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	New Year's Message From Deva   Namaste dear friends.   I want to share a few things with you that have inspired me lately, and I feel there is no better time than now - the beginning of a New Year!   Satsang Circles   As you probably know, we have created a Forum on our website for people who want to get together to meditate and sing in community. You can read a full description of what that could look like here. I have been watching the Forum grow over the last year and have been touched by your enthusiasm. Miten and I started bringing people together in Satsang about 14 years ago and you know what...? The first one we ever led had one participant! If we had waited for more, we would never have gotten started. So what I am trying to say is... Don’t wait! If you feel to bring more meditation and community into your life, just begin. Alone, if necessary. Create a regular Satsang time in your home - once a week maybe...or once a month...whatever feels good. And let your friends know that you will be chanting and sitting in meditation for an hour at that time, and they are welcome to join. Then go ahead and post the details on the Forum. I see it as creating little pools of light and energy all over the planet.   Your Inspiring Messages   Miten and I want to express our deepest gratitude for all the amazing messages of love and appreciation you send us, either through the email or MySpace. Thank you so much for taking the time to write. What an honour it is to hear from you. So far we have been doing our best to answer all the messages personally (sometimes later rather than sooner!) but lately it’s become too much for us to handle. We found ourselves spending more time on the computer than playing music. However, that doesn’t mean that we want you to stop writing! We love your messages…and very often have tears in our eyes reading them. It’s just to say if you have written and haven’t had a reply, don’t think your message has not been received. Music has to come first - and right now we’re currently preparing TWO new albums for 2007! (More about these in the next Newsletter.)   Vegetarianism/Veganism   Although I grew up a vegetarian, I have never felt to convince others to follow the same path. Far be it from me to interfere into anyone’s life. That was until last year…. When we played at the Omega Yoga Conference in September we were deeply touched by a discussion panel on vegetarianism, hosted by David Life and Sharon Gannon. The figures showing how much impact eating meat has on the environment were mind blowing. Not to mention the suffering caused to the animals themselves. Here is some information you may like to digest (excuse the pun!):   • More than 25 billion animals are killed each year for food in the United States alone. That statistic is staggering considering the fact that there are only 6 billion human beings in the entire world. Eating meat takes an environmental toll that generations to come will be forced to pay. • Raising animals for food causes more water pollution in the U.S. than any other industry - because animals raised for food create 130 times the excrement of the entire human population---87,000 pounds per second! Much of the waste from factory farms and slaughterhouses flows into streams and rivers, contaminating water sources. • More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to grow crops to feed animals raised for meat, and another acre of trees disappears every eight seconds. The tropical rain forests are also being destroyed to create grazing land for cattle. Fifty-five square feet of rain forest may be razed to produce just one quarter-pound burger. • More than half the water consumed in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat. A totally vegetarian diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day.   You can also learn more about the global impact of what we eat in John Robbins’ The Food Revolution: How Diet Can Help Save Your Life And Our World. Like I said, I’m the last one to stand up on a soap box, but these figures just cry out to be considered. In addition to this, the panel also brought to my awareness that a diet that includes dairy products can also cause much suffering to the animal providing it.   Consequently, Miten and I have been experimenting with reducing our intake of dairy products - and so far so good! We just discovered that chai made with almond milk tastes as good as the real thing! (And Miten is verrry fussy about his chai!!) I apologize if you feel I’m preaching, but apart from anything else, I also feel that the survival of the planet depends on these seemingly personal choices.   Miten and I wish you the most blessed New Year. Keep singing, keep your heart strong, be your own light...and sing your own song! We’ll see you down the road.   And finally, a word from Sting:   "...Music is probably the oldest religious rite. Our ancestors used melody and rhythm to co-opt the spirit world to their purposes—to try and make sense of the universe. The first priests were probably musicians. The first prayers probably songs... music and silence are priceless gifts, may you always possess them. May they always possess you..." Berklee College of Music   With love, and every blessing,   Deva