Kirtan and Bhajan — Devotional Sound Practice
Kirtan (call-and-response chanting) and Bhajan (devotional song) are the most accessible forms of Tantric sound practice — using the voice, melody, and group energy to open the heart and dissolve the ego.
Kirtan (Skt: kirtana — glorification, celebration) is the practice of chanting divine names in a call-and-response format, a form of Bhakti Yoga that works through sound, melody, and communal energy. Bhajan (devotional song) is the individual or group singing of sacred songs. Both practices bypass the analytical mind through music and repetition, engaging the body (through rhythm and movement), the heart (through devotion), and consciousness (through the divine names). In the Narada Bhakti Sutras, kirtan is listed as one of the nine forms of Bhakti. The Haridasa saints of Karnataka, the Vaishnava kirtaniyas of Bengal, and the Sufi qawwali tradition all demonstrate the power of devotional sound practice to produce states of divine love.
The chanting of God's names — this alone is sufficient. In the age of Kali, kirtan is the supreme path.
Kirtan belongs to the path of Bhakti that Narada's Bhakti Sutras exalt; the call-and-response chanting of divine names is prescribed as an accessible practice needing no ritual apparatus or scholarship.
Narada Bhakti Sutras
Written about in
- What Tantra says about devotion
Chanting in call and response, or singing. This is the most accessible devotional practice listed, and the entry's citation for it is Narada rather than a Tantric text.