Snatam Kaur: Original Light

Snatam Kaur is an American singer and peace activist raised in the Sikh and Kundalini Yoga tradition. She has an amazing ability to transform traditional Sikh chants of India into a contemporary sound that appeals to the modern ear and awakens an ancient yearning in the soul.

An Interview with Snatam Kaur: Original Light

Interview by Liane Buck

For over thirty years, Snatam Kaur studied with and grew up in the presence of her spiritual teacher, Yogi Bhajan, while he was in his physical form, learning the essence of Naad Yoga, a form of yoga focusing on sacred sound. At the core of this practice is an essential experience of peace and healing, which has helped her music to be accessible to people of all walks of life. She has taught and shared Naad Yoga and Kundalini Yoga and meditation through her recorded CDs, concerts, and workshops for the past fifteen years, as a part of her commitment to give people tools for a daily experience of inner peace.

Liane Buck, Editor in Chief of OMTimes Magazine was able to sit down with Snatam Kaur to discuss her first book, Original Light, Kundalini Yoga, and motherhood. We are Grateful for this exclusive interview with Snatam Kaur.

Liane Buck: Thank you for being with us today, Snatam Kaur. It’s a privilege and honor. Last week we had the cover with Guru Ganesha, and he talked so dearly and so fondly about you, it is impossible not to, develop endearment towards you. This is your first book, Original Light. What is Original Light and what it means what Original Light means, to you?

Snatam Kaur: Original Light felt perfect for me because, to describe what happens every morning when I do my meditation practice, it always involves light. It’s tapping into light. It’s gaining a sense of light, and it comes in different forms.

Sometimes I need to be embraced, by that sensation of light, and I feel that in my meditations. And sometimes I need to be lifted up by that sense of light to see my life in a clear way, in a clear perspective. And so, there’s always this element of light that happens in these two ways. Either I feel embraced by it or it’s lifting me up out of my troubles. And I think sometimes we easily forget that first of all, that we have this nature of the soul, that we have this nature of spirit and that also that we’re all totally connected in that sense.

And I think that’s why the term original is in there. It’s because it is really that original light and that essence of self, which really is within each of us and really we can live our lives by this vibration. It’s kind of just reminding ourselves. I think for me the term original light is a way just to remind myself that this inner essence and self is real and that I can access it every day.

Liane Buck: Right. Where this inspiration came from? I am not in the Kundalini yoga community but this book spoke profoundly to me. So, where did the inspiration to produce a book like this that serves beyond the Kundalini community came from?

Snatam Kaur: Well, it started off for me when I was, a baby, really, and my parents would carry me downstairs into the meditation room where we would chant and meditate with other community members. And I grew up this way, and there was this sense of love and joy. After the meditation experiences, we would have breakfast together and there was laughter and people were, in this bliss of just meditating together.

And so, I grew up with this kind of soul food, so to speak. And then, as I well, my practice really started when I was a teenager. I had seen my mother in times of hardship, I had seen her go to meditation. And it has been such a regular part of our life that when times were challenging for me, and that my first time of identifying, “Oh, I can go and meditate. I can go and do it in my practice and it’ll help,” that was when I was a teenager.

And so, from that time on, my practice became a source of peace for me. I mean, sometimes I would sit there and do my practice for two to three hours until the energy would shift. It was just something that I knew and experienced.

And then, I was very dedicated from that moment on to maintain my practice throughout the years, through marriage, through having a daughter, and through a very busy career. And this practice just carried me and lifted me up every single time to this place of joy.

And so, when my music career took off, the inspiration for all of the music came from this spiritual practice. I further maintained my dedication to it as the music career just really unfolded. And it was the daily practice that I kept coming back to for my strength and my sense of balance and service, remaining in that place of service with the music and my music career. And I became aware through touring that a lot of people didn’t have access to this kind of information and this kind of experience. And I began to witness people coming to the concerts and being totally uplifted by the chants and being able to, just sing and have this experience of their hearts opening. And then, they would and then people would come to me after the concert and say, “Thank you so much. Your voice is just so beautiful. You’re so beautiful.”

I said thank you and gave hugs, but inside I knew that the truth was that all of this love and this light from these chants was coming from a much deeper place, that it was coming from the essence of this of my spiritual practice. I wanted people to have access to that spiritual practice, to that capacity to know how to create that kind of experiences that they were having with me in the concert or the workshop. To be able to create that kind of experiences in a sustainable way in their own homes, in their own lives, and have this real sense of empowerment that entirely, worked for me and worked for me to this day.

And so, it became a huge passion for me, especially as I realized my physical limitations, that I couldn’t possibly tour to every city that I wanted to go to. I couldn’t possibly go to every country that I want to go to, or that I couldn’t possibly have the kind of reach that I wanted to have to give people these tools, through just the concert touring, which I totally love. But, I wanted people to have this capacity to do the practice on their own.

And it started with a weekend workshop where I realized, oh, my God actually, I have to give people a daily practice. And then, to be able to sit down and actually write a book; about it. It literally felt like a life purpose unfolding in front of me, a major life purpose for me. And it’s so fulfilling, to have this book now to give to people and say, “Okay, now this is what you can do.”

Liane Buck: I think it’s incredible. Well, going back, this book, it was motivated basically by your morning practices. Do you say that those practices can only be performed, or done during the morning or that practice can be practiced any other time of the day? Let’s say someone has a difficult morning or cannot perform those in the morning. Would it be possible to do this in the afternoon?

Snatam Kaur: Yes, I have a chapter in the book that’s called “Presence of Self.” And in this chapter I address something called, identifying a bottom line. It’s going to be different.

But, it’s really just identifying what you need in your life for your daily practice to feel centered and balanced. And then, from that bottom line, you can, build your practice from there. For me, my bottom line is that I have to have 30 minutes of yoga every single day, and that really keeps me balanced and in my center, and then I add from there to build from there. So, I really encourage people to do this. And I know that the practice itself is two and a half hours long. I know that not everybody is going to be able to do that. I do encourage people to at least experience the full practice. For me, my family and I, we do the full practice once a week in a community setting. And there are opportunities that I list in my book for people to go to community gatherings to experience that.

Liane Buck: Yes.

Snatam Kaur: But, again, it’s going back to the building blocks and identifying your bottom line, and then building from there. So, in answer to your question, the morning time is a great place to do the morning practice because it helps to set the vibration for the rest of your day. And really what the morning practice is doing is allowing you to live your life from this sense of light and joy. It clears past karma or that past karma for negative actions.

Liane Buck: When you talk about having a two-and-a-half-hour practice, in one way not only taking care of yourself because you are here on the Earth, but when you really change yourself or work on yourself, you are indirectly working towards a better life and a better world in general, because you are becoming a beacon of energy and a beacon of light. And when you talk about the practice of two hours and a half as it’s almost like a Seva. Snatam Kaur: Yeah. No, I love that. I love the visual too; that that we can create sacredness within our own homes, within our own communities, and that our daily spiritual practice is really the key to doing that, yeah.

Liane Buck: How motherhood changed your practice. Did you have to adapt to new family dynamics, how this, reflected on your daily practice, primarily?

Snatam Kaur: Yes, motherhood was an incredible gift to my daily practice, although I didn’t see the reasons why until way into the practice. Before I got pregnant, my husband and I were very much into our daily spiritual practice. And then and during the pregnancy as well, we were we dedicated our practice to creating a beautiful environment for our daughter and working on our relationship through the spiritual practice. It was all very intentional and beautiful. When my daughter, was born, and I experienced one of the most incredible miracles of my life, of this new being. And as many mothers and parents will talk about, this sense of love was just so incredible, to have this new being in our life. With that being said, we definitely lost sleep in the process for actually a good portion of, the first year and a half or so of my daughter’s life. And I fortunately, I talked with another mother who really encouraged me to look at the teachings of Yogi Bhajan on this. She was the mother of two young boys, and she had the same experience where her spiritual practice just came to a standstill, it felt when her babies were born. And he said, your spiritual practice now is in being a mother.

And so, I took that into my own experience and I sat with it. And I realized that I didn’t have to be technically sitting on my mat doing the yoga and all of these things, that I could incorporate spiritual practice while I was nursing. I could include it while I was taking my daughter for a walk. I could chant. I could do long deep breathing. And in fact, it really helped the energetic that I was giving to my daughter. It brought me to a more peaceful, place, and that there was actually so much time in the day when I was with my daughter in these moments that I tend to like at first I had gotten some novels to kind of read while I was nursing and, to kind of like pass the time. And I just I realized, oh, my gosh, this is my time for a spiritual practice. So, I put the novels down, and in a while I was nursing her, and instead of reading those novels I went to chanting instead and brought my spiritual practice into that and into that experience of those precious moments with my daughter and with my husband and my family. I was able to bring those moments into my daily life and integrate them.

Liane Buck: Yes, that’s beautiful.

Snatam Kaur: Into my daily life. And I honestly hadn’t been doing that in before, I in such an effective way. I think something that children teach you is that that that spirit can exist and does exist in all the moments. And my daughter continues to teach me that as she’s seven approaching eight. But, it taught me to integrate my practice into those moments of the day. And it’s not just it wasn’t just being it expanded from being with my daughter in those moments and having patience and breathing to having patience and breathing while I went to my first business meeting, and having patience and breathing while I had my first recording session after being pregnant, and went on and on so that those very beautiful moments as a mother that I was integrating spiritual practice into my life then were very important to the rest of my day and to the rest of my experience and my life. So, I was very grateful to have had the experience of being a mother just to tap into that. And for people that don’t have children, that I feel like the same goes. It’s just when those moments like having a child really stretches you.

Liane Buck: How Seva can actually change and enhance somebody’s spiritual path? How important is Seva to someone trailing the path of Return, in your opinion?

Snatam Kaur: In spiritual practice, Seva can not only help somebody’s spiritual practice, but I feel it’s actually essential to spiritual practice. In our tradition, in the Kundalini tradition, we have a concept called dasvandh where you give 10 percent of your time, your energy, or your money towards community service. And this is involving the entire aspect of somebody’s life. But, spiritual practice, it has to have this element of Seva in it to be successful. This morning practice, the Aquarian Sadhana that I offer here in Original Light is actually a morning practice done in total Seva. We ask that when somebody is teaching it or sharing it in the community that there is never a cost to it. It’s always offered for free. So, throughout the years, I’ve always taught this morning practice totally free as a Seva, as a service in various communities that I’ve lived. And this is where I’ve tapped into the real essence of what the chants mean, the real essence of what it means to chant.

And the reason is that I never knew who was going to talk to the door. Sometimes on some mornings, there would be nobody that would walk in the door and come and listen or come and chant with me. It would be just me in the community sangha room or the practice room. And I would have to listen then to the air around me and the essence of the rain that happened to be falling on the window outside, and then I would have to go to a deeper space because I was dedicated to sitting there and doing this Seva and service. On other mornings, characters would come in that were kind of intimidating to me. I still sat there and I still did my best to connect with the essence of my soul and the essence of what I felt in their soul. And that was the service and that was the Seva for me at that moment. And it taught me so much about always coming from this place of purity with the music and with what I do with my work. But, it was through this experience of Seva and service, of doing this offering, that the knowledge came to me and the understanding came. So, I and I really encourage people to do the practice in the home, but there’s a whole component of the community as well where you can create, through your yoga center or through your home, ways for people to come and practice and meditate together.

So, throughout the year, I’ve always done this practice in Seva and I feel that that’s why it’s given me so much, so many incredible gifts. It’s taught me how to chant and it’s taught me how to serve. As householders, we give what’s called dasvandh, which is 10 percent of our earnings. Take that a bit further and give 10 percent of my time or 10 percent of my energy towards service or more, whatever I can.

Liane Buck: Well, I honor this. I honor you and this practice. I think it’s absolutely fantastic. This is one of the things I most admire, especially, with people from the yoga community, that they have this certainty and, it’s incorporated already in your system. A Life without service is really not complete. But, I really honor you for that.

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Snatam Kaur: With Seva as well, my family and I, in our community we just started a monthly supper where we give a meal for free in a local Unitarian church. And then we all chant together with whoever comes, and it’s open to the public. And we’ve we just began this program where we’re funding it and cooking the food, and, our children are serving the food. And it’s such an incredible experience. I’ve never felt so much joy in my heart, to be able to not only serve in this way but to get to know people, in our community and then and to be able to chant with them.

And we’re chanting the sacred chants, that are presented in Original Light and other chants from the Kundalini tradition as well. So, it’s just I think, just as it brings so much joy, I think I just wanted to add that one thing.

Liane Buck: And so, the chants, the prayers, the meditations, how important is to have correct pronunciation of the sacred chants? My question comes because, in other practices, the spiritual practices out there, they put the emphasis on the intention. The intention is what is important, you know? Why is so important the pronunciation, in your point of view?

Snatam Kaur: Yes. Well, I feel that if somebody has a pure intention, that that is by far the most important aspect and the most important energy that will really carry forward and bring healing and love and light into one’s life. But, I’ve learned in the Kundalini yoga traditions that the chants themselves work in a very powerful way, in ways that can’t be described. When you chant these chants, they through the breath and the practice of Kundalini yoga, the and doing a nice, powerful yoga set before you sit down to chant, the energy of the chants move up the spine.

As you’re pronouncing the words, the tip of the tongue taps the roof of the mouth like a Morse code in sending positive messages and the energetic messages of the mantra of each of the chants to the brain. The brain then communicates with your entire system both in the nervous system and the endocrine system, and works in a very powerful way that researchers are just beginning to understand now, why do these sacred chants.

There’s a very physical/chemical reaction that’s happening based on what the message is from the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, and that’s where pronunciation comes in. That’s why I provide recordings with the books so that people can hear the correct pronunciation. Pronunciation is just a yoga of the tongue where we’re learning how to pronounce. And it takes time. I mean, that’s the thing. And I think we need to give ourselves that space and that patience. And it’s really through the tongue that we can shift basic elemental energies within our being. That is called Naad Yoga, N-A-A-D yoga where, through the sound current, we shift. Our basic communication to the universe. It’s a method. It’s yoga. You have the yoga of the body and mantra is really the yoga of the tongue where you’re using the tongue, you’re using your breath to create these vibrations.

Liane Buck: What is next for you, Snatam? What are next, more books, your concerts? Where are you going now?

Snatam Kaur: Well, I’m hoping to help people integrate Original Light into their lives. And so, I’ll be teaching some workshops and then an online course dedicated to into this effort. And that’s people can find out about all of those courses and the online course on my website, Snatamkaur.com.

That’s really my main focus now, is how to bring really what I have in my book to really help people start their own daily practices in their homes. So, that would be great if that was out there for people. We have some really wonderful courses coming up, both in person and online, where we’re just helping people to integrate these teachings: And, moving into the future, I’ll be, continuing to work with people to help teach people techniques of chanting and continue with this type of work. Please visit Snatamkaur.com

Liane Buck: You honored me today, Snatam Kaur, giving all this time. But, I wish that any everything goes well, with joy, with grace, and with ease, everything. I thank you so much.

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