Kirtan

Kirtan, the singing or chanting of sacred mantras, or Transcendental Sound, is an easy yet sublime method of yoga meditation that has been practiced since time immemorial. It is the recommended process for self-realization in the modern age and has the gradual effect of cleansing your heart and mind, helping you to awaken and cultivate your inherent wisdom and spiritual love.

Kirtan is for Everyone

Kirtan is enjoyed by people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Kirtan transcends all languages, nationalities, and religious faiths. Anyone can practice kirtan. You can be five or 95; physically fit or unfit. You may be a practitioner of yoga asanas, or you may be disabled and in a wheel chair. It doesn’t matter if you are a scholar or illiterate; single or married; man or woman. Kirtan is as universal as a beautiful sunrise.

Benefits of Kirtan

Regularly immersing your heart and mind in kirtan will illuminate your path in life, and shed light on your relationships with others, your work, your environment, how to deal with failures and setbacks, and on every aspect of your life.

Not only does kirtan help relieve stress, worries, and anxiety, it awakens and cultivates the innate wisdom, happiness, and spiritual love lying dormant within you. By gradually cleansing your heart and mind, you can discover and experience your real identity, self-worth, and purpose in life.

How is Kirtan practiced?

Kirtan is sometimes called music meditation as it incorporates playing musical instruments, singing, chanting, and dancing. However, it can be practiced with or without instruments, and in any musical style. You can practice alone or in a small or large group. You can chant loudly or softly, you can dance, or remain seated. Kirtan is generally practiced in call and response style, where one person will lead the kirtan by chanting a mantra, and others respond in unison, repeating the mantra.

What is Transcendental Sound?

Transcendental Sound is not something that can be made up, nor is it comprised of mundane words specific to a particular religion or region of the world. A sacred mantra, or Transcendental Sound, is comprised of various names or descriptions of the Supreme Soul. It originates in the spiritual realm and descends to the material platform without losing any potency, having been handed down orally for countless centuries via a chain of bonafide spiritual masters.

Kirtan is a deep reservoir of all-satisfying waters that allows you to experience inner peace and spiritual happiness. The more you drink from this reservoir, the more your heart will be filled with spiritual love and comfort.

The Nature of the Soul

A flower is by nature soft, sweet and fragrant. So are we. We are tender, sensitive living beings, but due to being covered by layers of material elements we appear hard, even to ourselves. But in the depths of our hearts we are soft: we desire to love and be loved. To love is the living entity’s happiness, the very nature of the soul. The rock does not love; matter is dead energy. A corpse fails to exhibit love because the loving, living being has left the body.

I want to feel love for you. I don’t want to see you or treat you as a “thing” or object to exploit and use. I want to see and treat you as you are… a person, a living being, a spirit-soul, who happens to be in a particular type of body. These bodies, like clothes, have particular names and titles, such as white, black, man, women, Christian, Hindu, young, old, etc. But we are not these bodies or bodily designations. I don’t want to see your clothes as being you, nor do I want to see my clothes as being me. I want to be friends with you. But real friendship is deeper than cocktail party friendship… it is soul to soul, person to person, living being to living being.

Because we are all living beings, parts and parcels of the Supreme Being, we are all relatives in the truest sense of the word. God is our common Father, Mother, Friend and Lover. Therefore, if I love the Supreme Spirit, then that love will expand to everyone. I will experience love for all His parts and parcels.

It is from this ocean of unlimited love that I desire to drink. I have tasted the sweet flavor of this nectarean ocean and crave to taste it again. I want to taste unlimited, eternal love. I am tired of living in a world of hardheartedness… not just of others, but my own also. I’m tired of living, yet being dead. I’m tired of having conversations, but never communicating. I’m tired of singing, but being without a song. I’m tired of having friends, but never knowing them.

I humbly ask to be forgiven by anyone of you who may consider me to be a fool or wishful thinker for wanting to go beyond the artificial suffering world which we all know. And I invite anyone who shares this desire to taste with me the sweet flavor of Transcendental Sound and be transported to the eternal realm of Love of God, the real friend of each of us.

Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda

International Yoga Day

International Yoga day was a wonderful experience for all who attended. Everyone was touched by the community feel of being together and working towards peace and harmony in the world. The day began with opening speech from Varansadha – a friend of Meditation NZ- on the meaning of yoga. He talked about how asanas and meditation are part of the 8 limbs of yoga. This was followed by a Beginners Yoga stretch session taken by Rire Yoga Rhythms. Radha from Meditation NZ led the Yoga nidra – relaxation part, followed by a mindfulness yoga meditation- Gauranga pranayama breathing completed with a beautiful kirtan of transcendental yoga sound mantras. Next, Kara Leah-Grant from The Yoga Lunchbox spoke about yoga and then her and Rire taught a beautiful free yoga routine which ended in a circle of OM chanting that reached the ceiling and beyond. It was all very powerful and freeing. After a short break of refreshments including hot soup, chai tea, vegan muffins, vegan veggie stack, Ivesvara from Meditation NZ led a moving kirtan meditation. Following the break, Nikki Ralston from Urban Ashram led her yoga routine of Hatha Yoga asanas. She ended with a very heartfelt and moving OM experience. Mantra Night Kirtan band closed out the day with a selection of mellow and upbeat kirtans. Yoga day was a beautiful combination of yoga asanas and yoga sound meditation.

An enlightening experience to treasure.