Bhajan in Byron Bay

Vrajadhama and I went down to Byron Bay on Thursday. We spent Thursday rehearsing and sound checking with Jai Uttal for his Byron Bay concert, and the evening doing kirtan with him at the concert.

Backstage before the concert we met Tahir Qawwal, a 30-year Canadian who has been studying classical Indian singing since he was 14. The next day we caught up with him at his place and did some Qawwal and kirtan. We all knew the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and the famous hamd "Allah-hoo", so that was the intersection of our devotional chanting.

Here is a video of Tahir in Pakistan with his US-based qawwali group Fanna-fi-Allah [website].

Vraj and I are headed back down tomorrow for a day-long kirtan workshop with Jai and another concert in the evening.