It is our honor to present the recently unearthed Ram Dass track, "We All Come From God," featured on the brand new Soul Land Music record.
One of the real surprise treats in the release of Soul Land Music Series Vol. 2 is a recently unearthed track from Ram Dass, entitled "We All Come From God." With Soul Land's essence being "Music inspired by Ram Dass," this is a fitting addition to an already fun and powerful lineup of incredible musicians and songs.
Listen Below...
Ram Dass & Music
When Ram Dass first returned from India in the wake of the psychedelic 1960s, the magic of music was no stranger to this newly awakened Holy Man adorned in white and sharing stories of his guru, Maharajji. A good friend to the Grateful Dead family and a frequenter of their transformational West Coast events, Ram Dass often found himself surrounded with satsang reaching new heights at their shows (as discussed in a recent Mindrolling with Dead & Company's Oteil Burbridge).
“The Dead were playing in the Cow Palace, and it was [Owsley’s] Wall of Sound…Ram Dass is on the other side of the wall…on I don’t how many micrograms… There we are, and Jerry Garcia took off. Sometimes he used to really take off. In this case, it was into astral plane after astral plane.” – Raghu Markus
The Treasure of Music & Mantra
But the deepest sonic treasure Ram Dass brought back with him from India was the practice of chanting and kirtan. In his first public lectures at the Sculpture Studio in NYC, he would end the majority of the evenings with a group chanting of various mantras, from Sanskrit to English, often adorned with musical melody to keep the sweetness flowing as everyone deepened into the practice.
"Music’s value is that it calms the mind, soothes the savage beast... It’s good for quieting it down, and giving you an emotional hit of some kind or other. I always say that the music is like the syrup that the medicine [of mantra] is hidden in." – Krishna Das
We All Come From God
To celebrate Ram Dass' combined spiritual and musical impact on the West, "We All Come From God" has been mindfully placed inside an already stellar lineup of musicians and tracks on Soul Land Music Series Vol. 2 – and features Ram Dass leading an intimate and melodic singing of the heart-moving mantra:
"We all come from God, and unto Him we shall return; like a river flows into the ocean, like a ray of light returning to the sun." – Ram Dass
Music as a Vehicle for Transformation
In a recent musical anthology episode of Mindrolling, Raghu and a variety of Soul Land Music Series alumni discuss how music can be used as a potent vehicle for spiritual transformation. Through this lens, artists like East Forest and Boreta dig into what it was like gently placing Ram Dass' voice within their sonic universes. This dynamic merging point became a major catalyst in birthing the Soul Land Music Series, supporting artists who bring us here and now.
“Music lines up perfectly with my meditation practice... Even before I had a practice, music served that role for me. When you listen to music, to really get the essence of it, you have to actually be in the moment. It’s something we create that only exists over a course of time, and I think it is actually a framework of mindfulness and present time awareness.” – Justin Boreta
The Spirit of Music is Community
Soul Land Music Series Vol. 2 features a wide variety of musical artists with a deep talent for bringing the heart-space into music through their well-crafted songwriting, meaningful lyrics, passionate playing, mindful curation, and skillful use of Ram Dass recordings—all captured during their moving livestream performances during season 2 of Soul Land. We can't thank these artists enough for being part of the Ram Dass family. As John Forté recently shared: the spirit of music is community.
“My journey with music has been the relationship of having it, experiencing it, seeing it morph and take on different colors and shapes. It showed me from a very early age that collaboration was going to be the key for the source of my continued inspiration—working with others, finding that harmony—that’s the spirit of it. The spirit of music is community, it’s communication, it’s air itself.” – John Forté
Check out the community of artists on Soul Land Music Series Vol. 2—
- EarthCry, Ram Dass - Just Love
- Londrelle - Gratitude (Live)
- Marti Nikko, DJ Drez - Sri Ram Jai Ram (Live)
- Jai Uttal - Ladder of Longing (from the album ‘Let Me Burn’)
- KRIPA - Ram like Moon
- John Forté feat. Ben Taylor - Hungry (Live)
- Rising Appalachia - Synchronicity (Live)
- Nina Rao - Vinayaka Always (Live)
- Jon Hopkins, East Forest, Ram Dass - Sit Around The Fire
- Ram Dass - We All Come From God
Listen to Soul Music Series Vol. 2 — specially featuring"We All Come From God" by Ram Dass — streaming 'here and now' on all major music platforms.
– Written by Ganesh Das Braymiller on behalf of LSRF/BHNN
