Saul, I recently discovered sangeet. Been listening to them here: www.bhaktisangeet.com/bhajan/...i1.html. And there's a blog with some lyrics here: grandpoohbah.blogspot.com/2006/...t.html

I love this one, by Nazrul Islam:

Below the feet of my dark girl, come see Light itself dance
Her beauty makes Shiv yield his breast, He whose hands hold Life and Death
In the black girl's dark lap, infant sun and moon rock
A small glimpse of Mother's beauty, is that giant calm blue heaven above ...
The Earth couldn’t hold Her beauty, so Mother mine is clad by the sky

Which sums it up for me...

I can't listen to music while I'm at my devotions, I think because if there's music I should be making it - otherwise it's just distraction. And I'm talking about solitary devotions. I would dearly love to be part of a... would you call it a congregation? Was thinking about this just now in the car, iPod on shuffle, Guided By Voices (!) ended and on came 'Samarpanam (Dhuni mix)' by Cheb i Sabbah (1st track on 'Durga Maya') It's not exactly music - field recordings of, I guess, Bengali babas - but I could listen to that for hours. Too bad it only lasts 2 minutes.

I bellydance as well as play music. Though I haven't done much in the playing music department for a while. I feel each of those skills can be used for many things, including puja or just a "hey Ma, this one's for you".

One of my favourite belly dancers, Ariellah, whose style is what's called gothic fusion bellydance, put together a choreography as a devotion to Ma Kali on a DVD that is part of a "Fantasy" series. The particular one hers was on, was titled "Magic" and each of the three choreographies are very ritualistic for each of the women who did them. The song that Ariellah chose was called Filii Neidhardi by Corvus Corvax. Though it definitely isn't a traditional Indian song, I can see why she chose it and I do kinda feel a connection between that song and Ma.

For me, dance can be a profound way to reach the divine within myself and without. Singing does the same, though it's a bit difficult at a Karaoke bar to feel "close to God". It's all about what resonates within your soul...for me, music definitely does that and I try to find any way I can to express it.

If your interested in the dvd: www.youtube.com/watch

The Band and that song: www.myspace.com/spielleute

If it resonates with you and you can turn that resonance into something you recognize as ecstasy, madness doesn't really need method.

I'm a horn player mainly, and self-taught on guitar. Used to play in a band - modern jazz, free improv stuff mostly - and when it was going well, when I was really PLAYING, I knew it because I felt something play through me. I became, literally, a mouthpiece, and would just let it happen. Sometimes it was real, ecstatic trance (hopefully the audience understood - as you say, there's a very fine line between divinity and narcissism, esp. in modern jazz!).

I want to get a tanpura so that I can have a drone accompanyment for japas, and I'm very, very drawn to learning the bansuri flute. I think that's going to be my next project, and I'd love to take it to the point where I can offer it up to Maa.