Ganesha Sharanam

Do you like to sing? Would you like to try Indian-style call-and-response devotional singing, or kirtan? Alicia Patrice and the Sacramento band Radiant Friend would be the ones to search out.

Alicia and another of the band gave us, the yoga teacher trainees, a taste of kirtan recently.  In no time we were immersed in singing, accompanied by harmonium and doumbek.

The chant rang out: "Ganesha Sharanam." We were singing the name of Ganesha -- for which we have no American cultural referent. Alicia read us a charming version of the mythological story of Ganesha, son of Parvati; how he acquired his elephant head; his place in the Hindu pantheon as the remover of obstacles.

So, we'd gotten a bit of orientation as to the meaning of the Sanskrit words. But for us, the meaning really lay in the energy of singing and the subtle, joyful effects it brought.

My first yoga teacher was a great kirtan singer, and obviously considered it to be a part of the curriculum. I had loved to sing in church choirs, being a little Methodist girl and all. More than the Methodist theology, I loved the energy of the hymns. Kirtan multiplied that energy wonderfully. I just felt such pure joy.

Gradually I learned some meanings to the phrases that we sang. Enough to remember that Ganesha Sharanam means "Ganesha, refuge."

Gradually I evolved a cross-cultural approach to kirtan. Certainly in life we all, at some times at least, understand the need for a refuge. Sometimes we literally, desperately need a specific refuge . . . Whether I sang in Sanskrit during a kirtan, or sang in English during a hymn sing, I came to understand that for me, the energy of the singing connects me to my deepest experiences of refuge, of Presence, of The One.

So, with enthusiasm, let the singing ring out, let the kirtan go on. Jai!