Rhea’s Love for Indian Classical Music and Mantra Ritual

Rhea’s love for Indian classical music and mantra ritual are deeply rooted in her ancestry, upbringing, and yogic journey. After several years of classical vocal training with teachers including expert vocal coach and nationally broadcasted artist Stella Walker of Toronto, Canada, Rhea felt a strong desire to melodically carry the millennia old spiritual wisdom of her lineage into our collective hands.

Embedded with healing messages of liberation, unity, and peace, Rhea, in collaboration with award-winning producer and composer John Capek of Nashville, TN has infused ancient Indian mantras with western contemporary rhythm to bring forth a harmonious east meets west dynamic. Rhea’s hope is to enable those around the world to access and benefit from the magical

Soul Ceremony is now available worldwide on all major music streaming platforms.

ABOUT SOUL CEREMONY:

One of the most transformative aspects of yoga is missing in the West, and that is the ancient practice of rhythmically and repetitively chanting mantras, which helps us let go of our stressors and feel love in our hearts with relative ease. At this time of collective stress and struggle, we need practices that can help us drop in more easily and wash our worries away. My music is designed to do this.

Mantras are Sanskrit words, phrases, or sounds that originate in one of the oldest spiritual bodies of wisdom, known as the Vedas, which are at least 4000 years old. The word mantra means “to free from the mind.” Beyond the spiritual significance of each mantra lies the vibrational and resonant quality, which is ultimately responsible for evoking harmony within us. The outcome is a deep feeling of wholeness and oneness, of expansion and liberation, and of peace and unity. This inner discovery is the foundation of Soul Ceremony.

The five mantras in my debut EP were very carefully selected, based on their impact on my own spiritual practice and journey, and on their potency and meaning as described in the Vedas. I spent significant time meditating with each one, and believe that these reworkings that I’ve birthed into ex

ABOUT RHEA’S FIRST SINGLE:

BRIGHT LIGHT (GAYATRI MANTRA MIX)

The Gayatri mantra is considered one of the most important and powerful Vedic mantras. It was first recorded in the ancient Vedic text of the Rig Veda in Sanskrit around 2500-3000 years ago. Historically it has been recited by everyday people of India in their homes, as the sun rises or sets for purposes of purification and divine guidance.

I have a deep connection to this mantra, as it is one I recited before bed with my parents every single night until I left for University at the age of 17. Since then, I have been using it sporadically to heal my ruminating mind. I consciously reconnected with it at a yoga sound ceremony training in Guatemala in early 2019. There it was melodically shared with us, but through a western lens with poor pronunciation, which I did not resonate with. I felt it lost connection to the essence of the mantra.

After studying ancient meditation, tantra, and kriya yoga in the himalayan foothills of Rishikesh late 2019, I was (re)-initiated into the mantra tradition, and we were asked to recite the Gayatri mantra 6x at the end of our daily morning meditation practice. Since then it’s been playing in the background of my own movie.

Mantra in Sansrkit:

oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tat savitur vareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi
dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt

One of many translations: We meditate on the Spiritual Splendor of that supreme and Divine reality, source of the physical, astral and celestial spheres of existence. Allow that divine being supreme to illuminate our intellect, so that we can realize the supreme Truth.

I interpret the mantra as a bowing down to the sun, which represents the entirety of existence as we know it and the embodiment of knowledge and light. When we chant this mantra, we awaken to the presence of the sun’s knowledge and light within ourselves, which can cleanse, enlighten, and guide us.

Meaning of Individual Words:

ॐ – OM – The Primitive Sound

भूर् – BHUR – the physical world

भुवः – BHUVA – the mental world

स्वः – SVAHA – the celestial, the spiritual world

तत् – TAT – That, God; Transcendental Paramatma

सवितुर – SAVITUR – the Sun, the Creator, Preserver

वरेण्यं – VARENYAM – more adorable, lovely

भर्गो – BHARGO – shine, effulgence

देवस्य – DEVASYA – resplendent, supreme Lord

धीमहि – DEEMAHI – we meditate on

धियो यो – DHI YO – intelligence, understanding, Intellect

नः – NAH – Nah: our

प्रचोदयात् – PRACHODAYAT – enlighten, guide, inspire

More translations of the Gayatri mantra:

“We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may She enlighten our minds.”

– Swami Vivekananda

“We meditate on the adorable glory of the radiant sun; may She inspire our intelligence.”

– S. Radhakrishnan

“We choose the Supreme Light of the divine Sun; we aspire that it may impel our minds.”

– Sri Aurobindo