Snatam Kaur-Bringer of Peace

 Snatam Kaur...Such a beautiful spirit and voice. Enjoy!

“Music is essential in my personal practice. It’s the core spiritual practice of Sikhs." Many of the words are in Gurumukhi, the sacred language of the Sikhs. “I play the harmonium, guitar and violin, but my main instrument is my voice. It’s the way I communicate with my Creator.”

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HER

Her family moved to California when Snatam was two, living in Long Beach and Sacramento. When Snatam was six, the family went to India where her mother studied kirtan. Snatam lived on a ranch near Bolinas, California until 8th grade and then moved to Mill Valley in 1986. During her childhood, she played kirtan with her mother in Sikh temples and at Sikh religious ceremonies. She attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. While at Tam High, she played violin in the school orchestra and began songwriting. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead coached Kaur and her classmates before they performed her song Saving the Earth at an Earth Day concert in San Francisco on April 1990^.
Snatam was also active in social and environmental causes while in high school, serving as president of the social action club known as, "Students for Justice," in her senior year. The club started a campus recycling program and organized environmental awareness programs. The club also led the effort to change the school mascot and sports team names from the Indians to the Red Tailed Hawk in 1989 and 1990 due to a speech given at the school by Sacheen Littlefeather.
After graduating from Tam, Snatam attended Mills College in Oakland, California, receiving a bachelors degree in biochemistry. She then returned to India to study Kirtan under her mother's teacher, Bhai Hari Singh. In 1997, Kaur began a career as a food technologist with Peace Cereals in Eugene, Oregon.
Snatam lives in Española, New Mexico with her husband Sopurkh Singh Khalsa, whom she married in January 2006, and their daughter Jap Preet Kaur.

WHAT IS SIKHISM?

Sikhism is a world religion that began in India in the mid-fifteenth century with the master Guru Nanak (1469-1539 C.E.). The essence of being a Sikh is that one lives one’s life according to the teachings of the Sikh Gurus, devoting time to meditating on God and the scriptures, chanting, and living life in a way that benefits other people and the world

Snatam’s own teacher, Yogi Bhajan (1929-2004), was influential in helping promote the Sikh tradition in the West.
Sikhism is based on the Shabad Guru. On Kaur's official website she explains, “Shabad is the sacred energy or recitation of sound, and Guru means the living teacher. For Sikhs, our living Guru exists within the sacred words of our tradition. As part of our daily practice we take a sacred divine reading from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, which is a collection of writings from enlightened teachers and sages in India. It includes the Sikh Gurus, but also incorporates saints from other traditions. These sacred poems were originally sung in specific notes, and have been passed down to us exactly as the words were originally recited by our Gurus. The energy of these songs are alive and gives us healing and guidance. The living presence of the Guru through sound is our foundation. We really feel the Shabad Guru has blessed our lives, and when we sing it, it affects our physical body and our environment. The reason we practice it every day is so we can create within us that resonance of peace, and then go out into the world with that resonance still supporting our words, and still in our thoughts, and still creating the light around us.”

THE KUNDALINI YOGA CONNECTION and SNATAM
  “A man came up to us after a concert and asked when we were coming back,” Snatam remembers. “I said I’m coming back in a year, and that made him really sad. He didn’t think he could wait that long to feel so good again! “Yoga is the tool you can use on a daily basis so you don’t have to be dependent on our concert our anyone else’s.”
Snatam offers tools for maintaining a balanced and loving internal state with her “Creating Inner Peace through Kundalini Yoga and Meditation” workshops. These classes provide instruction in the technology of Kundalini as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Chanting is an essential part of the Kundalini Yoga practice. “There’s an actual yogic and scientific effect that happens when you sit with a straight spine and chant,” Snatam says. “The energy rises through the spinal cord to the top of the head and there the tenth gate opens, which is the connection with the Infinite. “ By chanting at home, and practicing Kundalini Yoga, anyone can stay tapped into the bliss they experience at Snatam’s concerts all year long.

FOR THE KIDS!!!!!! 

Her Website

http://www.snatamkaur.com/

          
                                                  CHANTING FOR YOU!

Kirtan or Kirtana (Punjabi: ਕੀਰਤਨ, Sanskrit: "praise, eulogy"; also Sankirtan) is call-and-response chanting or "responsory" performed in India's devotional traditions.^[3] A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankar. Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, tablas, the two-headed mrdanga or pakawaj drum, and karatal hand cymbals. It is a major practice in Vaisnava devotionalism, Sikhism, the Sant traditions, and some forms of Buddhism, as well as other religious groups.      

           Here is my wish for you ..sung by Snatam Kaur. Peace and Love ALL WAYS