CALEB NICKERSON
DAVIDSON July 11, 2018
The waters of the Ottawa River in Davidson rang with music and ancient Indian mantras on Wednesday evening, as Esprit Rafting hosted their first ever sunset Kirtan.
Organized by Esprit’s owner Jim Coffey and Lynn Jones of Ottawa Valley Kirtan, around 10 participants took part in the inaugural session. Associated with the Hindu tradition, Kirtan is an important part of “bhakti”, a form of devotional yoga.
“It’s a yoga practice,” explained Jones. “Its really good for centring, very meditative … That’s my feeling after doing it for 20 years, my experience is that it’s really good for bringing positive energy.”
Participants sit in a circle and recite call and response-style Sanskrit mantras with musical accompaniment.
Coffey explained that he had come to practice Kirtan through his wife Barbara, who is a yoga instructor.
“She did her instructor training in Mexico and part of her training was to go to Kirtan,” he said. “One evening she said ‘You should come.’ I didn’t really know what I was going to, which I should have because I used to work in India for such a long time. I thought it was an amazing evening.”
Upon returning to Canada, he looked for some local practitioners and connected with Jones and her partner Ole Hendrickson, who run Ottawa Valley Kirtan.
Coffey said that he’s been planning to have a sunset Kirtan on the beach at Esprit for around three years, but circumstances conspired to delay the event, namely, the fire that tore through the company’s main lodge in 2016.
“Often Kirtan is something that gets a little bit of a following, people enjoy doing it, it’s a very social thing, so we’ve got snacks and drinks and things for afterward,” he said. “We hope that it can be something that will repeat.”
Jones explained that she leads chants all over the Valley, in the city of Ottawa, as well as at their cottage on Allumettes Island. She was enthusiastic about the benefits of such traditions, which have been practiced, primarily in India, for thousands of years.
“Some people call it a shower for the soul,” she said.
