World-renowned musician Russill Paul, who blends classical and contemporary Indian music with Yoga chants will be in Eureka Springs on (September 27th-28th) to lead a retreat on the Yoga of Sound at Little Portion Retreat Center on Moore Mountain.

Fusion of ancient energy and modern technology creates in relaxing, inspiring and holy sound. Paul designed and built his 10-string Avitar, which is similar to the sitar, made famous by Ravi Shanker and George Harrison. But sweeter.

Sonic Yoga is a devotional stream of mantra is said to release love and devotion in the heart, a mental state of ecstasy that embodies emotional fulfillment, and musical meditations recorded between twilight and midnight.

The following is excerpted from an interview with Russill Paul (www.russillpaul.com):

I was born a Roman Catholic in South India with a fascination for Hinduism, a tradition that I didn’t truly understand and couldn’t properly express. My ancestors were Hindu as well as Christian. Yet, all I knew of Christianity when I was growing up was its clerical institutionalism.

I grew up in the city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras) on the southeast coast of India. Since my mother worked for the film industry, there were artists, musicians, and music directors who constantly came through our home. Furthermore, my brothers were musicians, so there was no dearth of musical instruments lying about the house. I had a natural aptitude for music. As early as age four, I could reproduce on musical instruments the tunes I heard off the radio. Later, as a
teenager, I won a number of music competitions and began professional engagements that earned me a moderate amount of fame. However, my approach to music at that time was all about gaining attention and impressing others. There was nothing spiritual about it.

When I was nineteen, I had a spiritual calling that motivated me to renounce the world and become a monk. A series of fascinating and fortuitous events led me to Bede Griffiths. He made the most powerful impression upon me as a holy man and as a spiritually realized soul. Under his guidance, I felt I wanted to know more about the mystery of God, about the inner world, spirituality, and mysticism.

I started composing songs and tunes in my early teens, but my interest in the spiritual dimension of music only began during my life as a monk. Bede Griffiths had an enormous influence on my music. Under his direction, I was apprenticed to many teachers through whom I studied Sanskrit chanting and Indian Classical music. At the same time I became fascinated with India’s phenomenal understanding and application of sacred sound as an actual means of yoga and self-transformation. I
also came to know that music and chanting had played an important role in the spiritual traditions of the West, through Gregorian chant and through the sublime music of Bach and Handel. It was during my monastic training that the use of sound as a yoga path became my essential spiritual practice as
I learned to combine yoga and meditation with the chanting of mantras and the use of music as a tool of self-discovery. It laid the foundation for my ministry, The Yoga of Sound.

For information on the retreat contact Marcia “Chou Chou” 479-253-9090 or Jasmine 479-253-PRAY
or Email: choulady@gmail.com