“One can realize God through kirtan alone.”
— Swami Sivananda
and
| ਕਲਜੁਗ ਮਹਿ ਕੀਰਤਨੁ ਪਰਧਾਨਾ ॥ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਜਪੀਐ ਲਾਇ ਧਿਆਨਾ ॥ |
| Kaljug meh kīrṯan parḏẖānā. Gurmukẖ japīai lāė ḏẖiānā. |
| In this Dark Age of Kali Yuga, the Kirtan of the Lord's Praises are most sublime and exalted. Become Gurmukh, chant and focus your meditation. SGGS p1075 |
Kirtan is a form of singing, the praise of our sweet lord. Its a practice to feel high, finding our selves above mind, body, desires and the world. This process of being high is considered absolutely true, because the connection of a soul back to its creator is always true. Which is called the backward flow of soul, then what is a "forward flow" ??
I think, the ever growing greed towards this beautiful world is a forward flow. How funny, this forward flow has not been of any "forward" use up till now. Then what is this flow doing ??
Lets say, the man cut the land in his own zones. Then he started stealing/ruling other's pieces of lands, this made wars, and winning wars gave him "false" pride of being powerful. Then he divided the man, he made a personal army of "his" men, and this act, initiated the formation of countries. We been living in these countries, have become so filthy and "bounded" that we can not think above the borders, we made. We have completely forgotten the fact that we are "Humans" first, then of any "second" country/race/faith. Damn, this divine thought becomes upsetting many times, possibly because we have traveled a lot, we have seen a lot, in this world, that we could never dare to reconsider our perceptions, ever. Holy shoot !!
Not, losing the track of my blog, I would like to get back to "Kirtan". We would discuss the above "meanings" in another post.
Kirtan has a wide family of descenders, to read the complete list of religions practicing Kirtan, try clicking, This Link ! As this is something beyond my knowledge.
Now, why Kirtan ? The real answer to this question could be found, only if you listen to it. You would certainly know, where your soul is being elevated to.
I was listening to some kirtan, while writing this blog. You will find my favorite collection of Ragi Joginder Singh ji (Riar), here ! More kirtans would be available at the parent link. I had to list the names of all the saints included in the Guru Granth Sahib ji, then I found this :
The scripture contains compositions of 6 Sikh Gurus (the first five Gurus and the ninth Guru), seventeen saints/Bhagats (Kabir, Farid, Namdev, Ravidas, Beni, Trilochan, Jaidev, Sundar, Parmanand, Sadna, Ramanand, Dhanna, Pipa, Sain, Soorday, Bhikhan, Mardana); poets Balwand & Sata and eleven Bhattas or poets of the Sikh Gurus (Mathra, Jalap, Harbans, Talya, Salya, Bhal, Kulh Sahar, Nal, Kirat, Gayand, Sadrang).
Guru Granth Sahib contains 5894 hymns. 974 hymns are written by the first Guru, 62 by the second Guru, 907 by the third, 679 by the fourth, 2218 by the fifth, and 115 by the ninth Guru. 541 hymns are by sait/Bhagat Kabir. The remaining 381 hymns are by others saints/Bhagats and poets listed above.
Some more random writings on kirtan and my thoughts coming soon, keep reading =)
Singh ( ਸਿੰਘ )
