Why bhajans and kirtans provide a therapeutic experience

Bhajans and kirtans forge emotional bond between the performer and the audience, making the art of performance a therapeutic and restorative experience, finds out Vibha Singh

Kirtan is the glue that bonds our hearts together. — David Newman

For many people there are many questions which arise when they attend a spiritual musical session. What exactly is bhajan? What benefits do we derive from listening bhajans? The answer is given by Bina Shah, devotional singer who says, “When you sing spiritual songs they can help to quiet the mind so that the heart can open to the divine, allowing us to taste the blissful reality that is our true nature. Rather than being a performance in which the audience listens to musicians, it is a participatory spiritual practice in which everyone is encouraged to sing and express their inner joy. Devotion, not musical ability, is the most important aspect of kirtan.”

The entire universe is made of rhythms. When sounds are in harmony, there is music; non harmonious sounds create chaos. Similarly, when there is rhythm or harmony in life, the heart blossoms.  It is this rhythm that takes us back to our source. Shah points out, “We may identify ourselves as officers, housewives, teachers, but these are just external identifications. Satsangs help us move beyond such identifications towards our source – from where we came. Sound is energy. Our human nervous system responds to the sounds and vibrations of ancient Sanskrit chants. Listening to these sounds has a rejuvenating effect on the body, mind and spirit.”

Global phenomenon

Whether it is the harmonious sound of gongs in Buddhist meditations or Jewish hymns since ancient times, people from all cultures and traditions have used music to further people on their spiritual journey.   Kirtans (commonly referred to as mantra meditation or sacred chants is a type of devotional singing that originated in India, in its modern form, around 500 years ago. Prior to that time, sacred verses were largely confined to temples and taught to a limited audience. This changed in the 15th Century, as the Bhakti movement spread throughout the region, bringing devotional singing – often Sanskrit mantras sung to simple melodies – out into the streets to the masses.), the ancient call-and-response practice from India’s devotional traditions, revolves large gatherings of people and the rhythmic singing of mantras or poetic names of God. Mantras are accompanied by instruments such as the harmonium, the two-headed mrdanga drum, tablas, and kartal hand-cymbals.

Today, kirtan music has become popular around the world and is sung in a variety of styles and languages. The ancient Indian texts prescribe invoking of our ever blissful spiritual consciousness in the modern age through the medium of sound vibrations.

Freedom from stress and anxiety

Mantra music has the power to open our hearts and reconnect to our natural state of love and joy by bringing us in a mood of meditation. In its heartfelt expression kirtan can induce profound states of meditation and bliss. Nityanand Charan Das, monk at ISCKON temple says, “It help us reduce the inner friction because of various kinds of thoughts that occur in our minds and which this reduce our productivity. Just like in a machine, various parts are working and as a result friction is inevitable thereby generating heat and thus causing wear and tear, similarly we are being pulled in different directions by different thoughts and desires and all this makes us anxious and may lead to wear and tear of our entire existence as well.”

So to take care of the heat generated and the wear and tear in a machine we need a lubricant. So in our life bhajans and kirtans act as lubricants .They prevent the wear and tear and help us redirect our desires in the proper direction and this helping us in making the right decisions in daily life. Also the major issue in today’s world is the mental health. Mind is called “man” in Sanskrit and to cure it we need a Mantra (man+tra)-That which relieves the mind is called Mantra. The mantras sung in a kirtan hep is deliver our mind from all kinds of anxieties. It calms down and helps us focus and we all know that when we are focused, we can contribute a lot more to our family profession and society etc.

Also since we are all spiritual beings, our natural environment is also spiritual which we don’t pay attention to. These activities immediately put us back in our natural environment and this making us happy and satisfied .It is similar to a fish being out of water. It can never be happy as that is not the natural environment. But as some as the fish is put back in its natural environment which is water, it becomes happy and satisfied.

Learning the art

The Gita Lounge has been offering a course on ‘ragas and more’ of which devotional singing is a part. This course focuses on Hindustani classical music based on ragas, offering the students a way of sound therapy. Shah says, “The reason for choosing ragas specifically is due to their therapeutic value.  They find their roots in Ayurveda, making leading doctors and neurosurgeons prescribe this method to their patients. This harmonic music allows one to imbibe the forces around them to form a unique and spiritual experience with nature and thus helping them connect with their inner selves.”