With the rise of Kirtan events and artsts in the West, many people are probably asking the question: What is Kirtan? Since I am about to release a CD that unites many of these Kirtan singers (Krishna Das, Guru Singh, Snatam Kaur, Wah!, Donna De Lory) with with pop music I]icons (Seal, Sting, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow), I though I should try to share a little light on the subject.
Kirtan is an ancient devotional vedic tradition in which chants are performed to bring the singers, through the vibration of the mantras being chanted and the emotional dedication of the participants, closer to the divine. Kirtan is traditionally performed in a call and response manner between the leader or Kirtankar, and the participating audience. Traditional musical acompaniment might be a harmonium, percussion, hand cymbals and a tambura for a drone, though many Western Kirtan artists have added more contemporary instruments like guitar, bass, drums, etc. Kirtanam is the practice of recreating sound vibrations that is said to shift the entire vibration of the body and mind into the vibrating energy of the transcendental. Traditional Kirtan in India was a major practice in the Bhakti and Sikh traditions.
So how did this esoteric practice start to become popular in the West? Some claim Paramhansa Yogananda introduced Kirtan when he performed sacred chants with a full house at Carnegie Hall as early as 1923. Kirtan became more popular in the 60′s thanks to Swami Prabhupada as well as the Hare Krishna movement, the latter of which helped to inspire George Harrison and John Lennon with thieir renditions of mantras like Hare Krishna. In recent years, new rising kirtan stars, like Krishna Das, Jai Utall, Deva Premal and Donna De Lory have mixed traditional Kirtan music and practices with more modern Western music, contemporary instrumentation and even some english lyrics, making it more accessible to new audiences and further increasing it’s popularity. Although traditionalist sometimes claim that altering the the mantra from it’s original melody changes the vibration and effectiveness, it could also be argued that the participants ability to more easily connect to and emotionally engage with more familiar musical styles makes up for that, if not increasing the transformational effect on the singer.
Kirtan events (large and small gatherings where a musical/devotional leader leads a call and response practice with the audience, have been popping up with far more regularity across the US and Western Europe and more and more yoga asana teachers are incorporating mantra and chanting into their classes and workshops. I had the pleasure of performing last year at the first Bhakti Festival Joshua Tree, California, which brought together dozens of kirtan artists and performers for a couple days of aounnd-the-clock performances involving audiences of thousands. Some record labels, like Nutone, White Swan and Spirit Voyage, have focused on providing new music for audiences looking for devotional music and mantras as used in Kirtan events.
Kirtan offers, through the vibrational power and emotionally engaging qualities of music, another way to meditate and free oneself from the daily chatter of their own mind and to more deeply connect to one’s inner self and true nature. Any musical tradition that does that in a time when so many forces in the world are pulling us in the opposite direction, can’t be all bad.
