Ron Ragel
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| Ron Ragel | |
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 Ron Ragel playing sitar
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| Background information | |
| Born | Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Origin | Sydney, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Author, musician, educator |
| Label(s) | Global Grooves Medicine Music |
| Website | http://www.medicinemusic.com.au /> http://www.globalnetwork.com.au<br |
Ron Ragel is a musician, author, educator and a sound yoga therapist now living in Australia. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Ragel began playing stringed instruments at the early age of six. He moved to Australia from Sri Lanka in 1970 and is now an Australian citizen. He began playing music professionally in Sydney and was a founding member of pop/disco band Dark Tan who became the first ever all-Asian band to have received national recognition in Australia by the mid-seventies with a string of record releases. After leaving Dark Tan in 1976, Ragel went on to establish a successful career in the music industry.
By the late nineties he was best known for his work with promoting world music in Australia. From 1999 to 2001 he conceived and produced the inaugural Australian World Music Awards that recognized the achievement of world music artists living in Australia. His record label, Global Grooves, had become a prolific contributor in the ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) awards in the World music category. During this period Ragel produced award winning recordings for other artists most notably for West African musician Epizo Bangoura, recognized as Australia's premier World Music Artist at the turn of the century.
Ragel married Australian composer, Vicki Hansen, in 2001 and together they have released over seven albums in the last seven years. Ragel and Hansen are both multi-instrumentalists playing both traditional and modern instruments. Since 2005, Ragel's focus has been on presenting and promoting sacred music. He directs the work of "Medicine Music" an organization based in Sydney, Australia dedicated to the awareness of the healing power of sound, music and healing. In 2005 his work as a sound yoga therapist was featured on Channel 9’s “Celebrity Overhaul” program. Ragel has been involved with humanitarian work most notably with the Sarvodaya organization, Sri Lanka’s largest charity based in Sri Lanka. A passionate advocate of world peace through inner transformation, his overall philosophy of life is an integration of the perennial wisdom found in all true sources and the dissemination and practical applications of reaching a unified and undivided whole.
The following are quotes about Ragel from various international press:
"Know the meaning of the present and develop an endless appreciation of the past and a limitless aspiration of the future"
"music is a unifying force"
"a happy life he states is the outcome of an acute expression of soft action, orderly behaviour and clear thinking"
"your life is your art"
"the smart way to achieve something is through creative imagination, visualization, desire and commitment to the result"
"music knows no bounds, it is the song of the eternal soul which is really One, though its manifestations may be many"
"the music we compose and perform for meditation and higher conscious awareness brings the performer and listener closer to realising the inner spirit"
"...but today the pressing issue is peace. there is a renaissance of artists the world over holding the peace banner and as artists I think we have a responsibility to do that"
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[edit] Spiritual Teaching
In America in the spring of 89' Ragel says in his workbook "God is Sound" he had a deep spiritual experience that motivated him to pursue a spiritual path
"I was never able to quite settle back into business and professional life on my return from the US in 1989 and it was not possible to function effectively in the world and the world that I was used to. All ordinary motivations had disappeared along with the anxiety of work. Everything seemed to however unfold spontaneously. The subjective experience was very rarely discussed with anyone. It was not too common to hear people’s deep spiritual experiences. The power of the experience impacted life to the extent that everything seemed irrelevant and the accepted reality of the world began to seem only provisional. The traditional religious teachings that I was brought up with seemed to lose its importance and meaning. A deep interest in spiritual matters however had replaced religion. Everything and everybody needed recontextualizing". Ragel undertook many pilgrimages to India diving deeply into the sacred culture and spirituality of it's rich and powerful heritage. There were long periods of study of North Indian classical music as well intense study of yoga, meditation and philosophy whilst visiting many places of spiritual significance around the world, visiting many teachers and their spiritual earthly abodes."
In the workbook "God is Sound" he elaborates his own concepts with those of his teachers, the great interpreters of the ancient Vedas who demonstrated the direct spiritual pathway of non-duality and who have described the Spiritual realities of Self Realization. Ragel teaches and is a speaker on the subject of non-duality. He guides and inspires people on a path to self-realisation through an awareness of the healing power of music and sound from the unique perspective of a mystic.
[edit] Discography
- Global Roots, The Odyssey (2002)
- Sacred Ragas (2004)
- River of Om (2006)
- Universal Mother (2006)
[edit] Books
- Total Life Artistry (1997)
- God Is Sound (2006)
