Kīrtan Chanting and the Brain: Mirror Neurons and Direct Sensory Experience
Kīrtan is a call-and-response musical form that's unique!
I have been musing about this lately, and recently wrote a short piece about this I thought I'd share on my blog. :)
With call and response mantra chanting, participants in the chant experience get to enjoy both:
1
Listening to a leader sing or chant a mantra (and often accompanied by wonderfully skilled musicians in the kīrtan band!)
This activates the mirror neurons or what I connect to the "guru principle", giving the participant a sense of aspirational elation when observing someone do something that's not currently within their own scope of embodiment... a similar joy that a football fan has when their favorite player scores a goal. (See Vilayanur Ramachandran's classic TED talk!)
2
Direct sensory experience of singing the Sanskrit mantra or devotional poem, when the call-and-response is in the "response" stage. This allows the participant to feel in their own vocal instrument how the vibration of the musical tones and mantric syllables affects them.
When led well, so that the participant is encouraged to go within themselves (not simply treat it like a rock concert where all attention is on the performing musician) kīrtan chanting is a powerful strategy to experience community effervescent JOY!
The wonderful thing about making kīrtan emphasis on the participant's experience (not the leader/performer's self-expression/ego) is that it also simplifies the musical and mantric complexity, lowering the bar to entry so that all can enjoy regardless of musical experience or vocal expertise!
Of course there are more fine points, but this Sanskrit pronunciation flub is SO common that I wanted to address it first.
And in under 60 seconds it’s the best I can do! 🤣
Kīrtan means to praise, to glorify… and can be a refined art of communion with the infinite! It is a musical, devotional form of sound yoga therapy with many benefits.
There are those who will cling to the assertion that God doesn’t care, it’s all about the love, about singing and chanting the mantras from the heart.
And they’d be right.
But… skill & devotion is NOT an “either / or” thing.
You can have an infinite amount of bhakti in your kīrtan, AND reverent, respectful cultural reverence to the Sanskrit language (and it’s derivatives of Hindī and other languages many of the kirtans, bhajans, mantras, and devotional poetry is in.)
😒 Cultural appropriation is SO last century isn’t it?
My fellow non-Indian mantra and kīrtan lovers, we can do better!
If you love kīrtan, at least learn the basic anatomy of the Sanskrit sounds so that
A) you get the full benefit of the power of mantra
B) you aren’t butchering the mantras inadvertently and sounding silly
C) you respect the source culture
I didn’t know what I didn’t know for 13 years (and several of those in India)!
And now I 😍 helping others light their fire for mantra chanting in exciting new ways: devotion AND skill!
Skill IS devotion!
😜this sanskrit pronunciation tutorial was inspired by me seeing *yet another* online popular kīrtan artist and harmonium training course teacher say the word without the embodied Sanskrit anatomy. OOPS! 😬
☝🏻That’s my diplomatic way of saying they mispronounced the key word in their own kīrtan teacher training course. Did it sound softer and nicer? I hope so! Because I want to be encouraging and not high and mighty. But still… someone’s got to say it! My Indian friends are too tired to try anymore with the Western wellness scene, so I’m gonna keep on teaching and hope those who want to go deeper into the power of sound are open to listening. 💓 IYKYK 💓
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