Costa Rica – Pura Vida

Haribol Everyone! Rasika Dasi reporting from Costa Rica
Sarasvati and I recently flew from sunny Los Angeles to the beautiful country of Costa Rica. The past week or so here has been wonderful. Besides the warm weather, tropical rains, volcanos, beaches, forests, and sweet fresh fruits! Haha. Most importantly, we have had amazing Kirtan programs. I am happy to share with all of you the experiences we have had so far.

Our first Kirtan was held in San Jose, at an awesome little yoga studio called Kasasana. The Kirtaniyas played here earlier last year so I had the feeling of a homey familiar place as soon as I walked in. We quickly set up and began with prayers to our holy spiritual masters.

Soon the room was filling up with dear friends and guests. Sarasvati lead the chant while I accompanied on the drum. There was a great vibe of community, everyone coming to support us and share their love for kirtan. After Kirtan the evening continued with a presentation on ‘Mantra’ the holy sound vibrations, by Prem Prayojan. The presentation was followed by another Kirtan that had my hands aching from playing mrdanga drum so enthusiastically

The next day we were invited to share in Kirtan at another unique yoga studio called Yoga Mandir (San Pedro, CR). This is probably one of the coolest looking yoga studios I have been to so far. The walls by the entrance were decorated in transcendental graffiti. Huge murals of Lord Shiva and Ganesha greeted us on the walls outside of the entrance.

It was a wonderful night, we had a meditative mellow kirtan which turned into full on dancing and jumping with joy! It is amazing how much peace and happiness we can feel when we connect with the names of the Supreme. After getting all sweaty from dancing (and drumming) we all sat down to hear another multimedia presentation by Prem Prayojan. This one was called “Yoga Pyschology”. I learned so many cool and interesting new things from both of these presentations. (Both can be watched at www.ustream.tv/channel/kirtaniyas).

So far it has been a blissful journey. On Gaura Purnima, the birthday of the Golden Kirtan Avatar Sri Caitanya who made Kirtan available to the world, we had a grand festival: Kirtan, kirtan, and more kirtan in honor of Gauranga! A delicious feast of sweets and savory dishes was prepared and eaten to everyones full satisfaction. We also heard very sweet stories about the glories and pastimes of Sri Gaura when he was here on this earth over 500 years ago.

Now we are preparing for the big Gaura Mantra Fest which is being held here in San Jose, CR at the Art Gallery of Jacob Karpio. It is going to be a HUGE cultural experience full of Kirtan, Bhakti Yoga presentations, Music ( by The Kirtaniyas, Santos y Zurdo and other artists), Dance, and more.

I hope to share with all of you more about our experiences here soon. As we say in Costa Rica, “Pura Vida” living the “Pure Life” through the great ecstacy of Kirtan!

-The Kirtaniyas, Rasika Dasi

…and heres a few of our favourite photos from our outings into this lush country.