Kirtan Kids by Jai Uttal

Kirtan Kids Producer: Ben Leinbach, Jai Uttal Label: Sounds True Kirtan is an ancient practice of call-and-response singing that creates spiritual connection and compassionate community. And to top it all off, it’s fun! With Kirtan Kids, Grammy®-nominee Jai Uttal presents the first record of its kind created for families to sing, laugh, dance, and celebrate life together. Featuring five choirs of children of various ages, Kirtan Kids will delight listeners with nine chants in both Sanskrit and English and “Poppa Jai’s” playful stories. Here is an invitation “to sing with our little ones, to take turns leading, and to keep our hearts and minds ever more open to the mysteries, the miracles, and the infinite love that always surrounds us.” WHY KIDS’ KIRTAN? As a father, I’m always asking myself “what is my job in relationship to my child. Exactly what is it am I supposed to do?” When my boy was born, all the light and wisdom that I’d been searching and longing for all my years in this Earth shone brightly out of his tiny little eyes. Who was he? Who IS he? At first I really only had to take care of my beloved Nubia as she nursed him, and then gradually the nurturing was spread more evenly between us. But he already knew everything! Well, his limbs weren’t working that well. Or his words. But the knowledge was there. I could just see it in his glowing face and loving gestures. So I simply worshipped him as Divine, as my own personal manifestation of baby Krishna Gopala. I sang to him, bowed to him, played with him. People said “Oh, how beautiful. You’re giving such a spiritual background to him at such an early age.” But I knew that I was the one getting the blessings, the healings, the spiritual uplifting….. Gradually, however, the many streams of human life began to mingle with my boy’s incredibly wise innocence. Personality, wanting, individualization, the joy of saying “NO”…. But still his eyes shone. Singing to my Gopala gradually changed to singing WITH my Gopala. And as the practice of Kirtan reminds him of his divine nature, I realize that mostly it’s me who needs the reminding. I fall asleep most of the time. And my boy wakes me up. And then we sing. And then, of course, we PLAY! When Ezra Gopal was first born a friend commented to me with some sympathy that my devotional practices must really be suffering as I devoted more and more time to being a daddy. I laughed inwardly, as only an exhausted parent can. But I also rested in the wondrous reality and knowledge that Bhakti, or devotion, only begins when we take ourselves out of the ‘number one’ spot and put another one there. And what better way to experience service than having a child. The surprise was that as I quite naturally and happily began to put my son’s needs before my own, I couldn’t help but notice that God seemed so much closer, and Kirtan seemed so much richer. Anyway, six years have passed. We’ve travelled through the forests of Pokemon, the crazy world of Tom and Jerry, the exploits of super heroes and mutants. But still home base is always Hanuman, Radha & Krishna, Shiva, our Gurus and all of our great unseen friends, helpers and protectors. I invite all of us mommas and poppas to enter the amazing world of Kirtan, to sing with our little ones, to take turns leading, and to keep our hearts and minds ever more open to the mysteries, the miracles and the infinite love that always surrounds us.