Flower Garden Star ✿ Gianprem Kaur
Last month my beautiful, dear friend Gianprem and I took a spontaneous road trip up North to Big Sur. Our goal was to get reconnected with nature by visiting the farm at The Esalen Institute. Gianprem knows the farm very well since she lived and worked on the land there for over a year and half. I first met Gianprem Kaur through the Kundalini practice and instantly was drawn to her light and gentle spirit. Due to the practice, our friendship blossomed quickly and has always seemed effortless. We had such a magical journey driving up the coast, stopping in a health food store in San Luis Obispo, and searching for moon stones on Moon Stone Beach. Once in Big Sur, we spent hours on the farm literally rolling around the flower patches, and then hiking to a secret, magic, waterfall in the mountains. The farm at Esalen was so full of vibrant life and energy that I came home completely inspired to plant more flowers and get back into the earth. I was reminded about the power of flowers and garden spirits (Devas). Gianprem is a rare multi-talented spirit who can grow organic produce from seed, harvest it, and then prepare a dish imbued with light and life force. You can learn more on her site Earth Love Food. She also is trained in Flower Essence Therapy can be very useful! She has me using California Rose and Borage Flower essences. Her interview below is so inspiring!
1) You have so much expertise in flower essences, nutrition, growing food, Kundalini Yoga and more. Do you feel like one is stronger than the others or do they all tie into each other?
I feel they all come together in the kitchen garden. Kundalini Yoga and a daily sadhana is the light of my life. It’s what nourishes me, body and soul. The flowers and food is how I bring this nourishment to others. Raising the vibration of what we eat is something I have always been working with and when Yogi Bhajan came to me in a meditation and in his very commanding tone said, “Put it in the food!” I understood. So all the higher frequencies we are tuning into and the energy we build with this practice, all the mantras and meditations go into this labor of love, whether I’m meditating, chanting, growing food or cooking it, one way or another it’s destined to be nourishment.
2) What inspires you?
At this moment I am so inspired by women in general. Our immaculate power, our capacity to birth, our fierce mother nature, our profound sensitivity and the depth of our love. I am blessed to know so many powerful, beautiful, wise women who are walking this path with me. Upholding each other to our highest, so we may give all our gifts to this world and receive all our dreams and all the love we desire with a tender, open abundant heart. I am consistently inspired by teachers like Harijiwan and Tej who raise the frequency of this planet with their every breath. I am so grateful for the teachings of Yogi Bhajan and the way these teachers are breathing life into them, challenging us every step of the way and guiding us to experience our highest destiny and serve this place in all those we meet.
3) You taught me about garden devas can you tell us more about that?
Oh yes, the Devas absolutely adore you Shiva! There is so much to say about the Devas where to begin. Devas are like tiny frequencies of light. Little garden stars. You have to adjust your eyesight, from dark to light, to see them. And if you listen they bring you messages from the heavens. Some people talk about them like they are fairies. It’s whatever rings true to you. There is a lot happening in a garden that does not meet the eye. A garden is a direct channel to the higher worlds. Each plant is like tiny portal opening to vast solar systems. Celestial realms, angels, devas, nature spirits, the whole cosmos and galaxies are working with the plants in a garden. If you are familiar with the work of Goethe and Rudolf Steiner, they have a beautiful way explaining these energies.
Artemisia (Mugwort) was the first Deva I spoke with while working in the garden at Esalen. A whole new world opened up to me and I began to learn about the herbs, flower essences and plant spirits in a different way. The way of the herbs and flowers is very special. They know the language of our consciousness but they speak directly to our soul. Sometimes an herb has to come to us several times before we make the connection “Oh mugwort I’ve heard of that …or someone told me to take that…” Or we are in a store and they just slip off the shelf into our hands.
4) What was your biggest realization after living on the farm in Esalen?
It was like the world went from a 3D full color spectrum rainbow to a little black and white TV the day I left Esalen. I remember standing at the gas station on Hwy 1, swiping my credit card and feeling this current of energy move through me, it was such an awful strange mixture of alienation, fear and sadness. I made promises to myself to always stay connected with mother earth, to honor her precious resources, to tend her soil and care for all her living beings. I promised myself I would grow my own food and help others to do the same and I would always always live in community. I haven’t been able to keep all those promises. I think where I have succeeded the most is in my relationship to my food and the nourishment I prepare for other people.
I learned quickly that the one thing we all can do each day to care for our earth and all its inhabitants is to do what we are already doing but do it consciously and with love. Eating, in its very essence is an opportunity to be in a harmonious relationship with our earth. It just takes getting to know your local farms and farmers, and this truly is the finest, healthiest way to feed yourself. The great Wendell Berry says, “Eating is an agricultural act” So essentially if we are eaters, which we know we are, we are also farmers and there is absolutely no separation. We know what we need to do now. It’s just a matter of creating healthier systems, beginning with our own individual food system because it’s our life-support system. And we are the ones actually doing it. That is eating, I mean.
When you are blessed to grow your own food, you get to have a relationship with your food, and likewise with our earth, to fall in love with it, to know it from seed, to touch its spirit with your spirit so it knows you and grows precisely the minerals and other nutrients you need…it’s a balance of giving and receiving, that’s love…and it changes the way you eat forever.
5) Do you see our planet moving towards light or is it a challenge?
We hold the answer inside of us, each one of us. At this moment we all have such a beautiful, valuable part to play and we need all of our lights to work together. We need to be our brightest so we can help others find their light. The more we expand our light the more the challenges will be there to press on us. Earth is a polarity planet. So naturally the resistance is there. That’s why we “keep up” because we are in this together. Sadhana, a teacher to guide us and a community of heart-centered people can help us move beyond the resistance. It’s the Age of Information Overwhelm but it’s also a really exciting time if you know how to use the information. We are beautifully resilient, strong creatures. And we have such capacity for change. Because we can Love. We can connect all our hearts in a field of light that is so bright, so infinite and so powerful. And then we are there. 5D. The fifth dimension. It just takes a few of us to create a field of energy.
6) What is your beauty secret?
The Garden. Getting in the dirt and being with the flowers. Seeing the beauty in all. Being the beauty in all. Like the Navajo blessing song “In beauty may I walk, all day long may I walk…”
7) Do you have a quick go to recipe for make you feel good and raising your vibration? What is it?
Raw chocolate always makes my heart sing. It’s so easy to make you will never want to buy chocolate again. Double boil cacao paste add a little coconut butter or oil, add coconut sugar syrup (made by mixing water and coconut sugar) and whatever else your heart desires you can add maca, rosewater, sea salt.
Cacao paste is really the essential ingredient. I order it from a beautiful woman named Jen who owns the Chocola Tree in Sedona, Az. This woman knows her cacao amongst many other things. She taught me what a strong food and powerful spirit medicine this is, it helps you speak your truth and be in your authentic power. Maybe that’s why women crave it and because it’s so mineral rich. It’s so special it won’t grow in commercial quantities only in small batches, with other magical companion plants like bananas, teaching us the wisdom of farming with mother nature.
8) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see heaven on earth. A farm growing lots of flowers for the bees. Near the Ocean. I hear children laughing and women singing. I see myself surfing. Hopefully I will have learned to by then!
9) What book are you reading?
It has lots of dreamy mystical imagery of women birthing new worlds. All stories about women and creation are of interest to me at this moment.
The Mind: Its Projections and Multiple Facets
is with me everywhere I go these days. It’s like my navigation system. And it’s very comforting to sleep with it at night. Our mind directs the flow of our life, so every moment, every thought, is an opportunity to create all the beauty and love and build the bridge to our heaven on earth.
10) Are you a mermaid or forest fairy?
In my heart I will always be forest fairy. Someday soon l might become a mermaid or perhaps I’ll marry a merman <3
Shiva and GianPreM, thank You. This is a beautiful interview. I feel the Love and
the Light. Thank You Goddesses and Thank You
big sur. All my Love, Leticia
so inspiring on every level!!! Thank you Gian Prem and Shiva Rose
Glorious! Thank you for this introduction and for sharing your beautiful spirits with us here ~
beautiful. inspires me to get back to my sadhana. I feel the love and connection – thank you!