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Wah! plays harmonium, shares mantras, stories and meditation. Ramana Erickson accompanies on drums. Wah! is a legend in the yoga world. Her music inspires personal growth and meditative awareness. She has lectured at Princeton University, Loyola Marymount University and performed at yoga conferences and festivals. Here she gathers with people to sing kirtan, a traditional call-and-response style of singing from India. Wah! connects people to what heals them. wahmusic.com
About
Wah! is a world renowned musician bringing healing through sound and the teachings of yoga. LESS STRESS MORE WAH! is a bumper sticker her fans made. It sums up what people are feeling about Wah! and her music, books, and lectures. After 20 years touring and performing throughout the world, she wants to get at the root of helping people relax and destress.
First, the music. If you’ve been in a yoga class in the last five years, you have no doubt heard her music. The first female to bring kirtan music [call-and-response chanting performed in India’s devotional traditions] to the West in the 1990’s, Wah! has been playing bass guitar with her wildly joyful rock band at yoga festivals and centers around the U.S. since 1997. She has also consistently offered music and albums to the therapeutic market; her Savasana CDs have sold over 100,000 copies worldwide.
A few years ago Wah! took time to sit with people – just sitting, and singing, toning, and leading simple meditative exercises. This, combined with many years leading yoga and creating relaxation music led to healing workshops, healing retreats and the Healing Concert, a multi-media concert using projections, slow moving laser lights and live music by Wah! to inspire world peace and peace within.
“Our lives are filled with distractions and disruptions that take us away from ourselves; we end up feeling stressed and disconnected.” Wah! feels a new kind of experience is necessary. “I want to improve how we live our lives on this planet and create events which inspire peace and cooperation.”
Her new book, Healing: A Vibrational Exchange introduces audiences to the concepts behind her music, focusing on ways you can create more space and healing in your life. Her lectures have been welcomed at Princeton University, Loyola Marymount University and at EXPOs and conferences around the country. Her workshops help people develop tools for self-healing and communication.
She has performed at Fiske Planetarium, Franklin Institute, South Florida Museum’s Bishop Planetarium, Omega Institute, Globe Sound Healing Conference, NJ State Museum in Trenton, Hoyt Sherman Place, and Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. In concerts, festivals, lectures and workshops, Wah! uses her deep understanding of music and healing to create profound and transformative events.
Ramana Erickson has taught Sanskrit and yoga philosophy courses for more than forty years in the United States, India, and Japan.
Born in the U.S., Ramana first started practicing yoga and singing kirtan at the ripe old age of 10 under the tutelage of Swami Vishnudevananda at the Sivananda Ashram Vrindavan Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, California. At 13, Ramana became the youngest hatha yoga student to graduate from the Sivananda Yoga teacher training course, taught by Swami Vishnudevananda himself. Ramana’s mother, Swami Shraddhananda, served as one of the first directors of the Yoga Farm.
After meeting Swami Muktananda in 1974, Ramana’s mother moved the family to Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga Ashram in Oakland, California, and then to the main ashram in Ganeshpuri, India, in 1976. It was here that Ramana spent his high school years, and where he practiced all aspects of kirtan music: singing, tabla, harmonium, hand cymbals, and other percussion instruments. He also immersed himself in the study of Sanskrit, Yoga Sutras, Vedic chanting, Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, tantric puja, and yoga, and was guided in his studies by Swami Tejomayananda, a Vedanta scholar and early close disciple of Swami Muktananda. It was from the knowledge and instructional style imparted by Swami Tejomayananda that Ramana devised his core Sanskrit and Yoga philosophy courses. Ramana spent eight years on the Siddha Yoga staff until Swami Muktananda’s passing in 1982.
In 1988, Ramana met his sadguru, Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) and stayed in her ashram, then a small community in Kerala, South India. He has now been her devotee for 30 years. He traveled extensively with her on her early Indian and world tours. In 1992, Ramana traveled with Amma from India to Japan and then stayed on, initially to teach English as a second language to raise funds to travel with Amma, but then became a key supporter of the new Japan satsang. He lived for 4 years in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, and 2 years in Tokyo; in addition to teaching English, he taught beginning Sanskrit and started a kirtan circle. His years in Hokkaido culminated in the honor of hosting Amma for three days of programs in Sapporo in 1994. In 1997–1998, Ramana helped establish the first permanent center for Amma in Tokyo.
In 2000, Ramana returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where, in addition to being involved in the activities at Amma’s California headquarters, the San Ramon Mata Amritanandamayi Center, he continues to teach Sanskrit and Yoga philosophy at Yoga studios, Ayurvedic schools, and other spiritual institutions throughout the Bay Area.
Ramana is also a kirtan musician schooled in tabla, harmonium, hand cymbals, and singing. In 2008, along with Prajna Vieira, and Donald Fontowitz, he formed the kirtan ensemble Mukti that continues to offer kirtan throughout the Bay Area and United States.
ramanaerickson.com