In my twenties and early thirties, I skilled intervals of despair that might final for months at a time. I not often spoke about it. It was merely one thing I lived with. A lot of my struggling got here from my psychological and emotional reactions to life. Small issues might set off huge responses. I think about many individuals can relate.

Every part started to shift once I found yoga. For the primary time in my life, I skilled inside stillness. I keep in mind mendacity in savasana and by no means desirous to rise up as a result of I used to be in such a state of deep peace. Usually, after others left the room, I’d stay seated, absorbed in meditation.

Via meditation, I started to appreciate that peace was not one thing I needed to create—it was my important nature. Whereas this realization didn’t instantly finish my struggling, it revealed one thing profound: there was a deeper a part of me past thought, past emotion, and even past the physique. 

Steadily, I discovered to create slightly area between what I got here to know as my true self—the everlasting soul—and the ideas and feelings that had so typically overwhelmed me. Slowly, a better sense of equanimity started to emerge, and the intervals of despair grew to become much less consuming.

Shortly after discovering yoga, I found kirtan. Kirtan is a call-and-response singing observe rooted in Bhakti yoga, the yoga of affection and devotion. Merely put, we sing to God. The place yoga and meditation left off, kirtan took over. Over the following a number of years, main kirtan grew to become a strong pathway of therapeutic for me, providing peace, happiness, and wellbeing in an more and more chaotic world.

Over time, I seen that kirtan was doing one thing very particular and really profound. Whereas meditation typically quieted my thoughts, kirtan opened my coronary heart. Via the repetition of sacred sounds and names, one thing inside me softened. The fixed inside dialogue—the judging, worrying, and replaying of previous tales—started to loosen its grip. As an alternative arose feeling. Devotion. Connection. Love.

One of many nice presents of kirtan is its accessibility. You don’t want a educated voice, musical potential, and even an mental understanding of the Sanskrit phrases being sung. Kirtan meets us precisely the place we’re. The observe works by vibration and intention. The thoughts doesn’t want to know; the center already is aware of. I typically say that even should you don’t know the phrases, your soul does. One thing deeper than language acknowledges the reality being expressed.

In kirtan, we sing names of the Divine—not as an summary concept, however as a dwelling presence. These names level to qualities we lengthy for: love, compassion, energy, peace, knowledge, and beauty. As we sing them many times, we start to do not forget that these qualities should not separate from us. They already dwell inside us. On this method, kirtan turns into a technique of remembrance—of who we’re beneath our conditioning, our wounds, and our fears.

Fashionable life could be relentless. We’re always stimulated, always related, and always requested to carry out and produce. Many people carry unstated anxiousness, loneliness, or grief. Even when life seems “fantastic” on the skin, there could be a quiet sense of disconnection inside. Bhakti yoga presents a treatment that feels each historical and deeply related. Relatively than asking us to repair ourselves, bhakti invitations us into relationship—with the Divine, with each other, and with our personal hearts.

There’s something profoundly therapeutic about singing in group. Once we collect in kirtan, we breathe collectively, sing collectively, and share a typical intention. The sense of separation softens. Partitions come down. I’ve witnessed numerous moments the place individuals arrive guarded or heavy and go away lighter, extra open, generally even joyful with out understanding precisely why. The guts has its personal intelligence, and kirtan speaks on to it.

I’m frequently reminded of kirtan’s energy as a therapeutic modality by lived expertise. Lately, whereas main kirtan in Key West as a part of a Florida kirtan tour, I seen a lady who was in tears for practically all the observe. She wasn’t falling aside—she was singing. She was respiratory. She was permitting one thing deeply held to maneuver. She was singing her method by grief. Moments like this are deeply humbling. Kirtan has a method of unlocking unhappiness, harm, and ache that we unknowingly retailer within the coronary heart. On this sense, it isn’t merely soothing—it’s transformative.

This expertise delivered to thoughts one thing Ram Dass as soon as mentioned: that bhakti yoga is about sharpening the mirror of the center. When the mirror is polished, the sunshine of the soul naturally shines by. I’ve witnessed this many times whereas main kirtan. Even when individuals don’t know precisely what they’re singing, or who they’re singing to, one thing profound occurs. The mantras—sacred sounds handed down by centuries—work instantly on the center, bypassing the mind and reaching locations phrases typically can’t.

On a private degree, I’ve seen how dependable this observe is. There have been many instances once I’ve arrived to guide kirtan feeling distracted, heavy, or just not in an excellent temper. With out exception, by the point the chanting ends, one thing shifts. I really feel extra open, extra grounded, and extra at peace—extra related to my inside essence, which the traditional yogis described as sat chit ananda: reality, consciousness, and bliss. This isn’t an summary philosophy for me; it’s a lived expertise.

Contributors typically report an identical shift. Folks go away feeling lighter, clearer, and extra related than once they arrived. And maybe most significantly, the results are cumulative. Every kirtan builds upon the final, regularly reshaping how we meet ourselves and the world. Over time, the center turns into extra out there, the thoughts much less reactive, and peace extra accessible—not as a fleeting expertise, however as a gradual undercurrent in day by day life.

In a world that usually feels divided and overwhelmed, practices like kirtan remind us of our shared humanity. Once we sing collectively, we’re now not strangers. We develop into voices in the identical prayer, hearts beating in the identical rhythm. Peace is now not an summary very best; it turns into a lived expertise. And people moments matter. They alter us.

Bhakti yoga doesn’t ask us to surrender the world. It asks us to like extra deeply inside it—to supply our joys and our sorrows, our doubts and our hopes, into one thing better than ourselves. Via kirtan, we be taught that happiness is just not one thing we chase; it’s one thing we uncover when the center is allowed to open.

Wanting again, I can see that my journey with yoga, meditation, and kirtan was by no means about escaping ache, however about discovering a deeper reality beneath it. Peace was by no means absent; it was merely obscured. Bhakti has given me a solution to return to that peace many times—by sound, by devotion, by love. And maybe that’s the reason kirtan feels so important within the trendy world: it presents a easy, embodied, heart-centered path again to ourselves—and to 1 one other.

This spirit of bhakti lives on the coronary heart of my new single I Am Full, a love tune to Krishna—often known as the sweetness of God—that includes the attractive feminine vocals of my good friend Julia Berkeley. It’s supplied as a reminder that wholeness is just not one thing we develop into sometime, however one thing we keep in mind once we flip towards love.

Discover Darren at:
www.awakenwithdarren.com
https://www.instagram.com/darrenmarc111

Take heed to his new single at: https://open.spotify.com/track/6TXaYGJT820scxOnFnGl0d?si=0d905e81cf8540f6 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSx-EawG3vc

Darren Marc Levene is a musician, kirtan chief, and instructor dedicated to the trail of Bhakti yoga. Via music, mantra, and group, he shares heart-centered practices that assist peace, wellbeing, and religious connection in trendy life. Darren leads kirtan gatherings, retreats, and workshops across the nation and presents his work as a dwelling prayer for therapeutic and wholeness. Study extra at www.awakenwithdarren.com