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An S in the sky!
Is it Shiva, Shakti, yin yang Om Shanti, or more Super friends?! The more the merrier, so let's invite One and All!
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna

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On my way to seeing the great western kirtan singer Krishna Das in March 2011, this melody and phrase popped into my head. Joyously I sang it all the way to the Hindu temple, and worked out the chords later for friends. It's funny, I asked Krishna Das that night if he remembered past lives of singing kirtan, and he said (as he so often does) he's a simple guy, a one-trick pony, he just does what he does, he doesn't think about other stuff - but he also said that psychics tell him he was the King of Minoa. Now that's interesting; Minoa is the ancient land of Crete and the labyrinth, where spirals help you find your way in or out. At a mask exhibit almost one year before, the face of Ariadne called me back when I turned away. I felt the pressure on the nape of my neck. I returned to the mask and heard a woman announce in my head in a delighted proud tone, that I was almost out of the maze! And she was right; by the grace of God and eternal Love, that's why I'm here today. Ariadne was the daughter of Minos the King of Minoa, and she helped Theseus with whom she fell in love to conquer the Minotaur and follow the thread out of the labyrinth. Thus you too may call upon Ariadne for assistance to escape the maze of illusion and return to the center of your own eternal life.

Here is a tablature for "Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna", with chords above each line, melody below. Press shift and click on the title to hear a simple recording in the background to help you learn. Kirtan was invented as a democratization of complex Hindu Brahmin chants in order to liberate more souls from the caste system. Kirtan uses sweet easy melodies and drops all but the most holy names. Om is the sound of creation, and Shiva is the masculine major form of God who destroys the old illusions to make more room for what is real. Kali is the feminine counterpart of Shiva and his consort: the Goddess of death and transformation and eternal time. Kali appears fearsome to those who oppose evolution, and sweet and motherly to those who would help her transform the world (early in my journey, she came to me this way). Shakti is the feminine creative wisdom and power of God, much like the Shekinah, Sophia, Isis, Mother Mary, and so many more. Krishna is the benevolent playful incarnation of God to whom lovers may call for protection and help to reunite in the world. Kirtans are sung in call and response, starting slow, becoming faster and faster to promote ecstatic singing, and then concluding slow and soft again. So I usually play this kirtan song each line twice, the first pair a few times before switching to the second pair and back again. The last pair of lines are gently sung at the end.


press shift and click on song title to stay on this page and play melody in background from www.ReturnOfHildegard.com


"Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna"
by Carl Johann Schroeder

D        C Am C   Am C    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna

D        C D  C   D  Am   D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna

C        G D  G   D  D    G
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna

D        Am C Am  C  C    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna

D        C G  C   G  G    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna

D        C    G      G    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna

same thing now with melody notes, where v denotes stepping down in the scale and ^ going up, and if no arrow it's a continuation.


D        C Am C   Am C    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna
d  ^e vd vcva c   a  c ^d d 

D        C D  C   D  Am   D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna
d  ^e ^f ^g f g   f  ve   vd

C        G  D G   D  D    G
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna
^g g  ^a ^bva b   a  a    vg

D        Am C Am  C  C    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna
vf f  ^g ^avg a   g  ve^fevd

D        C G  C   G  G    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna
va a  ^b ^cvb c   b  vg   ^a

D        C    G      G    D
Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna
^a a  a  vg   g      vd   d^evd


" Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna" lyrics and music by Carl Johann Schroeder, March 2011 - copyright 2011, all rights reserved, when credited and not altered then permission is granted for public performance and free distribution of text to that end, no resale or commercial rights implied, contact author for further details.

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" Om Shiva Kali Shakti Krishna" by Carl Johann Schroeder is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.ReturnOfHildegard.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.ReturnOfHildegard.com.