GauraVani.com » Mayapuris

Pre-Order Mridanga

rasa.acharya — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:09:31 +0000

Pre-Order Mridanga and limited edition album shirt!

The Mayapuris will be releasing their debut album entitled Mridanga on June 22nd 2010. The Mayapuris have crash-landed into the kirtan/chant genre, quickly becoming the most talked about group in this growing culture of exotic world music. Their debut album Mridanga soars with fiery vocals, earth shaking rhythms and enchanting musical flavor. Named after the Mridanga, a clay and leather drum from Mayapur, India where kirtan/chant music originated, this album showcases the musical versatility of The Mayapuris and instruments they play. Special guests include grammy-nominated Jai Uttal, Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits and Benjy Wertheimer of Shantala. The album was produced by Gaura Vani at Avatar Studios in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Rapidly ascending as one of the most popular kirtan/chant groups in the world, The Mayapuris have been featured in stunning venues, from the inauguration inspired Chant4Change to the world’s largest gathering of kirtan musicians at Bhakti Fest. After a worldwide tour that brought them to six continents last year The Mayapuris are eager to expand and elate crowds with pulse-surging music as they roll along to the thunder of the mridanga drum.

The album will be available in yoga studios, select music stores and digitally via iTunes, AmazonMP3 and all the standard digital retailers. Special pre-order bundle to be available soon on www.Mayapuris.com and www.Mantralogy.com.

Videos from the The Troxy in London

Jahnavi — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:14:00 +0000

These videos were filmed by Haridas and kindly sent by our friend David Crick. For the full report of the performance, see ‘40th Anniversary Celebrations in London’

Yamuna Dasi sings Govindam with Gaura Vani & The Mayapuris

Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits with The Mayapuris – Jiv Jago

Videos from the Kuli Mela 09 Gala Event

rasa.acharya — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:33:00 +0000

New videos from the Kuli Mela 09 Gala Event at the John Anson Ford Theatre in Hollywood CA. Among the performing artists were the Mayapuris and Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits!

Mayapuris – Drumming

Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits – Jiv Jago

Mayapuris – Hare Krishna

Many thanks to Pablo Larrea at Ideal Concept and all the Kuli Mela organizers.

Australia Tour – Listen Live

rasa.acharya — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:04:40 +0000

Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits and the Mayapuris are currently touring all around Australia. Our hosts have provided free live streaming audio from all the events. To listen, sign in at WorldSankirtan.net.

Mantralogy Tour 2009: Back at Burning Man!

Jahnavi — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:20:34 +0000

No sooner had we arrived back in LA (via a blink and you’ll miss it stop in London), and we were preparing to return to the Nevada desert, where we’d attended our first Burning Man festival last year. Burning Man is an avant garde creative arts party/rave/music festival that is attended by thousands from all over the world, including many high profile professionals from all kinds of fields who want to escape their lives for a few days. One of our first performances was at Center Camp, at 6am. This time is precious at Burning Man, as the cool, peaceful time before the intense desert sun pushes people to look for shade. As it rose, we sang ‘Utti Utti Gopala’ a traditional Marathi bhajan that Krishna’s mother, Yashoda sings to him to wake up and greet the day. A large portion of our audience were asleep, exhausted after a night of partying, but as we played, they opened their eyes and gradually began to move in time to the music.

At other times we loaded into a flatbed pickup truck and drove to other areas of the ‘playa’ to chant and dance in different spaces. In between, we spent time at base camp, the ‘Krishna camp/24 Hour Kitchen’. The Krishna camp at Burning Man is headed up by Nitai Das, a dedicated and inventive manager, who also helps to organise the 24 Hour Kirtan in New Vrindavan, West Virginia, as well as many other events throughout the year. Along with his team of builders, carpenters, artists and cooks, he tries to give ‘Burners’ a taste of kirtan and Krishna culture amidst the craziness every year. Here we helped cook and prepare meals for several hundred people, who arrived twice daily and spent time listening to kirtan from our beautifully constructed stage.

As always, it was intense. Dust storms abounded and nights were loud and late – mornings hot and busy. Inbetween all of the chaos, were moments of true joy and friendship, as Burners from all backgrounds joined us in chanting and dancing, always in true Burning Man style -sometimes clothed, sometimes not!

We left after four days, exhausted and a little sunburnt, but happy. Next stop on the road was a jump in Lake Tahoe and a three hour laundromat excursion – the dusty Burning Man experience is hard to forget in more ways than one!

Mantralogy Tour 2009: Bottoms up at the Bhakti Bar!

Jahnavi — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:00:41 +0000

After a long period in Los Angeles, we traveled to San Francisco for a very special event arranged by our friend, Andrew Zenoff. He is a recently converted kirtan addict, and had been thinking hard for a while as to how he could share his passion with others. He came up with the idea of the ‘Bhakti Bar’ – and evening of kirtan in a supportive environment, where ‘people of all practices, musical orientations, faiths, traditions, and ages can gather to sing, dance, chant, share, create and lift their hearts and get drunk on the joys of devotion’.

The debut Bhakti Bar evening was held at the Swedish American Hall in downtown San Francisco – a charming, old fashioned concert hall that proved both intimate as well as spacious enough to hold the hundreds that attended.

The evening overflowed with sweet and soulful kirtan as Tina Malia, MC Yogi, Jai Uttal and As Kindred Spirits took to the stage.

The next day we all went to Jai Uttal’s house to hang out with him, MC Yogi and Robin and a few other kirtan lovers. Jai pulled some interesting instruments and we had some sweet kirtan.

Mantralogy Tour 2009: Yoga Glo!

Jahnavi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:50:17 +0000

After the fun of the trance dance at Zanzibar, we were eager for our next evening with Shiva, MC Yogi and DJ Drez. This time we were at Yoga Glo, a very big yoga studio in Santa Monica that doubles as a studio to film yoga classes in HD quality. These are then sent out online to a large community practising yoga at home. Our evening of kirtan was filmed also.

It was exciting to see many of the same faces as we’d been seeing at other events in LA – they claimed they were hooked and couldn’t miss the chance to come and chant and dance in kirtan again!

Mantralogy Tour 2009: Zanzibar Trance Dance

Jahnavi — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:37:51 +0000

To celebrate the final night of a teacher training course being run by Shiva Rea in Los Angeles, we were invited to come and play alongside MC Yogi and DJ Drez at a hip downtown club called Zanzibar. It was a beautiful venue, decorated in an ornate Middle Eastern style. In the green room we were surprised to find framed paintings of Radha and Krishna and took it as a good sign!

By opening time the crowds were streaming in, many of whom were just coming for their regular Friday club night. Many stopped us to ask questions as we finished setting up, wondering what we were doing, and if we had ‘come from India?’

The night was a real success. Shiva got the crowd warmed up and ready to dance with some kriya yoga, and then MC Yogi launched into a set of all his well known songs like ‘Rock On Hanuman’, ‘Bhakti Boombox’, and Ganesh is Fresh.’ The crowd went wild as he began the famous lines of ‘Krishna Love’ (Sri Krishna, you’re pure charisma, your flute playing – so intoxicating).

Mantralogy Tour Recordings

rasa.acharya — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:39:58 +0000

What you’ve all been waiting for… New, fresh kirtans from around the world. This is a part of the recordings from the Mantralogy Tour with Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits along with the Mayapuris. You’ll find many other special guests on the recordings such as Madhava Prabhu, MC Yogi and many others.

Our apologizes for taking so long to get theses up. While traveling it’s almost impossible to find the time to edit the kirtans. For those of you who don’t know, it takes around 4.5 hours of editing/rendering/conforming/uploading/posting time per 2 hour show. So without further ado…

To listen, click on the links below then press play. To download, Right Click on the word “Download” and select “Save As…” from the menu. Having trouble downloading? Read our Help Section.

Washington DC Ratha Yatra 7/4/09

Jivamukti NYC 7/15/09

Toronto Ratha Yatra 7/19/09

Bhaktivana (Lawrence Kansas) 7/21/09

Radha Damodar Mandir (Denver) 7/22/09

Exhale Spa with Saul David Raye 7/28/09

Yoga Glo with Shiva Rea and MC Yogi 8/7/09

Bhaktivedanta Manor (UK) Janmastami 8/14-15-16/09

Mantralogy Tour 2009: Californikirtan

Jahnavi — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:00:37 +0000

We’ve been in California for just over two weeks now, spreading kirtan in the sunshine state. Our first kirtan was at Urban Yoga in Palm Springs, where we were invited by the owner, Kristen, to attend a pre ‘Bhaktifest’ (link) event. It was a great night. Everyone chanted with energy and enthusiasm, and we ended in an uproarious circle dance, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra.

Since then, we’ve been busy chanting at different venues, including Exhale yoga studio in Santa Monica, Bhakti Yoga Shala, ISKCON Los Angeles and the Ford Theater for KuliMela, and at the 37th Annual Festival of Chariots on Venice Beach. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to get to know many new friends here, and reach out to so many budding fans of kirtan.

Mantralogy Tour: Downloadable Desktops

rasa.acharya — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:42:50 +0000

Enjoy these photos taken during the Mantralogy ‘09 tour. Read about the making of them here.

As Kindred Spirits vs Mayapuris (711)

Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits (619)

Mayapuris (662)

Mantralogy Tour 2009: Wanderlust Festival with Jai Uttal, Shiva Rea and MC Yogi

Jahnavi — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:09:04 +0000

After our kirtan with Shiva Rea at Kripalu, she invited us to the Wanderlust festival, a big celebration of both yoga and music in the beautiful ski resort of Squaw Valley, California.

We were only able to attend for the first day of the three day event, arriving at 2am and leaving the next morning at 6am. Still, it was a great day. We played for two yoga classes with Shiva, and in the evning, took to the stage at the Yoga Tree tent with Jai Uttal. Afterwards we had fun joining the audience for our friend, MC Yogi’s performance with another newfound friend -DJ Drez.

Mantralogy Tour: Trouble on the way to Tahoe

Jahnavi — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:22:07 +0000

Stopping yet again to fill up on gas, hot air blasted into the car. Moving gradually westward, we’d finally reached the dry state of Utah.

‘This must be some kind of hell,’ someone complained. We were all hot, tired and after fifteen hours of driving, pretty cranky. We piled back in and continued driving. Suddenly, the landscape changed dramatically.Vast stretches of white salt lakes spread out in every direct – almost blinding in the bright sunlight.

‘Hey we should do a photoshoot,’ shouted Rasa from the back. ‘Pull over!’

Before any of us knew what was going on, Gaura veered off the road and into the sand of the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was only a matter of seconds before we realized the wheels had become complete stuck. In the searing heat of the day, we were stranded. Fortunately, we had some kirtan power on our side. Chanting mantras and using all our strength, we managed to unhook the trailer and lever it out of the sand.

‘Ok guys, get out your clothes, we’re still doing a photoshoot’, said Rasa, who’d been happily taking photos of us pushing the van. After a little protesting, we realized we might as well make the most of the opportunity, and got busy jumping and posing. Passing drivers must have been taken aback at the sight of eight people holding strange instruments and dressed in Indian clothes, jumping crazily around in the sand.

Before we packed up and continued to Tahoe, we decided to take one last shot of us all pretending to hitchhike. We didn’t expect anyone to actually stop, but only three minutes after we stuck out our thumbs, a big truck pulled over, offering to tow us to safety! He drove off again, looking more than a little confused and holding a copy of Ten Million Moons.

Mantralogy Tour 2009: Kansas to Denver

Jahnavi — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:40:34 +0000

After another gruelling drive, we reached the oasis of Bhaktivana, the rural home of our friends Gopimata and Ankotta in Lawrence, Kansas. We also met the Krishna Culture festival tour bus there, who had been busy preparing a wonderful feast for all of the guests attending the kirtan. Bhaktivana is home to a wonderful family, as well as beautiful Swiss cows and peacocks. Those of us who have been to the sacred town of Vrindavan, India felt transported there – even the intense heat was the same!

Many people turned up to sing with us, most of whom have been introduced to kirtan through the yoga classes run by Gopi in her home studio. We were fortunate to be joined again by Bada Hari, who lead a powerful kirtan in praise of Lord Rama. The glorious sound was complete with Purusartha on electric bass, and Jaya Sita’s emotive cello playing. We were also lucky to have Prtha and Nadia, two Bharatanatyam dancers from the Bhaktikalalayam dance academy in Alachua, Florida, who performed an electrifying routine to ‘My Body Is A Temple (Krishna Murari)’.

After marveling at the star filled Kansas sky, it was time for bed. We would need to leave very early to continue our drive – another ‘all dayer’ to Denver.

Almost fifteen hours later, we parked up outside Gaura’s childhood home, opposite the Denver temple. He hadn’t been back for over twenty years, and he exclaimed at how small everything looked.

There were just a couple of hours to rest until our evening kirtan concert within the temple. We were scheduled to begin after a Bhagavat Saptah reading – a type of narrative recitation describing the activities of the Divine, accompanied by music. Hundreds of people had come to attend the reading, and as it ended, they all danced and chanted with abandon, celebrating the pastime they had just listened to about the birth of Lord Krishna. Many stayed on for our kirtan and eagerly continued to chant.

We left late, packing everything up and stopping for a quick van cleanup at a gas station. The next day was to be the longest drive yet – over 24 hours to Lake Tahoe.

N.B. We apologise for not posting any recordings right now. We are recording all shows, but because we are on the road, we have limited facility for editing and uploading. Please stay tuned!

Mantralogy Tour 2009: DC to Toronto

rasa.acharya — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:42:06 +0000

Putting lemons under our tyres for good luck, we set off from Gaura’s home in DC in high spirits. Ten sandwiches, six rest stops and a box of granola bars later and we reached New York, where we performed two very different shows – opening for a fundraising evening at Club Le Royale, and then an evening at Jivamukti Yoga.

Next we drove to Albany, NY for a workshop with our friend Shiva Rea at the Kripalu yoga centre.

From there we traveled straight to Toronto, only stopping to drop off our trusty trailer before we crossed the border. We were invited to come and participate in the 37th annual Toronto Festival of Chariots, as well as its sister event called ‘Yoga Meltdown’. An ongoing city workers’ strike meant that the normal, secluded venue of Centre Island was completely inaccessible, but nevertheless, the festival organizers worked even harder and put on a dynamic event on the harbor front.

A diverse crowd attended on both days, enjoying the delicious feast, yoga classes, cooking demonstrations and entertainment. Of course, the best part of the event was the non-stop kirtan in the specially dedicated tent.

Today marks the end of our first week on the road. It has been driving so much every day has been tiring, but we continue to be enlivened by the enthusiastic response to kirtan everywhere we go. Now we head for Lawrence, Kansas – another stop on the way to the Wanderlust festival in Lake Tahoe, California, where we will be performing with Shiva Rea and Jai Uttal.

N.B. We apologise for not posting any recordings right now. We are recording all shows, but because we are on the road, we have limited facility for editing and uploading. Please stay tuned!