Soolaba’s Music

It’s Time To Share My New Music!

It seems I spend most of my time blogging, or rather, deep diving into India’s ancient literature for inspiration to write new articles. However, it seems that finishing and publishing the draft of my book “The Puranic Geography of Bharata-varsa” has swallowed all my time over the last few years, just like a massive black hole.

That deep dive into what the Earth is, and what was described in the Puranas, continues to amaze me, even though I have had so many interruptions on the path. Since 2018 I have had to move house six times, due to landlords, floods, pandemics, relationships and health issues. What a pain – and now we have to put up with the rising cost of everything!

Now after so many interruptions to my research, I am finally settled in a tiny cottage with my computers, books and musical instruments, but I have realised how much Puranic history has affected Puranic geography. My next blog articles and book will be all about the Puranic history and evolution of the Earth, known in the Puranas as Bharata-varsa.

Now that I’m spending hours updating, correcting, rewriting, editing, and spell-checking my book draft, I’ve needed to escape periodically to the other side of my mind where my music lives. In that other part of me resides my joy of playing sitar, guitar and singing the sacred songs of India.

I’ve decided to gather my recordings of ragas, songs and kirtans into a new double album for release. It is another meditation CD, like “Indian Valley” but with more emphasis on chanting mantras with my friends. Of the twelve new tracks only two are instrumentals, with the others being live Hare Krishna kirtans performed in public at popular Australian beaches like Byron Bay and Burleigh.

Though not perfectly sung and performed, I find myself being drawn into the group chanting, gradually and hypnotically. This is mantra yoga, which is far from the mood of “professional performance” of both Western and Eastern music. The importance is hearing and repeating the sacred holy names, like Radha, Madhava, Rama, Krishna and Hare.

One of my first articles here was about the virtues of kirtan: and now I can share some of my own kirtans with my readers, but don’t expect perfected studio takes – these kirtans are raw, and recorded live ‘in the moment’ – just as you would come across my ‘Harinam Party’ when strolling along beachside pathways.

Krishna kirtan for the passers-by at Byron Bay, NSW, Australia [photo by Parama Karuna Das]

Krishna-Kirtan is not about ego or expertise, though the melodies should be pleasing to the ear, and simple enough for everyone to follow. It is about engaging the senses in mantras that can free the mind from worldly attachment, and about inviting the passer-by to join us in this process of transcendence.

My new kirtan double album, and my original chillout album can be found at the link below and downloaded for a small fee.

Byron Bay Kirtans #1