So here we are, 880 or so days into a dedicated daily practice of 31 minutes kirtan kriya. It’s business as usual, really. Kirtan Kriya has become so deeply embedded in my morning practice, I can’t imagine life without it. And there lies the issue… how will I ever depart from the cosy, contented shores of my beloved kirtan kriya? I had set my intention for 1,000 days… and then what?
I’ve had this conversation with myself many times, and I oscillate between two camps.
Camp One (sweet and kind) consoles: “Ah, Shamrang, rest upon these cosy kirtan kriya shores forever!”
Camp Two (the more militant of the pair) says: “No, no, no, it’s time to bid farewell and set sail into new territory.”
A bit of a quandary, no? Well, yes, it is… until I consider that this 1,000 days of kirtan kriya, which once presented such a challenge to me in that I never conceived it was in any way possible, has become very much a comfort zone.
“But” (and this is Camp One peeping out here) “is there anything wrong with a comfort zone?”
“Ha!” (Camp Two, of course) “Life begins beyond your comfort zone.”
But I digress… back to this sweet daily practice of kirtan kriya, which is happily mine for at least four more months. The challenge of remaining present continues. I read somewhere (I think in I Am Woman) that everyone’s mind wanders far and wide during kirtan kriya. Yes, it does, everyone, and it keeps doing so! Having said that, I am more aware during the process than perhaps when I began. The different phases feel very familiar to me, from my initial unshakeable intentions to remain absolutely present throughout to the (soon after) realisation that ah, yes, I’ve drifted again, to a settling into a steady focus that sometimes remains and sometimes dissolves, to that final moment after I’ve taken that deep inhalation, shaken my hands and body out and then, resting quietly, dissolve into the expansion of consciousness around me.
Oh, how I will miss that!
Sat nam x
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