Spiritual eclecticism

Last night I was at a wonderful concert at the Bath Pavilion. It was an evening with Deva Premal and Mitten with Manose. I last saw them about four or five years ago at Wells Cathedral and they play Sanskrit mantras often based on the Upanishads and spiritual songs promoting love, peace and harmony….everyone joins in. The most famous is the Gayatri mantra … you’ll find it below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63COahIpVM

Towards the end of the evening we were about 900 people singing ‘Alleluia’ and praising the magnificence of the created world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG-YE8IiV5U&list=RDAG-YE8IiV5U#t=422

Have a listen to this … it grows on you! The energy that was there was very strong …several chants were taken from their new Mantras for Life  and each one we chanted 108 times – apparently to reach all parts of the mind, body, spirit.

http://www.devapremalmiten.com/splash/index.html

For me there’s no difficulty in integrating this into my Christian faith. I like the statement of the Jungian analyst Robert Johnson who said about one epiphany that he had walking down the street where he realised that either everything was the body and blood of Christ or nothing is and he knew which was the truth.

Somehow it’s all so much more than we can understand, believe or imagine. Our minds are limited…. and when I see so many people involved in spiritual searching both last night and this morning at Bath Abbey which was almost full … it confirms this yearning and spiritual hunger – denied and ridiculed in much contemporary media but alive and contributing to worship in all its different ways and in so many different places. I think it’s about being open and spiritually eclectic as there is much to inspire.