 young folks came and sat down on the floor, front and center.  The whole evening they chanted with so much light and love that they brought me to tears several times just looking at them.  After the concert, they wanted to know all about us, and by the time they left they were determined to become practitioners of Kundalini Yoga!  What a blessing it all was!!

Peace and Blessings!!!

By Manish Vyas

I grew up in a large family of 15 members, who loved and admired one of the most rebellious and unconventional mystics of this century known as Osho. Eventually everyone in my family became disciples of Osho, including me. After Osho’s death, I was fortunate enough to continue my journey with one of his first disciples, who now is lovingly known as Gurudev. Whatever little understanding and wisdom I may have earned in this lifetime, I owe to Osho and Gurudev. Having been in the presence of these two Masters, what I have learnt about spirituality and about music has changed my life completely.

As I have understood from them, spirituality is being sky-like. Have you seen the sky sometimes when it is completely without clouds? Clear blue sky….open, wide, infinite, endless, limitless, vast, embracing everything under it. Even when it is cloudy, the clouds cannot touch the sky. They exist within the realm of the sky but the sky remains untouched. To me, being spiritual means, being like the sky….infinite!

Music is also like the sky. Music does not get affected by anything. In fact, things get affected by music. Music has no boundaries. Music is infinite spirit, not limited by religion, fanaticism, priests and politicians. Though the typical human mind tries to restrict it, music seems to break those barriers and touch millions and billions of living beings on this planet.

Music has a very significant role in spirituality. Osho knew that music had the power to bring people effortlessly into a state of meditation. In fact, he was one of the first Masters of this century to recognize Kirtan as the most effective and powerful meditation technique. Music can help people, seekers and meditators touch the deepest space of oneness, silence, celebration, love, joy, prayer and gratitude. That is why my focus when I am in the process of creating music is always meditation: How to create that kind of music which ultimately brings a person effortlessly to a meditative state of being? Music can be entertaining, but music can be more than that too.  It can take one beyond the mind. The main purpose of spirituality is after all going beyond the mind and realizing that sky-like nature; endless, limitless, untouched by anything…..the true nature of the Self.

Music and spirituality are two paths where immense amount of committed practice is needed. When a musician is connected to spirituality, and when meditation enters his music, the soul enters. Indian classical music has been known as an expression of the deep spaces that the mystics and the awakened ones touched in their subtlest state of meditation and being. They wanted to be able to transmit their state of being in the meditation through a channel, which happened to be music. That is why Indian classical music is considered one of the most meditative & spiritual types of music on this planet.

Many of the great mystics such as Nanak, Kabir, Meera, Bulleshah, Farid, Sahajo and many more, sang their truth to convey their message to people. They must have known that if spirituality is made simplified and musical, it will reach and penetrate the hearts of people much easier and deeper.  Music at its highest potential of expression can help the listener merge into the divine.

Snatam’s concerts are a very powerful example of this. When we have 500-600 people singing along with us in concerts, suddenly there is oneness. There is no longer a separation between the audience and us, the performers. As Guruganesha puts it, it becomes a co-formance where the distance between listeners and the musicians dissolves and a bridge is created. A connection is established in this phenomenon, the energy of oneness and the feeling of unity prevails, which every human being is seeking. Spiritual music has the most important role in this era… to give to every single person on this planet, this taste of dissolving into the divine.