Chant for Change ~ Jai Uttal ~ Maha Mantra

Chant for Change

Jai Uttal

Maha Mantra

http://www.jaiuttal.com/

http://chant4change.com/

ANCIENT INDIAS GIFT TO OBAMA ON INAUGURATION EVE

Chant 4 Change Event Offers Eastern Spiritual Take on New Era of Hope

Washington, D.C. Change is coming. Although it is a message that is most recently linked to President-Elect Barack Obama, the idea of a community championing change is as old as ancient India. On January 19 Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the eve of Obamas presidential inauguration these worlds come together as the spiritual meets the political. Chant 4 Change, held within sight of the White House at the Church of the Holy City, is both an interfaith gathering of sacred chant and a celebration of a new era of promises to transcend political divisions.

The event features Kirtan, a folk music rooted in ancient Indias devotional traditions sometimes called the music of yoga. Prominent Kirtan artists, including Grammy-award nominee Jai Uttal, Dave Stringer, Daphne Tse, and local performers Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits, will lead the evening of chanting which is hosted by renowned yoga teacher Shiva Rea.

There is special excitement about this event, said Gaura Vani, owner of the sacred music website, GauraVani.com. It represents a historical loop of reform that spans ancient East Indian spirituality, figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, President-Elect Obama and the millions of people around the world that participated in his election. The common thread is change, in a deeply spiritual sense.

Brought into mainstream India in the late 15th century by the spiritual reformer Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it was the first known non-violent social reform movement against Indias rigid caste system. Kirtan, with its interactive call and response format, played a significant role in rallying community-based reform movements in India and beyond.

In the 20th century, Gandhi praised the power of this practice to bring about social change. Gandhis influence on Martin Luther King Jr.s passive resistance movement brought the same teaching to western shores, and Kings powerful example was very influential on Obamas thinking. For the organizers of Chant 4 Change, the connection between the four men is not coincidental.

All four men worked to change the status quo, and get back to the essence of community, inclusiveness, truth, justice, Gaura Vani said. It is a loop of history that has found its time again—a time of hope and energy and change.

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