Who is Shakti & Bhakti?

Shakti & Bhakti is an Ohio-based kirtan group that leads kirtans in Dayton and surrounding areas. The band members are yoga practitioners who strongly desire to share their love of chant with other kirtan enthusiasts, spiritual seekers, lovers of music, and yoga practitioners. One may think of kirtan as call and response chanting from India, but for us at TYS, kirtans are much more than "singing the name of God" as a group. Kirtans involve satsang. Satsang can mean the company of truth, and one of the most powerful ways to share truth during the Kali Yuga is to gather as a group to sing the name of God with love and devotion. At TYS, we rely heavily on kirtan as a mantra, which nourishes and protects the mind or relieves the mind from grief and sorrow, nada; creating union through sound and bhakti; to share the love and devotion for God.

The meaning behind the name Shakti & Bhakti; shakti is the power to be and the power to become, while bhakti is the path of love and devotion (cultivating an intense love for God.) One could say that we are developing the power of love and devotion, and when this has evolved, we will have that intense love for God. When there is only fierce love of God, only unity is left, and there is no more diversity.

The music of Shakti & Bhakti is a mix of traditional bhajans, call-and-response chants, and many originals that blend the sounds of the East and West; all Shakti & Bhakti music weaves Sanskrit mantras into meditative, intimate sound leading to the expansion of the heart. All kirtans start with a guided meditation to unite the group so we can sing the name of God as one voice because that is what we are one voice.