In order to expand your vocabulary of mantras in each of the streams of Sound Yoga, I would like to recommend my three-CD Yoga of Sound program, which contains the titles Shabda Yoga, Shakti Yoga, and Bhava Yoga. To experience meditations in Nada Yoga, I recommend my CD Nada Yoga. For additional devotional chants using specific morning and evening ragas, try my two-CD set, A.M. and P.M. Yoga Chants. These programs are available nationwide, or through my Website, www.russillpaul.com. My Website will also give you information on Yoga of Sound events and special resources, such as my home study program.
THESE CDS, also available individually, are a marvelous listening experience, crafted with great care and precision. Using world-class musicians and nature sounds recorded in the wild, these projects capture the authenticity of the streams of Sound Yoga you have learned about in this book. You can work with them in the privacy of your home or yoga studio.
THIS PROGRAM features Vedic mantras, starting with the simple Om. Each mantra is repeated in a call-and-response fashion so that you can listen and then chant along with the CD. There is also a powerful meditation called the Rudram from the Yajur Veda, which opens the album.
THIS PROGRAM features Tantric mantras to stimulate your energy system.Om Namah Shivaya and Om Shakti are fifteen-minute meditations. Also included is a raga meditation to open the chakras with the swara syllables.
THIS PROGRAM FEATURES a number of Bhakti mantras and various devotional movements that you can use while you chant. Vaishna mantras and Tantric devotional mantras to Kali and Shiva are also included.
THIS PROGRAM features three long meditations, about eighteen minutes each, for use between twilight and midnight. You will be able to experience the subtle currents of energy possible through various Nada Yoga meditations and breathing practices.
THIS EXCELLENT double album introduces you to a wide variety of devotional mantras and ragas for your morning and evening yoga and chanting practice. They are both in the Bhava Yoga category.
THERE ARE THREE levels for working with these audio companions. First, you can just listen to them. You may even do this while you drive, listening to Shabda Yoga mantras on your way to work, Shakti Yoga during your midday break, Bhava Yoga on the way home, and Nada Yoga before you sleep. You can also use them as a backdrop for your yoga or meditation practice.
Second, you can learn mantras from these albums the way they’re traditionally recited, allowing yourself to assimilate the power of their vibrations through proper pronunciation and inflection. These CDs have been tastefully arranged with both ancient and contemporary musical accompaniment that allows the mantras to feel accessible for the Western seeker, while remaining authentic in their delivery.
The third level is independence. You should eventually be able to produce the same effects that you encountered with these CDs through proper breathing technique and correct inflection and tones for the mantras. To achieve this, an ongoing study through workshops, retreats, seminars, and private study is recommended.
WORKSHOPS, RETREATS, and seminars help deepen and personalize the experience for you. Through these events, the various streams of Sound Yoga come alive and enter your body, mind, and heart through the physical immediacy of chanting in the same space with me. You will also get to interact with a learning community, then take home valuable tips and methods to incorporate into your practice.
AN INTIMATE FORM of learning, this process allows for the maximum amount of energy and skill to be passed from teacher to student, a method practiced for many thousands of years in India. I recommend that a student first become well acquainted with my work and take at least one or two workshops with me before scheduling private sessions.
BECAUSE OF MY rigorous schedule, I am creating a home-study program that enables students to be guided in the privacy of their homes. The program will cover musical aspects of the Yoga of Sound tradition, mantra, and spiritual practices such as breathing and meditation.
FORM YOUR OWN dedicated learning community of about ten to twelve students, and pursue your Yoga of Sound experience together using the resources outlined in this chapter. If my schedule allows, I will be glad to spend some time with your group once or twice a year.
WHILE IT IS ALWAYS possible to learn mantras and Yoga of Sound practices through various means and resources in the West, there is a power and depth to encountering the raw, unmediated grandeur of this tradition in its own cultural and religious setting. Each year, my wife and I travel with a small group of pilgrims to South India, experiencing the ritualized used of mantras in ancient temples and ashrams. Should you feel the call to join us, you will also have the opportunity to study and practice mantra recitation with me in India in an informal setting.
THE FOLLOWING are books that I recommend for an in-depth understanding of Sound Yoga:
SONIC THEOLOGY: HINDUISM AND SACRED SOUND
by Guy L. Beck (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1993). This is an excellent resource for understanding the traditional terminology of Sound Yoga and its historical development within the Hindu tradition. Guy is a respected ethnomusicologist and a dedicated musician, devoted to North Indian classical music.
THE WORLD IS SOUND, NADA BRAHMA: MUSIC AND THE LANDSCAPE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
by Joachim-Ernst Berendt (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions Intl. Ltd., 1988). Berendt had a great impact on the world of sound and spirituality, bringing together his vast experience of music with current findings in numerous branches of study, including physics, astronomy, biology, architecture, and mathematics.
SOUNDING THE INNER LANDSCAPE: MUSIC AS MEDICINE
by Kay Gardner (Stonington, MN.: Caduceus Publications, 1990). The late Kay Gardner was both a musician and a healer. It is wonderful to have a woman’s perspective on the subject, and she did a great job of combining information with practical exercises.
THE MYSTICVISION: DAILY ENCOUNTERSWITHTHE DIVINE
by Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1995). This is a wonderful collection of mystical poetry and extracts from sacred texts, compiled by one of the most passionate mystics of our times, Andrew Harvey.
MEDITATION AS MEDICINE: ACTIVATE THE POWER OF YOUR NATURAL HEALING FORCE
by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. (New York: Fireside Books, 2002). This unusual medical doctor is also a yogi with a deep understanding of sacred sound and its use in the cure of physical ailments.
TOOLS FOR TANTRA
by Harish Johari (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions of India, 1996). Read Johari to understand the visual dimension of mantra known as yantra, as well as for a traditional view of Tantric mantra.
UNDERSTANDING MANTRAS
edited by Harvey P. Alper (Albany, NY: State University of NewYork Press, 1989). A brilliant collection of essays and articles written by prominent researchers on the subject of mantra, including Andrew Padoux, Fritz Staal, and Ellison Banks Findley.
MUSIC AND MIRACLES
compiled by Don Campbell (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1992). Another excellent collection of essays and interviews on the subject of music and healing, including such luminaries as Dr. Jean Houston and Dr. Larry Dossey.
THE UPANISADS
by Juan Mascaro (London: Penguin Classics, Viking Press, 1965). One of the most readable versions of the great breakthrough from the many to the one. Mascaro captures the essence of the sublime teachings of the Vedas in his selection of key passages from the principal Upanishads.
THE BHAGAVAT GITA
by Juan Mascaro (London: Penguin Classics, Viking Press, 1962). A must-have for every postmodern yogi. The entire Bhagavad Gita is translated here into an eloquent flow of prose that captures the heart.