World musician Oliver Rajamani releases "The Two Lovers," a new CD of original music for yoga and meditation practice, Saturday, July 31, 7:30 p.m, at Seva Yoga, 1122-C S. Lamar (next to Alamo Draft House South). Tickets are $10.00 in advance from www.sevayoga.com, or $15 at the door. The performance includes traditional Indian dance using yoga postures. The audience will be invited to participate in a short yoga demonstration at the end of the performance. A reception will follow the performance. 
 
Rajamani also teaches a "Yoga and Sound" class, along with owner/teacher Esta Harold, at Seva Yoga on Tuesdays at 7:45 p.m. The class focuses on Naadha yoga, which combines sound and music with hatha yoga. Seva Yoga is a donation-based studio supporting the community with 60 diverse classes, offered by 27 yoga teachers, who share proceeds with a charity of their choice.

 
"I wanted to show the deeper power of music, beyond the performer or the audience," Rajamani says. "Music is more than just entertainment. Every human being has music within them - the universal sound that connects you with something deeper, there all your selves and your body hums with the vibration."

"The Two Lovers" features long performances of meditative instrumental solos on the sarod, tabla, oud and rubab with spoken word poetry. Master Carnatic violinist V.V. Murari from Chennai, India performs beautiful, soothing and hypnotic melodies on the violin.
 
The idea of the "the lover" and "the beloved" is central to many spiritual practices of this world - from Christianity, to Islamic Sufism, to Yogic Hinduism, to Judaism and more. In many parts of the world, Christian spiritualists see themselves as brides of Christ. In Sufism, love and God are the same as in the poems of Hafiz. In India, the idea is seen in the very deeply sensual spiritual poetry of Meera for her dark hued, flute playing lover "Krishna." The lover in all these traditions speak of the Divine, but the term also translates to one's own significant other, parents, children, nature or life itself.