Kundalini Rhapsody
Where Entertainment
and Inner Attainment Meet

A yogi musician and a yogi physician combine their creativity to take us on a healing journey through the energy centers of the body, mind, and spirit.

Kundalini Rhapsody, produced by Think MusArt, is a newly released, ground-breaking CD that represents a culmination of creativity, inner vision, vibration, and sound. In this remarkable CD, a yogi musician and a yogi physician combine their creativity to take us on a healing journey through the chakra energy centers of the body, mind and spirit.

In this composition we have several diverse types of voices and instruments. Here the mantra gives us a sound and vibration to work off. The drum gives us the rhythmic pulse to work from. The synthesizer drone creates the underlying tone of the universal mantra OM from which all other vibrations emanate. The clarinet provides the melody for kundalini, which represents both the active and latent energy of the universe that also resides in the human body and mind. This universal energy ascends with the melody and mantra vibrations through the chakras to merge with the realms of higher consciousness.

This kundalini/chakra/music/meditation album can help others become aware of their inner self and their creative potential. Each chakra is associated with a particular physical and psychological quality, emotion, and talent. By listening to the meditation and music on this CD, we hope to heal the body and mind as well as to activate the positive attributes associated with each center. By meditating and chanting mantras together we hope to create synchronicity and facilitate communication with each other. We also hope to bring peace, harmony, and love to the world. And finally, we hope to present to our friends and colleagues some really good music.

The first part of the CD combines beautiful music with simultaneous chanting of mantras to help the listener become aware of each chakra on a creative level. This activates the great reserves of unused and untapped power within as we consciously direct this dynamic force upwards through the transforming chakra centers of the body. With this rhapsody of music, we can meditate on it, chant to it, breath with it, dance to it, or simply listen to it.

On the second part of the CD, we chant the seed (bija) mantras associated with each chakra. This meditation leads to an inner place of silence, calmness, and peace.

Many people have asked us how we met and decided to collaborate on this creative venture. While working together in a traditional doctor/patient relationship, we soon discovered that while our professional life experiences were quite divergent, our paths of spirituality were remarkably similar. We both have practiced and taught meditation for many years and have studied and lived with spiritual teachers well known for their boundless energy and charisma (Muruga with Swami Satchidananda and Dennis with Swami Rama). We also realized that our life goals were similar: to love our families, to serve people selflessly, and to help heal others in body, mind, and spirit.

Kundalini Rhapsody represents for us a culmination of creativity, inner vision, vibration, and sound. We wanted to do a kundalini/chakra/music/meditation album for several reasons. We want to help others become aware of their inner self and their creative potential. Each chakra is associated with a particular physical and psychological quality, emotion, and talent and through meditation and music we hope to activate the attributes associated with each center. As we all meditate and chant mantras together we hope to create synchronicity and facilitate communication with each other. We also hope to bring peace, harmony, and love to the world. And finally, we hope to present to our friends and colleagues some good music.

Kundalini is a Sanskrit word that represents both the active and latent energy of the universe that also resides in the human body and mind. We all have great reserves of power within, often remaining unused and untapped. The ultimate goal of meditation is to activate this latent energy and consciously direct this dynamic force upwards through the transforming centers of the body (chakras). When we focus on these specific areas and simultaneously repeat certain sound vibrations as well as concentrate on particular geometric forms and colors, kundalini is intensified and concentrated, activating the chakras.

Sound is the audible aspect of kundalini and light, color, and geometric form represent the visual dimension of this energy. As musicians practicing nada yoga, the spiritual science of sound, we attune ourselves to subtle universal sounds by chanting and playing certain instruments, allowing these cosmic vibrations pass through us to be experienced by our audience. This stills our minds and connects the universal with the personal, creating a sense of unity and harmony. When we attune ourselves with OM, the mother of all mantras, and with the seed (bija) mantras associated with each chakra, we can experience the oneness of the seen and unseen universe. Cosmologists and astrophysicists refer to these subtle sounds as the hum of cosmic background microwave radiation, vibrations that still echo from the Big Bang, when the present universe was created form a singular undifferentiated point. By chanting or listening to these vibrations we experience the universe as a single whole, complete and unified.

Rhapsody has several meanings, all of which reflect our musical and meditative intent.
1. "An exalted expression of feeling and enthusiasm." When wrote and played our music, we did so with great passion and emotion. We also want our audience to participate and be enthusiastic in their chanting. Music teaches us meditation in action, where the audience interacts with us to become part of the rhapsody rather than be merely the listener.
2. "A piece of music or prose that has no fixed form yet is full of meaning." We have several diverse types of voices and instruments in this composition. Here the mantra gives us a sound and vibration to work off of. The drum gives us the rhythmic pulse to work from. The synthesizer drone creates the underlying tone of the universal mantra OM from which all other vibrations emanate. The clarinet provides the melody for kundalini as this universal energy ascends with the melody and mantra vibrations through the chakras to merge with the realms of higher consciousness.
3. "To stitch together, merging sounds together." We are merging the chakras together into one rhapsody. Stitching together means to unite, which means to yoke together, which is the definition of yoga. Therefore in this context, rhapsody means yoga. The goal of yoga and meditation is to unite the individual with the universal, resulting in the experience of consciousness and oneness of spirit.

"As we balance the inner energy circles (chakras) we heal and transform the physical, emotional, and spiritual qualities associated with each center."
Dennis

"Music and sound help us to activate these energy centers, as well as to open the door to the soul, bringing about inner peace and joy."
Muruga

The writers, producers, and performers of this CD include Muruga Booker, Dennis Chernin, MD, and Perry Robinson. Muruga is an internationally acclaimed drummer and composer who has recorded with Swami Satchidananda, Olatunji, Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan, Sly Stone, & Weather Report. Dennis is a prominent holistic physician who is the author of the book and CDs How to Meditate Using Chakras, Mantras, and Breath. Perry is the eight-time Down Beat Magazine jazz poll player of the year.

Muruga is a world-renowned and Grammy nominated musician with credits from New Age, including Merle Saunders/Jerry Garcia (Blues from the Rainforest) and Olatunji (Cosmic Rhythmic Vibrations) to Jazz and World Beat, such as Weather Report (Sweetnighter), Gunter Hampel (Angel), Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg (Holy Soul Jelly Roll), Darius Brubek (Chaplins Back), and Paul Winter Consort (Something in the Wind). He has played at Woodstock, Carnegie Hall, and the UN with Swami Satchidananda.

Dr. Chernin practices holistic and family medicine in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has written several books, including Health: A Holistic Approach and Homeopathic Remedies as well as an interactive CD ROM called Homeopathy Resource: A Guide to Selecting and Using Remedies.