Rama Bolo Rama Bolo, Bolo Bolo Ram
Seetaa Bolo Seetaa Bolo Bolo Bolo Ram
Hanuman Bolo Hanuman Bolo Bolo Bolo Ram

Oh, my friends, sing the Name of God! When it gets too damn hard, just sing. Have no fear, don’t give up. Sing! When it gets too good, sing. When it falls apart, sing. When it comes together, sing. Cry and sing. Sing and cry. Living sing. Dying sing. Listening sing. Singing sing.
— Krishna Das’ interpretation of Rama Bolo from his CD, Live… on Earth

Kirtan is an ancient folk tradition of musical meditation dating back to 15th century India’s Bhakti movement. The original chants’ sole intention was to invoke joy among all who participated. To that end, the simple call and response pattern allowed anyone present to participate and, thus, to partake of this joy.

Still a large part of meditation and worship in India today, kirtan has been increasing in popularity in the western world, especially in the past decade. Artists such as Krishna Das, Wah!, Dave Stringer, Sean Johnson & the Wild Lotus Band, Gina Sala, and Wade Imre Morisette are infusing their own musical backgrounds and interpretions on ancient chants and bringing the practice to faith communities, yoga studios, meditation retreats and, yes, even this year’s New Orleans Jazz Fest. I first discovered kirtan about 7 years ago as I began to chant in my private meditation practice and I sought out new mantras. I’ve kirtaned in crowds of thousands, in small groups of 20 to 30 people, in even smaller groups of 4 and in the corner of my room all alone with the beauty of the universe. Although I love almost every genre of music, at least half of the songs that fill my iPod are chants and I rely heavily on Kitzie Stern’s most precious and awesome weekly podcast, New World Kirtan, to discover new artists and new interpretations of centuries old mantras.

I led kirtan on rare occasion before coming into the Puerto Vallarta yoga community in 2008 but it was there that I felt called to and was given the blessing of leading kirtan on a regular basis. Our group was often small and quite often spontaneous but our chanting always succeeded in its intent of bringing about joy and bringing us all closer to ourselves and each other.

I began leading kirtan just using voices and a few simple percussion instruments. We added guitar, sitar, flute and even more percussion. And oh! There was dancing! Upon my return to the United States, I purchased a harmonium and, to the horror of one very sensitive chihuahua, practiced it for hours on end. I’m still learning and I’m still yearning for more faith, more communion and more joy.

I made the difficult decision of leaving my harmonium behind for the next few legs of travel. This, however, has gifted me the opportunity to focus on another instrument that brings me great glee: the ukulele! And yes, kirtan with the uke is just as gleeful as you think!

It was very important for me to include a song that reflects my faith, my meditation practice and the kirtan community on Making It Up As I Go Along. I decided to build the song, “Math by Mantra,” around one of my favorite chants from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishads, often referred to as a Prayer for Enlightenment.

Asato maa sadgamaya
Tamaso maa jyotirgamaya
Mrityor maa amritamgamaya
Ōm shanti shanti shanti

This translates as:

From ignorance, lead me to truth;
From darkness, lead me to light;
From death, lead me to immortality
Aum peace, peace, peace

The rest of the song pulls from the comfort, the bliss and the confidence that I get from mantra and from my faith. Although the song layers voices & languages, flute, guitar, harmonium and strings, if you listen closely you’ll hear one single 4-measure guitar part playing over and over. I wrote this part with the purpose to construct the entire melody around it as a reflection of the gift that mantra gives us. The repetition and simplicity of mantras allow us to free ourselves of attachment and to liberate our thinking selves to search a little bit deeper and to make connections we just can’t see when we’re so focused on daily tasks and thoughts.

“Math by Mantra” isn’t technically a kirtan piece as it doesn’t follow the traditional call and response pattern. (Oh someday, my album of kirtan music….) I do pray, though, that “Math by Mantra” will inspire people to explore kirtan or at least to explore their own faith and their own prayer practice.

For more information about kirtan, please visit my links page for resources and kirtan artists’ pages.
For kirtan bookings, use my contact form.

– 5 March 2010