KIRTAN with Sri Prahlada
May 27

Join special guests and Kirtan superstar Sri Prahlada for an evening of chanting and music to open your heart and connect directly with the Divine in all of us.
Lend your voice to be a joyful part of our yoga community.

Get ready to raise your voice and lift the roof!

Time: 7 - 9pm

Venue: Qi Freshwater, 2 Moore Rd (Corner Albert Street) Freshwater

Cost: $30

On-Line REGISTRATION HERE

Kirtan is mantra meditation as song. The Sanskrit word man means mind, while tra means to free. Mantra meditation calms your mind of fear and anxiety, and opens your heart to reveal your spiritual nature of eternity and bliss. The process of kirtan involves singing sacred mantras to the accompaniment of musical instruments. Generally, the mantras are sung a repetitive call-and-response style, where the leader sings a mantra and the audience chants in response. Thus, kirtan includes the audience in the performance. Kirtan is a culture where people can share spiritual meditation in a joint spiritual experience. This practice of repetitive prayer is present in varied forms within most spiritual traditions in the world, although the yoga tradition of India generally gives more emphasis to it as a specific discipline. Often kirtan begins with all the participants sitting meditatively, but ends with joyous dancing as kirtan awakens the natural joy of the soul.

Sri Prahlada was practically born into kirtan and has been singing and playing kirtan across the globe since childhood. He developed his initial fascination with kirtan attending school at ashrams in Australia and India. A natural musical talent, at age 12 he won a recording contract with record giant EMI, releasing two singles and an album entitled “Through the Eyes of a Child”. Sri Prahlada has performed kirtan in traditional, as well as rock and reggae styles before audiences of tens of thousands. Along with the likes of Krishna Das and Jai Uttal, he features in Steven Rosen’s book ‘The Yoga of Kirtan’ which contains in-depth interviews with 20 western kirtan artists.

At age 15  Sri Prahlada took formal spiritual initiation into the Chaitanya Vaisnava tradition from Hridayananda dasa Goswami (Howard J. Resnick, Ph.D.) a world-renowned teacher of both Sanskrit and Indian Studies, who has translated numerous Sanskrit texts and has written many corresponding commentaries, essays, articles, and novels. Sri Prahlada has also been mentored by the renowned bhakti-yoga master Indradyumna Swami, traveling as his assistant, secretary, and lead kirtan singer, from age 15 onwards for about 18 years.

Now based in Sydney Australia, Sri Prahlada often performs with the five-piece band featuring the hypnotic harmonium, rhythmic bass and mridanga drum, melodic guitar, chiming karatals, and vocal harmonies. Sri Prahlada’s heart and soul permeates every moment of every kirtan he sings, transporting his audience to the realm of spiritual consciousness.

Kirtan with Sri Prahlada involves:

• Call-and-response chanting of mantras with musical accompaniment
• Sharing stories and teachings from the bhakti-yoga tradition