Loving Los Angeles and Miracles in Las Vegas.

Namaste!!

I have not blogged in a while because so much has been happening! California has thoroughly captivated me.  It really is beautiful here, and I have only seen a fraction of what it has to offer.  We took some time out to visit the magnificent Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree National Park over my birthday weekend in early July and Fabian took these stunning pictures on our travels! 

Sunset at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, so humbling. Pictures just do not do it justice!

Fabian's creative energy exploring Joshua Tree, California

One of my most favourite places on earth, Joshua Tree National Park, California

  

We happened to pass by Las Vegas on our way back to Los Angeles.  It was quite an experience to walk down the “strip”, and while in amidst all that is “Las Vegas”, it is hard to believe that they have a flourishing yoga and kirtan community there! Yet we managed to connect with just such a community, and Ashley Wynn,  one of the Charlie’s Angels of Yoga in Las Vegas (where she is pioneering the Kirtan and Yogic Community) welcomed us with open arms and her beautiful smile.  After a decade in LA she has just returned home and opened her own studio called The Grateful Yogi.  You can imagine how grateful we were to encounter this spiritual oasis in what many uninitiated might consider a spiritual desert….in the actual desert!  http://www.thegratefulyogi.com/  Ashley invited me to run a Kundalini Yoga Workshop as well as to offer a Kirtan in her beautiful studio. Here is a video of one of the songs from the evening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6rVHl1hyBY

We rushed back to LA for a Kirtan at Naam Yoga based in Santa Monica the next evening where I offered a very calming, yin meditation and satsang on mantras. I also had the rare opportunity to be interviewed by Gary Goldberg, a long standing advocate of spiritual music on the East Coast of the States.  He has his own Radio Show on the station WRPI: http://www.wrpi.org/  We spent two whole hours discussing my album and he played all the songs live on air!

I was also at the Yogi Tree in Los Angeles during July's newmoon for their Moon Goddess Workshop and I got to play during the class as well as to do some group hypnosis with everyone.

Another blessing during my Californian Tour, was to sing at the Moksha Festival in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles with an awesome kirtanian, teacher and friend, Daniel Stewart during Ashley Turner's class.

Ashley Turner, Daniel Stewart and Sarab Deva at Moksha Festival 2013

The highlight of the Los Angeles leg of this tour is that I had the great privilege of working with Wahe Guru Khalsa (affectionately known as Wah).  I supported her during her class with live music both at her own studio, Golden Bridge in Santa Monica and at the Golden Bridge Mothership in Hollywood. Wah is a fantastic teacher and I was so inspired to be able to work with her.

California really seems to be the place to be! A place of miracles for me. When out in the desert, it certainly feels like sacred ground, as the ancients always admonished.  And driving through Joshua Tree and the mountains and into the desert here made me fully understand how the early inhabitants of this land must have found such divinity in nature.  No wonder they worshiped the land and the sky and the animals and all the elements that make the land so magical. And I truly felt heartsore considering the history around this land and it's early inhabitants.

I will miss this place once I return to Europe next week.  But please keep tuned to my blog, I have so much exciting news and events on the horizon over the next few months to keep me busy, and we plan to be back in the States again in October if all goes well :)

If you have not heard my album yet, please follow this link: http://sarabdeva.bandcamp.com/

Next Stop is NYC then onto London and Berlin for the HoliOne Festival of Colours!

With love, Sarab Deva xx

California Dreaming - San Francisco and San Luis Obispo

The last couple of weeks have been spent travelling and preparing for the coming months back in Europe and for our next trip to the States.  Since arriving in the US, we have not only met some truly fantastic people, but we also seem to have attracted some lovely little nuggets of good fortune!  And my guess is, that it must have something to do with the mantras!

For instance, on our first night in New York, we hailed down a taxi in the pouring rain, and the driver refused to let us pay him. Rather unusual for NYC.

Then in San Francisco, where free parking is really difficult to find, and metered parking is really expensive, we kept stumbling upon meters that had already been pre-paid for us.  We were also given a $57 parking ticket for not turning our wheels on an incline....I have never had to park on hills that steep before nor ever been given a parking ticket ...especially for not turning my wheels in a certain direction.  And so I was surprised to say the least!  Especially after I have gone to so much trouble to park correctly.  Amazingly however the traffic department waived the ticket because we were foreigners. In fact even today we spent what seemed like ages looking for a parking and as soon as I began to chant a mantra, the perfect parking appeared for us!  

Now obviously I am not saying that this should be the sole reason for chanting mantras.  They should be for expressing your devotion and heartfelt appreciation to the Universe/God/Goddess for giving you the blessing of life.  They should be chanted in a sacred context and with a sincere desire to grow/better yourself and to connect to your true path of Dharma.

However, the sideline benefits include a happier, healthier, calmer and more balanced approach to life, a smoother perhaps kinder experience of karma and in my case this must mean better parking options!!!

This weekend past I was blessed to be able to offer a kirtan in the Temple of the Yoga Society of San Francisco.  And luckily a talented tabla player who happens to live in the Ashram offered to support me.

Outside the Yoga Society of San Francisco

Brian preparing to play tablas with me in the Temple of the San Fran Yoga Society

We left for San Luis Obispo on Sunday at lunchtime (also known as the Happiest Place in the US) and offered a kirtan to a beautiful group of devotees at Bliss Cafe that evening.  They generated such a stunning energy with their voices and purity that we all felt as though we had been rocketed into outer space by the end for the kirtan. Wahe Guru!

Bliss Cafe, the lovely vegan cafe where we offered kirtan in San Luis Obispo

Quick sound check

Chanting devotion with heart!

Somehow it does feel like some guardian angel is looking out for us, and I take this as a reminder to be grateful everyday for every little nugget of good fortune we experience. So whether it's a new person supporting me by purchasing my album, someone emailing me to tell me how much my music has helped them, a stranger doing something kind for me, or me just finding a penny on the pavement, whenever anything like this happens I always take a few moments to deeply thank the Universe for these gifts and to be grateful.

Chanting Namyaho Renge Kyo from the Lotus Sutra enables the chanter to put their life in harmony or rhythm with the law of life, or Dharma. All things in the universe are a manifestation of this Mystic Law and if chanted daily this mantra will bring all of one's desires into reality so that one may achieve perfect enlightenment and true Buddhahood.

You can find this mantra here: http://sarabdeva.bandcamp.com/track/nam-myoho-renge-kyo

With love and blessings,

Sarab Deva xxx