Sacred Sounds, Kirtan & Bhakti Yoga | Vijay Krishna #130

When the soulful rhythms of Kirtan music and the rich wisdom of Bhakti Yoga merge, a portal to spiritual ecstasy opens.

For this episode I had the privilege of sitting down with Vijay Krishna from the Kirtaniyas, whose life story is as enchanting as the mantras he chants.

Vijay's journey is a testament to the transformative power of devotional music. His insight into balancing the reverence for tradition with the vibrancy of personal expression invites us all to find our unique spiritual cadence.

Together, we traversed the narrative landscapes from his birth, cradled by mantras, to the magic of performing Kirtan in unexpected venues across the globe.

Our discussion ventured into the heart of Bhakti Yoga, underscoring the embracing of the beautiful nature of this path. 

Vijay's experiences as a mixed-race individual in the world of sacred music reveal the universality of mantras beyond cultural divides, inviting us to embrace a broader perspective on devotion and inclusivity.

Embark on this sonorous journey where we shed light on the intimate ripples of evening ragas along India's sacred rivers, the electrifying fusion of Kirtan with contemporary genres, and celebrate unity through diversity.

IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

🪷 The Soulful Origins of Vijay Krishna
🪷 Balancing Tradition and Personal Expression
🪷 Bhakti Yoga and Inclusivity
🪷 Multicultural Influences in Devotional Music
🪷 The Heartwarming Connections Made Through Kirtaniyas' Music

ABOUT OUR GUEST: Vijay Krishna

Vijay Krsna is a Kirtan singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and entrepreneur from the UK. He studied devotional Indian folk music known as “Kirtan” in the sacred village of Vrindavana, India. 

Joined together with his musically gifted wife Sarasvati, soulful vocalist Rasika and drummer Nitai, Vijay formed the Kirtaniyas in 2009, a california-based collective of energetic, multitalented kirtan artists.

Vijay composes phenomenal hybrids of traditional Bengali, Braj and Sanskrit Kirtan and Mantras with cross-cultural musical influences, subsonic bass and World-beat music.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What if you didn't care what people think and you could leap into expressing yourself in the form of singing and dancing and music, if you could open your heart, open your mind and celebrate the joys and the dynamism of life and of essentially love? Welcome to the Vital Beta Show. I'm your host, dylan Smith. I'm an Ayurvedic practitioner and holistic health educator, and someone who enjoys kyutan, or you can call it sacred music. Holy chanting, really just music with a vibration of divinity is how I experience it. And recently I came across this kyutan singer who's our guest today, called Vijay Krishna, who was born to the sound of his father singing Omnimo Shivaya. He was initiated into bhakti yoga, which is a form of yoga which we talk about, at 12 years old.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Here's the driving force behind the kyutanese, a trans and continental kyrutan collective, an icon in the industry, in the genre, in the world of kyrutan, who have an astonishing 50 million plus YouTube hits, and they compose hybrids of various whether it's Bengali, burj, sanskrit, kyutan mantras with cross cultural musical influences, subsonic bass and world beat music. So enjoy this podcast episode with Vijay Krishna. If you appreciate what you hear, leave a review. Tag Vital Beta on Instagram, tag Vijay Krishna that's K-R-S-N-A and share what you feel.

Speaker 1: 1:43

And what's your experience with kyrutan, what's your experience with going into this opening heart, opening practice of chanting and just removing the fear of what are people going to think of me if I dance and sing and what if I step into this part of me and express this part of me and the joy and abundance that comes with it? Let me know, let Vijay Krishna know. We generally want to hear your experiences with this and I share a bit of mine. So enjoy. Vijay Krishna, apparently you were born, you birthed into this world with the sound of a mantra happening your father singing mantra. What mantra was that?

Speaker 2: 2:27

Well, I mean, I suppose he would have been chairman for quite a long time, because I took 36 hours plus to come into the world and, yeah, my dad was very, very close by singing, you know, throughout the night. Finally, I arrived early in the morning but yeah, he was singing Om Namah Shivaya, hare Krishna. Nice songs with deep meaning, beautiful, yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:53

So nice to come out. When the baby comes out with that mantra, with the sound of mantra, it like reminds that baby, oh, you're safe. Yes, you can be a baby. Yeah. You can be a human because it's that, reminding that nature.

Speaker 2: 3:09

Indeed.

Speaker 1: 3:11

So you clearly then you were initiated, like early on, into this bhakti yoga, to the Kirtan, to mantra music, and you're the driving force behind the Kirtaniyas, which is a trans continental Kirtan collective, seems quite an icon in the Kirtan world. You got over 50 million hits on YouTube which is amazing. I was having a look at your YouTube channel the other day. It's very fun. Yeah. Is that how's the Kirtanis? Is it still active or how?

Speaker 2: 3:39

does that work? Yeah Well, we've been on a little bit of hiatus since the well, kind of lockdown kind of episode. We haven't had a chance to fully reunite since, actually just to do to us being quite spread out and the events and festivals not haven't fully, I think, picked up yet since, and therefore there's not been always the budget. Well, there hasn't been the budget really to kind of get us together. You know, four or five intercontinental flights pretty much together in one place.

Speaker 1: 4:14

And you're full time traveling.

Speaker 2: 4:16

Yeah, I'm full time out at this. This is what I do.

Speaker 1: 4:19

I've seen a few people, few Kirtan musicians like yourself, who really like it's that full Dharma, that full seva, a lot of Tejas like fire, it's like okay, from gig to gig, country to country, city to city. It's like that's what you're about. Your whole life has evolved around that. Yeah, it's pretty beautiful.

Speaker 2: 4:37

Definitely. Sometimes people say does it take a lot of energy? Don't you feel knackered, don't you feel ever drained by having to deal with, like, different aspects of it? You know anything from the travel to the actual sharing of the Kirtan and you know what we've learned from Bhakti and also the appreciation that comes back to. That's a whole other task to deal with. You know People coming to us and telling us that their child was born to our Kirtan and mantras, or their parents passed on to the sound of our music. You know, so ends up being quite a lot. And sometimes people ask me how much does it train you? A lot and I actually usually have, you know my responses that actually I feel I've given a lot of energy from the Kirtan. If anything, I haven't been really trained to see or to feel that Kirtan comes from any of my actual effort.

Speaker 2: 5:34

Necessarily we have this concept of the flute and the poetry and the mysticism surrounding the flute, you know, and the symbolism there with Shikhashna, you know this beautiful, you know, representation, embodiment of the divine, you know, as far as people may kind of explain it in different ways. And there's, you know there's a kind of being, you know, somehow attempting developing the mentality of being, you know, like the flute which doesn't get in the way of the player. You know the prana, the life force and life air given is actually not only infinite and not necessarily infinitely there for my own reserves and exploitation, but rather something that flows, especially in savor. Now, savor is again, you know, kind of living, acting out of. You know, love and devotion, that our actions are filled with love and devotion and also non-proprietorship, that actually all of the energy provided is actually has always been there, not just this incarnation that we're currently experiencing, but between our deaths and wherever we were, there's always been that energy that prana provided. So I feel like actually the kirtan and what I'm doing, traveling around the world like a madman, you know, dancing and celebrating with the communities around the world. It gives prana, it supplies prana actually, and then, when we engage more of that further, you know the difference between the karma yogi and the bhakti yogi.

Speaker 2: 7:21

The bhakti yogi identifies everything as being part of the divine's own, not necessarily ours. The karma yogi has sometimes some identification with things and what is I, me, mine, you know what I mean. It's an. There's an uh, proactivity of, in a sense, disengaging from the results of what I feel is mine. So that's a karma yoga perspective and the sava perspective in bhakti yoga is actually a very fine line. You know some, my attempt is to be in the bhakti mood of sava, that everything belongs to the divine and is for the utility of the divine to and, yes, karma yogi is also have that perspective of like I am the universe, I am this.

Speaker 2: 8:09

Yes.

Speaker 1: 8:11

But they've always found it an interesting uh polarity with that bhakti yogi or where, for example, I used to talk about in. I'm paraphrasing now but Krishna is within us and some bhakti yogi practitioners, hare Krishna devotees or Krishna devotees, would get like offended almost, or like come me up and like hold on, like Krishna is something different it's. And so that difference of that Vedantic point of view of a hambra mass me.

Speaker 1: 8:44

I am totality, everything is. And then that other view what come, what you? Just I mean, and it's not just one or the other, it's a dynamic. It's all circulating together Indeed so.

Speaker 2: 8:57

Yeah, so the presentation of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, you know who the bhakti yoga mystic say was, you know an avatar, or you know the manifest remanifestation of Krishna himself within his philosophical kind of contribution, presentation which for me can be said at the ultimate synthesis, when we have thesis, antithesis, synthesis is okay, how to harmonize and reconcile to apparent contradictions, and we do have the debate of duality, non duality, which has been going on forever, and there is an ultimate reconciliation essentially of the whole and how the individual soul like your, yourself and myself fit into the absolute whole. And yes, if the Vedas and Vedanta presents a hambra mass me, so okay, I am Brahma, in a particular trail of consideration, we can find that that is true, that we are, but the we are part and parcel of it. To identify and consider ourselves as the absolute whole, no, no, we're a finite part of the organic whole. So then you know, this is an interconnective, interconnection between the massive or pervasive, everything that is, and the microcosmic individual soul like yourself and myself that you know coexists together. So it's, his presentation was inconceivable on this indifference, so he gives the kind of first of all, he suggests that look, it's a chintya, which means it's beyond, beyond our comprehension, beyond logic and calculation. It's inconceivable. It may be experiential. That's a different thing Bade our bed difference, no difference.

Speaker 2: 10:56

So, in other words, there's some differentiation between all that is, but also there's no non difference between all that is also, and in a sense we can equate also through even, may we say, back to yoga, philosophy and what we nowadays know as a Hare Krishna kind of perspective. Is that actually? Well, some devotees might say, oh no, krishna's not in your heart. But that's not true either, necessarily like okay, krishna, fully embodied, maybe wherever he is, but also the microcosmic aspect of Godhead. So we have this idea of paramatma, or the, the super soul, which is the kind of language that gets used from the masters, either to say the paramount atom, paramatma, paramount atom, atom, in a sense.

Speaker 2: 11:46

So I said that you know this word has been kind of taken away by the Greeks from the Sanskrit language, from the atom which means soul or consciousness, not just a material kind of really, really, really, really small microcosm, microscopic thing that consists of different, you know, neutrons and electrons and whatnot. Well, essentially, the soul, you and I, consciousness, is very, very close by to what they call the super soul or pervasive, micro aspect, microcosmic aspect of divinity, so that we see three general perspectives within the kind of the, the entire topic of Veda or Vedanta brahmaneeti paramatmeeti bhagamaneeti shabdati. So this means that some will know it, the great thing as brahma Brahma means. We can say the I like to use the word abstract divine, so the white, the light or the, the, the all pervasive light of God, as mystics say, as as people that have near death experience have you know, encountered, maybe you know it's the all pervasive, peaceful ocean of light of some sorts, and this is the path of the Gyan. Sometimes it's spaljnana, but it's actually the pronunciation is Gyan. So this means the path of knowledge. The path of knowledge leads into the, leads into the abstract divine we can call brahma, and the mystical yogis are interested in how that light or pervasive light is actually microcosmic light, particles, specs of consciousness essentially, and the mystical yogi, through the process of mystical, the path of yoga, hatha yoga, yoga yoga can realize that actually divinity is somehow in every little thing, of not only material energy but spiritual energy as well, or pervasive spiritual energy, and it's a microcosmic Godhead, paramatma, that God is everywhere, that God particle is absolutely every single thing. So the mystical yogi is interested in that path, paramatma.

Speaker 2: 14:11

And third, we come to the path of Bhakti, where this third archetype, the Bhakti yogi, is interested in the personal form of the divine God, the person with the personality, with the nature, with the body, that is of divinity, not of material energy. That body consists of divinity, eternity, consciousness and bliss, Fully, to the greatest extent, feeling, thinking, willing, full delinity. And that the Bhakti yogis, through the path of Bhakti, are interested in Bhagavan. This is the third keyword. Bhagavan is a word for, may we say, god, which has three basic functions G-O-D Generator, operator, destroyer.

Speaker 2: 15:02

Bhagavan is an even more wholesome, inclusive name for that same person, that same thing, god, which means it considers a wider, it considers all aspects, both divine and even material, as material energies of God, in a sense to the second quality of God, so the idea and conception that God can actually have a form and that the soul, like you and I, can enter the realm of God, the playground, the love ground, the kingdom may we also say by some cultures and religions, the kingdom of God and also come into our own, may we say godliness, revealing our soul's fully blossomed form into divinity when we can interact, and with Godhead, according to our nature, in different proximities.

Speaker 2: 16:02

Some may have more of a reverential connection with Godhead based on grandeur, you know, appreciations based on power and all-pervasiveness, omniscience, whereas others want to get a bit closer to God, where, into the realm of love, where that area of the land of God is so saturated in love and intimacy, empathy, vulnerability, that the love takes prominence over any considerations, that we're hanging out with God right now, the religious and love land. Yes, god is the protagonist and super-wonderful, but actually more than that, god is our friend or God is our beloved and we play together literally in that same manner, that same form. So this is kind of like some of the secrets of mystical bhakti we may say.

Speaker 2: 17:02

This is what the goal of the bhakti yogi is is to essentially kind of enter that personal relationship with the divine, with our soul fully blossomed into its own divine, unique personality. Every soul is also unique. This is one thing that basic Vedanta won't cover that every soul, every atman, every individual speck of consciousness has a unique form of DNA, unique and this is almost like a spiritual DNA. So that means that, yes, some may say we're all one, but equally we also have some uniqueness. Everything within is unique within the whole. So again, just to summarize, there's kind of three main archetypes. There's a path of gyana that leads to the abstract, divine Brahma. We have the mystical yogi that, through yoga, accomplishes the recognition and the proximity of paramatma, the super soul, micro-cosmic godhead, and finally the bhakti yogi, through the process of bhakti, love and devotion, manages to come in contact with more of a personal divine.

Speaker 1: 18:16

Yeah, and more. I mean we can talk about this later, but it feels, as you went through those three, it gets more expressive, kind of more tangible in a way less transcendental more, and that's what I've loved about coming from a tradition where transcendence and paramatma is like the foundation and the focus you could say, and then it getting exploring bhakti and experiencing bhakti and the dynamism of that, the expression of that and the love.

Speaker 1: 18:48

Really, as you said, it's that love is a different aspect Because it goes from consciousness to heart and expression and dynamism, shakti. So we'll talk about that in a bit.

Speaker 2: 19:00

But first yes.

Speaker 1: 19:02

The first question I usually ask all my guests first usually is and it's interesting to hear from you because with your traveling schedule it's what's your routine, what's your daily routine? Because in Ayurveda it's a very important thing and you're a musician, so that's a very interesting question for musicians, especially one who travels a lot. But throughout your travels, do you have something that you'll do every day, whether it's in the morning or later in the day, that sets you up for your seva and your bhakti.

Speaker 2: 19:30

Yeah, yeah, maybe, with the exception of one damn month, get up. Well, wake up, and first we'll give gratitude, show gratitude and appreciation for the day by, you know, calling out to my guides, my divine, the favorite names of the sweet divine that I like to call out, maybe I'll even say the name, say good morning.

Speaker 1: 20:02

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:02

Good, good morning, good morning, you know God. Good morning Krishna. Good morning.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Good, I've my teacher, my master, and then Then, you know, tend to my kind of you know pretty much head directly to the, you know take care of my bathroom duties, and Then you know kind of get ready, dressed up and and ideally, sit down. You know, we just kind of clear out my kind of breathing, my lungs a little bit, and then A bit of a heartfelt short prayer, and then I'll take my sacred thread that was gifted to me by my guru and I'll wrap it around my thumb three times and I'll put my hand next to my heart and I'll start chanting some amazing mantras that have been gifted and, yeah, I call this kind of like.

Speaker 2: 21:17

In a sense it's like the Gayatri and some other Dixha mantras we call them and this is to strengthen my relationship with my guide, with my divine, and from there, ideally, I'll kind of Probably go, ideally, go for my journal it didn't happen on the time and maybe even write something down About you know how I'm feeling, what's going on, and to do lists and basically just start working and a bit of a workaholic sometimes I have a lot of energy too. I mean, you know, strong body, espos, and Then the rest of the day can happen.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Can we Go through some of the names that you, when you call out in the morning, because I see the Dixha mantras and those are personal Inwood mantras but some of the names I don't know, if you feel to express them and Some people may be listening to this in the morning they can Get that energy Want to sing that one that's so necessarily sing, and I'm playing some nice background value right now.

Speaker 5: 22:28

That's cool.

Speaker 2: 22:30

But, um, I'll just call out. You know, to my I carry a sacred rock which is of the mountain that Krishna lifted, and because I trace my travel companion, I'll call out to him every morning.

Speaker 5: 22:45

Good morning govadan.

Speaker 2: 22:49

Good morning Prabhu, my sweet lord. How are you today, love?

Speaker 1: 22:57

the personal aspect.

Speaker 2: 22:59

Yeah, personal or personal friendship, and ideally, you know. I mean We've been very nice to start my day, too, with the Mangal Achaan, which is a auspicious invocation. Mangal means auspiciousness. I actually sing this before every kirtan, no matter what, pretty much, especially when I'm sharing formally, and it's an amazing invocation.

Speaker 5: 23:35

Vandeham Sri Guru, sri Vita Padakamalam Sri Guru. Sri Guru, sri Guru Vaishnavamschah. Sri Ropam Sagrajata Sahagana Paraguna Tanvi. Tam Sajivam Sadhvaitam Savadutam Parichanasahitam Krishnachaitanya Devam. Sri Radha Krishna Padam Sahagana Lalita. Sri Vishakam Vithamschah.

Speaker 1: 25:25

Also appropriate to start a podcast with that auspicious invocation. Well, there we have it, such a powerful thing to initiate an activity with an invocation.

Speaker 2: 25:41

Yes indeed.

Speaker 1: 25:44

Your invocation, which I heard. I've seen. You've been up in Byron Bay last. What are we now? October, November 2024, 3. I've seen you start with that after before a couple gigs and it's not the stand.

Speaker 1: 26:01

I would say in my experience at Guru I'm not the standard invocation you hear before, particularly Bhakti Yoga, hare Krishna lineage. I'll just speak a bit about that, I'll just preface for those who don't know. A lot of people won't know, but sometimes in the Kirtan They'll start with an invocation In the Hare Krishna movement or that Bhakti Yoga tradition there's a common one which they chant. It's a beautiful one and yours is different.

Speaker 2: 26:32

Yeah Well, my guides, my Gurus, I just observe how they did things.

Speaker 1: 26:44

As you do with a Guru. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2: 26:49

This is how they showed us actually and say, for example again for listeners that may not be so familiar with how it goes, we may jump right into a chant and it's almost like having a mentality a little bit and the mood of like, let's just go right there, directly there, whereas there's something quite in the sense, quite, I feel, for me and for what I've observed from the Gurus, it seems that there's something very graceful about Opening up with it or especially as an invocation, even if sometimes it's a short one because it's less time or because there's a spontaneous Kirtan. It's have to be long. Some Kirtan chanters just jump right in. That's also okay, you know, because there's no hard and fast rules with chanting the names of the Divine. That's the wonderful thing about this age. It's no restriction, it's not a problem. It's a problem if we're forgetting that love is actually everywhere. That's the only problem. Where is Krishna? Not, love is everywhere. The only problem in this world is where is love? It's only words you're not seeing yet.

Speaker 2: 28:02

So, in a sense, to just first of all kind of open up with some acknowledgement, gratitude, appreciation, for again, our guides, even the grandmasters, will do this. Even grandmasters will first of all give some acknowledgement to their teachers, never just like direct Okay, I'm here to teach something. No, no, okay, I have received this information. I've learnt this from my Guru, who learnt it from his Guru, so this moved a little bit. And yes, we sing a semi-traditional. It's a traditional invocation, but not everyone sings it.

Speaker 1: 28:37

And just on that topic of no hard and fast rules, we were just at Om Fest, which is this beautiful festival about Bhakti really, and I was speaking to a friend who was kind of in and out, Just like I was, and talking about your gig, like, Did you see Vijay Krishna? He was awesome. She was like, nah, I'm not into Hare Krishna. So I'm like, oh like, and because the one thing which also sparked me with your gig was you were playing mantras with Lakshmi Devi, Hanuman Sitaram, so that that's again perhaps non-conventional, non-orthodox, Because this is a shame that this woman had this view of oh, nah, I don't like Hare Krishna. Nah, I'm not into Shensha, her boyfriend is like a Kirtan player and everything Like she's into Kirtan. But to have that perception of, oh, this is like this and I think some, a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 29:37

Of course, Hare Krishna is so well known. They chant in the streets, they give out food in the streets. A lot of people see them and I want to. I think you're a great example of showing and people also need to really understand that well, it's not confined to one way of expressing Krishna or the divine in that way. There's so many ways of expressing Krishna and giving love and sharing the love, and of that. So yeah, just bringing in that topic of the non-conventional approach or the non not really approach, but expression.

Speaker 2: 30:16

Yeah, I'm all about that. First of all, these are open source mantras. They don't belong to anybody necessarily and to having sectarian ideas of any sort. Really, anyway, is a little bit not really fun To have to navigate around, really, is it? I don't like Hare Krishna. You might as well say I don't like what are we saying? I don't like Christians. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean okay, you want to say something like that.

Speaker 1: 30:42

That's on you.

Speaker 2: 30:45

But if we consider what that means also on the etymological level, hare means the goddess, the energy of God, the feminine aspect of God, the divinity. Krishna is one of the many, many, maybe infinite names to describe the divine God. If God has a limited quality, he has unlimited names to describe each quality. So just say that I'm not into the Hare Krishna. I mean you're not into God-Goddess.

Speaker 1: 31:19

What do you?

Speaker 2: 31:19

mean not into the people. I mean, if the people don't something to offend you maybe they have does that mean all of them are wrong? I don't know. I mean maybe I wasn't there, I don't know what they've done to offend you or what your issue is.

Speaker 2: 31:32

But especially being a mixed race myself, oh my gosh, having dealt with prejudice, racism, just being different, I'm not black, I'm not white, I'm not Asian, I'm like literally a real mixing part, a melting part of all of it. You know I have ancestors from everywhere. You know, yeah, I get sensitive about that, you know very much so, and actually I'm about part of my one aspect of you know, in a sense of how do I say my mission or my life's purpose is to, you know, almost like challenge these, you know, racist, stereotypical ideas that we kind of impose on people, Not only to do to their body but also their spiritual beliefs. People who want to dance around through the streets happily singing Hare Krishna. That's completely up to them. And what I see, even just objectively, is when I see Hare Krishna's dancing through the street, I sometimes see smile contagions, I see people smiling at them, maybe even in embarrassment of them, and I see their friend next to them, smile with them too. And I start. And sometimes even a drunkard comes and feels happy for 10 minutes because he dances around and feels joy and hope, maybe for 10 minutes, and maybe that was his last 10 minutes in his whole blooming life that he might have felt joy. He might have jumped off a bridge after that.

Speaker 2: 33:05

We don't know where anyone's at, we have no idea what's in people's hearts. You know to kind of. You know talk about something like I don't know. I mean, you know medicine is. You know medicine is needed. You know, and whatever names of the divine or ways that people call from medicine or love that they want to, let it be for God's sake. Literally you know, no matter who they are, no matter where they're from, no matter how high or low society they are, no matter their preferences or their opinions, everyone's got an opinion. We know that. But allow, let it be. There's what is our issue. That's what we should be asking. I would be asking myself if I have an issue with any particular group of people or a mantra or something that people are saying and having fun and joy around. I'm thinking, well, maybe there's like hundreds of people jumping up and down for joy, and children too, and everyone's really happy. And I'm feeling like I'm not into that. Well, maybe I should look into why I'm not into it. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:11

I think a lot is related with open heart and open mind and it goes again back to that personal approach. It's like as a musician and as someone who's essentially leading that kirtan or driving it, Because you're, as in your case, and any musician or kirtan player who's leading that. It's really about their personal approach Because you said it's everyone is so unique and their relationship with the divine is unique. Their expression of the divine is unique. So I think it's and you experienced playing alongside a lot of other kirtan musicians that balance within themselves of honouring that unique connection to the divine and how they want to express that. Or are they confined to conventional quote, unquote rules, Because it's very clear that I don't know what your astrology is, but we got Balarama in the room next to us.

Speaker 1: 35:07

He probably knows his Joseph's chart where I don't know whether it's Aquarius or something, but like I don't care, I'm just gonna do what I want. And if I want to chant Hanuman, although they say you can't chant Hanuman, you're a Christian movement. But have you seen it? Because it's very clear, you do what you want. But what about other people? And for people who are listening, who's like I want to chant this, I want to chant Jesus, I want to chant, you know?

Speaker 2: 35:32

And if you're inspired by, you know, in a sense almost like this day and age, with the way the world is, if there's any sort of stimuli that makes our soul feel like it's waking up and like boom, okay, there's a purpose in life and this all has meaning and reason. Basically, just grab it, go for it, shamelessly, if you have to, maybe if even your family rejects you for it. You know, literally it's gotta be a little bit die to live kind of vibe, and that's what Jesus said die to live. Do we want to live dying or do we want to live? You know, no matter what, live when we're living or live when we're dying, even die to live, no matter what, it's a quest. You know, life will continue and evolution also will continue.

Speaker 2: 36:20

We're not talking about material evolution here. We're talking about evolution of the consciousness. You know, are we evolving from the consciousness upwards, outwards? You know, are we? Is the environment against us, or is the environment actually always favorable? The mystics that I like to listen to say the environment's always friendly, always. It's always a favorable environment. Actually, the world, everything, the matrix is providing. You're potentially there for helping us to wake up. This is a school of love. The material world. The matrix is actually a school of love, and real unplugging isn't just you know, you know to see everything as okay. Well, it's definitely a place of like birth, death, old age and disease, because Nio's level of unplugging wasn't, it was only like base level level one unplugging.

Speaker 2: 37:19

He didn't get like 108 level unplugging. He didn't get full fledged unplugging he got a relative unplugging and got a new perspective on the matrix and what's behind the veils of the matrix, what's even further behind, deeper yet still, into the further veils of the matrix, what's behind that, and we find divinity. Then we find Brahma, we find source, we find, you know, the origin God love. This is, you know, ultimate behind everything. This is, you know, the perspective of Vedanta Bhakti, vedanta specifically.

Speaker 1: 37:58

Yeah, so back on that, like I want to speak to people who are listening, who are those people in the audience? Because I know people listening are going to be like that and are seeing the hundred people jumping and dancing. But it's that and I experienced it like that holding back and that, whether it's fear of stepping into that expression of love and ecstasy, can be fear of the unknown, fear of that potential fear of that stage of evolution and expression.

Speaker 2: 38:39

There's a bit of a no risks, no return thing with it all. You know no risks, no return.

Speaker 2: 38:45

but actually there's nothing to risk, you know only some sense of like what we think, maybe ours, oh my home, oh my car, oh my things. What if I lose them? If I wake up more, what if I? You know, essentially, eventually it will happen. It's basically there for all beings, everywhere. So it's like the reason why we're here is literally to evolve.

Speaker 2: 39:13

This is the purpose of the matrix. The matrix consists of five material elements earth, fire, water, air, ether. Further, the subtle elements, manas, bodhi, ahankar, mind, intelligence, ego. And the great phenomenon is that consciousness, which consists of divinity, which is beyond time, which cannot be somehow captured, in a sense, cannot be cut, cannot be burned, cannot be boiled, is part of the eternal everything. The phenomenon is that consciousness, spirit, true spirit, has come in contact with the material energy, here, within the material world, this universe. So life has met, meaning, consciousness has met the five elements. And then we find all these different forms of life the trees, our very bodies, all the animal forms, plant species, germs, everything. It's essentially consciousness coming in contact with the material energy.

Speaker 1: 40:17

Play with it, play in it, enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 40:21

And there's something very, very wonderful to the human species of life. It's seen by pretty much all of these amazing kind of maybe, say God realises, or people on the path to evolution. God had the gyanes means the knowledge seekers that are interested in the abstract divine, the yogis who are interested in microcosmic divine and the bhakti yogis who are interested in the personal divine, full-fledged divine. All agree that the human birth is very, very valuable and this is a great. It's a great maybe, say even tool or temple to develop. Manusha is human form of life.

Speaker 5: 43:04

Harina ma san kirtana. Golo kera prema dhala Harina ma san kirtana.

Speaker 2: 43:27

Golo kera prema dhala. The line of this song means that the community celebration of the divine names, the different names of love, is a gift from the eternal, spiritual, transcendental world of love itself that rains down here onto planet earth for us living entities, especially in the human form of life, to take those names, to gather our community to celebrate Halabhi dhan name, some say, Others say that God is great, Allah hu akbar. That also means God's name is great too. That means it's great to say God's name as well. Love is God, God is love. Let's remember that everybody.

Speaker 2: 44:30

I know some of us may sometimes have some issues with God and some of the presentations of God that have been sometimes imposed upon us, that somehow God might not be a very nice person. God's full of love, grace, joy, bliss. It's a name of God which is full, infinite. It has a relation to his name. Anything in relation to the infinite, including the name of the infinite, has infinite potential.

Speaker 2: 45:28

In this song I'm singing Hari Hari, which is one of my favorite names for love God, and this song is saying that oh love, oh Hari, oh God. My life is passing by. Have I intended to serve from my heart the best of my ability that beautiful divine couple, Because God's not just a man. Everybody God's got a big secret and that's his goddess, and his goddess is equally as wonderful as he is in her own unique way. Radha Krishna, Life is passing. Have I really deeply relished love and devotion with this divine couple that have created unlimited universes by their inspiration, along with unlimited, countless living entities like you and me residing in those unlimited universes? Radha Krishna, you know welcoming us to also fully evolve into our love bodies, our spiritual, transcendental love bodies, and to also relish love devotion in that land of love for those who want that. Deep story. Hari Hari. Hari.

Speaker 1: 47:36

So beautiful Celebration of it and the gift, the gift that that realm is bringing for the communities. Gift and celebration is such a key aspect which people can cultivate and utilize and accept, which, as I said again, coming from this transcendental tradition, we can celebrate as much that first, paramatma, you said the gyana. The gyana kanda just transcend, just be. Where's the celebration? Where's the love, where's the expression? There's the joy. Accept that gift so that dynamism both or so, yes, this is what bhakti yoga offers.

Speaker 2: 48:30

And again, bhakti yoga. We simplify it as love and devotion in our communities. But when it gets down to this kind of philosophical stuff when I say philosophical, it's not hypothetical, it's reality and we go into kind of like, oh, wow, so bhakti is saying that there is, I am unique, even down to this. As a soul, I'm also part of everything too. Oh, that's cool. I don't just have to be part of, I don't just have to homogenize my way into the white light of everything.

Speaker 2: 49:03

I don't just have to be one and kind of just be one and that's basically it. Yeah, it's peaceful, but are the interactions based on love, joy and bliss of a super elemental, divine level? No, only bhakti yoga gives this. Only bhakti yoga gives this. You know, being able to play with the divine God, the great mystery who's taken form, human like form, because that's another thing we control, if we may.

Speaker 2: 49:34

From the Bible, god made man in his own image and naturally, let's put it out there, shout out for the goddesses, that goddesses made the female also in her own image.

Speaker 2: 49:47

So these images of male, masculine, feminine are actually relayed all the way into, you know, the kingdom of God, the eternal real reality. You know, and, yeah, only bhakti yoga offers that kind of like amazing, kind of semi, you know, avatar conception. You know, in a sense, that we can develop into being a full potential, full fledged real self, and that just doesn't just have to be a kind of like a, you know, oh, this is. You know, when we die we go to heaven, kind of vibe and then we'll be there, and kind of no. No, this is also something that mystically, almost magically, happens right here, in this relative reality of the matrix too is that we can start kind of realizing, experiencing that which is actually inconceivable. And actually the great mystics that are of the bhakti variety that are on earth, they see that love and beauty is everywhere. They see that they're not seeing that the world is, sometimes even has any suffering, actually is. They are in the on this planet simultaneously, in a divine reality, real reality at the same time, simultaneously.

Speaker 1: 51:08

A lot of enlightened sages and people with high states of consciousness have that experience and in the bhakti tradition specifically it's. It's such a joyous experience like it's so colorful and it's like you said, that whether it's the people are laughing at the people dancing in the street, kind of embarrassed for them, like my friend stated, hare Krishna village here in Northern Rivers, he just goes, they're just so happy all the time. It's like that joyous experience. Of course many people can have that experience of you know, the earth is all beautiful, there's no suffering, everything is evolution. But it's again that flavor of joy of heart color Indeed.

Speaker 1: 51:52

So you've traveled a lot to play kirtans, what I mean? I've heard you've played at places where kirtan singers don't usually play things like Google Burning man. Tell us more. Where else have you been? What's some of the unique?

Speaker 2: 52:07

Some of the most outstanding top I mean top club, no way. Top 10 club house techno club in the world yeah nice. You know I've done. Yeah, club space, miami. What other peculiar places. So many peculiar places. Someone invited me on an Antarctica trip that I'm looking forward to doing on the first. What the first? Kyoto, who knows? Who knows, who knows, let's go down to Kyoto. Antarctica, then I've you know then I only have Africa left.

Speaker 1: 52:33

Who is the ice gods? Yeah right, ice gods that you can chair too.

Speaker 2: 52:39

So let's see, yeah, kind of you know, oh yeah, billionaire's homes, the old sorts really, wherever you know, wherever it's schools, orphanages, widows, widows homes, or anywhere really, you know, I kind of like to accept that as a bit of a challenge. And.

Speaker 2: 52:59

I once had like a bit of a you know, an elder, respected elder in the Kyoto community, someone I have a lot of respect for once, you know. Actually it was Jair O'Tal. You know I'm on stage with him one time and I'm going to be playing drum with him. He's one of the only people I like, really like playing with.

Speaker 1: 53:18

What's his name again? Jair O'Tal. Jair O'Tal. Oh okay, that name came in your bill.

Speaker 2: 53:22

Mm-hmm, he yeah. He once said oh, I just came from a festival and it was really kind of crazy and I'll never go again. I was thinking that's the festival that I've been wanting to go to in Kyoto. So yeah, within a year or two later, we were there. It's kind of a bit of a you know, I don't know equivalent to Woodland's festival. You have here what's it called Woodford?

Speaker 1: 53:46

Woodford.

Speaker 2: 53:46

Festival here, but in California really epic festival called Symbiosis. I really like it. It's yeah, it's Convius' Choice really. I really enjoy that festival. Yeah, anyway, really, out in the desert, Yerificate International Yoga Festival. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. This is, of course, my life, life-dedicated to this. I'll ask.

Speaker 1: 54:14

So like they kind of like a fire and kind of question what are some of the most memorable gigs that come to mind?

Speaker 2: 54:22

Gigs or kirtans.

Speaker 1: 54:23

I mean both Kirtans.

Speaker 2: 54:28

Playing at the Roxy was pretty fun. The Roxy is the top venue in Hollywood. That's the stage.

Speaker 1: 54:34

The Somali live at the Roxy.

Speaker 2: 54:35

that was a good one, yeah so done, kirtan on that stage which is a trip. That was pretty cool, Opening for you know a childhood kind of favorite band called Koola Shaker. They're also the main singer, Christian Mills. He's also a bit of a mentor to me, he was the first person to get me in the studio. He's also my spiritual godbrother. He's a disciple of my guru also and a fantastic musician and movie director, producer, and their band was very big in the 90s. Koola Shaker.

Speaker 1: 55:08

K-L-A Shaker.

Speaker 2: 55:12

We've all been talking about Koola Shaker, because we've just found out that we're both first for like raging on it in the 90s as practically kids, and so, yeah, the Roxy was pretty cool in the sense of when, necessarily, it wasn't a packed gig, of course we've done bigger gigs with thousands of people or whatnot, but that was pretty fun. As far as, like you know, my musician side is concerned, we got to do that, but I don't know if you've ever come to mind.

Speaker 1: 55:42

He's asked about the experiences. What about the Kala Festival in Utah?

Speaker 2: 55:48

Yeah, there's a Kala Festival that we play out in Utah, USA. There's a video on YouTube. Actually it's called Ni Tai Gaoranga N-I-T-A-I-G-A-U-R-A-N-G-A, and it's a Kala Festival, which means it's like people throwing colors everywhere and kind of.

Speaker 1: 56:14

Related with Holly. Yeah, it's a Holly Festival.

Speaker 2: 56:16

So you know, and yeah there's like 40,000 people there. People are coming from all different walks of life and everyone together celebrating, and that was the mantra you're playing Ni Tai Gaoranga.

Speaker 1: 56:30

There's a video.

Speaker 2: 56:30

yeah, there's a video of it you should check out, and that one's example of Ni Tai Gaoranga yeah this particular, the track that we have with the music video you should have a look at on YouTube has it's made like with a more of a fusion side. So it's not one of our traditional Kyrton tracks, it's one where we've put to like a glitch hop dubstep.

Speaker 1: 56:51

That's Holly. Is Holly likes that upbeat party music?

Speaker 5: 56:57

Ni Tai Gaoranga Ni Tai Gaoranga Ni Tai Gaoranga Gaorahari. Ni Tai Gaoranga, ni Tai Gaoranga, ni Tai Gaoranga Gaorahari.

Speaker 2: 57:15

You are one, not two, with the golden hue, ni Tai, chaitanya, mahabrabhu Arms, raising your praise. Just like the monsoon, may your river what is it? May your love rain down upon everyone. May your light shine through like a million suns. Take to the streets with your Muranga, to the rhythm of the drum. Sing praise to the one Ni Tai Gaoranga Ni. Tai Gaoranga.

Speaker 1: 57:48

Love it. Divine hip hop.

Speaker 2: 57:56

Yeah, there's a nice video, Radhe Shyam, that I'm doing with a really awesome world-class Sufi singer called Tahir Kowal.

Speaker 1: 58:05

One of my best musical friends. Beautiful musician. I love how in your sets you had some kawali like adding in the way when you get the crowd singing that underlying mantra and then you'll just go off and you know, whatever it is I love kawali music.

Speaker 2: 59:10

Yeah, I also grew up on some kawali music too. I'm from a place called Birmingham in the UK and it's extremely multicultural, and, yeah, birmingham was actually the place that discovered Nozrat, fatali Khan and therefore, in a sense, kawali.

Speaker 1: 59:27

Who discovered? You say, who discovered Nozrat Fatali Khan?

Speaker 2: 59:30

Me I was actually born across the street from the record label that went to Pakistan and made the first recordings of him Okay and brought them to Birmingham in the early 90s.

Speaker 1: 59:39

Those who don't know, nozrat Fatali Khan is like a very famous big kawali singer. I mean, I'm trying to think of who he'd compare to in the West.

Speaker 2: 59:49

I know, I just thought of Bob Marley there's no body, there's no one that's ever show me anyone ever recorded that can do what this man can do with his voice Challenge and even the grandmaster. This is someone who sung with Eddie Vedder. We recorded with Rick Rubin, the top music producer. You know, one of my top top goals is to work with Rick Rubin. You know, he's like a meditating mystic. Yeah, he's awesome. Music producer, you know wow.

Speaker 2: 1:00:17

He's so Nozrat Fatali Khan. No, no, I mean his vocal ability. I've never heard anyone ever recorded that can do what he can do with his voice. And the fact that also he's calling out to the different God in the way that he knows Boom and bring you joy and happiness. And when people are singing and dancing, they're not fighting.

Speaker 2: 1:00:40

They're not criticizing each other, they're not saying bad things. This is a wonderful thing again about this community celebration of the names of the divine. We call it San Kirtan. San G means a central community, kirtan means to spread the glory of the most glorious, to relish the most glorious. So San Kirtan, in a sense, if you want to be very generous, what the Sufi singer is doing is essentially considered, in a greater way, part of that too. They're praising the divine in the tongue that they know and people are relishing the devotional spirit of mode. You know Other music inspirations for you.

Speaker 2: 1:01:23

Yeah, in a sense it got to say like you know, I'm into like underground music, underground hip hop based music, some house in techno and possibly even 3% of trans music. I did grow up playing the violin also and listening to classical music. My mom was encouraging me playing classical music. Sometimes I don't listen to much classic western music anymore. I sometimes listen to classical raga music, which is really nice for the vibes you know, say, for instance. Sometimes we're hanging out with some of our friends and we're like well, what music do we want to put on? Right now we're having a really good conversation. We don't want to have Kylie Minogue blasting in the background.

Speaker 2: 1:02:12

Let's put on a sitar evening raga because, it's a fine night and the sitar is just going to be cramming in the background for an hour and a half too. You can find an hour and a half sitar piece and let's just vibe or let's have a really cool mystical conversation and let's have an evening raga. It's evening raga, evening sitar or evening flute from between 4pm and 10pm.

Speaker 1: 1:02:34

This raga has to be playing. There you go.

Speaker 2: 1:02:36

There's a whole, there's a whole science to it. Yeah, which raga or which melodies get sung or played, at which time? Yeah. Whereas with the singing of Kirtan there's no, there's no consideration of that. Kirtan can be sung at any time place. You know, I've come up with a pretty fun Kirtan chants in the shower because I love chanting and singing in the shower.

Speaker 1: 1:03:02

As people do, and it's related with Malarama, known astrology, like Chandra, which is the moon, relates with the water and, yeah, I can't remember, we had once Swami Purnachaitanya, a wonderful Swami from the Art of Living Movement on the podcast and he was speaking about that. Singing the shower is related with the moon. Can't remember the moon expression.

Speaker 2: 1:03:24

Interesting, but yeah, why it happens?

Speaker 1: 1:03:26

Nice and some favorite places of pilgrimage or what comes to mind. There's this holy places, energy vortexes, places you like to spend time?

Speaker 2: 1:03:39

I'm like a huge. I feel like sometimes they're like some sort of cultural ambassador to Vrindavan. Vrindavan, v-r-i-n-d-a-v-a-n. Vrindavan, india, is about three hours drive from Delhi, the capital city, on the way to the famous building called the Taj. Mahal.

Speaker 2: 1:04:01

There's a land called Vrindavan and this land and everybody is in a devotional joy for pilgrim spirit. It's not like a pilgrim like, oh, I'm coming to kind of burn up my sins and to try and rectify some sort of wrongdoings. No, I've come to experience joys, the joys of devotion, to share devotion, to take a flower garland into a temple with my family and sing and dance and relish, and then, and then you know, receiving the food stuff that come from these temples that's been prepared with love, cooked, collected, everything served in every, everything surrounding this particular food, prasadam, which we call it in Vrindavan, everything surrounding it is made, every step of the way is made with love and devotion. So eating that, receiving, eating that food stuff, prasad, blessed food, with love and devotion too.

Speaker 2: 1:05:01

We even eat it with love and devotion in Vrindavan.

Speaker 1: 1:05:06

So there's no place like Vrindavan.

Speaker 2: 1:05:09

There's no place like Vrindavan. No, no, that's the spot. The sacred river Yamuna runs through there and, yeah, you can hear Kirtan singing going on all hours of the day. You may see people walking around the pilgrims path all hours of the day. You see, you see people that have nothing but their little little, little small picture of Krishna and Radha.

Speaker 2: 1:05:37

Maybe, and you may ask that person who may, in certain places, might call him a beggar, but then they have no begging intention and they live, yes, with a bag of two, three clothes, clothing pieces, a few items, and they can pick that bag up and go anywhere they want, and they have a small picture of Radha Krishna. And you may ask them oh, you have nothing, and they'll say I have everything. They'll lift up the picture of Radha Krishna and they say I have everything. What do I need? Do I need a house and all these different things there? You see people like that there and their whole world, their purpose in life. Everything is all dedicated in love and, as far as their concern, they have everything in the world because they have their deity, their darling, their Lord. Aside from Vrindavan, there's a place called Navadvipa in Bengal, west Bengal, which is where Kalkata is on the eastern side of India. The way I like to describe Navadvipa in Bengal areas. It's basically where Mowgli comes from from the jungle book. It's Mowgli stomping grounds and.

Speaker 2: 1:07:00

Baloo and all those guys. So there is the place of the nine islands, the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the golden avatar who came to encourage the community celebration of the names of love. When was that?

Speaker 1: 1:07:18

Because you mentioned it earlier, I wanted to say because it's not too long ago, right, 500 years ago or something. Yeah, 500 years ago, 1486. 1486, too Right? Yeah, beautiful.

Speaker 2: 1:07:34

So that's the place, that's the land of Kirtan like no other especially during certain times. So these two places are the most significant to me, I do go to Rishikesh a lot.

Speaker 2: 1:07:45

It's one of my other favorite places. I love the mountains, I love the Ganga, so Rishikesh is also one of my favorite places in the mountains, the land of yoga and all those things and the community is one of the gold spots in the world. So lots of people that like to come from around the world to like the Bairam Bay, people that go to Kupanyang, people go to Central South America and some of the new paradigm kind of you know section of our generation that like to go to the gold spots, I call them, where there's consciousness and you know this community kakao ceremony, kirtanic state dance and all that stuff you know.

Speaker 1: 1:08:22

There's other ways of expressing.

Speaker 2: 1:08:24

Indeed.

Speaker 1: 1:08:24

What's your experience? Because I'm familiar with Ganga. I have only seen Yamuna once. I've been there and experienced her. But what's your experience between difference? Yeah between difference. Not a very nice word, but what are your experiences with Ganga and Yamuna? These two sacred rivers.

Speaker 2: 1:08:46

Yeah, well, some may say well, which one is kind of like, you know which one's the one, you know the one that's actually there, the sister goddesses They've got the sister goddesses, yeah, the goddess rivers, and the Ganga in the English that we previously call it Ganges, because there's many actually, she spreads out.

Speaker 2: 1:09:12

Yeah, the Ganga has a positive virus within it called ph, p-h-a-g-e, along maybe even other substances that may metaphysical or beyond that. Somehow this water is able to purify itself. In other words, you can take a bottle of gunga water, even in maybe contaminated area in a, keep it in a glass bottle for some time and the water will actually digest itself and purify. So gunga is the only river that I've come across that has that particular quality. And then there's also a conception of one touching either of these rivers, even if just touching the waters, especially for submersion, bathing in these rivers, in a sense may, it purifies the body, it purifies the emotional body. Also it clears the aura.

Speaker 2: 1:10:24

I know sin is a bit of a buzzword that I only use when I like to explain the definition of sin from the perspective of the Vedic, greater kind of wholesome, more holistic consideration of what sin is. The Sanskrit word is pap and pap describes any activity that reduces our high quality. Is pap or sin? So sin is basically reducing quality, good quality qualities within us, actions, words, etc. That reduce our good qualities are called sins. There's something about the Ganges water and the Yamanah water that, upon touching, making contact with it, it somehow I don't I could give a few theories on how this might happen, but somehow it clears that sin, or that loss of quality energy through ignorance, we sin maybe sometimes, or you know, in this definition of sin, because the definition of sin, that of eternal damnation, is not even as pop, because yeah this is.

Speaker 2: 1:11:45

First of all, I just want to clarify that there's no conception of eternal damnation, eternal there's no word on sins in Sanskrit like that's the closest word. The Vedas just don't even agree with that concept that one will be an eternal resident of a very, very terrible place.

Speaker 2: 1:12:09

It's just not a thing you know. Anyways, yeah, these rivers, either Yamuna. When she, or yes, when she, you know, heard the flute of the beloved Govinda, shri Krishna, she didn't know which way to flow anymore. She's like I don't want to flow away from Vrindavan, I don't want to flow away from the love song of the beloved, the cosmic song. I don't want to leave this place. So the Yamuna river ends up doing the whirlpool.

Speaker 2: 1:12:51

Great mystics will, even the Yogi mystic, paramahamsa Yogananda, who had some sentiment of bhakti.

Speaker 2: 1:13:00

I must say I have a different opinion from some of the devotees, bhaktas, on Yogananda's kind of positioning and what kind of archetype was he. I heard him say to another saintly person, anandamoema, at the peak of his career, meaning sharing yoga in the 1950s all around the world he visits Vrindavan and he says to the saintly lady, anandamoema, who is amazing Kirtan, by the way he says I have it all going on out in the world, but all I want to do is roam the banks of the Yamuna river listening to the cosmic flute. This is even the desire of great yogis, not just bhakti pilgrims and whatnot, no, no, no. Even great yogis want to relish the mystical flute song next to this amazing river. These rivers are also conscious. My friend, I have a nice friend, sri Pujya Swamy Chidananda of Rishikesh. He reported to me that both rivers have been given human rights, so actually they're acknowledged as humans, which means that if you attack them, offend them, throw trash at them in them, it can be considered the same as doing it to human, therefore against the law.

Speaker 1: 1:14:37

So to Swamiji and Sudhviji has been on our podcast. There are two saints in promoting health and human status, celestial status of these rivers and doing amazing things in a very challenging, polluted environment for protecting the health of these rivers.

Speaker 2: 1:15:02

Every time I see Pujya, Swamy and Bhagavati Ji, they tell me about their efforts. I'm always very pleased especially when they report to me about the Ganga and Yamuna special. I'm so happy to hear it's almost like he knows. It's actually what to tell me to make me happy. I've done some work on the. Ganga. I'm like, oh, that's so good, yeah, so.

Speaker 1: 1:15:23

If you've done any kirtan on the banks of the Ganga, anything special.

Speaker 2: 1:15:27

Kirtan on the banks of the Ganga.

Speaker 1: 1:15:29

Wow, yes absolutely Wow because like water absorbs sound in such an amazing way sound of Ganga.

Speaker 2: 1:15:38

Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:15:39

Especially at Rishikesh, where you can really hear it In the Himalayas.

Speaker 2: 1:15:43

Yeah, just the sound echoing around. Yeah, this mountain is so rich. You know, in the I've been everywhere in the world, almost actually, I can't be everywhere. I haven't been to Africa. I haven't been to Antarctica.

Speaker 1: 1:15:56

We'll be soon, eventually. In Argentina and a few other places.

Speaker 2: 1:16:02

Do you see the Pravajitra when you do it Out of nowhere? No, yeah, there's a nice song that Actually the song's written by Ravi Shankar, who for me has been a bit I don't know. He's been a bit of a hero growing up Because my birth name was also Ravi, my middle name's Ravi, and I was like he was really cool and did music and stuff. He produced a pretty amazing chant mantra kirtan album with George Harrison called Chants of India, which I grew up listening to, and it's got a beautiful song, pravajitra. Well, I'm not saying yet, I'm only singing all these happy devotional songs All these sweet moods.

Speaker 2: 1:16:46

I'm not singing any deep mood today for some reason.

Speaker 5: 1:16:51

Pravujit dayakaroh Pravujit dayakaroh Maaname anabhasoh. Maaname anabhasoh Pravujit dayakaroh Tumabina lage sunoh, tumabina lage sunoh Kali ghat meh prema bhara, kali ghat meh prema bhara. Pravujit dayakaroh, pravujit dayakaroh Maaname anabhasoh Pravujit Pravujit.

Speaker 1: 1:19:11

Thanks for coming to Australia. People check you out. Here are Kirtan Singh and Kirtan with you, I mean. Vijay Krishna is on Instagram and we've taken a bold move to keep authentic to your name and spelt it the real name, krishna. So that's K-R-S-N-A, and, if you would, it's really dots underneath the RS-N. So it's something I battle with sometimes. I could, for example, spell chakra how it should be spelled C-A-K-R-A, but then people won't understand what it means.

Speaker 2: 1:19:55

Kakra. I speak Sanskrit. What's a kakra?

Speaker 1: 1:19:59

So Vijay Krishna K-R-S-N-A. That's Instagram, you probably announced a lot of your tours.

Speaker 2: 1:20:06

Yeah, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, all that.

Speaker 1: 1:20:08

Cool. Thanks for coming.

Speaker 2: 1:20:11

Thanks for having me, Dylan.

Speaker 1: 1:20:13

Jai, sri Krishna Jai.

Speaker 2: 1:20:14

Sri Krishna.

Speaker 5: 1:20:15

Jai Gurudev, Jai Yani Pao. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:20:46

Because when people hear about others' experiences with this bhakti yoga and this kirtana, it inspires others to open their hearts and celebrate life and celebrate and express love.

Speaker 1: 1:20:58

To check out other vital Veda episodes on the topics of kirtana and bhakti yoga, you can check out episode 68, the rock star who radiates divine playfulness, bhakti yoga and life-altering truths. That's with the Raghunath Kapal, who came from a popular band that toured the US, a punk rock band that blended with kirtana. There's also Hollywood to the Himalayas, deeper connections and euphoric love. That's with Sadvi Bhagavati Saraswati, who we spoke about, who did the humanitarian work for the Ganga River, and in that podcast episode, hollywood to the Himalayas, it's about her journey and also speaks about Ganga, if you like hearing about those sacred rivers. That's episode 83. And the most recent episode 119,. Bhakti is in her blood, spreading spiritual music with the world, and that's with Janavi Harrison, who is now taking kirtana to the masses and more blending with popular music, such as collaborating on an album with Willow Smith, and is an absolute divine singer. So you can check those out to learn more and hear more about kirtana and his wonderful musicians.