I was wondering if other members listen to kirtan music? I'm not a Hindu myself, I was baptised a Christian (Protestant), but I have always been interested in religions. I have watched a lot of videos by an English singer called Sivani Mata Francis, she performs kirtan regularly and plays harmonium and there are other people in her group who play tabla or djembe, and sometimes violin or guitar. I find kirtan chants relaxing, the videos on YouTube are edited, but the chants start slowly and end up fast with dancing. I know there are an American couple called Govindas and Radha who perform the same music and there's a really good video of them on YouTube where they're perfomring Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram in Goa
I don't know of any in my area (the Black Country, West Midlands) or in Birmingham. But they are really good to watch and listen to. I always think Kali is an interesting Hindu deity with how she has heads around her neck, representing how she is the destroyer
These kirtans are in sanskrit . I have read that sanskrit as a language, when listened to or spoken, helps in expansion of consciousness similar to that of meditation or other spiritual exercise. It is possibly designed in that manner with a certain precision. But it is also a hard language to learn, and elitist, and this is why the Buddha gave much of his teachings in Pali, which was the common language then so that it would spread faster. Sanskrit and the Science of Consciousness Rick Briggs was a scientist who wrote a research paper claiming that sanskrit is the best natural language for the development of Artificial Intelligence based software. He represented his ideas and derived the outcome on Artificial Intelligence development and how natural language can be converted into a logical programming language. An excerpt from the paper reads as, "There is at least one language, Sanskrit, which for the duration of almost 1000 years was a living spoken language with a considerable literature of its own. Besides works of literary value, there was a long philosophical and grammatical tradition that has continued to exist with undiminished vigor until the present century. Among the accomplishments of the grammarians can be reckoned a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in the form with current work in Artificial Intelligence. This article demonstrates that a natural language can serve as an artificial language also, and that much work in AI has been reinventing a wheel millennia old." NASA: Sanskrit is Best Language for Artificial Intelligence - Physics only I know for a fact that listening to sanskrit chants is pretty peaceful for me, and I consider it a useful tool in this regard.
This is really interesting. I never knew Sanskrit can help to expand consciousness and Rick Briggs made some interesting comments on the language in the devlopment of Artificial Intelligence based software. I know Sanskrit is now an ancient language that isn't spoken regularly any more. I'm sure some other chants are in Hindi, such as Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram, am I correct?
Yeah, Hindi is a direct descendant of Sanskrit and has a lot of similarity to it. Same with other Indian languages too, and there is a lot of loanwords adopted from sanskrit. Imo, studying Hindi enables understanding of Sanskrit better and faster. It is not just sanskrit, but Indian classical music was also designed with the objective of heightening the consciousness in a way similar to meditation and spiritual exercise. This similarly produces a lot of positive vibes or energies beneficial to the listener and environment. A good classical singer or musician is considered similar to a saint in this regard in Indian culture. In 1973, there had been a series of experiments conducted by a woman named Dorothy Retallack subjecting growing plants to different genres or branches of music such as rock music, western classical music and Indian classical music. It was found that plants subjected to rock music had small leaves, had grown gangly while others were stunted. Plants responded favorably to soothing music and western classical music, but the best response was to Indian classical music. The DoveSong Foundation -- The effect of Music on Plants (The Plant Experiments) Scientists Vidya Chivukula and Shivaraman Ramaswamy published a research paper in the International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, Vol. 5, No. 5, October 2014, citing the effects of music on the growth of plants. The plants were divided into five groups and each group was subjected to one of the following types of music, Indian Classical music, Vedic chants, Western Classical music, and Rock music while one group was kept in silence as the control group. Vedic chants and Indian classical music were found to promote the growth of plants the best as compared to the other music systems. http://www.ijesd.org/papers/522-CD0162.pdf This observation has been even put into application by some farmers to improve the quality of their yield... Israel winery uses Indian music to improve quality Indian classical music has also been observed to have beneficial effects on schizophrenia patients. Indian classical music has beneficial effects on Schizophrenia patients; Study - DailyRounds Animals have also been observed to respond favorably to Indian music... Chimps prefer Indian beats over Western music Essentially, as per Hindu philosophy, pure consciousness is the fundamental substratum of the multiverse or all known existence, and matter, energy, space,time and causation are the diverse manifestation of this unitary consciousness. This was the direct perception of enlightened sages from the vantage point of enlightenment, both in ancient and modern times. The sayings of two female enlightened masters Shivayogini Matha and Anandamayi Ma will help to bring perspective here... “There is One unchanging indivisible Reality which, though unmanifest, reveals Itself in infinite multiplicity and diversity.” ~ Anandamayi Ma It is through the multiplicity of name and form that one can arrive at the One. It is from this One that this Infinite Variety has manifested. In the end all return to that effulgent One.~ Shivayogini Matha (1923-1981) So, all arts were designed as tools to connect with this singular consciousness as it is considered auspicious. It is similar to Zen archery or the elaborate tea ceremonies in Japan. Western science has also recently started to understand the link between consciousness and matter through quantum physics. Werner Heisenburg, one of the founders and key pioneers of quantum mechanics, had credited eastern philosophy with giving him perspective on his own scientific discoveries which had initially baffled him... After these conversations with (Rabindranath) Tagore some of the ideas that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. That was a great help for me. ~ Werner Heisenburg The nobel prize winning quantum physicist, Erwin Schrodinger had also similarly used eastern philosophy to make better sense of the insights he gained from quantum physics. Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else. ~ Erwin Schrodinger
Your post was really interesting. It's fascinating to think Indian music can improve the quality of farmer's yield and especially how it has been observed to have a good effect on patients with schizophrenia. I think I had heard before how a good classical musician or singer can be considered similar to a saint in Indian culture because of how the vibes and energies produced are positive
