Join us on our first Kirtan Retreat to the exotic land of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic this Memorial Day Weekend.  Famous for its tropical beaches and jungles, the Dominican Republic has much to offer in natural beauty and healthy environment.  Combine the location with The Mayapuris and Loren Russo and the Memorial Day Weekend Kirtan Retreat guarantees the perfect rejuvenation for body, mind and spirit.

Loren Russo will lead us in daily yoga classes.  Taking her students deep into understanding the philosophy of Yoga, breath-work, and physical Asana exercise, Loren taps into the teachings of ancient teachers and personal experience to give a well-rounded understanding of the Yogic traditions.  www.lorenrusso.com

And what spiritual journey is complete without Kirtan?!  Give voice to your inner self by learning how to express your spirit through kirtan.  We will conduct workshops on all aspects of Kirtan, from leading kirtan, instrument playing and dancing, to the deeper meaning of the sacred Mantras.

The Memorial Day Kirtan Retreat will include accommodations, pure veg meals, adventurous excursions, and a healthy consciousness.  Take a break and enjoy true peace and serenity.
We look forward to sharing this journey with you.

for more info: mayapuris@gmail.com

**Kirtan Retreat Package Includes**
First Class Accommodations, 3 Meals a day, Trips to private beaches and a ride through the Jungles of the Dominican, Transportation to and from Punta Cana airport, workshops in Kirtan and Dance, & Daily Yoga with Loren Russo.

Package Deal only 1300**

To reserve your spot we need a deposit of $300.

So if you saw the Video above you would know that our retreat has been moved since we got invited to Sri Mayapur Dhama to Perform for their biggest festival of the year. Right now all of Mayapur is putting their gold coins for an amazing project called “Temple of The Vedic Planetarium”…SIMPLY AMAZING!

We really want to partake in this festival but need help with our airfare. We already have two tickets purchased and need 3 more so our whole group can perform for the pleasure of the Residents of Mayapur and Sri Sri Radha Madhava.
If you can make a contribution for this wonderful cause (of helping us going back to Mayapur and getting inspired and inspiring our fellow Mayapuris!) then click on the shiny yellow button and enter any amount you wish to contribute

Sincerely, Kish

Sri Mayapur Dhama Ki!

We are headed up the East Coast next week! We will be making stops all along the way in June and part of July - from South Carolina to Maine! If we are in your neck of the woods, please come out…we would love to see you!

June 4-5: Panihati Festival in Atlanta, GA

June 6th: West Asheville Yoga in Asheville, NC

June 8th: Yoga Garden in Apex, NC

June 10th: Sacred in Brooklyn, NY

June 11th: Festival of India in New York, NY

June 15th: India Cultural Center in Vestal, NY

June 16th: Workshop and Kirtan at CNY Yoga Center in Syracuse, NY

June 17th: Sadhana Center for Yoga and Meditation in Hudson, NY

June 18th: Boston Chant Fest

June 19th: Bhava Yoga School in Portland, ME

June 21st: Lotus Pad, Montpelier, VT

June 22nd: Evolution Physical Therapy and Yoga in Burlington, VT

June 24-25th: Wanderlust Festival in Bondville, VT

June 28th: Yogamaya One Year Anniversary Party in New York, NY

July 1st: Center Siddhi Yoga in Philadelphia, PA

And More!

Mridanga Music video featuring The Temple Dancers. Spread the word!

The Mayapuris Official Music Video

MRIDANGA MUSIC VIDEO TO PREMIERE ON YOGAJOURNAL.COM MAY 19TH

Cross-over world music sensation and performance art troupe, The Mayapuris are to release a music video to showcase the title track of their hit album Mridanga (2010) which reached #7 on the iTunes world music chart the first week of its release. The video imbibes the dual nature that makes the Mayapuris unique: spunky and youthful with a new spin on the centuries-old chant culture of ancient India, kirtan. Their instrument of choice: the mridanga drum, a hand instrument invented over five hundred years ago as a portable and powerful alternative to the inner sanctum temple drums .

“Why the obsession with the mridanga?” asks Krishna Kishor (vocalist, flutist, drummer), “It was invented by Chaitanya, who revolutionized kirtan by bringing it out from the temples and into the streets for everyone to take part in. Through him we want to keep the revolution going. So…got to keep drumming.” In the video The Mayapuris are joined by The Temple Dancers consisting of Visvambhar’s wife Vrinda and his sister Ganga both of whom studied the ancient art of Bharatnatyam in South India.

The band’s ties to mridanga and kirtan run deep. All three of them attended boarding school in India where they learned the fundamentals of mantra music. Naming their group after the holy village of Mayapur, where the kirtan movement started, the Mayapuris returned home to Florida before signing to Mantralogy, a division of Equal Vision Records, in 2009. The title track of their first release, “Mridanga,” is the rhythmic instrumental composition that, when performed live, is a dance as well as a drum ensemble. It was an aspect that the band wanted reflected in their video.“We wanted it to have the energy and impact of our live performances,” says Kishor, “But with a twist.”

Gaura Vani and Rasa Acharya, who are both longtime friends of the band members and co-owners of their record label, Mantralogy, had ties to the movie industry and were eager to bring a fresh visual representation of the artform to the Mantra Music scene.“The Mayapuris are vibrant and fun people,” says Acharya who, alongside Vani, produced and directed the video, “It would be hard to not capture their spirit on camera.”

Visvambhar, lead-vocalist and drummer says, “I believe in kirtan. I believe people naturally want to give something–to sing and partake in mantra chanting. I see the Mantra Music scene growing every day in a big way. The video will add a new dimension to all of it as we begin to recognize chant culture as something much bigger than music.”

The video will premiere May 19th on YogaJournal.com and will later be viewable on YouTube, Facebook, Mayapuris.com and Mantralogy.com.

Well I do declare!

We’re hitting up the South this time, guys. Though we’re based in Florida, we have done most of our touring abroad, and now we’re bringing it home! From the bayou to the borderlands, follow us as we hit up yoga studios, music festivals, and cultural expositions from the white beaches of the panhandle to the swelter of good ol’ Texas. Here are the dates and venues:

April 28th- Agame Yoga & Meditation Center (Baton Rouge)
April 30th- Ifest (Houston)
May 1st- Ifest (Houston)
May 5th- Yoga Rasa (Houston, Tx)
May 6th- Ekam Yoga (Atascocita, Tx)
May7th- Asian/Pacific American Heritage Association (Houston)
May8th – Gouranga Hall @ Hare Krishna temple (Houston)
May 10th- Kalachandji’s (Dallas)
May 12th- JoyFlow Yoga (Jackson, Ms)
May 13th- Wild Lotus Yoga (New Orleans)
May 14th- Space 301 (Mobile, Al)
May 15th- Fish Tree Yoga (Pensacola, Fl)

We are gearing up for another year of amazing kirtans and performances. New tour dates will be posted soon! For now, check out our latest video.

I was sitting in our big white van cruising through the streets of LA, when Gaura, who was driving and eating and talking on the phone (always multitasking!), threw the question to us over his shoulder, “hey guys, how would you like going to Australia?” Need I make our unanimous answer explicit?!

When Australia sent out initial feelers to Gaura, they were thinking to bring him and maybe one more person, that’s it. Ultimately there was six of us! Due to a combination of Gaura’s love for all of us and his insistence that we come, and the Aussie organizers giving in to Gaura’s “demand”.

And so it happened, that six of us stepped out of the airport coming to Australia for the first time. It didn’t take Vish and Gaura long to figure out that now we’d done kirtan on every continent (save for Antartica).
It’s an amazing thing when total strangers met for the first time and immediately feel bonded. This was the case with the Australian crew that brought us over, took care of us, and traveled with us through the country. I didn’t feel that I was among strangers at all. Maybe our goal, or interest, in kirtan simply took over and connected us on a higher level.
Before we arrived Sitapati, the main organizer, sent us a forty-page playbook, indicating every show, every meal, basically every detail. We were quite blown away by such detailed pre-planning. The person behind such meticulous planning had to be a seasoned older gentleman. When Sitapati met us at the airport, I think everyone of us asked him a version of the question, “Who are you?” Because we simply didn’t expect the force behind such a major tour to be our age.

And this turned out to be one of the many sweet things about the Australia tour. The guys who brought us out there were not rich people dipping into large bank-accounts. They hustled to get us over there, called everyone they knew with the idea, collecting funds as one person here and there would donate. There was a real grassroots feel to it.

We did around ten shows and one 24-hour kirtan during the fourteen days we were there. But because the organization was seamless and our reception so enthusiastic, we did not feel drained or tired but enthused and inspired. So many Aussies love kirtan! I was delighted by Janardan in Brisbane, Tina in Sydney, Krsnagraja in Melbourne, to mention a few. Notably, this enthusiasm was not limited to experienced kirtan-singers like the above, but to those completely new to it.

“Is there anything bad about Australia?” I kept asking our hosts as we drove through the beautiful country side from Brisbane to Sydney, then Sydney to Melbourne.

I was particularly happy when Sitapati, who had never seen The Mayapuris and As Kindred Spirits play together, commented that “We couldn’t imagine you without each other. You complement each other so well. ” His observation highlighted something I’d been reflecting on for a while. Gaura and As Kindred Spirits are melodic, sweet as honey, soulful, while we are passionate and fierce, with an edge that would border on aggressive without the soothing vibe of our kindred spirits. We feel so blessed to be singing, dancing, and serving together.

And being Down-Under only made it more dreamy and surreal. Did we dance with Kangaroos? No, didn’t even see one (though Gaura did chase a wallaby up a hill with his iPhone for a close-up) But everyone we did kirtan with put a kangaroo’s jump to shame, as they reached their arms high in the sky, jumping high, spirits soaring! Singing the holy names!

What more can I describe than this? Millions of opulences are of no use to me, my only wish is to have these pastimes constantly appear in my mind.

-Vrinda

Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits and the Mayapuris are currently touring all around Australia. Our hosts have provided free live streaming audio from all the events. To listen, sign in at WorldSankirtan.net.

The Mridunga – Our Favorite Drum

If there wasn’t the Mrdunga, there would be no such thing as the Mayapuris. We feel that it’s the best drum in the whole universe, especially for kirtan. That is our happy bias. Today we play other instruments, like tabla, flute, harmonium, etc, but the mridunga was the first instrument each of us, the Mayapuris, learnt to play. Actually, my mother played mridunga often when she was pregnant with me, so I began to learn the rhythms from within the womb. The first mridunga I played was a nicely decorated Quaker Oatmeal box, with a strap attached to it. Kish practiced on a wooden block for years, because his little arms couldn’t reach both sides of the mridunga. In fact, Kish’s dad remembers him playing on one side, ti ti ti, then crawling to the other side, ta ta ta.

There is a mridunga pranam mantra that I learnt from my teacher, Bablu Mashai, whom I studied under from the age of ten. We would chant thismantra before each class to offer respects. The mantra begins by offering respects to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the founder of kirtan, who also invented the mridunga five-hundred years ago. Earlier they played big heavy wooden drums. Instead, the mridunga makers used the clay from the nearby banks of the Ganga to create a light-weight drum. “Mrid” means clay and “anga” is body, so literally clay-body. It’s the primary instrument in Gaudiya Vaishnava kirtan, the kirtan of Western India, the style that our music is rooted in. Bhaktivinode Thakur, a scholar and poet from the Gaudiya tradition, says, “When I hear the sounds of the mridunga, all my worries, all my problems and sorrows fly away like crows at the sound of thunder, and my heart dances in ecstasy.”

Another interesting point of the mridunga is the range from the small, high side to the larger, low side. There is a symbolism inherent here as well; the sweet sound of the high side represents the feminine energy, or Radhe, and the low, bass side is the masculine energy, Shyam. Practically speaking, it’s a very dynamic drum. It can be played very softly and sweetly with lots of intricacies, and also very loudly with full vigor and passion. You can sit with it, dance with it, walk, and twirl with it. It’s the heart-beat of the kirtan.

- Vishvambhar