Kirtan is a practice of bhakti yoga, or the yoga of love and devotion towards God. As it says in Be Here Now, “The way bhakti works is you just love until you and the Beloved become One.”
Kirtan has recently gained tremendous popularity in the west, and it is a great way to deepen one’s yoga practice. It is the call-and-response chanting of the various names of God/Goddess from the ancient Sanskrit language. All of these Names point to the deepest reaches of our own heart space where our True Nature resides.
When I sing, I draw my inspiration from my beloved teacher Ram Dass, the great Indian Saint Neem Karoli Baba and the monkey god Hanuman. In the Ramayana, a popular Indian epic, Ram (God) says to Hanuman, “Who are you?” Hanuman replys, “When I don’t know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, I am you.” This captures the essence of what kirtan can awaken in us: a life-long calling to be in service and devotion to Love. It is through this service and through this devotion that we begin to realize we are not separate. Love is the very nature of our Being. It is who we are.
What makes life vibrant and nourishing is when we can drop our guard and rest in our heart space. It is from this place that we can uninhibitedly express the beauty of our Authentic Self, and we can also see this beauty in every person we meet and every situation we find ourselves in. One of the things that kirtan can teach us is that it is always safe for our hearts to be open. In fact, it is the most joyous and wonderful thing we can do!
Kirtan is an open invitation for all participants to melt their hearts into Love. I would love to sing with you sometime.
Check out my schedule here. Or check out some clips from live kirtan!
Ram Ram!
