Summer showers failed to dampen the spirits of more than 1,000 people who gathered in the mountains west of Española June 20 for the 24th annual Peace Prayer Day. In fact, the rain brought an unexpected surprise.
As attendees waited for a dozen runners to trudge up 31-Mile Road with an inaugural torch lit that morning in Chimayó, a rainbow cut through the rain and appeared across the top of the Jemez Mountains.
“That’s the biggest, fattest, rainbow I’ve ever seen,” Guru Mantra Singh Khalsa, of San Diego, Calif., said. “That’s something really special.”
A Sikh woman was overheard pointing out to her child how each colored band represents the color of a chakra — one of seven centers of spiritual energy in the human body, according to yogic philosophy.
Hundreds of Sikhs, yoga practitioners and other spiritual seekers come each year to Puri Ram Das, a property the Sombrillo-based Sikh community purchased in 1978, for a week-long retreat of yoga and prayer that coincides with the summer solstice.
The event begins with Peace Prayer Day, which is open to the public.
As the torch runners neared Puri Ram Das, an afternoon full of music and prayer culminated with a blessing by Okhay Owingeh tribal members and chants led by Guru Singh, described by attendees as a “superstar” in the Sikh community who has recorded albums with pop musician Seal.
Singh asked the audience to gather close together, leaving just enough room for the torch-bearers to run through the crowd and up to the stage, where they would deliver the flame to spiritual leaders. As the runners staggered in from their 19-mile run, the crowd surged forward and enveloped them with cheers.
The excitement then calmed into quiet meditation for the sacred healing walk, which consists of visiting three altars situated along a 1.25-mile circle. The walk takes place to the beat of drums and is done barefoot, on one’s heels, to soak in healing from the sacred earth.
Khalsa said he has been attending the event since the early 1970s, before the Sikh community bought Puri Ram Das and the event was held in the Pecos Mountains. He attends for the week of Kundalini yoga that follows Peace Prayer Day.
Attendees camp at Puri Ram Das and wake up every morning for a two-hour yoga session starting at 4 a.m., he said. Although most attendees are Sikh, the event draws yoga enthusiasts of all faiths from countries as far-flung as Chile, India and Togo.
Issah Mussah Adams traveled to Puri Ram Das from Ghana. Adams said he has been promoting yoga since 2005, when he and 25 others were personally trained by the yogi Krishna Kaur.
“We work to create awareness of yoga, because it’s healing practice that can help everybody,” Adams said. “People in Ghana, the Muslims and Christians, see it as a religious practice and don’t want to take part. I am not Sikh. My father was Muslim, my mother was Christian and I grew up with an understanding of African religion. But no matter what faith you are, you can practice yoga and heal. That’s why I’m here — my very first time.”