Jai Uttal: Mantra Sounds Into Silence
Liane Buck: I know it’s incredible when you see coming from the place you least suspect it. That’s the irony. I think that God really has a good sense of humor.
Jai Uttal: Yeah. It was all Indians, you know. It was all Indians, and that was, that was kind of also really cool.
Liane Buck: I love that. How do you explain the fact that devotional chants and mantra can break the boundaries and resistance, conquer different cultures, involve different generations across the board?
Jai Uttal: Well, I think the explanation is in the practice itself, you can break it down, even though I don’t usually break it down. I consider it just purely mystical magic, but, but when asked, I can break it down.
First of all, we all know that singing, any singing, connects us to our emotions and our heart, and then singing with a group, really whatever we’re singing, we immediately become a family or community with the people with whom we’re singing.
And then when we add to that the power, the deep transformative energy of the mantras, these ancient Sanskrit phrases and Sanskrit words which have to be felt to be understood. Our chemical, mystical science from ancient, ancient times that exists to make our hearts more aware of the divine presence and more attuned to the divine presence. Then we add the fact that through the singing, we’re enlivening our emotions. All of our feelings are going into this, and at the same time, we’re repeating these words over and over and over again, even though the music changes quite a bit, the mantra is repeated, and repetition, in every kind of spiritual practice from every tradition, repetition is such an important part of stilling the mind.
So, even though Kirtan can be very energetic, it becomes, at the same time, very quieting of the mind, and once the mind starts quieting, then the heart can experience even more. And then on top of all that, because of the call and response and, long phases of the singing, we’re doing deep breathing at the same time. It’s pranayama breathing. You know, enriching the Prana in our spiritual, spiritual bodies just through the breathing.
So, all this stuff, and just on top of it all, like the cherry on the cake. It’s just such a light of the beautiful music and the beautiful rhythms. It really can’t help but knock down all, the boundaries and, and barriers. It certainly goes, it’s cross-age . It goes from young people to old people, and nobody cares about that because it’s all just awakening. I don’t think of it scientifically unless I’m asked, but when I, when I explain it, it is a science.
