I chanted with Deva Premal, Miten and Manose

From Bike Run Yoga

It's 11:00 pm and I am just getting back from what can only be described as an extremely fascinating evening of chants, mantras and songs by Deva Premal & Miten with Manose and Krishna Das. I had no idea what the evening would be like when my studio director, Karen, asked if I wanted to go. I only knew she had heard them all before and loved their music and the studio was sponsoring so I thought, why not go and try something new. (Seems to be MY mantra lately.)



These were truly beautiful sounds. I couldn't understand much of what they were singing or chanting but it didn't matter, the sounds of each word, note, reverberation were amazing. Lots of people sang or chanted along. That is a bit out of my comfort zone so I just listened and observed. There was one group mantra chant, Om Shanti Om, I did participate in. We said it 108 times, the magical number for mantras.

Krishna Das is described in his bio as the "rock star" of yoga and I have to say, based on tonight I would have to agree. He rocked the house...the best you can with chants and mantras. People were dancing around, flailing their arms around, jumping around like the music had taken a hold of them. It was similar to a mosh pit, chant style. The main difference? The chants went on for 20 minutes so the people gyrating around had to be prepared to do it for AWHILE, which of course, didn't seem to phase any of them, they clearly had been to one of these before.

Me? I was perfectly happy watching and enjoying LISTENING. It was fabulous indeed. I almost picked up a chant CD, then remembered a teacher from the studio talking about their roommate at teacher training chanting early in the morning...and I decided I didn't want to be THAT person at training so I left with no wares. Besides, I can always itune it.

I think I will fall asleep to the one chant I know now...Om Shanti Om...Om Shanti Om....Om Shanti Om...

Namaste