Snatam Kaur – Nirankaar
World-renowned devotional singer, musician, teacher, and author, Snatam Kaur is known for her stirring, luminous voice and insightful Kundalini Yoga teachings.
Snatam Kaur Launches New Album: Nirankaar
Sung in the sacred language of Gurmukhi, the words Ang Sang Waheguru mean, “In every cell and every limb and every fiber is the miracle of the Divine.” Profound and transcendent, the track begins with Snatam devotedly singing a poem by Guru Arjan that describes how to approach the mantra to come to a place of profound harmony and happiness. The music swells as the track grows into a spirited rendition of the mantra, underscored by exquisite tabla rhythms.
In May, Snatam Kaur will embark on her Into the Light Tour with summer concert dates across Europe, the UK, and Israel. The tour corresponds to the release of Snatam’s 16th major album, Nirankaar, and a new Mantra and Meditation workshop series she teaches live during the tour on Kirtan and Kundalini, her online school, and on YouTube. Snatam’s touring band includes Ram Dass (piano and vocals), Grecco Buratto (guitar and vocals), and Sukhmani (percussion and vocals), the same extraordinary musicians who collaborated with her on Nirankaar.
OMTimes: Tell us about your new album, Nirankaar.
Snatam Kaur: The title Nirankaar means “Formless God” and expresses how the Divine often manifests in ways that aren’t easy to comprehend. Like many people, I experienced shifts, changes, and losses of normalcy during the pandemic. Yet, in surrendering, I found a reservoir of inner peace and resilience that chanting mantras can bring —especially the five on this album. I recorded the tracks right before the pandemic as a collaboration with my producer, Ram Dass, on piano and vocals, Grecco Buratto, guitar and vocals, and Sukhmani on tabla, percussion, and vocals. The album releases on May 13.
OMTimes: How is it One different from your other albums?
Snatam Kaur: One significant difference is the collaboration with my band, which resulted in a unique musical landscape. I especially love the emphasis on tabla. Each of my albums has provided an avenue of healing for me. They represent what I needed to express at a particular time in my life. Nirankaar reflects both my years of touring, chanting with people, and coming to that blissful, beautiful place of ecstatic experience and the ecstatic experience of a sole practitioner practicing on a mat.
OMTimes: Do you have a favorite song on the album? Please tell us the meaning of the mantra.
Snatam Kaur: I can’t say I have a favorite, but the one I feel most called to share is Ang Sang Waheguru. With the Ukraine situation and the intensity of life, this is a crucial mantra for these times. The words mean, “The Divine is living and breathing and dancing in every cell and fiber of my being.” Chanting it brings the power of those words into a reality of sensation, of really sensing the Divine’s presence and finding the inner peace and harmony we all need. For me, it’s about tapping into the courage and resilience it invokes.
OMTimes: Can You tell us something about the language of the mantras you sing?
Snatam Kaur: The language of the mantras is Gurmukhi, a relatively new language developed by Guru Angad, the second Sikh Guru, in the 16th century. Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, traveled extensively and taught and referenced sacred poems with the message of universal peace and love he came upon in various traditions and languages.
Guru Angad created Gurmukhi as a transliterated language so people wouldn’t need to be literate in those languages to understand the poems. He wanted them to be easily accessible. Although anyone can have a beautiful and deep chanting and meditation experience without intellectually understanding Gurmukhi, learning the pronunciation and meaning of the words can deepen the experience.
OMTimes: We Know you are a spiritual teacher as well, so tell us about your online school, Kirtan and Kundalini.
Snatam Kaur: For quite a while, my husband, Sopurkh, and I wanted to establish a school, and, in June 2020, we co-founded Kirtan and Kundalini as an online sacred music and yoga school. We offer mantra, tabla, harmonium, yoga, and meditation classes to students worldwide. In addition, there is life and recorded classes, workshops, and other Sikh Kirtan and Kundalini Yoga learning experiences that other teachers and we lead. It has been a labor of love and a dream for us!
OMTimes: Please share some thoughts on how sacred mantra meditation can help us find calm and happiness?
Snatam Kaur: The mantras I share are affirmations of the Divine’s existence within each of us and in our world. I believe the Divine exists in everything, in all situations, in all challenges, and that connecting through sound through chanting, helps me find the still point within that experience. That still point is where the heart and the soul always are, so ultimately, sacred mantra meditation is about connecting with the frequencies of the heart and soul.
Facing challenges, hardships, joys, and growth, sacred chants return us to the Divine and a sense of stable, abiding peace. Calling upon the name of God that exists within everything brings us back to just what is.
OMTimes: Could you tell us about your upcoming tour?
Snatam Kaur: It’s an important time to gather again, and our Into the Light Tour is taking us to Europe, the UK, and Israel. These are our first live performances since the start of the pandemic and, for many in our audience, their first concert after the isolation of COVID. I’m looking forward to connecting with people again and playing live with my band. I deeply believe in the power of voice and community and hope it will be uplifting for everyone. Given the Ukrainian invasion, I feel called to dedicate each concert to peace in Ukraine and our world. So we’ll do a chant for peace at each show and send those prayers out.
The tour also celebrates our new album, Nirankaar, so we’ll play all the pieces from it, sharing and celebrating this new music. I’ll also be teaching Mantra and Meditation workshops on the tour. I recently released a recorded Mantra and Meditation series with extended versions of the tracks on Nirankaar featuring streamlined supportive arrangements specifically for meditation and chanting.
Snatam has also released singles “Soul Prayer” and “Akaal” off her album Nirankaar.
You will also enjoy Snatam Kaur: Original Light
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About Snatam
Snatam Kaur is a world-renowned, Grammy-nominated devotional singer, musician, teacher, and author, known for the stirring luminous quality of her voice and insightful teachings. She is currently embarking on an Into the Light Tour, with summer concert dates across Europe, the UK, and Israel. The tour corresponds to the release of her 16th major album release, Nirankaar, and a new Mantra and Meditation workshop series she is teaching live during the tour on Kirtan and Kundalini, her online school, and on YouTube. www.snatamkaur.com. Album presale https://bit.ly/Nirankaar
Be Why Music is a California-based, multi-Grammy-winning record label dedicated to releasing music that uplifts humanity. Visit www.bewhymusic.com
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