The Medicine of Kirtan
Traditionally KIRTAN is a call and response participatory singing practice. The word KIRT means to name, to communicate, to celebrate, to praise, and to glorify.
Kirtan, is a chanting practice of union through devotion, that encourages the repetition of Sanskrit Mantras and/or the sacred Names to merge in deep meditation (Bhava Samadhi)
The singing of BHAJAN is also a part of the spiritual music tradition of India. It’s root BHAJ means to worship, to revere, to love and refers to songs in prayer and hymns to the divine (rather than the repetition of God’s name). Many based in the very words of recognized mystics and saints of all times.
Calling out the many names of the divine unnameable we are retrieving our true nature, one common to everything, where there are NOT TWO, without distinctions, we uphold the sacred and our place within creation, one of natural gratefulness, service, respect and care where we are this love the immortal flow of energy that nourishes and preserves; which eternal goal is life.
Chanting is an extremely satisfying sensory experience that can purify our senses and emotions, as well as our surroundings, and lead us naturally to contentment or contemplation. The healing power of the voice finds its fullest expression through chanting.
Through this sacred song we are the resonance of what is true and real, this is the song play that moves the river to the sea, the ecstasy, the joy, the peace and the happiness of it. Chanting is revolutionary, you do not need special skills, to be a good singer or a talented musician merely the fire to offer yourself through your voice. The consent to one’s source, to expressing essence and presence, to sing from Here ''not the past nor the future'', to use one's voice is balancing, is empowering.
Chanting is an invitation to offer in song what estranges us from Self, to be freed from thoughts of doubt and fear, to end the betrayal and neglect, to flower in PEACE. To discharge your river of separateness into the ocean of Being.
To gain concentration in this age of materialism, bhajan is easier than meditation.
By loud singing, other distracting sounds will be overcome and concentration will be achieved.
Bhajan, concentration and meditation, this is the progression.
In fact, constant remembrance of God is meditation.
Bhajans sung with one-pointedness, will benefit the singer, the listener and also Mother Nature.
Such songs will awaken the listeners’ minds.
- Amma (Amritananda Mayi)
Kirtan, is a chanting practice of union through devotion, that encourages the repetition of Sanskrit Mantras and/or the sacred Names to merge in deep meditation (Bhava Samadhi)
The singing of BHAJAN is also a part of the spiritual music tradition of India. It’s root BHAJ means to worship, to revere, to love and refers to songs in prayer and hymns to the divine (rather than the repetition of God’s name). Many based in the very words of recognized mystics and saints of all times.
Calling out the many names of the divine unnameable we are retrieving our true nature, one common to everything, where there are NOT TWO, without distinctions, we uphold the sacred and our place within creation, one of natural gratefulness, service, respect and care where we are this love the immortal flow of energy that nourishes and preserves; which eternal goal is life.
Chanting is an extremely satisfying sensory experience that can purify our senses and emotions, as well as our surroundings, and lead us naturally to contentment or contemplation. The healing power of the voice finds its fullest expression through chanting.
Through this sacred song we are the resonance of what is true and real, this is the song play that moves the river to the sea, the ecstasy, the joy, the peace and the happiness of it. Chanting is revolutionary, you do not need special skills, to be a good singer or a talented musician merely the fire to offer yourself through your voice. The consent to one’s source, to expressing essence and presence, to sing from Here ''not the past nor the future'', to use one's voice is balancing, is empowering.
Chanting is an invitation to offer in song what estranges us from Self, to be freed from thoughts of doubt and fear, to end the betrayal and neglect, to flower in PEACE. To discharge your river of separateness into the ocean of Being.
To gain concentration in this age of materialism, bhajan is easier than meditation.
By loud singing, other distracting sounds will be overcome and concentration will be achieved.
Bhajan, concentration and meditation, this is the progression.
In fact, constant remembrance of God is meditation.
Bhajans sung with one-pointedness, will benefit the singer, the listener and also Mother Nature.
Such songs will awaken the listeners’ minds.
- Amma (Amritananda Mayi)
“Chant is worship and celebration of the sacred through melodically simple vocalizations”
— Robert Gass
“The latest discoveries in neuroscience confirm the healing power of sound, of devotional singing in particular. Chanting awakens all the physical and energetic psychic centers, stimulates the immune system and the emotional body… ”
— (Sylvia Nakkach, MA, MMT, award-winning composer, music healer, and founding director of Vox Mundi School)