In the Shikshapatri, Lord Swaminarayan defines bhakti (devotion) as an immense love for the Lord that is combined with a genuine understanding and knowledge of His greatness.

The scriptures have described 9 categories of bhakti. In the Vachnamrut, Lord Swaminarayan says that the ultimate bhakti is Pativrata Bhakti, which encompasses all these nine forms of devotion. One of these is kirtan bhakti – the recitation of songs praising the Lord.

It is said that when a devotee sings a kirtan with true devotion, the Lord will join in and give encouragement to His child so that their devotion is strengthened. True happiness can be achieved by the mere utterance of such devotional poetry.

His Holiness Jeevanpran Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa showed His prowess as an incredibly talented poet and musician. He had mastered the art of playing the Sitar, Clarinet, Tabla and Harmonium. Looking back on the divine leela (sports) of Jeevanpran Swamibapa, one finds many examples of how significant and dear kirtan bhakti was to Him. When He showed signs of illness, Jeevanpran Swamibapa insisted that He had no need medicine. Instead, He commanded His sants to recite kirtan. While the sants obeyed His divine wishes and sang, the illness would be seen to perspire away from Jeevanpran Swamibapa’s body. Through such transcendental episodes, Jeevanpran Swamibapa showed the power of kirtan and what can be achieved through kirtan bhakti.

On one occasion, Jeevanpran Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa wrote several kirtans and sang them to His guru, Sadguru Shree Ishwarcharandasji Swamibapa. These kirtans clearly described the supremacy of Lord Swaminarayan and the unparalleled tenets of Lord Swaminarayan and Jeevanpran Shree Abji Bapashree. Shree Ishwarbapa became so delighted with Jeevanpran Swamibapa that he commanded Swamibapa to produce at the very least a hundred such poems. Jeevanpran Swamibapa lovingly obliged by compiling over a hundred kirtan in a collection titled ‘Harignanamrut Kavya’. This was Swamibapa’s gift to His devotees. In preparation for the Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa Satabdi Mahotsav (the Centenary Celebrations of Jeevanpran Swamibapa), His Divine Holiness Acharya Swamishree has commanded all his devotees to learn kirtans from Shree Harignanamrut Kavya, so that they too may benefit from the superlative fruits of kirtan bhakti.

By the immense encouragement and blessings of His Divine Holiness Acharya Swamishree, Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan has produced over 30 cassettes and CDs over the last twenty years. These contain kirtans from the Harignanamrut Kavya as well as those written by Lord Swaminarayan’s Nand padvi sants and Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa’s own sants and disciples. The albums feature hundreds of kirtans directed by internationally acclaimed producers such as Kalyanji-Anandji and Shravan Kumar Rathod amongst many others. They also contain kirtans performed by renowned artists such a Javed Ali, Vinod Rathod, Mahendra Kapoor and Nitin Mukesh to name but a few, who regularly contribute live performances during the many Mahotsavs organised by Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan. In the past few years, the highly talented sants of Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan have mastered professional musical production techniques and now record and produce CDs from the state-of-the-art Shree Muktajeevan Sound Studio at the Sansthan headquarters in Maninagar. In much the same way as Shree Ishwarbapa inspired Swamibapa to write kirtans, His Divine Holiness Acharya Swamishree constantly inspires His sants to continue to produce such an outstanding quality of music to aid our devotion unto the Lord.