Newsletters

Aloha and Happy New Year!

Just want to let you know about our upcoming Altar of Love Weekend Immersions. We’re having the most amazing times as we get to experience the magic of what these special gatherings really mean. We set up a temple space in which we pray, sing and dance, meditate and do yoga over the weekend.

It’s an exploration and healing of our hearts and how we can all merge with our own unique, exalted being. It’s a royal bhakti banquet where we connect and get to know one another as we truly are, reflecting and opening our spiritual potential to each other. Find out more here: www.jayalakshmi.net/altar-of-love-immersions/

Last weekend we were in Mt Shasta at the Mt. Shasta Yoga Center for an Altar of Love Immersion. It was a beautiful full moon in Cancer and a particularly sweet mood, with some very special people joining us ~ we’d like to share Victoria’s Brenner’s art with you:

http://www.victoriasheart.net/Welcome.html

and Ana Holub’s powerful forgiveness healing:

http://www.anaholub.com/

Aloha and Happy Holidays!

Hope the holidays are treating you well. In the spirit of giving, I would like to gift you this free download of an unreleased kirtan concert in Sebastopol, California from November 11, 2007. The album will only be free until Jan. 1st so unwrap it soon!! Go to this link to download http://jayalakshmi.bandcamp.com/album/jaya-lakshmi-live-in-sebastopol-ii

This is the concert from which we made the DVDs Nataraj and Ambe. Recently re-discovering the files while organizing, we realized what a nice performance it was and worthy to share – with Manose on bansuri flute, Daniel Paul on tabla, Luna on response vocals and Priyo on sarod & guitar how could it not be! Injoy!

Winter Solstice and Upcoming Events

This Soulstice (Wed Dec 21st) we will be in Ashland for a very special house concert with Ananda and myself, Premamayi and Saratone. We’ll be trading songs off all night and towards the end we’re going to go wild with a kirtronica dance set! On January 1, 9pm we’ll be playing at the New Year’s Day Beloved event in Portland, the continuation of ‘Inspire Truth’ NYE at the same venue, Refuge. See more details below or visit my website: www.jayalakshmi.net for more info about our upcoming events, including: Altar of Love Immersions in Mt. Shasta, Portland and Maui, and the (Maui) Mystic Island Festival, all in January.

“Whether it is spiritual love or worldly love, love remains love. The difference is only in depth and degree. Even if love has a worldly touch in the beginning, it can reach the highest peak of purity if it becomes one-pointed and selfless.” Amma

Aloha and Namaste.

Fall in Oregon is so sweet. It’s been very mild and gentle. So many apples!  Anandaji and I just completed our second ‘Altar of Love Immersion’ in Arcata, California this past weekend. The first was October 14-16 in our hometown of Eugene. Both were amazing!  An outpouring of love and devotion and transcendental, healing connection in the community.

We recently decided to create these special immersions where we can share all of our practices in one weekend: kirtan, sacred music, Bhakti Yoga, Kundalini yoga, Partner yoga, Kirtronica (ecstatic yoga trance dance) and cacao ceremony.                                                                                    You can read more about them here: http://jayalakshmi.net/altar-of-love-weekend-immersions/

The next city in line for the Altar of Love Immersion is Sebastopol, California, November 4-5-6 at the Odd Fellows Hall. Friday,
8-11pm Kirtan and Sacred Music - Saturday, 11:00pm-1:30pm Partner Yoga Workshop - 4:00pm-6:30pm: Bhakti Yoga Workshop
9:00pm-12:00pm Kirtronica (Yoga Trance Dance)  - Sunday, 11:00am-1:30pm: Kundalini Yoga and Meditation 4:00pm-6:30pm: Cacao Ceremony

We’re so excited for our 11-11-11 tour with Shimshai In numerology, 11-11-11 represents the soul’s ascension and our transition into the heart age.    We will be in Nevada City/Grass Valley for this most auspicious day;  11-10 in Santa Cruz, 11-12 in Berkeley.

You can also go to my website for more info on upcoming events: http://jayalakshmi.net/events-calendar/

Last June we came out with our two LIVE at the Altar of Love albums  - one has my new songs on it, and the other has Anandaji’s songs, all with our awesome band including Ankush Vimawala on tabla, Vince McLellan on flute, Vicki Estrada and Luna Marcus support vocals. You can listen to them on our bandcamp sites:   http://store.jayalakshmi.net/ http://anandayogiji.bandcamp.com/

It is such an exciting time to be alive and witness the transformation of consciousness happening. We are lifting each other up and so many of us are manifesting our divine natures – nothing holding us back now!  And there is so much work to do!’Until samsara is empty’ as the Boddhisatva/Buddha Tara vowed -  to help all sentient beings cross the ocean of existence to their Buddhahood.

Sending love and blessings to everyone.  Hope to meet you at the Altar of Love!

Wow the whole summer is gone and fall is here!  So many amazing festivals and so much great connection with awesome people.

One of the highlights was at Bhakti Fest this year – we had a late night set after Jai Uttal on Friday, and during our set it started lightening and thundering (very rare for Joshua Tree desert!) we played until 3am, finishing up with a ‘Jai Ma’ kirtronica dance  and right when we were finished it started pouring! And, I mean pouring, rivers of water. Everyone took cover under the awnings and a spontaneous high energy kirtan started with ChitAnand, who had to miss their set on the stage due to the weather. Most auspicious event!

Ananda and I have birthed the ‘Altar of Love’ Weekend Immersions because we are so inspired to share all of our practices which include kirtan and singing prayers, partner yoga, kirtronica dance, kundalini yoga and meditation, and cacao ceremony! We thought, how can we do it all?  So we have started booking weekends at our venues instead of just one night. 

Find out more about the Weekend Immersions, including info on each practice and a list of all Upcoming Immersion Events.

We are going to be doing a dozen or so of these in the coming year, in addition to some other special events and festivals which will be posted here on the homepage.  I hope to see you and/or meet you at our immersions, it will be such a special space to connect in.

Infinite Love and Blessings

I’m ecstatic to announce that my new live album ‘Live at the Altar of Love’ has been released today, June 1st.

Download my new live album Live at the Altar of Love at my bandcamp store.

Anandaji’s new album (same title: ‘Live at the Altar of Love’) was also recorded at the same time, and is also available at his bandcamp store.

This has been a very special spiritual, creative collaboration inspired by the grace of our connection that enabled us to deeply share and support one another to manifest these live recordings of our music this last winter.
One of the songs we created together, the ‘Divine Lover’s Maha Mantra’ expresses exquisite emotional facets of a newly realized spiritual love and union, that opens the heart to even greater expanses of cosmic love for all.

We are having a special Album Release Celebration at our house tonight. We decided that we would not print this album to CDs to help cut down on plastic use, which thankfully seems to be a growing trend. Downloads are in! Soon we’ll have download cards available.

Our upcoming schedule:
We’re off to Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, CA next week to work the Coconut Bliss booth, headline with Lost at Last Tribe at Harmony Hall Night of Bliss on Saturday June 11th as well as play kirtan at the Oasis stage that same morning at 10:30am. (By the way our warm up show at Harbin Hot Springs last weekend totally rocked!)

Then it’s to Esalen June 13-17 for the Yoga Festival to channel soundscapes and prayers for an amazing group of transforming yogis, guided by Saul David Raye, Sianna Sherman and Janet Stone.

Next is the Summer Solstice Kundalini Gathering in Espanol, New Mexico June 17-26 – we’ll be deep into the practice in so many ways, including serving Coconut Bliss at night and playing music at the Yogi Tea Cafe (and probably a lot of other places too)

More coming up. Stay tuned. We are all in this together. So much love coming through, more than we ever dreamed of! Limitless, bottomless, endless love and compassion. May our hearts keep expanding as they are designed to do!

Namaste

Today, April 1st we are celebrating my daughter Tandava’s 17th birthday and the fact that spring has finally arrived! The flowers are blooming, the air is warming. Thank god for all the sweet Oregon rain we had recently, for now we are about to be immersed in lushness and vibrant life blossoming all around. There is so much blossoming in my world I don’t know where to start to share, but perhaps I’ll just keep it simple; what’s happening is an extreme flow of grace – in love, music, yoga, family, and a deepening realization of blissful self. I am radiating with rivers of gratitude for this life, whatever it may be.

We’ve transformed my home into a temple/yoga studio/concert venue since Ananda moved in last November, and it really is perfect. I’ve been a bit shy about advertising but I’m getting used to it and I’ve included some of our upcoming super special events below.

Big news: members of Lost at Last are reuniting for a Saturday night show at Harmony Fest’s ‘Night of Bliss’ on June 11, sandwiched between Krishna Das and Shimshai. We are very excited! I’ve been working on my ‘kirtronica’ music for sometime now and I’m ready to break it out more, especially since Anandaji is running the beats on Ableton Live and I can focus more on singing. I’ll be sharing some of it at the Harmony set as Om and I create a blended set list of new material and classics.

Re: my new album – I was in the studio working on the new album with Ben Leinbach last fall but I was running short of funds and time so the studio album is now on hold – but the good news is that we managed to create a very nice live album through a series of recent house concerts that has a lot of my new songs on it. It will be done very soon, by the time we make it to the spring Bhakti Fest in two weeks (April 15).

Yoga: I have been turned on to Kundalini yoga and meditation and I’m finding that it is so powerfully shifting things in my life, on so many levels. Diving deeper into yogic sciences and practices has continued to expand my understanding and manifesting of divine potential, the ‘optimal blueprint’ or god seed that every living being contains. Combining the deep foundation of anusara yoga with kundalini kriya, I have to say, seems to be an extremely potent and perfect choice of practice for these changing times in which we are being called to rise up into our full loving consciousness and divine purpose – add in the Maha Mantra and wow, it’s like the super highway at light speed! What a blessing to have all these profound teachings available to us.

May all beings be at peace and always feel the beautiful, infinite love of god in their hearts. Hope to see you soon. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

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An amazing November packed with great events! I’m very excited about all of them, especially the Night of Bliss events in California with Shimshai on November 19 & 20. These are fundraisers that are bringing together the local communities to celebrate with free Coconut Bliss and soul-stirring, beautiful dance music. I will have a full band at these shows, actually Shimshai and I are sharing the band – they are going to get a work out! November 19th in Sebastopol, November 20th in Nevada City.

Time continues to whirl by like the colorful leaves in the wind ~ as we spiral deeper into ourselves, our unique purpose this lifetime on beautiful planet Earth is revealed.
I was thinking about writing a another newsletter a few months ago but things just kept unfolding in such synchronistic ways around me that my attention has been continually captivated to see what the next miraculous moment is bringing (distracted by the moment?)
Divine, unfolding magic, life is full of surprises, all kinds.
I pray for mercy, for everyone.  Hey take it easy on us! 
God Bless all beings!  Those who are flowing with grace,  those who are stuck in hard places, and all in between.
Infinite Love and Compassion for all of Life.

News….um…well I did a lot in the last few months – I’ve been recording my new album at Ben Leinbach’s studio in Marin – he is wonderful to work with!  But now it’s on hold because I am deeply involved in (as in producing) these ‘Night of Bliss’ ‘s and also I ran out of funds.
The last newsletter I sent out I mentioned my search for funding the album and lo and behold some angelic, gracious friends of mine came through with some lakshmi that really got things going!
But it went so quickly, so I am now awaiting for another miracle to occur. I will probably end up doing a lot of the recording in my own home studio.  I think at this point it’s looking more like a spring/early summer release.  If  you have any inspiration to help support this project  feel free to contact me!  I have great musicians who have already recorded on it, like Manose, Daniel Paul, Joss Jaffe, Steve Oda, Ben Leinbach of course, and there are a few more who will be joining in, like Luna and Victoria with their luminous harmonies. 

My younger daughter is in Spain for another 3 months. It’s all going very well, she’s having a blast.
I’m proud that we actually got that together!   My other daughter is successfully breeding special kinds of Ball Pythons so if you ever want a beautiful, rare, lovingly raised snake let me know. What a wonder to be a parent.

Looks like New Year’s Eve possibly in San Francisco, then I’m off to Maui for a few weeks to 
lay on the sand, drink coconuts, and love the aina before I return back to Oregon for the 
long dark winter ~ more Anusara immersion, album recording and Coconut Bliss event planning.
The Bhakti Yoga Festival in Piedmont, Italy next summer is something wonderful to look forward to.
Life is rich and full.  The trees are blazing, glorious, like my courageous friends.  Thank you Thank you Thank you.

I just returned home to Oregon from the Bhakti-Tantra Soul-Immersion retreat with Saul David Raye at Esalen.
It was an absolutely amazing experience, and my first time in the enchanted land of Esalen. I played music for the sessions every morning, afternoon and also programs at night, for 6 days. I don’t know if I have ever had such a perfect environment in which to deeply explore transcendental expressions of sound… I played guitar, harmonium and sang, mostly Sanskrit chants that I was weaving on the spot also with Native American, Hawaiian prayers and English. I love my Collings guitar! I had the chorus pedal on often, gliding and soaring on the nectar sweet and round tones of even one note. I played for the first time with Marla Leigh (drums and flute), Matthew Hufschmidt (percussion, drums) and James Hyman (trippy synth and guitar), it was as if we had been channeling music together forever. Joss Jaffe was there too, on tabla and various instruments. Everyone was so sensitive and tuned in, the very definition of tantric, I felt.
Saul leads a class through all kinds of spaces – deep breathing, centering meditation, strength building asana flow, ecstatic release through spontaneous movement and dance, all flowing with spirit, like waves of water, fire, and air rising then penetrating through the depths of the earth. We were like a pod of dolphins swimming as one on a beautiful adventure through the cosmos, and we provided the sound track!
There were about 35 sweet souls participating – we are all relatives now after having shared so much, united by the intention to show up and open our hearts. So many of us are courageously diving into deeper practice to heal our wounds, the wounds of our ancestors and all of humanity with great effort (or not), re-arranging the old matrixes of consciousness into the new. The great work is underway. Like diving into deep waters, finding the places that need some clearing out to create more space for the light and beauty to shine. Polishing the mirror of the soul. I look forward to more retreats like this, where we really have the space and time to drop in and explore who we are – letting go and trusting the eternal process of self-realization. Remembering our innocence, together – our perfect, original nature of mystical love and union with the divine self. I’m honored to be offering music and chant for a few of Saul’s classes at upcoming Bhakti Fest.