Similar Posts
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Community and Family | Dance/Contact Improvisation | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
When Does Art Beget Art? Spirit Generate Spirit?
Who goes past oblivious and uncaring? Who goes past preoccupied? Who takes a brief glance and continues on? Who stops to watch? Who discusses and invites? Who makes a special pilgrimage? Who is inspired to create by the creative offering?
Photos from last week of Doug Aiken’s Song\1 at the Hirshhorn.
- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
The Search Continues (based on some dreaming)
In 2000 or 2001, shortly before I started practicing Anusara yoga, a teacher who regularly played music in class, played for us a recording of Alice Coltrane singing a tantric chant to Siva and the Goddess Bhuvaneshvari. I only heard the chant once while we were in savasana — corpse pose/final relaxation. Although I only heard the chant once, for several months afterwards, I found myself having a recurring dream that I was wondering in a neighborhood that looked like the one where I grew up and went to high school and chanting the full chant. At the time I merely found it curious that I seemed to have learned the sanskrit just by hearing the chant one time. I have since learned that the recording may have been done right near my high school; that is where the Coltrane’s had a recording studio. I also learned that the chant was a tantric chant. At the time, my teachers were coming from a classical yoga perspective. Did I actually learn the chant by osmosis? Was having the very vibration of the chanting near where I lived and studied the catalyst for me, as a receptive being, discovering a path of tantric yoga?
I have found other recordings of the chant. One is Atman’s “Dancing to the Goddess” on the Eternal Dance CD, which is an electronica version. The other is Ragani’s “Om Mata” on the Best of Both Worlds, which is a very nice kirtan/pop version. I have several of Alice Coltrane’s recordings, which are great jazz, if you aren’t familiar with Alice Coltrane as a fabulous musician in her own right. Recently I searched again on the internet to see if the bootleg had become available. There was nothing on YouTube (though some good Alice Coltrane things to watch). I bought Alice Coltrane’s “Radha-Krsna Mana Sankirtana,” which was originally recorded in 1977 (when I was in high school) and reissued in 2005, as I thought that was a promising source. It has some good things on it, but no luck finding the recording I wanted to hear.
The chant goes like this:
Samba sadasiva, samba sadasiva, samba sadasiva, samba shambo.
Om mata, om mata, om sri mata, jagade mata.
Om bhuvaneshvari, sri bhuvaneshvari, hari parashakti, devi bhuvaneshvari.
It is a chant to the benevolent, auspicious one within, the radiant goddess, the creatrix of the world. Bhuvaneshvari is one of the ten wisdom goddesses.
Please advise if you have access to the Alice Coltrane or another recording of this beautiful chant.
I had previously committed to volunteering at the Lantern at the same time as the demonstration at the White House against the separation, incarceration, and deportation of those seeking asylum. I left the house an hour early and got off the bus at Farragut Square instead of taking it all the way to Georgetown. Volunteers were actively coordinating and people were starting to gather.
I talked to people who were heading over as I walked on to the Lantern, and I brought the demonstration with me.

- Art and Culture | Asana, Pranayama, and Yoga Practice | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation
Random Quote for the Day (Atharva Veda)
Sometimes when I am looking for inspiration, I take a book off of my shelf, let it fall open where it will, and see whether there is a sentence or phrase that resonates for my day. Here’s my random quote for the day:
“May we be without fear/ by night and day!/ Let all the world be my friend!” Atharva Veda, XIX, 19 (Raimundo Panikkar, The Vedic Experience Mantramanjari)




