A native of Chennai, South India, Russill Paul (Arinud Jaidev) took to playing stringed instruments from the early age of four and began professional music in his teens. Although he was born and brought up in a Christian family, he developed a keen interest in Indian spirituality in childhood that has guided him into the present day. In 1984, he underwent a powerful spiritual transition that motivated him to begin living the unusual combination of a Benedictine monk and yogi under the direction of Dom Bede Griffiths, a pioneering Benedictine monk and revered sage who directed Shantivanam, a Christian monastery that expressed itself through the spiritual and yogic culture of India. During the five years he spent as a monk, Russill Paul immersed himself in the sacred culture and spirituality of India's esteemed heritage, studying traditional Sanskrit chanting and South Indian classical music as well as yoga, meditation, philosophy and cosmology. In addition to his training at the monastery, Russill was initiated into the sacred learning of Sanskrit and Indian music in several ancient temple cities of South India enabling him to develop the tools related to his lifework: The Yoga of Sound. Russill has presented his work at prominent academic institutions, such as, Western Michigan State University and The Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, MI; Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle, IL; The California Institute of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA; and the Chicago Graduate Institute of Clinical Psychology in Chicago, IL, to name a few. For more information, go to his website: www.russillpaul.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.