By Joan (Jayadevi) Bragar

I love this chant! Gurudevi sings the lively chant “Na Shivam” with a group in a call and response format.  

The chant repeats the sutra “na shivam vidyate kvachit.”  It is lively and engaging, and easy to sing along to. It makes my steps lighter. The beat feels like a heartbeat, and I dance to it as I work around the house.

Gurudevi translates the verses into English: 

There is nothing that is not Shiva!

There is nowhere that is not Shiva!

As she pointed out in a recent discourse, the lines are worded as “double negatives.”  In chanting this double negative, we become present to the “everything” that is Shiva, the One Reality — Self — being you and being me and everything else in the universe!

Everything that I see is HE!

Everything that I see is ME!

Then the refrain Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva! is sung out with great enthusiasm. 

Listening to this chant will lighten your step and invoke in you the feeling of the all-pervasiveness of Shiva. And it will bring you closer to Shiva within — your own Self.