Some thoughts about Kiirtan (Devotional Yoga Dance)

By Song

Kiirtan is the singing of a mantra aloud while ideating on the Supreme Being. It inculcates the feeling of bliss and prepares the mind for meditation, because in performing it all the motor and sensory organs are engaged and directed towards the Supreme. It can be done anywhere, any time. The mantra used for kiirtan is: Baba Nam Kevalam Baba means "my most beloved One", Nam means "name of" or "to identify with", and Kevalam means "only". So the meaning of the mantra is "My most Beloved is the only One." The ideation is: "Everywhere I look, in everything I hear, feel, see, taste and smell, I perceive that one Supreme Consciousness which pervades all things." Kiirtan has many benefits. It purifies the mind and prepares it for meditation, accelerating the speed of movement toward the Supreme. Because of the mental clarity achieved, one easily finds solutions to problems while performing it, as well as relief from physical and psychic ailments. One time when I was doing Kiirtan for 3 hours. I was feeling so blissful, and suddenly a thought occurred to me. In Chinese Philosophy, we talked about Heavenly Qi and Earthly Qi, and the spine is the major channel connected to both Qi. If we keep our back erect and relaxed, we will have more smooth vital force flow in our body. When we do Kiirtan, with our arms up and palms open, we have three gates open to the Heavenly Qi ( three gates are Two accupoints LaoGong in our palms, and BaiHui accupoint at the top of our head (please see the charts below):

LaoGong acupoint belongs to pericardial meridian which is related to our heart energy.

So if we keep arms up, palms open, we not only open our gates to the Heavenly Qi and also nourish our heart energy. And when we do Kiirtan, we also tap our toes behind alternately and gently, this way we open another three gates to the Earthly Qi ( Two Gushing Spring acupoints at the bottom of our feet and one acupoint at the tailbone area. By tapping toes and slightly bending our knees, we bring subtle awareness to these three gates to Earthly vital energy.) Gushing Spring acupoint is also called YongQuan in Chinese, which belongs to Kidney Meridians. By tapping our toes and slightly bending our knees, we connect ourselves with Earthly Qi, nourish Kidney energy which is good for detoxification as well. Another point I thought to mention is that when we tap our toes behind alternately with mindfulness, our spine is doing subtle spiral movement. In Chinese TaoDeChing, there is one sentence saying The character means incredibly darkness, nothingness and black according to the Chinese Character

Decomposition. Its ancient form of writing on the bronze is like

. There are

many versions of translation for this sentence . My understanding is the spiral movement is the gateway to all wonders, because from that nothingness comes all creations.When we do Kiirtan, our spine is doing subtle spiral movement which is good for the energy balance of three channels along the spine. So when doing Kiirtan correctly with a noble ideation, our body just naturally connect with Heavenly Qi and Earthly Qi which help us to achieve the harmony of body and mind. When we are in harmony with nature or Tao, we are naturally surrendered to the Highest because it is imbalance in mind and body that creates space for our ego controlling tendency. Whenever we do Kiirtan with appreciation to those detailed instructions that Tantra Baba gave, and try to follow those instructions, we dont feel tired but feel very happy and peaceful even continuously doing Kiirtan for several hours.