1. For more about myth and the hero’s journey, see my online e-course called “Following Bliss: A Modern Mystic’s Guide to the Hero’s Journey,” which is available on my website, alannak.com.
2. Quotes by Candace S. Alcorta from “Music and the Miraculous: The Neurophysiology of Music’s Emotive Meaning,” in Miracles: God, Science, and Psychology in the Paranormal, ed. J. Harold Ellens, vol. 3, Parapsychological Perspectives (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008), 230–52.
3. Joachim-Ernst Berendt, The World Is Sound: Nada Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness (Rochester, VT: Destiny, 1987), 119.
1. Joachim-Ernst Berendt, The World Is Sound: Nada Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness (Rochester, VT: Destiny, 1987), 132.
2. For more on the science of these vibrations, see S. W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (Toronto: Bantam, 1988).
3. For more complete versions of the stories in this mantra on Brahmā and Viṣṇu, see Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij, Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition (San Rafael, CA: Mandala, 2010).
4. I heard this from Yogi Narayana Baba and loved it. For more, visit www.narayanababa.com.
5. For one of the most cogent academic descriptions of Sāṁkhya philosophy, see Edwin F. Bryant and Patanjali, The Yoga Sūtras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary with Insights from the Traditional Commentators (New York: North Point, 2009).
6. For more on Mark Whitwell, visit www.heartofyoga.com.
7. Alain Daniélou, The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism from the Princeton Bollingen Series (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1991), 125.
8. Joachim-Ernst Berendt, The World Is Sound: Nada Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness (Rochester, VT: Destiny, 1987), 41.
9. For a brief overview of the chakras, see Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij, Myths of the Asanas (San Rafael, CA: Mandala Press, 2010).
10. The story of “The Knight of the Cart” appears in Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien de Troyes, written in the twelfth century.
11. For Hanuman’s full story, see Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij, Myths of the Asanas (San Rafael, CA: Mandala Press, 2010).
12. This notion is found throughout Joseph Campbell’s works, but in particular, see Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology (New York: Viking, 1959), 64.
13. Swami Prabhavananda, The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal (Hollywood, CA: Vedanta Press, 1975), 180.
14. This translation is from Eknath Easwaran and Michael N. Nagler, The Upanishads (Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri, 1987).
15. Joachim-Ernst Berendt, The World Is Sound: Nada Brahma: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness (Rochester, VT: Destiny, 1987), 90.
16. This translation is from Eknath Easwaran and Michael N. Nagler, The Upanishads (Petaluma, CA: Nilgiri, 1987).
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., 46.
19. Ibid.
20. Stephen Mitchell, The Gospel According to Jesus: A New Translation and Guide to His Essential Teachings for Believers and Unbelievers (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 55.
21. For more on Śrī Brahmānanda Sarasvatī, visit anandaashram.org.
1. For an example of modern-day kirtan, check out the music on my website, alannak.com. Chris Grosso and I perform as a two-piece kirtan band blending modern melodies with traditional chants. Oh, and Chris plays an all-American drum kit!
2. Find the story in Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij, Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition (San Rafael, CA: Mandala, 2010).
3. Find this story in Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij, Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition (San Rafael, CA: Mandala, 2010).
4. Robert Svoboda, Aghora: At the Left Hand of God (Albuquerque, NM: Brotherhood of Life, 1986), 98–101.
5. Elaine H. Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Random House, 1979), 126.
6. Called the Prajṣāpāramitā Hṛdaya, or literally, “The Transcendant Wisdom of the Cave of the Heart.” There are many fine translations of these simple teachings. Many can be found free online.
7. My favorite version of the Bhagavad Gītā with commentary is the three volume set by Eknath Easwaran, The End of Sorrow, Like a Thousand Suns, and To Love Is to Know Me (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1979).
8. This story is told in Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij, Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition (San Rafael, CA: Mandala, 2010).
9. Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008).
10. Alain Daniélou, The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism from the Princeton Bollingen Series (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1991), 194.
11. Many of the details about Śiva here are from Daniélou, The Myths and Gods of India, 215, 218.
12. Find this story in Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij, Myths of the Asanas: The Stories at the Heart of the Yoga Tradition (San Rafael, CA: Mandala, 2010).
13. Alain Daniélou, The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism from the Princeton Bollingen Series (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1991), 206.
14. Ibid., 207.
15. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968), 120.