I was raised in West Hartford, CT in a highly intellectual, political, and atheist home that was culturally Jewish. Any topic of a spiritual nature was immediately squashed unless it pertained to the Hopi Indians. Why? I have no clue! So, it was a real eye-opener as a 16 year old in 1969 to hear Swami Satchidananda open the Woodstock Music Festival with the chanting of 'Om' and 'Hari Om'. I loved being with 499,999 other people as we sang this thing called a 'mantra'. How could something as simple as repeating a word or phrase over and over feel so good? By 1970, I was initiated into the Transcendental Meditation (TM) mantra technique by Joe Clarke, an early TM instructor who came to my 'alternative' high school.

Ah, the beauty of silent mantra meditation! I loved the feeling of well-being and I loved meditating with my girlfriend. At some point, however, she left me and I resorted to smoking lots of pot,hashish and three packs of Marlboros daily instead of meditating!

After more than a year of a foggy mind, wired and exhausted body, and burning lungs, I wandered into Swami Satchidananda's Integral Yoga Institute/Ashram (IYI) in Hartford, CT to try something called 'hatha yoga'. Within weeks of doing asanas,pranayama, and kirtan, I lost the desire to smoke cigarettes or ingest drugs, and my body and mind felt incredibly light, clear, calm, and energized.

By age 18, in 1971, I moved into the IYI to immerse myself in Eastern philosophy, celibate lifestyle, and yogic practices including kirtans. I also received initiation from Swamiji. Mom was happy that I wasn't doing drugs, but she always referred to Swamiji as 'Swami Gefilte Fish' which always dismantled my yogic calm!

Satchidananda embodied incredible wisdom, compassion, and humor, and my heart always opened immensely just being in his presence. And the open heart was what I began to recognize as my true self, always a feeling that I am 'home' spiritually. By age 19 in 1972, I was asked to lead Friday night IYI kirtans. I bought my first harmonium ( a green cardboard Bina ) to accompany myself, mostly with one-finger droning. He was my guru for 6 years and married my first wife and I in 1974 at a Hindu ceremony at Yogaville in Pomfret, CT.

While living in the IYI, I read the phenomenal book entitled 'Be Here Now' by some cool guy named Ram Dass (formerly Harvard professor Richard Alpert) who had recently returned from India as a changed man after meeting the great yogi Neem Karoli Baba - aka Maharaj-ji. I felt such a strong urge to meet Ram Dass so I sought him out at his father's estate in Franklin, New Hampshire...many times! The first time I looked into RD's eyes and heard him talk, I felt a deep instant connection. In my innermost knowing, I wanted a similar transformation in myself as I experienced in him.

Ram Dass has always been able to light the way for me and countless others with his gift of translating Eastern spirituality for Western ears through his keen intellect and enormous heart. So I traveled to wherever he was holding gatherings which were filled with lectures, discussion, meditation, dancing, yoga, and .... kirtan.

I was still young and confused about life and sought Ram Dass's advice about inner and outer directions, and he always responded with incredibly insightful and loving letters.

At one point, he invited me to NYC for an afternoon of one-on-one intensive spiritual work with him which resulted in a 'visitation' from Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaji - www.neemkarolibaba.com) who had recently passed away in India. Well, only his body passed away.

In the session, Ram Dass said “Maharaj-ji and I are going to do some inner work with you and we’ll push you to the edge, but we won’t let you fall off. Do you trust us?” I said “yes ” And so began a long afternoon of uninterrupted close-up eye contact and a practice of me doing and saying anything ( with a few ground rules) that would make me feel uncomfortable. During the session, Ram Dass’s head, at times, looked like Maharaj-ji’s head and sometimes looked like a monkey head (perhaps Hanuman, the embodiment of selfless service?).

After two hours of having displayed every conceivable embarrassing and uncomfortable behavior and thought, I began weeping and weeping while experiencing a state of total ecstatic, unconditional love for the first time in my life. This experience firmly solidified my love of Bhaki Yoga, the path of the heart, which led me to return to kirtan years later as my ‘direct dial’ to the 'real' me, free of self-judgment and able to hang out in equanimity. To this day, I often feel Maharaj-ji’s loving presence when I call upon him.

The other pivotal experience was in 1974 when I spent the summer in Boulder, CO at the newly-opened Naropa Institute. I studied and practiced with a diverse array of people that summer including Ram Dass teaching the Bhagavad Gita, Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche teaching Tibetan Buddhism, daily kirtans with Krishna Das, Vipassana meditation with Joseph Goldstein, and Indian music theory & chanting lessons with the wild and greatly gifted Bhagavan Das (the yogi who introduced Ram Dass to Neem Karoli Baba).

I studied and practiced chants and scales with Bhagavan Das at 6:00 am daily. And many days, three or four of us would go off to a nearby park with Krishna Das to sing still more kirtan. Although I still thought of Swami Satchidananda as my guru, I soon began to experience the guru paradigm as limited and restrictive. What I had loved about Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche was his emphasis upon claiming our inner spiritual authority.The eclectic nature of that summer paved the way for my eclectic approach to spirituality in general.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, my kirtan interest lay dormant as I put my devotional interests away in a box and became an academic, gathering college degrees in English Literature, Art History, and a Master's degree in Urban Planning & Economic Development. Hey, what can I say? Life unfolds in mysterious ways! Also, I focused upon Vipassana Buddhist practices, Healing Tao practices with Master Montak Chia, and lots of Gestalt/Transactional Analysis/Redecision therapy to heal from parental emotional abuse and its consequences of unworthiness, inadequacy, and addiction. I also did a lot of work on my marriage based upon the practices expounded by Harville Hendrix. The therapy helped tremendously, but what I missed was the open-heartedness and ecstatic joy that I associated with singing the divine mantras. In the 1990s, Krishna Das, whom I had not seen since 1975, began to travel around offering kirtans, and I began to attend them. But I had no interest in actually leading kirtan again; I had long ago given away my harmonium. Also, I felt that I needed to feel more worthy before I could lead others in an ecstatic practice.

Holly Hartmann, my beloved partner since 1980, recognized the joy in me when I returned from Krishna Das's kirtans. She could see my future way before I could see it - one of her many talents! In 2002, she gave me a harmonium for Christmas/Hanukah.

I thanked her, but told her that playing harmonium was nothing more than a quaint memory. I returned it without playing one single note. One year later, I found myself in Manhattan buying a harmonium. And then another one. I studied harmonium chord technique with the kirtan wallah Shubalananda and he soon graciously invited me to play with him at his kirtans. I am very grateful to him for that. Not long after that, people in the kirtan community began to ask me to lead kirtans in my attic. I soon discovered Claude Stein, founder of the Natural Singer workshops in New York, who helped me immensely to reclaim my singing voice. And here I am leading many kirtans, exactly 40 years after leading my first kirtan.

I take responsibility for creating my life but also believe I co-create it with Spirit (which can have its own agenda and timing!). And then there is 'karma' which can throw a monkeywrench into the best laid plans! But I believe that we all can uncover and claim our inner spiritual authority that guides us to live aligned with our soul purpose.

Well, the journey is always filled with surprises and twists and turns. Leading kirtan is a great joy. This seems to be my spiritual purpose at this time. This is the way my life has unfolded and I love to share it with you.