Kirtan: The Yoga Of Sound

What is kirtan?

Kirtan is a call and response group chanting experience lead by one leader and often accompanied by other musicians and chanters. Often there are drums, a harmonium and other traditional indian instruments. At a Kirtan traditional sanskrit vedic mantras are chanted with freedom and devotion to help invoke the qualities of the mantra.

Kirtan arise from the Bhakti movement in the 7th and 12th centuries in India, this movement saw people using poetry, music and Vedic mantras as a way of expressing love and devotion to their God. Nowadays Kirtan is practised globally and there is no religious requirement-you can practice whatever your belief system.

What does it do?

Devotional Kirtan helps to open your heart and release any energetic and emotional blockages in the body. Chanting is a beautiful and powerful way to help bring us back into balance by using sacred mantras and the voice to express and release. This isnt about having a beautiful singing voice, but rather about a transmission and expression of divine energy: whatever that may look like for you. Using the voice allows us to be more fully ourselves and to express and voice that through sound that we might not otherwise feel able to. It also is a powerful way to regulate the nervous system and to help bring people together in community. Kirtan can be incredibly uplifting, joyful and deeply expansive.