What is Kirtan?

quoted from www.newworldkirtan.com

Kirtan is a very different kind of music.  Based on ancient chants, it has the ability to quiet the mind if listened to with intention.  Everyone experiences kirtan differently, and it doesn’t have to be a religious experience.  You can think of it as a sing-along.  A kirtan concert is not your typical concert either.  Everyone sits on the floor, although chairs are usually available.  The performers are accessible, in fact there’s not much of a distinction between performers & audience.  The wallah (leader) sings the mantra, and the audience sings it back.  A single chant can go on for up to forty minutes.  As you sing with each other you experience a deep connection with the musicians, the other audience members and yourself.  And when the music stops, your mind is quiet.

Because kirtan has roots in India, many of the songs are sung in Sanskrit.  Some I choose for the New World Kirtan podcast are also in Punjabi, the language of the Sikhs.  If you’ve ever chanted responses in Latin or Hebrew in your religious tradition, then you know how powerful singing in an ancient, holy language can be.  You can be completely immersed in the sound, with no words to distract the mind.  The magic of the chants can then carry you within.

Kirtan is non-denominational, the Universal language of Spirit, the song of the Soul.


SitaRam SitaRam
Hans(uman)
www.kirtan.nu
www.dezingendeziel.nl
www.dansenmetdegoden.nl www.stemyoga.nl

Krishna Das over Kirtan-zingen

van een youtube opname

"In India zeggen ze dat wat we zingen bij Kirtan de Goddelijke Namen zijn, de Namen van God (de Bron, het Universum, het Licht etc). En ze zeggen dat deze Namen uit een plek binnenin onszelf komen. Dus door ze te herhalen te zingen, dalen we dieper af in ons eigen Zijn. En de oefening is heel eenvoudig: je zingt, en het moment dat je ziet of merkt dat je aandacht afdwaalt, dat je ergens over aan het denken bent, of dat je aan het fantaseren bent over iemand naast je, dan kom je gewoon terug naar het zingen. Telkens, en telkens, en telkens weer, je laat gewoon los inkomt terug. En dat is de hele oefening. Geleidelijk aanleren we om "dieper" in ons Zelf te zitten/zijn, en de gedachtes en emoties die ons weghalen, beginnen door ons heen te passeren, zonder ons te pakken. Je ontwikkelt een  innerlijke sterkte, en dat is wat we nodig hebben."


en uit een intervieuw in Onkruid
“Als je thuis zingt en het voelt niet goed, denk je al snel dat je het niet goed doet of dat de oefening niet deugt. Maar het gaat niet om het creëren van een fijne sfeer. Het enige wat telt is dat je begint waar je nu bent. We hechten ons aan mooie muziek, een goede sfeer, een fijn gevoel. Daar gaat kirtan helemaal niet over. Kirtan heeft niets te maken met het tijdelijk creëren van een staat van geluk of plezier. We herhalen de namen, zodat die namen hun werk kunnen doen. Ik kan het niet vaak genoeg zeggen: mijn oefening is niet zingen! Mijn oefening is proberen in het hier en nu te zijn, en zingen helpt mij daarbij. Kirtan is geen muzikale oefening."

Hij blijft mijn held... :-)

SitaRam SitaRam
Hans(uman)
www.kirtan.nu
www.dezingendeziel.nl
www.dansenmetdegoden.nl  
www.stemyoga.nl

Connecting Through Kirtan: A New Experience of Community

After a few moments, Manish gently broke the silence, “Listen to the waves, and then listen to the space between the waves. Find yourself in that space.” This is where the kirtan had carried us, to this space, this deep silence between the waves. As Manish spoke to us, I could still feel the mantra coursing through my bloodstream with each heartbeat, Snatam’s voice carrying on into the silence. I felt such a sense of joy, my heart wanted to burst. I looked around and saw my emotions mirrored in the expressions of the people surrounding me. And suddenly, there was no space between the person next to me and me. We became so deeply connected by that shared experience, that there was an intimacy created beyond explanation. I did not know these people before we arrived at this kirtan event, but we left as family.
This experience of deep connectedness and community is being expressed by people attending kirtan gatherings and concerts all over the world. For many, kirtan has become their favorite practice of devotion, but for some, kirtan is a completely new experience. The idea of chanting in a group is completely foreign to them.

lees het hele artikel hier
read the whole article here

SitaRam SitaRam
Hans(uman)
www.kirtan.nu
www.dezingendeziel.nl
www.dansenmetdegoden.nl
www.stemyoga.nl

Nice words by Krishna Das (again)

pieces from an article in sufijournal.org
(...)
I don’t know what you know about my history. Twenty years had gone by since my Guru Maharaj-ji died. He died in ’73. And I hadn’t been chanting. I mean, I might’ve sung a little bit with friends and stuff but I wasn’t really chanting as a spiritual practice.
And I was standing in my room and I was struck with the understanding that if I did not chant with people, much to my chagrin, then I would never be able to clean out the dark corners of my own heart, myself. Chant was the only thing I had to do it with.
This was the only lifeline that was being thrown to me. There’s no question I was drowning. And I just knew that chanting was the only thing that would work for me. I mean I had been meditating, sitting with lamas, going to courses. I’d been doing things in my own way, but of course not allowing it to change my heart at all. That’s what we do. But then I knew chanting with people, that was the only thing I had.
It’s just what Maharaj-ji, my guru, gave me. I mean, we used to sing to him because he liked it, not because we were trying to be spiritual. He liked it and we got to spend time with him. We were, like, his performing monkeys, you know. When the Indians were giving him too much trouble, he’d call for the westerners to come in and sing.
(...)
What happens when you sing, when you use your voice? 
 I can’t tell you because I’m not there…What happens is my guru picks up this old rusty pipe, blows through it, and makes nice music. And when he’s finished he puts it down. And people in the room, they experience the music he plays. It’s just transmission of his presence. And that’s what people feel.
People come to sing with me, not because I’m the greatest singer in the world and this is the best music in the world. It’s not. Personally, I would rather listen to Bruce Springsteen, or The Rolling Stones, or Steely Dan, or Ray Charles, or Van Morrison. But here I am and here they are. And what we receive is the transmission of my guru’s presence, which is the presence that lives within each person, that being that lives within us—the indweller. That’s who he is.
So he’s bringing everybody into that presence through me. And I suppose it’s good for me. He just knocks me out of the way and does his thing, but of course I invite him. At least he lets me think I invite him. [laughter]
But as I see it, he’s doing everything. And I want to surrender completely to him, which I can’t do because surrender comes from grace. So when he’s ready, he’ll surrender me. And my job is just to get ready, to keep chanting the name, keep listening, keep hearing.
He didn’t tell me to do this. I’m doing this to save my ass. And on the strength of that everybody else who comes is doing this to save their ass. It’s not entertainment for me and it’s not entertainment for them.

In the Vedic tradition, there’s what they call non-dual Bhakti. It’s seeing the non-dual in the dual, without any holding back. It’s seeing absolute reality right there in the dualism. It honors absolute reality and relative reality. They don’t think one’s better than the other. They honor both.
You see this in Rumi and Hafiz so much, just seeing the absolute divine in worldly love and the things that happen in daily life. And there’s just no separation, you know, no mental concepts to keep you locked up. I find that kind of devotion, that kind of love so liberating. Devotion is just love. You can’t work at love, you know. You can work at cleaning up your act, but love is what it IS.
You can work at the things that keep you locked out of your own heart, but what’s already in there is exactly what’s supposed to be there. And my guru was like that. We don’t know much about his tradition, but he used to talk a lot to us about Kabir and also about Samarth Guru Ramdas, who was a great saint I think in the 1600’s. He found the non-dual through devotion to Hanuman, devotion to a form. He went though the form into the non-dual. And he always said to people this is the way to do it. You can’t do it any other way. That’s what he used to say.
And what I get from that is that you can fully embrace this world and the forms that are in it. You have to fully embrace this world and bear witness to this world and everything that’s in it—all the beauty and horror. You can’t hold back and say, oh, I only believe in that which you can’t see, feel, think of, because how the hell do you know what that is? It’s just an idea in your head, and an idea could never be what it is. So it’s very difficult.


SitaRam SitaRam
Hans(uman)
www.kirtan.nu
www.dezingendeziel.nl
www.dansenmetdegoden.nl www.stemyoga.nl

Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard.

SitaRam SitaRam
Hans(uman)
www.kirtan.nu
www.dezingendeziel.nl
www.dansenmetdegoden.nl

Gebed van Fanciscus van Assisi, verschillende vertalingen / Prayer of Fanciscus van Assisi, various translations

Er zijn vele vertalingen van dit prachtige gebed.
De eerste heb ik zelf samengesteld uit vertalingen die mij het meeste aanspraken, aangevuld met vertalingen uit de oorsponkelijke Franse versie.
Verderop meer vertalingen.

Heer, 

maak van mij een instrument van uw vrede.

Laat mij waar haat is, liefde inbrengen;

waar wonden zijn, vergeving;

waar verdeeldheid is, eenheid;
waar dwaling is, waarheid;


waar twijfel is vertrouwen;
waar wanhoop is, hoop; 

waar duisternis is, uw licht;
waar verdriet is, vreugde.

O Meester,
laat mij niet zozeer zoek
en
getroost te wórden, als wel te troosten;

begrepen te wórden, als wel te begrijpen;
bemind te wórden, als wel te beminnen.



Want het is in geven dat wij ontvangen;

het is in zichzelf vergeten dat wij vinden;

het is in vergeven dat wij vergeven worden:

het is in sterven dat wij herboren worden in het eeuwige leven.

De orginele versie uit het Frans.
French publication La Clochette in 1912.
Publication Française La Clochette, 1912

Seigneur,
faites de moi un instrument de votre paix.
Là où il y a de la haine, que je mette l'amour.
Là où il y a l'offense, que je mette le pardon.
Là où il y a la discorde, que je mette l'union.
Là où il y a l'erreur, que je mette la vérité.
Là où il y a le doute, que je mette la foi.
Là où il y a le désespoir, que je mette l'espérance.
Là où il y a les ténèbres, que je mette votre lumière.
Là où il y a la tristesse, que je mette la joie.

Ô Maître,
que je ne cherche pas tant à être consolé qu'à consoler,
à être compris qu'à comprendre,
à être aimé qu'à aimer,
 
car c'est en donnant qu'on reçoit,
c'est en s'oubliant qu'on trouve,
c'est en pardonnant qu'on est pardonné,
c'est en mourant qu'on ressuscite à l'éternelle vie.

klik op "lees verder" voor meer versies en vertalingen
click "lees verder" for more versions

SitaRam SitaRam
Hans(uman)
www.kirtan.nu
www.dezingendeziel.nl
www.dansenmetdegoden.nl