During the 30-Day Yoga challenge at Yoga+, I got the chance to check out special feature yoga classes as well, one of them being Kirtan yoga.
It was an open feature class, so once again I invited good ol' Jericho to join me. I had no idea what I was in for, and thought it would something like Vinyasa yoga, but not as hardcore. I was totally mistaken. Kirtan yoga is more like the yoga of the mind than it is the body.
Kirtan - spirit-based chanting from India - is one form of spiritual work that's no work at all; the music lifts you into a clear, joyous state completely effortlessly. - Linda Johnsen
His Holiness Grindhari Swami Maharaja gave a basic explanation of what Kirtan yoga basically is and the meaning of the Maha mantra that we'd be chanting along with him and the Kirtan Rasa Band. The mantra was pretty simple, and easy to memorize.
This is what the Kirtan yoga session sounded like:
It felt a bit awkward at first, everyone didn't know what was going on and just went with the flow. It picked up and became entrancing after a while, then it got a bit boring, then picked up again with lots of dancing and singing from the group. It was pretty awesome! I'd definitely do it again!
After the Kirtan yoga, we were treated to a vegetarian feast by Swami Maharaja and the rest of the followers of Shiva, called Shaivites or Shaivas. I heard that their ashram is in Laguna, which is a ways off from the Fort. Kudos to them for lugging all their equipment over just to share this special experience with us! Thank you!
I was able to down two veggie burgers (lots of flavor, minus all the calories!), two somosas, and a no-egg leche flan that tasted exactly like your normal leche flan! How did they do it? don't you need eggs to make leche flan?
Not only did they bless us sharing Kirtan yoga, but I finally found the mala beads made of bodhi seeds that I was looking for for ages! Jericho was nice enough to buy them for me, since that was what I had requested he bring back on his Singapore visit, but couldn't find a store that sold them.
