MON., JANUARY 23, 2006
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Yoga for the Masses
by Robert Phoenix
A very good friend of mine is one of the keenest cryptographers I have ever managed to decode. Not so long ago, we talked about Albert Hoffman, the father of LSD, and he told me that Hoffman had been an Anthroposophist, and as such was a friend and colleague of Anthroposophy founder Rudolf Steiner. My friend claims that Hoffman didn't merely stumble upon the ergotamine rye mold, synthesizing it by accident. No, it was a planned strategy that was borne out of the rise of the Third Reich, and became a potent seed to re-humanize a weary and war-torn planet. He then went on a discourse about social movements like environmentalism and how they were dreamed up and socially engineered by cultural elites for the masses. He then took the same critical line regarding yoga, and questioned why and how so many yoga studios were popping up, spore-like, around the globe. His reasoning was that a pliant culture was a compliant culture — that yoga sapped the will and the yogic lifestyle was a soporific for the modern world.
I'm not sure about that last veering tangent, but I do know that millions of dollars passed hands over the holidays for gifts like yoga mats, music, incense, candles, stretch pants and lessons. How many of you reading this have decided as a New Year's resolution to take up yoga or its more Westernized cousin, Pilates? I'd bet enough to make Bikram get a slight rise in his kundalini. So whether you're new to the ancient art of contortion and devotion or are a blissed-out dakini copping moves from the Kama Sutra, music makes yoga go down easier, adding a multidimensional quality to the forms.
Vishnu has blessed eMusic with scores of music for meditation and yoga, some of it directly from Mother India herself on labels like Saregama, which features a vast selection of music ranging from Asha Bosle to Zakir Hussain. Working one's way through the Saregama catalog is like taking a walkabout through Delhi. There are over 1,300 albums listed, but one really doesn't have to go much further than Ravi Shankar and his ragas. This is pure, classical, Indian music. Doing yoga to it is cinematic and transporting, like doing asanas on the banks of the Ganges at dawn, while bodies blaze in pyres for the sun. It's music for yoga — uncut.
Times India is also a prominent Indian label that features more conceptually driven music for yoga. Om, The Sound Supreme by Pandit Jasraj is absolutely brilliant. The moment Jasraj's deep baritone invokes devotion ("May our ears hear the God, may our eyes see the God, may we serve him with the whole strength of our body") on "Shanti Mantra," you're ready to do some deep bending. But unlike a lot of other meditation or yoga releases there is some serious teaching on Om, The Sound Supreme.
Another delightful release on Times is Yoga for the Soul, by Sanjeev Abhyankar. While Jasraj invokes the voice of God, Abhyankar is the divine whisperer. Amidst flute, synths and sitar, Abhyankar seduces the listener with sweetness, which is a lovely thing for conscious contorting.
For something more contemporary, there's the intoxicating Call of the Mystic by Bahramaji and Maneesh De Moor on the eclectic German label Blue Flame. This is music for yoga at the 3 AM chill-out room, with slow beats and ambient spaces. Bahramaji is a practicing mystic who lives on Ibiza. Need I say more?
And for an odd twist of devotion featuring an '80s-era Russian rock god, I can't think of any better release than Refuge by Gabrielle Roth, featuring the Marlboro-fueled mantras of Boris Grebenshikov. All kidding aside, the music on Refuge is quite intense, especially on "Tara Mantra," a smoldering duet with Roth and Grebenshikov. I know of at least one yoga studio in Berkeley that keeps the temperature at close to 100 degrees and plays Refuge regularly. One listen to "Tara Mantra" and you'll know why they crank the heat up so high.
Now if you're down for instruction and not music, there's the curious First Lady of Yoga by Madam Indra Devi, which is really nothing more than a recording of her yoga class. If you are a long-lost student of the Madam, then this is a must-have. For others, this is yoga for the sphincter (the pinching off or stimulation of the anal sphincter can lead to uncontrollable screaming and laughter) because it's unintentionally funny.
Also on the spoken word front, there's the yoga series on Sonic Wave, which isn't really music for yoga at all, but is in reality readings of the Gita. After listening to some of the passages, I felt like I should give someone at the airport a dollar for a little stick of incense.
But the bottom line is, is there's plenty of music here to keep you stretching well into the New Year and beyond, with releases from well known artists like Deva Premal, Krishna Das, Deuter, Rasa, Prem Joshua and Raphael to some of the more obscure titles listed above. Just don't forget to leave your spine on the floor.
I'm not sure about that last veering tangent, but I do know that millions of dollars passed hands over the holidays for gifts like yoga mats, music, incense, candles, stretch pants and lessons. How many of you reading this have decided as a New Year's resolution to take up yoga or its more Westernized cousin, Pilates? I'd bet enough to make Bikram get a slight rise in his kundalini. So whether you're new to the ancient art of contortion and devotion or are a blissed-out dakini copping moves from the Kama Sutra, music makes yoga go down easier, adding a multidimensional quality to the forms.
Vishnu has blessed eMusic with scores of music for meditation and yoga, some of it directly from Mother India herself on labels like Saregama, which features a vast selection of music ranging from Asha Bosle to Zakir Hussain. Working one's way through the Saregama catalog is like taking a walkabout through Delhi. There are over 1,300 albums listed, but one really doesn't have to go much further than Ravi Shankar and his ragas. This is pure, classical, Indian music. Doing yoga to it is cinematic and transporting, like doing asanas on the banks of the Ganges at dawn, while bodies blaze in pyres for the sun. It's music for yoga — uncut.
Times India is also a prominent Indian label that features more conceptually driven music for yoga. Om, The Sound Supreme by Pandit Jasraj is absolutely brilliant. The moment Jasraj's deep baritone invokes devotion ("May our ears hear the God, may our eyes see the God, may we serve him with the whole strength of our body") on "Shanti Mantra," you're ready to do some deep bending. But unlike a lot of other meditation or yoga releases there is some serious teaching on Om, The Sound Supreme.
Another delightful release on Times is Yoga for the Soul, by Sanjeev Abhyankar. While Jasraj invokes the voice of God, Abhyankar is the divine whisperer. Amidst flute, synths and sitar, Abhyankar seduces the listener with sweetness, which is a lovely thing for conscious contorting.
For something more contemporary, there's the intoxicating Call of the Mystic by Bahramaji and Maneesh De Moor on the eclectic German label Blue Flame. This is music for yoga at the 3 AM chill-out room, with slow beats and ambient spaces. Bahramaji is a practicing mystic who lives on Ibiza. Need I say more?
And for an odd twist of devotion featuring an '80s-era Russian rock god, I can't think of any better release than Refuge by Gabrielle Roth, featuring the Marlboro-fueled mantras of Boris Grebenshikov. All kidding aside, the music on Refuge is quite intense, especially on "Tara Mantra," a smoldering duet with Roth and Grebenshikov. I know of at least one yoga studio in Berkeley that keeps the temperature at close to 100 degrees and plays Refuge regularly. One listen to "Tara Mantra" and you'll know why they crank the heat up so high.
Now if you're down for instruction and not music, there's the curious First Lady of Yoga by Madam Indra Devi, which is really nothing more than a recording of her yoga class. If you are a long-lost student of the Madam, then this is a must-have. For others, this is yoga for the sphincter (the pinching off or stimulation of the anal sphincter can lead to uncontrollable screaming and laughter) because it's unintentionally funny.
Also on the spoken word front, there's the yoga series on Sonic Wave, which isn't really music for yoga at all, but is in reality readings of the Gita. After listening to some of the passages, I felt like I should give someone at the airport a dollar for a little stick of incense.
But the bottom line is, is there's plenty of music here to keep you stretching well into the New Year and beyond, with releases from well known artists like Deva Premal, Krishna Das, Deuter, Rasa, Prem Joshua and Raphael to some of the more obscure titles listed above. Just don't forget to leave your spine on the floor.
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