Music

YM: Where are you from and where did you meet?
Radha: I am from Australia...Mona Vale, a small beach town a half hour north of Sydney. I moved to LA in the year of 2000, and in 2003 I met Govindas in his yoga class at Power Yoga in Santa Monica.
Govindas: I am from Rockville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. I moved to San Diego in 1993, spent 2 years there, then moved toLA in ‘95 and have been here ever since.

YM: How/When did you discover yoga, which branch of yoga was it, how did this lead you to Kirtan?
Radha: When I was a child, my parents would take my sisters and me to Bali for family vacations. It was there that I visited my first Hindu temples and was introduced to the vast tradition of Hinduism and yoga. One year when we were there, I fell in love with a poster of Saraswati. My parents bought it for me and when we returned home I immediately put the poster on my wall. As a child I was majorly involved in music, dance, and theatre. Basically, these kinds of things were my life. Years later I learned that Saraswati is the Goddess of Knowledge, Music, Dance, and the Arts. As I look back it feels as though her presence was blessing my path... and surely continues too.

As I grew older at the age of 15 I took my first hatha yoga class at a local gym...Because of my dance background I fell in love with it and continue to practice regularly.During that time I was a model in Australia, where so much emphasis was placed the outer appearance, the way I looked. Yoga began and continues to teach me to love and feed myself from the inside first. I was first introduced to Kirtan when I attended Govindas’s yoga class at the age of 22. Because music was such a major part of my life, immediately it struck a note deep within.

Govindas: I was introduced to all of this at a much later age than Radha. I grew up in a family where there was never really an awareness of the eastern mystical traditions... I somehow did know what the word "yoga" meant but I didn't even really care… I was first introduced to meditation my first semester as a freshman at University of Maryland, I took a course on TM (Transcendental Meditation). After graduating college and moving to LA I took my first yoga class...I was living in LA and was introduced to yoga because I was majorly suffering with an illness called ulcerative colitis, a debilitating form of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). This is what led me to deeper on my path and ultimately to become a “teacher.”

I was introduced to Kirtan through the older Neem Karoli Baba devotees: Ram Dass,Bhagavan Das, Krishna Das and Jai Uttal . I was 27 years and was really struggling with my health. It is no fun to be sick. The Kirtan and Bhakti completely awakened my faith. The Kirtan gave me the opportunity to call out to Spirit, to connect with the Source on a deeper level and embrace even the most difficult times in my life as gifts in which I can learn and grow. Using these practices has helped me become accepting of the days that I feel really terrible.

YM: What is it about Kirtan that speaks to you?
Radha: When I am chanting it is all an offering of devotion to the divine. The divine within myself, the divine within everything...connecting to the Oneness. I grew up performing in musicals and concerts, and it was “a performance.”which was beautiful, yet when I came to Kirtan, it gave me the opportunity to turn my music into a prayer.

When Govindas and I came together, it all felt so natural... the Mantras, the blending of our music, voices and hearts. The practice of Kirtan is a huge part of our relationship and one of the many beautiful ways that we connect with each other.

Govindas: When I first heard Kirtan, it blew me away. It felt so ancient in tradition. Music as a prayer. The melodies really touched me. The drumming. The devotion of the leader, the call and response. There was something inside of the chants that I have always felt inside of myself: a deep yearning and longing to be connected to something greater, to my truth.

Immediately when I first heard Kirtan, I began to immerse myself in the teachings of Bhakti Yoga. I was teaching Vinyasa Yoga l, which is still a big part of my practice. I was quite ill so there was this deep feeling inside searching for answers. Through Bhakti I felt my path open a bit wider and become clearer. It gave me an ancient tradition which uses the practices of heart, devotion, love, surrender and God to help in peeling back the layers and facilitate a deeper understanding and harmonization with the energies of life. Some of these practices are Kirtan, ritual/puja, japa meditation, dancing, cooking, etc. In 1999 I journeyed to India with the intention of diving deeper. This is where I started studying music and bought my first harmonium. On my return from my trip I began chanting in my yoga classes.