Thursday, January 04, 2007

Winter Solstice Sadhana

One of the greatest things about going to Solstice is being able to participate in group Sadhana in the Amrit Vela. And my favorite part about group Sadhana at Solstice is having the chants lead by some of the most divinely inspired musicians in 3HO. And they always get a huge Jetha to play with them with lots of vocal and instrumental accompaniment. They are always led with so much love and devotion, every morning I missed was a huge disservice to myself.

The second to last morning of Solstice was led by Karta Kaur and her sister accompanied by Siri Om Singh and another devoted musician whose name I don't recall on the pedal slide guitar. Some camp members had already left and this was the morning after the rensabai so I was really tired, but I really enjoy Karta's Sadhana and I was glad she got a chance to play it.

 Mul Mantra
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The chants on the first morning of Winter Solstice were led by Hari Bhajan Kaur previously of Tennessee, now of Florida near Kashi Ashram. She did all the chants from her Sadhana CDs, but it was really nice to hear them live. Her voice is so ambrosial. She was accompanied by Guru Nam Singh who also has an amazing voice and devotion. This is a short clip from the Wahe Guru chant.

 Wahe Guru, Wahe Jio
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The chants on the third morning was one of my favorites. It was led Guru Ganesha Singh with back up vocal by Karta Kaur and Sat Jot Singh doing backup vocals and playing keys. They did some from the Grateful Ganesh Sadhana CD, some from live at 5, a few that haven't even been recorded and one from one of Snatam's very first album which was a Sadhana CD (good place to start). It was like a chronicle of Spirt Voyage from before it even was Spirit Voyage. This was the Guru Ram Das Chant they played which Guru Ganesha borrowed from Sat Jot Singh because it is so Beautiful.

 Guru Ram Das Chant
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Enjoy!
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2 comments:

Prabhu Singh said...

I was listening to the mul mantra track. It's nice, but the pronunciation is terrible. Changing Jap, to Jaaaaap changes the meaning, so does changing ajooni to Aaaaajooni. I don't know why people don't make the effort to learn pronunciation. All the vowel sounds in Gurmukhi, All of them, are in English and we can say them correctly. The consonant sounds can be more tricky, but the mispronunciation of vowels really stands out.
It's still nice, but it's hard to enjoy when the wrong words (via mispronunciation) are being sung.

2:57 PM
Sat Darshan said...

Thanks for the feedback Prabhu Singh. It's true that the pronunciation affects the meaning of the Shabd Guru. That's one obstacle that we as western Sikhs need to work together to overcome.

Do none of my blog posts or the recording therein inspire any positive feedback? It seems you only comment when you disagree or have a problem with something. There is another recording of me in the Rensabhai post (you had asked about that in a previos comment).

9:22 PM

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