Kirtan: Another Way to Get High on Yoga

I accepted a friend's invitation to have tea and go chanting last night, despite my strong desire to stay home and get drunk with Iggy Pop.

It's really a sin that I've only been to Dobrá Tea a few times because it is agonizingly lovely. Asheville's resident tea house is a fantastic facilitator for the magic of a tea ritual; no matter what an asshole I feel like upon entering, a sense of peace takes me up in its overbearing arms and says "STFU, you're fine."  The three of us girls shared a pot of lavender & lemon balm, a pleasant fusion of relaxation and stimulation. Before we shoved off, two of us even convinced our sugar-wary friend to surrender to lavender cake. Resistance is futile.

Probably using this photo illegally. Sry. Namaste

Afterwards we headed to the River Arts District (barely beating the train! yuurrss) for the Sangita Devi kirtan hosted by Nourish & Flourish every Tuesday night.  I hadn't been chanting in a couple of months, and while my night could have easily gone another way, I just kept following the feet that led me exactly where I needed to be.

It was a pretty full house; the crowd seems to grow and diversify each time I attend (it's not just for hippies anymore).  I sat down and sank in.

The act of chanting is another form of yoga called bhakti, not unlike the very physical kind (hatha) we typically think of as yoga.  Bhakti is a means of uniting with our divine energy through the heart, through devotion, through the calling of the energies by their names. Like a hymn, but much more powerful (and fun) in my opinion. This practice is not just for nutty Hare Krishnas; while I don't believe in the personified story versions of the ancient gods, I do believe in the power of sound. And I believe in myself.

Just as we chant "Om" before and after a hatha yoga practice, we do this in bhakti in order to address the divine and say "yo, I'm here. Let's do this."  And if you call it, it will come. Chanting these sounds is like sending a text that always gets a response. In conjunction with breath and intention, the sounds themselves are codes that invite this divine energy to work its magic in your life. 

    

The point is to go beyond your mind and let the energy move through you. Meditation through sound and movement (cue the head bobbing and zany dancing, though I've seen crazier things at rock concerts). Each time I practice this kind of yoga, it's that much easier to plug in. There came a point about halfway through that my eyelids felt so light and effortlessly closed, as if they were actually open. It wasn't Katie singing anymore, it was the part of me that has no name. Actually, no, thousands of names.

At the end I felt electric. Not wired, but woozy, like there really was something moving through my body. Not to get too hooey here, but during closing prayers I surrendered to a vision of my heart connected to everyone else's in the room, a vague artery system. It didn't last long because the more conscious I was of it, the more I urged it to happen instead of letting it happen, and I woke up. Lame.

You never know until you try. Experience kirtan at Nourish & Flourish every Tuesday night, 7:30-9. 

347 Depot St. #201, 28801

xx