Allow me a quick introduction. My name is Mata Mandir Singh Khalsa. I know it’s a long name so, just call me Mata. It means mother. My music and teaching derive from the teachings of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, and the Sikh Gurus who were masters of the Naad or sound current as well as music for meditation and spiritual consciousness called “kirtan”.  More on that later.

I am about to embark on my first tour around the U.S. East Coast. I will be  performing Kirtan/Mantra concerts and teaching workshops in mantra and meditation, also called Naad Yoga and Shakti yoga which is a type of martial art called Gatka (but so much more than that)  developed in the subcontinent of India.

I have decided to keep my carbon footprint as low as possible as well as the budget , and drive a veggie oil truck from Espanola New mexico to my first gig on the East coast which will be a major Yoga Festival in Millis Mass, near Boston. So I have purchased an old 1988 Chevy Silverado Diesel truck , parked a stripped down camper on the back of it, and am busy running around collecting used cooking oil. I have friends with the Soothing Touch cosmetic company that blessed me with my first half full 55 gallon drum of very clean cosmetic oil . My exhaust is gonna smell sweet!

The other thing keeping me busy is converting the truck to run on the veggie oil. To do that basically one has to put in an extra gas tank and run heated fuel lines with a variety of gauges and filters and be able to switch fuel tanks when the veggie oil and motor reach a certain temperature that allows the oil to burn clean and efficient. In other words, you have to start the truck on diesel and then switch it over to veg. Why am I doing this?

1. Veggie oil is far less polluting than petroleum. It contains no sulfur, emits 90% less pollutants than petroleum products.

2. Its free although quite a bit of work filtering and collecting it. However it is a good exercise in recycling.

3. So I can hold a little more money in my wallet, pollute a little less and help reduce our dependence on oil, foreign or otherwise.

What worries me as I plan the trip? That I wont get the conversion done in time, that I wont be able to collect enough oil , and that crossing borders will be tough as some people say the EPA considers the conversions to be un -tested   therefore illegal.

Now, considering that Mr. Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine to run on peanut oil, disappeared from a ferry boat on his way from the mainland to England to give a presentation on alternative fuels. Three years later his engine was introduced to the public , modified to run on a heavy petroleum fuel, that they had the discourtesy to name after him.  So it seems to me that the EPA has had it backwards all these years.

Rudolf Diesel said, “The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time.” After his suspected murder, the Diesel engine was engineered to run only on petroleum based products and his great ideas of a clean burning engine died with him.

The EPA could be working to reverse the negative effects of that long ago crime instead of looking for aging hippies with guitars running on fry oil.

My first gig is in Millis Mass. Thats nearly 2,500 miles from New Mexico. The festival ,where I have to play is On Saturday Sept 19th . I have to build a band and practice the day before, so i must arrive on the evening of the 17th… latest. so I figure, an average speed of 50 mph is doable for 12 hours a day netting me 600 miles per day. So I need about 4 long days to reach. So if I leave on the 13th latest that gives me time with a day to spare for unforeseen possibilities.

Ill keep a running commentary on the buildup to the launch date and then keep track of thoughts ,words and deeds that I experience along the way.

Many blessings and prosperity to all.

Mata mandir Singh

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