Kirtan is not a performance, you are not being sung to. You are being sung with and everyone around you will be responding to the Mantra. I will sing a line and then everyone will respond singing in reply. You will be surrounded by people who have done this practice before and they understand it is a give and take, a back and forth experience; kirtan is a sharing. 

 

You can be pleasantly surprised as some of your inhibitions about singing publicly in a group of people will disappear. As the evening goes on you will find you will relax into the flow of the music in a way you might not have before. 

 

On a spiritual level you will find you will start to unconsciously let go of your day and who you usually are in your daily life. As the evening goes on you will start to relax a bit more into the energy of your heart. A merging occurs whereby there is no-one who is leading the singing; there just singing in an experience of no boundaries, a oneness. 

 

 

They are the name and the named. This means the name and the named (meaning God) are not different; it is only our perception which is clouded. Through the chanting practice, which is a purification process, it cleans the dirt off the mirror of your heart. Gradually you see the reflection of your own beauty and your own love much more clearly. Eventually there will be no dust and you will see the Real You; Your Divine Self which is Ram (God).