Photo of Jai Uttal by Jeffrey Newberry Attending a Jai Uttal kirtan, or call-and-response devotional music event, feels like being led by the hand of your beloved into a communal celebration of the Divine. He gives unrestricted access to his heart. We feel a deep, exposed inner truth, rather than a [...]
Let’s face it. We could all use a little more beauty, inspiration, and SURPRISE in our lives (ok, good surprises that is). That’s what The (not so) Little Book of Surprises is. In a world flooded with self-help manuals, it’s refreshing to find a book that is so full of wisdom. A book that doesn’t [...]
In honor of Earth Day, the new documentary film Tomorrow opens April 21 at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills. Directed and narrated by actress Mélanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) and activist Cyril Dion, the documentary sheds light on creative and successful small-scale solutions to the world’s biggest environmental challenges. The filmmakers’ explorations were motivated by a [...]
Richard Rosen’s book YOGA FAQ: Almost Everything You Need to Know About Yoga – from Asana to Yama is a portal. Through Rosen’s modern lens we traverse the history and evolution of yoga from its ancient spiritual practice to its contemporary incarnation primarily as asana. Mister Rosen is a much better Sanskritist then he realizes [...]
Photo of Tias Little by Robert Sturman If life-force (prana), or wisdom is something that could be seen, what we could see if we looked at what lives in the heart and mind of teacher and author Tias Little would be as breathtakingly vast as the California coastline. His light has been a [...]
Music is a refuge. Whether instrumental or with lyrics, the repetition of mantra or other inspirational poetry, it is a source of solace, a way to lift us up, a way for us to find our inner center. When we ride the waves of the world today, this is one of our sources of restoration [...]
The book Deva Bhumi tells stories of the magical land in the foothills of the Himalayas that has produced a disproportionate number of enlightened beings—not just teachers and saints, but siddhas—beings who are so perfected that people need only be in their presence to receive the benefits of the teachings. A siddha exists beyond the [...]
If you have been living under the impression that yoga is just a sweaty physical activity involving the union of the head to the knee and the frivolous merging of fancy tank tops to costly bottoms, you might want to reset your spiritual router. Sun, Moon, and Earth: The Sacred Relationship of Yoga and Ayurveda [...]
The Ego gets a lot of flack. People love to hate on it. It’s got more contracts out on it then Joey from the neighborhood. Everyone wants to kill their Ego and everyone wants to be Enlightened, because that’s apparently what happens when you finally put the bullet between the eyes of the Ego. It [...]
The latest album by prolific devotional kirtan artist Jai Uttal Roots, Rock, Rama! is garnering acclaim from around the world. The official music video for “S.A.M.B.A (Shiva’s Adoration of Mata Bhavani’s Ambrosia) reflects the joyous mood of both the song and the album. The gorgeous video was shot in Rishikesh, India, in the winter of [...]