Kirtan: A Path to Peace, Happiness, and Wellbeing

Throughout my 20s and early 30s, I went through periods of depression that lasted for months at a time. We talked about it very little. It was simply something I lived with. Much of my suffering came from my mental and emotional reactions to life. Small things can cause big repercussions. I think many people can relate to this.

Everything started to change when I discovered yoga. For the first time in my life, I experienced inner stillness. I remember lying in savasana and being in such a deep state of peace that I didn’t want to get up. I would often sit and meditate long after everyone else had left the room.

Through meditation, I began to realize that peace is not something I have to create, but an inherent quality of mine. This realization didn’t immediately end my suffering, but it did reveal something profound. It meant that there was a deeper part of me that was beyond my thoughts, beyond my emotions, and even beyond my body.

Gradually, I learned to create a little space between my true self, what I came to understand as my eternal soul, and the thoughts and emotions that often overwhelmed me. Slowly, a more sense of calm began to emerge, and the depressing periods became less draining.

Shortly after I discovered yoga, I discovered kirtan. Kirtan is a call-and-response singing practice rooted in bhakti yoga, the yoga of love and devotion. Simply put, we sing to God. Where yoga and meditation left off, kirtan took over. Over the next few years, teaching kirtan became a powerful healing path for me, bringing peace, happiness, and well-being to an increasingly chaotic world.

Over time, I realized that kirtan does something very specific and very profound. Meditation often quieted my mind, but kirtan opened my heart. As I repeated the sacred sounds and names, something inside me softened. The constant inner dialogue – judging, worrying, replaying old stories – began to loosen its grip. Instead, emotions arose. dedication. Connection. love.

One of the great gifts of kirtan is its accessibility. It does not require a trained voice, musical ability, or even an intellectual understanding of the Sanskrit language being sung. Kirtan meets us where we are. Practice occurs through vibration and intention. The mind doesn’t need to understand. The heart already knows. It is often said that even if you don’t understand the words, your soul knows. Something deeper than language recognizes the truth being expressed.

In Kirtan, we sing the name of God not as an abstract concept, but as a living being. These names indicate the qualities we aspire to, such as love, compassion, strength, peace, wisdom, and grace. As we sing over and over again, we begin to remember that these qualities are inseparable from us. They already live within us. In this way, kirtan becomes a process of remembering who we are beneath our conditioning, hurt, and fear.

Modern life can be unforgiving. We are always inspired, always connected, always called upon to perform and create. Many of us are suffering from indescribable anxiety, loneliness, and sadness. Even though life may seem to be going well on the surface, there may be a quiet sense of disconnection deep inside. Bhakti Yoga offers a therapeutic approach that feels both ancient and deeply related. Rather than asking us to correct ourselves, bhakti invites us into a relationship with God, each other, and our own hearts.

There is something deeply healing about singing in community. When we gather in kirtan, we breathe together, sing together, and share a common intention. The feeling of separation is alleviated. The wall is collapsing. I have witnessed countless moments when people arrive cautiously or gravely, and leave feeling lighter, more open, and sometimes even joyful, without knowing exactly why. The mind has its own intelligence, and kirtan speaks directly to it.

My lived experience constantly reminds me of the power of kirtan as a means of healing. While I was recently teaching kirtan in Key West as part of the Florida Kirtan Tour, I noticed a woman who was in tears for almost the entire practice. She wasn’t falling apart, she was singing. she was breathing. She was allowing something in her deep grip to move. She sang while overcoming her sadness. Moments like this are very humbling. Kirtan has a way of releasing the sadness, hurt, and pain that we unknowingly store inside our hearts. In this sense, it is not just calming, but transformative.

This experience reminded me of what Ram Dass once said. Bhakti yoga is about polishing the mirror of the mind. When you polish a mirror, the light of nature and soul shines in. I have witnessed this many times while teaching kirtan. Something profound happens even when people don’t know exactly what they’re singing or to whom they’re singing. Mantras, sacred sounds passed down through the centuries, bypass the intellect and work directly into the heart, reaching places that words cannot.

On a personal level, I have found how reliable this practice is. There have been many times when I arrived to lead a kirtan and felt distracted, feeling heavy, or just not feeling well. Without exception, something changes by the time the chant ends. I feel more open, more grounded, and more at peace. I feel more connected to my inner essence, as the ancient yogis described it. Sat Chit Ananda: Truth, Consciousness, and Bliss. This is not an abstract philosophy to me. It’s a lived experience.

Participants often report similar changes. People leave feeling lighter, clearer, and more connected than when they arrived. And perhaps most importantly, the effect is cumulative. Each kirtan builds on the last, gradually reshaping the way we encounter ourselves and the world. Over time, your mind becomes more available, your mind becomes less reactive, and it becomes easier to find peace as a steady undercurrent in your daily life, rather than as a temporary experience.

In a world that often feels divided and overwhelmed, practices like kirtan remind us of our common humanity. When we sing together, we are no longer strangers. We become the same voice in prayer and our hearts beat in the same rhythm. Peace is no longer an abstract ideal. It becomes a lived experience. And those moments matter. they change us.

Bhakti yoga does not ask us to renounce the world. It asks us to love more deeply within it, to give our joys and sorrows, doubts and hopes to something greater than ourselves. Through kirtan, we learn that happiness is not something to chase. It is what we reveal when we are allowed to open up.

Looking back, I see that my journey through yoga, meditation, and kirtan was never about escaping pain, but discovering the deeper truth underlying it. Peace never existed. It was just hidden. Bhakti has given me a way to return to that peace again and again, through sound, through devotion, through love. And perhaps that is why kirtan feels so important in modern society. Kirtan offers a simple, tangible, heart-centered path back to ourselves and each other.

This spirit of bhakti lives at the heart of my new single i am completea love song to Krishna known as Divine Sweetness, featuring the beautiful female vocals of her friend Julia Barclay. It is offered as a reminder that wholeness is not something we will someday become, but something we remember as we move toward love.

To find Darren:
www.awakenwithdarren.com
https://www.instagram.com/darrenmarc111

You can listen to his new single at: https://open.spotify.com/track/6TXaYGJT820scxOnFnGl0d?si=0d905e81cf8540f6 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSx-EawG3vc

darren mark levin I am a musician, kirtan leader, and teacher dedicated to the path of bhakti yoga. He shares heart-centered practices that support peace, happiness, and spiritual connection in modern life through music, mantra, and community. Darren leads kirtan gatherings, retreats, and workshops across the country, offering his work as a living prayer for healing and wholeness. Learn more here www.awakenwithdarren.com