A Time for Kirtan

This week I participated in a Kirtan at my local Yoga school. It was the end of year occasion which also celebrated the time and effort of graduating Yoga teachers this year. It was of course a special celebration for all who gathered together. Kirtan is a traditional form of call and response chanting that invokes aspects of our higher selves by chanting and calling forth the names and presence of Hindu deities. Even if you have no particular faith or if you choose to express your belief in a higher power through another god, or no god at all, there is something to experience and take away from a Kirtan. It is a special nourishing and uplifting practice that will enhance your experience of Yoga in new ways. You can find out more about Kirtan on the web but you may also be lucky enough have a local yoga school or meditation centre where you can ask about or try out a Kirtan.

I started going to Kirtan about a year and a half ago, first on my own, then with my first child and later in a role as kirtankara, who leads the singing. When I first began, it seemed a lot like the experience of playing or enjoying music together with others. I enjoyed the rhythm and the sense of being in harmony with others expressing the same song. It was uplifting and connecting, and of course it had a most joyous aspect to it, leaving me feeling more confident and with clearer voice.

It has become more devotional as I continued the practice with a growing sense of Kirtan as an act of singing Gods name and at the same time cultivating or invoking the presence of God within the room and within the heart centre. There are of course other benefits to the chanting itself which have to do with the vibrational energy of the ancient sanskrit words. This has nothing to do with any particular god.

It is a chance to let go, to truly experience that which we hold as our higher self and the higher selves of countless other beings both in the room and across the universe. This is a very important practice and awareness right now in our world and I am fortunate to have the chance to join in the singing.

Satya and the Creation of Harmony

I've been thinking this week about the Yama of Satya or truthfulness. This topic was introduced by my teacher during Monday's class and I was gifted a good read here which expanded on Satya as a powerful principle that has great harmonising effect on the world around us. It got me to thinking and growing more aware during practice of how we all have a role in creating harmony in the world and that our impact is greater than we often think. 
When we express truth and speak with restraint and for the benefit of other humans, we can exert a powerful effect on others and inspire them to do the same. This benefits us all and as a community we experience growth.

We can underestimate of forget how we influence and change the world beyond the sphere of our physical influence or close relations. Our media and the structures of our society keep us thinking we are here to consume products and produce work, but actually there is more to it than that. Isn't there?



Namaste.

(image courtesy)

Yoga and Connection

I'm constantly surprised by how the practice of yoga brings about connections that were not previously possible. Connections between people, the connection of a person to their body, our connection to the earth. My wife and I joke at times that when something coincidental happened it was somehow "Yoga". This running joke was present long before either of us had discovered yoga. It was just a thing we said. I believe the practice of Yoga creates connections that were not previously possible, but now they exist, seem as though they have always been present. 

The other day I grew mindful of how the practice of some afternoon Yoga and awareness put me squarely in the moment as I watered some plants out in the garden. As a one time guerrilla gardener, who has since grown far too busy for his own good, this reconnection to a joy, long forgotten, was inspiring. 

When we feel connected to the earth around us, there is no threat, no need for defensive postures of mind or body, the world greets us with abundance and embrace.