KIRTAN AND HEALING SOUND GATHERINGS

Kirtan is devotional singing to the divine. Kirtan uses powerful mantras of vibrational language usually sanskrit, which are repeated in call and response. The repetition of mantras being sung with rhythm is powerfully cleansing to the mind. It gives the mind a dynamic focus which purifies and clears away any negative tendancies. (see below for more inormation)

Soraya Saraswati & Terry Oldfield perform with harmonium, flute, tampura, percussion and voice. Come and share in the transcendental experience of kirtan and healing sound awakening the divinity within. Gatherings include a gong bath and occasionally fire ceremony. All are encouraged to participate. The gathering ends with a shared supper or afternoon tea.

Bring a vegetarian plate of food for a shared supper or afternoon tea.

LOCATION: Mandala - 63 Robinson Rd. Eudlo. Sunshine Coast QLD

DATES: Regularly around the full and new moons, please call for date of next gathering.

TIME: usually on a Sunday afternoon or Saturday evening.

Bookings & Enquiries

[Phone] 5445 9769 or 0400 520 624

[Email] Soraya

Mantras are particular subtle sound vibrations capable of liberating the energy and consciousness from matter. From a yogic perspective mantras are sounds from the ancient language of sanskrit. This is not a spoken language and it is not the meanings of the words and their effect on the intellect that make mantra so powerful. Mantra is the unspoken language of the heart. The vibration evokes the clearing of energy blockages and cleansing of nadis or energy channels. An example of this is seen in the word Rama. Rama is also the sound of a chakra {manipura} and the yogis had knowledge of the word Rama in its different capacities long before Rama was born. Mantras pre-date religion; they represent the link between with individual nature and the divine.

Mantras can be short single words or tones or grouped together. For example Om Namashivaya or Aum. The Gayatri Mantra (or universal prayer) is longer as is the Mahamritanjaya Mantra (or healing mantra). Both these mantras can be chanted daily 11 times as a Sadhana (spiritual practice). See below for more on these two very beautiful and powerful mantras.

The following quote is by the saint "Swami Sivananda Saraswati" of Rishekesh. I recently visited Rishekesh and had a profound experience visiting his Ashram. Swami Sivananda left his body in 1963 and his room has been left untouched since. It is lovingly kept clean and quiet so that devotees can can enter in silence and meditate or simply see his simple abode. I was overcome by a great sense of love and tears flowed as I sat on the cement floor beside his bed. His simple philosophy of "love, serve and give" touches the heart of many as he was a loving example of this. Music, mantra and kirtan along with Karma Yoga was the life work of this great man. A visitation from Swami Sivananda in a dream when I was 21 so filled me with love and inspiration it changed the course of my life.

"Music fills the mind with sattwa (balance). Music generates harmony in the heart. Music melts the hardest heart. It softens the brutal nature. Music comforts, soothes and cheers the afflicted. It comforts the lonely and the distressed. Music removes worries, cares and anxieties. It makes you forget the world. Music relaxes and elevates. Music should be treated as yoga. True music can be tasted only by one who has freed himself from all taints of worldliness, and who practices music as a sadhana for Self-realization." Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Rishekesh.

Kirtan is the chanting of mantra. It is done to music, with rhythm and the feeling of 'bhava'. Bhava is the feeling or emotion of purity, devotion and uplifted spirit. Together mantra, music and bhava can transport us to a transcendental experience. The experience of no mind, just pure awakened energy merging with consciousness. In this experience we are set free. Emotion can be channeled into the singing of kirtan and transformed into a stream of calm clarity. Nam means name and nam kirtan is the chanting of the names of the divine. This is so powerful it can cleanse the mind and bring us to a stillness inside in a very short time. The singing of mantras is a practice of Bhakti Yoga.

Kirtan is the chanting of the different mantras and nam kirtan is the chanting of the different names of the divine {or self}, for what are we but divine? The chanting of kirtan assist us to recognize our divine nature and helps us to align with that vibration. It transports us into a higher state of consciousness. I have experienced the most elevated states simply by singing with a full heart. After this all that exists is beautiful and all worries are gone, everything is sweet.

UNIVERSAL MANTRAS FOR THE

AWAKENING AND ENLIGHTENING OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

GAYATRI MANTRA

OM BHUH BHUVA SWAHA

TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM

BHARGO DEVASYA DHEEMAHI

DHI YO YO NAH PRACHODAYATE

Gayatri Mantra is a universal prayer and mantra and belongs to no religion. It calls in the great spiritual light [symbolized by the sun] to illumine the mind. Chanted every day this mantra clears the mind and keeps it clear. We suggest chanting it 11 times on its own or along with the Mahamritanjaya mantra. It allows light to flow through and dispels the darkness and confusion that clouds our vision. the Gayatri can bring luster to the aura and promote the accumulation of spiritual light at a cellular level. Cleansing and purifying. When reciting the Gayatri we pray for and receive.
· A steady intellect without agitation, pure and clean, without being soiled by passions

· A subtler discrimination, more capable of quicker and more precise judgments, and a better comprehension of situations in which we find ourselves.

· A clearer perception of the world along with the solutions to our problems and those of others.

Simple Translation - "O thou existence Absolute, Creator of the three dimensions, we meditate upon thy divine light. May he/she stimulate our intellect and bestow upon us true knowledge".

MAHAMRITYUNJAYA MANTRA

Om Tryambakam Yajamahe
Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam
Urvarukamiva Bandhanan
Mrityor Mukshiya Maamritat

(maha-mrityun-jaya) is one of the more potent of the ancient Sanskrit mantras. Maha mrityunjaya is a call for enlightenment and is a practice of purifying the karmas of the soul at a deep level. It is also known as the Healing Mantra and is chanted for physical, mental and spiritual healing for all beings and our beautiful planet earth. This can also be chanted daily with the Gayatri Mantra as a spiritual sadhana. We practice Havan or fire ceremony with this mantra for planetary and personal healing.
In the Satyananda Yoga Centers and Ashrams all over the world this mantra is chanted 108 times each Saturday.

AUM/OM: Absolute reality. That which encompasses the three states of waking, dreaming, deep sleep, represented by AUM, the three levels of gross, subtle, causal, the three levels of conscious, unconscious, subconscious, and the three universal processes of coming, being, and going. Absolute silence beyond the three levels is the silence after AUM.

Tryambakam: Trya means three. Ambakam means eyes. It means the three eyes of the Absolute, which are the processes of creation, existence, and dissolution, as well as the other triads, which are part of AUM. The three "eyes" means experiencing these three stages and triads at one time, from the higher, all pervasive vantage point of the Absolute.

Yajamahe: We rejoice in meditation on all of this.

Sugandhim: Means fragrance. Like a spreading fragrance, all of this permeates the whole of existence, while at the same time being that existence

Pushtivardhanam: Means that which sustains and nourishes all. Thus, the fragrance that permeates all is the sustainer of all beings, while also the essence of all beings.

Urvarukamiva: Urva means big and powerful. Arukam means disease, like the spiritual diseases of ignorance and untruth, which are like the death of Wisdom or Truth.

Bandhanan: Means bound down, as in bound down to the ignorance and untruth.

Mrityor: Means ignorance and untruth.

Mukshiya: Means liberation from the cycles of physical, mental, and spiritual death.

Maamritat: Means please give me rejuvenating nectar, so as to have this liberation, like the process of severing the cucumber from the creeping vine.

Common Translation: We Meditate on the Three-eyed reality which permeates and nourishes all like a fragrance. May we be liberated from death for the sake of immortality, Eeven as the cucumber is severed from bondage to the creeper.