Bliss, Music, Meditation and Miracles

India is not just a geography or history. It is not only a nation, a country, a mere piece of land. It is something more: it is a metaphor, poetry, something invisible but very tangible. It is vibrating with certain energy fields that no other country can claim.
Osho

One of my favourite mystics of all time, the 13th-century Persian dreamer, Jalaluddin Rumi, says, to be able to count our lives as having been lived, we must be able to say that we were lovers during some stage of our existence. He says, to this end, we can stand up on the day of resurrection and know that we will live past today into paradise and beyond our idea of what forever is. If indeed knowing this ecstasy through love means a life beyond the limitations of this realm, then I gladly ask that a place be kept for me and for all those who are lovers of music.

With my love for music, I founded three record labels. I first co-founded Australian Music International (AMI) to elevate the sounds of modern, fusion, genre-bending Australian artists to the World. Using the unique sounds of the 100,000-year-old Didgeridoo, we showcased Adam Plack’s Nomad and Songman exquisite Didgeridoo playing on MTV Unplugged with rock Goliath, Midnight Oil. I then started the second label, RASA MUSIC which, through the lens of the RASAS (in Sanskrit, the essence or sap, the eight humors), explores and shares the art, beauty, and complexities of world beat artists, legendary writers, and musicians from all corners of the planet. Along with our co-producers Deepak Chopra and Adam Plack, we created projects like “Soul of Healing Meditations,” “Chakra Balancing,” “A Gift of Love Vol. 2 – Oceans of Ecstasy” and “A Gift of Love – Deepak and Friends Present Music Inspired by the Love Poems of Rumi,” to which we shared our passion for the transcendent power and incredible beauty of the illumined Sufi world. We recorded the iconic Miss Rosa Parks, Madonna, Goldie Hawn, Angelica Houston, Antonio Banderas, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Jared Harris, Shekhar Kapur, and many others on this exquisite musical journey in this romantic, heart-searing album.

People are slayed by the most primordial super attractors – the tribal Nature of community and dance. I share my love of music, fashion, and Spirituality with crowds opening their hearts as they turn and twist to the music I spin. There is untold joy in experiencing your efforts when you play one of your dance remixes in a packed nightclub in Ibiza. The track “Desire” from “A gift of Love” by Deepak Chopra, recited sensuously by Demi Moore from our Rumi album, thunders through the bass valves as it tickles your heart chakra and sphincter simultaneously. This joy is matched only by hearing the inimitable pulse of the ancient Didgeridoo booming on an NYC dance floor. While a thousand bare-chested dancers transported by this mystical tree-limb lead by the scorching vocals of the Aboriginal Songmen, David Gulpilil and Bobby Bunnungurr from Arnhem Land in Australia’s Top End in the Junior Vasquez remix of “With You” ” by Nomad.

Whosoever knoweth the dance, dwelleth in God
Jalaluddin Rumi, 13th c

Music and Sound are the first of our senses to awaken as we come into this world, often one of our last memories as we transition. Music traverses a path to healing and creates bridges like no other art form can. Passion for music transcends our race, color, religion, sexuality, and our station in life. We do not need to be ethnomusicologists, intellects, DJs, dancers, or poseurs; it is enough to be human and a lover at that.

As a child of South India, I am a lover of Indian music – both Carnatic, with its stringent compositions and structure, and Hindustani, for its great improvisation. I relish the intensity of the ancient ragas with their specific scales, chords, and harmonics that evoke certain moods and feelings. They can not only shift our Consciousness but also, according to Ayurveda, the ancient primary traditional health system of Indian principles – can also return us physiologically to a state of balance and vibrant well-being. The seven main glands of the body connect via musical notes to the seven Chakras (energy centers) and shifts in the energy centers can be triggered by specific notes, melodies, and rhythms depending on the dominating energy (Dosha) affecting the individual in the season of their life or the planet. In Naad or Nada Yoga, the practice of Mantra chants can achieve peace of mind, Self-awareness and can help awaken the doors to enlightenment.

The third label, Rasa Living, is a home for a lifestyle embracing music and powerful healing sounds for deepening a meditation practice and polishing your inner mirror. Rasa Living birthed two lifestyle projects Dip into Bliss and Sleep Beditations. Built on fifteen years’ worth of learning and experiences, Dip into Bliss is my modern approach and fresh take on meditation. It is a simple, effective, and highly curated combination of music, guided meditations, visualizations, and affirmations with a strong focus on breath work and present-moment awareness. It has been my deepest privilege to serve in the Recovery space and I welcome being called, “The Rock Star of Meditation” by Well+Good. In the Recovery facilities where I have served for many years, individuals suffering from addictions of all kinds including drugs and alcohol find powerful salve, respite, and a path to healing with the DIP INTO BLISS. Many people I have served have been my greatest teachers. I also the share the Dip Into Bliss experience with individuals, corporations, and institutions globally as we are in world where the myriad of Mental Health issues are on a meteoric rise with one in four people afflicted by mental illness and 70% of people not receiving the help needed (data from ProjectHelp.org). In response to the global sleep issue crisis, I created The Sleep

Beditations – a modern sleep solution that utilizes ancient wisdom and modern techniques, including Breath Entrainment, ASMR, 528 Hz, and Binaural to help you fall asleep faster & enjoy deeper, longer sleep.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to give people accessible tools to live a happier, healthier life. We are human beings, not human doings. I’ve created tools and rituals to help you transform the everyday, mundane into the special and sacred. Inner-peace is our right.”

India is the ultimate seductress. She is filled with unimaginable beauty, exhilarating colors, boundless joys held in nature, mind-bending complexities, and a peacefulness known by no other land. She is riddled with unforgettable smells, spectacular sights, and unbridled Spirituality.

Intriguing India -Rajastan with an unparalleled royal lineage that includes Udaipur with its verdant hills, stunning lake palaces; arresting, other-worldly Jodhpur; entrancing Jaipur with its exquisite palatial designs, unmatched jewelry, lapidary work and textiles onto the inimitable Taj Mahal, an ancient effigy to love in the midst of the Thar desert; to frescoes from a temple in Sarnath near Varanasi where the Buddha taught his first dharma; Rishkesh with her Rishis “seers” holding the sacred vibration in the caves of the majestic Himalayas; Varanasi, Mother India’s oldest city with her ancient Ghats resonant with ritual and prayers; to the glorious south of India – Kerala, “God’s Own Country” and her salubrious backwaters with the best seafood, coconuts mashed up with the sweet fragrance of matriarchy; onto Tamil Nadu jammed with an untainted India reeking of sandalwood and stunning temples; to the houseboats on Dal Lake in Kashmir which sits on top of shimmering lakes bordering ancient passes; to a woman’s hands covered in the ritualistic mehndi on the eve of wedded life; to India’s enormous wildlife of tigers, elephants, birds and spirited monkeys and onto to the magical and mysterious Ganges River that flows through the heart of India like the water of life.

What else is it about INTRIGUING INDIA? She is a place beyond metaphor, where:

Our human form with its myriad of energy points (Nadis) reflects and connects the galaxies and unfathomable cosmology.

Miracles, mythology, and rituals are a way of life.

The impossible seems probable.

Breatharians and yoga masters join to create the world’s largest festival, Kumbh Mela, a magnificent spiritual gathering of millions large enough to be viewed via satellite from the Moon.

She is the creator of Zero, Algebra and the decimal system.

A land of many religions, millions of Gods and Goddesses mingles with hundreds of languages.

A mystical land where resonance emerges out of dissonance.

We invite you to immerse yourself in India fully so that you might taste her, smell her, see her, vibrate with her, bend your knee toward her unfathomable majesty and mystery, and you would ultimately fall in love with her as we have.

NAMASTE

IG: @donnadcruz1