by Swami Ramananda

This month, we have chosen to explore how to live with joy in our hearts and what prevents it.  The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali offer a teaching called Mudita, often translated as delight in the virtuous.  This could be one way to practice.  The Buddhist teachings also mention Mudita, referring to it as sympathetic joy. In both traditions, we are encouraged to take joy in the inspiring behavior or happiness of others, rather than harboring envy or jealousy.

Sri Swami Satchidananda often spoke about peace and joy as our birthright, our very nature.  He exhorted us to understand and avoid anything that would disturb that natural condition.  Sri Swamiji once said, “Just be happy, have fun, enjoy life, and don’t get caught…..Choose the kind of fun that won’t bind you.  If a certain kind of fun will bring you unhappiness later on, then it’s not fun at all. Our goal is unending joy.”

One of the primary obstacles to experiencing joy is the way we get caught up in our heads–constantly planning, judging, and worrying about ourselves and the things we think will bring happiness.  A mind that is preoccupied this way is effectively cut off–both from the heart, where we experience love and connection, and from the present moment, the only moment in which true joy can occur.

When we open our hearts to others and make efforts to serve and give, we find a deep sense of fulfillment that is free of dependency on people or things.  And through a practice of Yoga asanas and meditation, we learn to quiet the incessant activity of the mind, and sense that inner peace that is there already inside us.  Both sitting still and serving are forms of Yoga practice that can reveal to us our immense potential to enjoy life.

Rabindranath Tagore, a famous Indian poet, put it this way.  “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”  Even though it may not be easy to consciously cultivate joy when we all struggle in some ways, I plan to enjoy trying.

I really like the idea that it is my nature and birthright to know joy now, and that I can choose to enjoy this moment as it is without needing anything to make me happy.

May we all taste that joy and let it manifest in all we do.

Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program with Swami Vidyananda, has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings, and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a certified Yoga therapist and founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. He is a co-founder of The Spiritual Action Initiative (SAI) which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.

by Wah

I started chanting when I was in college at Oberlin College and Conservatory.  My dance teacher taught me a Sanskrit chant and then a disciple of Ravi Shankar, Roop Verma, came to teach for a short while. He taught raga on orchestral instruments. I learned raga on violin. I also began playing tabla, singing with the harmonium. And about that time, I started doing yoga too. It all came together in the same package. In school, I was studying African music, Indian music and many other styles. Sacred music for me was all about community – it brought everyone together for celebrations, life changes, new beginnings, endings and more.

The music I create is inherently meditative. It points to a practice, a daily practice of clearing and blessing the body vehicle, infusing it with light and love so you can be open to your day. Sanskrit chanting connects you to the vibration of Om, the sound of all things moving in Creation. It is a quality of connection that is supreme. 

The goal of meditative practices is to feel peace. To feel ecstatic, joyous. You participate in your life without directing it. You watch it evolve, you celebrate your own evolution as well as others. It is joyous to watch life moving through us and all living beings.

Every living thing on earth has a quality, a way to measure or understand its purpose. Physical form has a quality of being dense, heavy, tangible. Things of Spirit have less density. Stones, trees, and bones are made of slow-moving molecules. Water and blood have molecules which move a little faster.  Air, light, electromagnetic frequency and spirit have the fastest moving molecules. Our bodies are a combination of all three. Sacred music injects some of the faster moving frequencies into our bodies. It speeds things up a bit. To me it feels like joy.

When you analyze or go over events in your mind it gives you insight but not healing. Insight is the beginning of new awareness. But healing requires a cellular transformation. The cells need to reform themselves with the new information. Think of it like a software upgrade. As the body comes into contact with faster moving frequencies of joy and light, it changes or upgrades the composition of the physical body. The cells change. The DNA changes. The mitochondria lengthen. You feel different. You have a different point of attraction for your life. The Spirit world has more light, more electromagnetic energy, more heat. By sourcing higher vibrational frequencies, your mood changes. Your life changes. Healing happens, you open pranic channels, and then you feel freer, like a new person. 

The chants I do are simple mantras. A few words that repeat, something easy to remember and join in on. These mantras were created for the masses, for uneducated people. Unlike the Vedic chanting, which requires a Brahman lineage, years of study and memorization of long passages, the chants we sing are simple. If you just say Shree Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram while you’re plowing the fields, cleaning the temple floors, or doing housework, it can elevate you in whatever you are doing. It is simple. This is why I do it. There are no qualifications, no pre-requisites.

It’s simpler than classical Indian music. Classical Indian music is for the educated. In a classical concert, after 108 beats when the musicians return to beat one, everyone in the audience is keeping track and enjoys this moment of unity. But you have to be educated to appreciate it. My chanting has to be accessible, appreciated by the everyday person. Folk and bhajan rhythms are 4 beats or 3 beats, simple. Folk music is for the people, the working class. That means I introduce some folk or pop elements, some jazz into my music. I play with it. I want people to relax and feel comfortable both with me and with themselves. Because that’s when healing can happen. Not when you’re trying hard to be something else. It has to be integrated. We are multi-cultural now and my music shows that. Whatever the style, it has to be integrated in a way that makes sense to me, so that I can deliver the joy to you. 

Some critics feel that the Western brand of kirtan is not as sacred, not the real thing. Well, the Westerners could improve their pronunciation of the mantras, that’s for sure! But let me put it this way: Yoga and chanting are both sacred by nature. The listener has to decide for him or herself if the teacher/performer is drawing them into sacred space. “Is this connecting me to Source energy? Is it helping me connect to myself?” Each person has to ask and decide. Some of the music out there is sacred; some of it is not. You have to sift through it.

My music is based in spiritual work. I practice yoga, meditation, pranayama. I teach self-care and healing. My personal evolution is informed by intense study, intense practice, kindness/light-heartedness and humor. I consciously bring these elements into my work, to help myself and the people I come in contact with.

Chanting is a practice I do for myself. I chant to feed myself so my actions can follow an intention of joy love. My intention is to raise my vibration and let it flow into whatever I do. I have chanted for over 50 years now, I think it’s in my pores, in my heart.

Chanting gained popularity because people had a genuine longing. In the 1960s the Beatles sang “My Sweet Lord/Hare Krishna” and Ravi Shankar played for Woodstock. It opened people’s hearts. 2023 has brought the world to a precipice. We must bring in more light or be swallowed by the darkness. How are we going to do that? Through yoga, chanting, 12-step programs, eye movement therapy, neurolinguistic programming, counseling. There are thousands of amazing technologies out there, including yoga and chanting. If I can make people feel more at peace with themselves through chanting, I feel I have contributed something. If people can create the new world with joy, old ways will fall away naturally.

I travel around the country trying to share with everyone an experience of openness, a presence, an elevated state of being.  There’s no scientific how-to, it’s just an experience of hanging out. We chant, I tell stories, sing songs; we try to find an elevated energy together. I don’t say I’m the  authority on spirituality. I don’t say, “Do you see that? That is where we’re going.”  No. I say, “We’re going to close our eyes together and see what happens.”  For me, we’ll hang out together. (I appreciate ya’ll coming and meditating with me.)  When I see you twice a year or once a year, I look:  Are you brighter?  People see me, and say “Ahh, you look brighter.” Or maybe not. I see someone else whose life fell apart and went through enormous changes. I see more light in their eyes. More internal growth. They are more connected.

Being connected means you can embody more light, at higher frequencies. You are open.  But getting there is not always pleasant – when something hidden is suddenly revealed. “Oh That?!”  I always squirm, “Certainly not That. That doesn’t have to go.”  My guides sit silently, waiting for me to “get it.” Yes, That needs to go. You think it is your own, but actually it isn’t a personal item at all. It’s a personal framework hindering you from becoming who you are. You protest but eventually let go, feeling a bit freer, even though it’s unfamiliar.  With grace, personal becomes universal, like drops of water joining an ocean.

Our evening of KIRTAN together, Sun. February 12 @ 5:00 – 6:30 pm PT, will be chanting, meditation, dancing if you like –a beautiful evening of higher vibration. Sign-up

Wah! is an accomplished musician, record label owner, mother, and one of the founders and leaders of the global yoga community. She has spent over 25 years teaching and performing, helping people relax, improve their health and learn about compassionate relationship.  She was born into a musical family and graduated from Oberlin College/Conservatory with a Performing Arts Degree and a minor in Vocal Studies. She explored African, Indian, and Western folk and jazz music and became one of the pioneers of kirtan (mantra chanting) in the West. Her meditative music is used around the world, her Savasana CDs are bestsellers. She will be performing at IYI San Francisco on February 12, 2023. www.wahmusic.com

by Mia Velez