One of my favorite things about Kundalini Yoga is the amazing music. It is so incredibly healing and uplifting, and the right music can support the practice in profound ways.
So often after class, I am asked about the music that was played. It always makes me smile, because that is exactly how I found my way back to Kundalini Yoga after stepping away from it.
You see, the way I first came to yoga at all was when I was pregnant. I was a bit uncomfortable and was trying to find a way to ease my aching body. I had never done yoga before and didn’t know anything about it. I went on On Demand and found a prenatal yoga video. I turned it on, and saw a woman dressed all in white and wearing a turban. Not sure what to expect, I kept watching. The class began with chanting, which really wasn’t something I was comfortable with, but I hung in there and did the physical practice. I loved it. It made me feel so great, so I kept up. Kept going. In fact, I was afraid of it going off On Demand so I taped it (remember those old VHS tapes?!), but purposely omitted the chanting at the beginning and end. That was just weird, and I just wanted the physical part anyway. So I watched my tape and practiced every day while I was pregnant, and even after giving birth.
After some time, I decided I needed to go to a real, live yoga class. I went to some classes, but they were very different. I came to find out that what I had originally found was Kundalini Yoga, and the teacher from the tape was Gurmukh. The classes I found and were attending was Vinyasa Yoga. I was actually kind of relieved there was no chanting or meditating, and the teacher was turban-less. So I kept going, and fell in love. I eventually expanded my practice to Ashtanga Yoga, and loved that too. However, after some time, I felt like something was missing. I couldn’t tell you what; it’s just that the practice felt a little empty. It didn’t quite get to all of me.
One day in a Vinyasa class a most beautiful song came on, so after class I asked the teacher who it was. It was Snatam Kaur, one of the most popular musicians from Kundalini Yoga. I immediately got her CD and began a chanting practice by myself, in my living room. It was…amazing. Profound. Intense. Healing. I would sit there, half chanting, half sobbing, and a most radical feeling would come over me: that perhaps I was okay, after all. Perhaps I wasn’t as awful as I thought. Maybe I really am meant to shine and love and uplift and create. It was life-changing, earth-shattering. That which most turned me off in the beginning was exactly the thing I needed to heal myself.  I just wan’t ready for it right away. Once the gates of my heart opened, a tidal wave flooded through, and I’ve been chanting ever since.
Needless to say, now when someone comes up to me after class asking Who was that singing that amazing song?, I can’t help but smile. I know. I’ve been there!
This morning in class we did the kriya for the ribcage area. The playlist was as follows:
Raj Jog by Jai Jagdeesh
Be the Light by Aykanna
Change by Gurunam Singh
Wahe Guru Jio by Sada Sat Kaur
Chant on, dear Ones. Chant on.
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