Monday, March 15, 2010

Hi everybody,

last time I was writing about year 2009 events. Now somebody has said to me, that I can't tell last years news in a BLOG. I don't know how you feel about it, maybe is he right? His opinion was that the most important thing about news is that they are new. Hmmm... and I thought the most important thing was that the news contain the truth. Like Mullah Nasrudin, who had no doubt about this, as this little story demonstrates:

One morning Mullah Nasrudins wife read in a newspaper the announcement of her own death. She quickly called her husband who was outside the town and said: "Have you read the morning paper, Mulla? And, did you see the announcement of my death?" "Yes," said Nasrudin. "where are you calling from?"

I agree that the best news are those that are new and true. But please feel free to leave a comment (scroll down!) about your opinion. Anyhow, I am informing you today about may latest CD-release. In January 2010 "SANGIT OM / THE SPIRIT OF YOGA" was released by  OREADE.

I have made a whole track available at Myspace . It is called "Bittersweet", although the real title as it appears on the CD is called "The Inner Flame":

In case someone wants to order the CD, I suggest AMAZON (see left).

The work on this CD was really a big adventure for me. I went deep into the spirit of Mother India. Almost all pieces are featuring the Bansuri, the Indian Bambooflute. There are Ragas and Mantras. I also had a special guest on this CD: the Mantrasinger Lucia Licht from Germany, who has also just recently released a wonderful CD with her Mantrasinging. It is called "Mantras - Prayers of Silence".

BTW, it has been twenty years that I have not been in India until this February, when I went to New Delhi to play with the "Celtic Raga Band" of Chinmaya Dunster. I will tell you more about this recent trip and the concert in another post. Right now I would like to share with you some more thoughts about Yoga. The following is an excerpt of the liner notes of my CD:

Yoga means much more than body exercises. It is a practical philosophy, which has been developed in India already in very ancient times. It coveres all aspects of human life and maintains the idea, that men and women are able to reach the highest state of consciousness by consequently following a spiritual practice.  There are mainly five branches in Yoga:

1.Raja Yoga: the path of meditation and spiritual exercise
2.Karma Yoga: the path of the right action
3.Jnana Yoga: the path of proper understanding
4.Bhakti Yoga: the path of devotion
5.Hatha Yoga: the path of body practice

Those different branches are not strictly separated from each other. And more or less in all of them there is a place for music. This is most obvious in Bhakti Yoga, where singing and chanting is an important way of showing devotion to a Diety or to the Guru. But also the meditation on sounds like "OM" or on Mantras (sung or spoken sanskrit verses) is an important discipline, mainly as a part of Raja Yoga. There is also "Nada Yoga" - a path of exploration of consciousness through sounds. Another tradition is "Nadopassana" (dedication to music), where music is used and seen as a prayer to God. And then there is Nataraj-Yoga, where dance is used as a spiritual practice, of course accompanied by musical instruments.

It even could be said that the complex system of Indian classical music - one of the richest and most highly developed musical traditions of the world - is clearly rooted in the spirital context of Indian religious traditions. It is obvious that music can be a great contribution to any kind of practice in the realm of Yoga traditions. Already the overtone-rich sounds of Indian instruments have an uplifting and healing effect. And the system of the Ragas (the musical "modes" of Indian music) forms a highly developed musical framework in which all aspects of human life - spiritually and worldly - have their place. The first aim of the Ragas is - generally - to bring everything into balance with the help of musical harmony.


Greetings to all!!!
Sangit Om

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