The Earth is always singing ...

The Yoga community in Bali, and in particular Ubud, is thriving with many international teachers regularly hosting retreats and workshops. Bali Spirit is the main yoga centre on the island, and is owned by ex-New Yorker Meghan, who has the yoga scene here totally vibing with amazing events. The Yoga Barn is her studio, a two-story open-air yoga space overlooking the rice paddies and surrounded by coconut palms, only minute away from the fab shopping streets of Ubud and the famous Monkey Forest. We had the opportunity a few weeks ago to go there and see Dave Stringer leading Kirtan.

If you're new to the yoga lingo, Kirtan is the devotional form of yoga, where chanting the sacred names of the gods/goddesses/hindu archetypes is accompanied by inspiring music, usually tabla (drums) and harmonium (looks like a piano in a box with accordian attached).
Kirtan is usually led by one who calls out the chant, and the other participants respond by repeating the chant. It is an uplifting process that stills the mind, dissolves worries, opens the heart, and is a way to tune in to the frequency of love and bliss.

I had seen Dave Stringer in Los Angeles at an event that was hosted by Shiva Rea, an all night yoga festival that was helping to raise money for "Trees for the Future" charity. He totally rocked the house back then with his energy and resounding vocals, and I was keen to relive that experience. The surroundings were quite different - seated in a candlelit open-air yoga room in Bali as opposed to dancing like crazy in a packed-to-the-rafters yoga studio in Hollywood - but the experience was just as uplifting, and definitely more heart-opening. It was an eclectic bunch of about 80 people who gathered on this balmy Bali Sunday evening ... the local expats, a few Balinese, the uber-cool tattooed and body-pierced yoga-set, a few hippie-types, a grandmother, a toddler, yoga teacher training students, and some Japanese tourists. Regardless of nationality, background or economic status, kirtan is something that always brings people together, even if you think you can't sing! At the end of the closing chant we all sat in silence, listening to the sounds of crickets and frogs in the rice-paddies below ... a beautiful reminder that the Earth is always singing ... we just need to listen ...

Om Namah Shivaya!!