Kirtan is a practice of Bhakti Yoga, or the yoga of love and devotion towards God. As it says in Be Here Now, “The way Bhakti works is you just love until you and the Beloved become One.” It is the call-and-response chanting of the various names of God/dess from the ancient Sanskrit language. All of these Names point to the deepest reaches of our own heart where our True Nature resides.
Besides singing kirtan, I am the director of the Sacred Community Project, and I offer workshops on Bhakti, interspirituality, meditation, psychological and spiritual healing, and the intersection between spirituality and social action. I am also available for one-on-one spiritual support.
I draw my inspiration from my beloved teacher Ram Dass, the great Indian Saint Neem Karoli Baba, Hanuman, and the Divine Mother. I also find inspiration in all of the world’s great wisdom and mystic traditions and have received great benefit, insight, and grace from Sufism, Buddhism, Hermeticism, Christianity, as well as the many forms of modern psychotherapy.
In the Ramayana, one of the great spiritual epics of India, Ram (God) says to Hanuman, “Who are you?” Hanuman replies, “When I think I am my body, I serve you. When I identify with my soul, I am a part of you. When I awaken to my True Nature, you and I are one.” This captures the essence of what the Sacred can awaken in us: a life-long calling to be in service and devotion to Love. It is through this service and through this devotion that we begin to realize we are not separate. Love is the very nature of our Being. It is who we are.
राम राम,
Sitaram Dass