(This is an Optional Workshop, register with a Partial Festival Pass or add it to a Full Festival Pass.)
This workshop explores the ancient practices of singing, devotional chant, and rhythm. It is an immersion in the luminous ocean of music through voice, mantra, devotion, movement, and meditation. The Path of Kirtan creates a sacred space for safe and playful exploration in a group setting. Participants can then journey together to more clearly and deeply connect with the divine Presence.
View a Shantala Kirtan Video and a Shantala Chant Video.
Shantala at BhaktiFest 2012
You will enjoy this workshop if you wish to:
• open your voice more fully as a sacred instrument
• deepen your experience of chanting and devotion (bhakti yoga)
• playfully explore the body as a vehicle for rhythm
• create a joyful experience of music and spirit in community with others
Opening the voice includes a voyage through vocal practices from both Eastern and Western musical traditions. In many Eastern cultures, the practice of music is approached as a spiritual practice, as the yoga of sound, and that is how it is presented in this workshop. Rhythm is explored through heart-opening rhythmic body movements, experiencing the body as a sacred instrument. From this foundation, the chanting of sacred names and mantras flow with new depth and new freedom. The weekend workshops include time to be silent in meditation, to share personal experiences from bhakti practice, and to build a sense of spiritual community through the combined fruits of all of these practices.
This workshop is offered with the intention of cultivating more beauty and more love inside ourselves, in our communities, and throughout our world. It is our prayer that the offerings of this workshop will help each one of us to give ourselves more fully to realizing this vision. May all beings live in peace, joy, and freedom!
Shantala at Pranafest 2012
