Bhakti Fest can be a 24-hour experience if you choose it to be. Thursday night’s Main Stage jam with Kirtaniyas brought us into Friday morning, and Aquarian Sadhana followed right behind at the amrit vela time of 4AM, two and a half hours before sunrise. For those needing a few extra hours of sleep, 7AM guided meditation with LP Burin, 7:30AM yoga with Tim Miller, Kia Miller, or Hannah Muse and 8AM chanting of the Hanuman Chalisa are all wonderful ways to start the day and also practice your Sadhana.
For me, 10AM was the perfect time to get back in the groove and Saul David Raye on the Main Stage was the perfect vehicle to take me there. Saul’s energy is grounded and warm and even as the heat of the desert came on strong early in the day, Saul stayed cool with his sweet chants and calm nature.
Saul went from stage to studio for his yoga class but Brenda McMorrow kept the music going with her unique way of encompassing devotional music with a folk sound. Brenda’s rich background in many styles of music creates familiarity along with the power of her sound. Backstage she offered me her CD, Igniting the Beauty, which was recently reviewed by LA Yoga Magazine.
Staying discipline in my “go where the energy takes me” theme for the weekend, I retreated to the canopy of trees lining the pathway next Yoga Halls 1 and 2 (with hidden cooling misters) to feel out what energetically made sense for my next experience. A plethora of choices were available including sound healing with Gabriel Bran, kirtan with Prema Hara, and words of wisdom from Mas Vidal. I let the right class find me, and along the way I picked up a few samples of Desert Essence lotion and SPF I found at the First Aid tent, filled up my water at the Aloha water shrine, grabbed a $2 kombucha at Reed’s tent at the food court and after stopping to have a conversation with a good friend, I found myself with Mas Vidal. His workshop “How to Live” offered wonderful nuggets of wisdom right when I needed them. What landed for me the most was his explanation of our physical environment helping with pranic awareness, which is what makes opportunities like Bhakti Fest a wonderful enhancement for meditation and raising of vibrations. Mas also offered topics on Ayurveda and other ways of enhancing day to day living including yoga, Shakti and Bhakti in Healing, and relationship with food, reminding us that the basis of all these traditions is to slow down and synchronize your rhythm with nature, which eloquently mirrored my weekend’s intention.
Walking by Yoga Hall 2 I stopped dead in my tracks as I noticed the conviction in which Raghunath taught his yoga class. He offered solid and strong postures to create space for breath, noting that for so many of us living amidst the smells and sounds in big cities, breathing can not always be enjoyable. Although my yoga mat may not have been rolled out, I still took the time to take a deep, conscious breath inspired by Ragunath’s class, Flight School. The more open I am to the weekend, the more of these little gifts of inspiration serendipitously fall in my lap.
Mas Vidal’s discussion on the importance of group energy perfectly segued into Shiva Rea’s Prana Vinyasa Flow class. As a packed room followed Jim Beckwith in the sound of Om, Shiva Rea led us to feel the mover behind the movement and the “sweet peace of coming home” that she equated with returning to child’s pose as well as the comfort of returning to Bhakti Fest.
It was Sean Johnson who made the biggest impression on me of the day. His manner of offering bhakti practice was new and exciting. Gathering together close to him at the front of the stage as children do, he told us the story of Parvati, Shiva, and Ganesh using music and humor to so accurately and creatively paint a picture. He explained that these stories in bhakti are meant to awaken the journey in our own lives. From there, as he began adding asana, it felt like coming to the mat for the first time and with child-like joy. Yoga practice became about discovery rather than habit.
WIth a cup of vegan and non-GMO Coconut Bliss ice cream, I settled in for Deva Premal and Miten with Monose for evening kirtan. Their voices brought me back to when I was practicing their 21-day online meditation journey. I felt comforted by this memory as well as the soft tones of Manose’s flute in harmony with the rhythm of the cool night wind. I appreciated the Sanskrit words spelled out phonetically on the big screens in order to follow along and have a deeper appreciation of the tones and vowels that go in to those sacred words.
Before Amritakripa and ecstatic dance with Kambiz bring us back around the clock to another full 24 hours of bhakti celebration, Salif Keïta makes his debut at his first yoga festival. He translates messages of peace through world music bringing rock and jazz to West African griot traditions. He has received musical, political, and humanitarian acknowledgments and he was here with us tonight polishing our hearts under the desert moon.
Olivia Kvitne is serving as Bhakti Fest’s blogger and social media Goddess for all three festivals this year. She is Assistant Editor for LA Yoga Magazine and specializes in teaching trauma-sensitive yoga to veterans/military and first responders in addition to teaching hatha, yin, hot yoga and more. Twitter: @LoisLaneofYoga
Photographs By Mitchell Manz Photography
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