{"id":4900,"date":"2026-04-18T02:12:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/carnegie-hall-to-present-concert-celebrating-hindu-devotional-singing-in-the-west\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T02:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:42:04","slug":"carnegie-hall-to-present-concert-celebrating-hindu-devotional-singing-in-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/carnegie-hall-to-present-concert-celebrating-hindu-devotional-singing-in-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnegie Hall to present concert celebrating Hindu devotional singing in the West"},"content":{"rendered":"


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NEW YORK (RNS) — One century ago, on April 18, 1926, an Indian Hindu monk named Paramahansa Yogananda — the now-recognizable guru on the front cover of the bestseller “Autobiography of a Yogi”— traveled to New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall to address a crowd of almost 3,000 people. Between talks on spiritual realization, Yogananda famously led the American crowd in an Indian musical devotional chant, or kirtan, for one hour and 25 minutes in a “divine atmosphere of joyous praise,” as he put it. <\/p>\n

Even after he left the stage, Yogananda wrote at the time, the audience stayed, chanting an English translation of the sacred song by the revered Sikh Guru Nanak called “O God Beautiful.” Before the event, he had been advised by his companions that Eastern songs wouldn’t be understood by the audience. <\/p>\n

“In 1926, if you think about it, the consciousness of people then, they were unfamiliar with Indian teachers, masters and gurus coming over,” said Brother Devananda, a 74-year-old monk in the Self-Realization Fellowship, Yogananda’s international spiritual organization. “But to have the magnetism, first of all to bring in 1,000s, and then to chant like that — it has really special significance.”<\/p>\n

On Saturday (April 18), Yogananda’s historic event will be replicated at Carnegie Hall at an event titled “The Divine Art of Music.” The night will celebrate the “art and science” of kirtan, Devananda said, and recognize Yogananda’s success in bringing such musical mantra meditations to the West.<\/p>\n

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Over the past 100 years, devotees told RNS, music has become a door for new initiates into Indian spirituality — reflected in the Self-Realization Fellowship’s growing appeal to a younger demographic. <\/p>\n

“Many of these tunes and words are ancient,” said Devananda, who joined SRF in 1970 as an 18-year-old and currently resides in its Encinitas, California, ashram, or monastery. “If you get into a chant in the right way, it seems to transform the consciousness. You’re just in a different place. And for we who follow Paramahansa Yogananda, we’re using chanting as a tool to open our hearts, and it’s also preparing us for deep meditation.”<\/p>\n

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RELATED:<\/strong> Hindu devotional singing is having a moment<\/a><\/div>\n
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Paramahansa Yogananda, born in 1893, was sent to the United States by his guru at age 27 to spread yogic teachings. He was the first prominent Indian to be hosted at the White House and was once called by the Los Angeles Times the “20th century’s first superstar guru.” Many consider the teacher to be a father of the modern American yoga movement, especially where he settled in LA. <\/p>\n

Guy Beck, a religion professor at Tulane University in New Orleans who has studied what’s known as Hinduism’s “sonic theology,” said the devotional singing tradition — whether the call-and-response kirtan or the group-led bhajan — is “itself a liturgy.” Some kirtans repeat one word or the name of a deity, while some tell full mythological stories, and others are translated versions of poems set to music. But all, Beck said, are importantly shared among believers. From his field work across Indian communities, Beck said it’s not uncommon to see people young and old joining together in song.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“There’s a powerful energy that’s derived from that collectivity,” Beck told Religion News Service. “In the West, we talk about congregational singing like they do in church. It’s kind of like that — where everyone’s on the same page and they’re following very closely the words but also the tune.<\/p>\n

“The tune is very important, the melody, the musical aspect. It’s not simply litany. It’s not just reading, but it’s a powerful elevation with the music that causes people to sometimes exhibit ecstatic symptoms,” he added. <\/p>\n

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For many in the Dharmic traditions, Beck said, there’s an emphasis on spiritual imagery, and kirtans allow for the image of the Divine to be created in one’s mind as the repetition travels from the conscious to subconscious. Even if you don’t fully grasp the meaning, or you may not know all the words, he said, the melody “keeps in your mind, and that has its own spiritual value.”<\/p>\n

Abhita Austin, a Long Island native and Gen Xer who was born and raised in SRF, said like many young people, she was once less than serious about her parents’ spiritual tradition — preferring running track to sitting quietly in meditation. Yet, kirtan, she said, was the “first touchpoint” for Austin to experience Yogananda’s philosophy in a way that truly spoke to her. <\/p>\n

“I couldn’t really articulate it as a kid, but it’s probably the first time in a group setting I just felt peace, like I just felt the love of God,” said Austin, who is now a volunteer helping with the Carnegie Hall concert as a videographer. “They were really simple chants that a kid could grab onto. I just got wrapped up in the chanting, and I just remember feeling so good.”<\/p>\n

While Yogananda’s teachings on yoga and breath work spoke to those Westerners in 1926, Austin said that, “now more than ever,” people have a need and desire for inner peace. In the West, in particular, Austin has seen “living a soft life” or “being high vibrational” trending over the last decade, along with veganism, yoga pants and even creating a “Zen zone” in one’s house.<\/p>\n

“The world, in less eloquent words, is a hot mess,” she said. “There’s a lot of instability, there’s a lot of insecurity, there’s different things politically that are happening that directly affect us. Everyone is looking to go inner, inner, inner.<\/p>\n

“It’s profound that it’s been 100 years, and I feel like the guru’s teachings are now coming into fruition as the world evolves,” she added.<\/p>\n

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RELATED:<\/strong> ‘The divine will come’: On Lord Shiva’s night, Hindus channel deity’s energy at the heart of creation<\/a><\/div>\n
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NEW YORK (RNS) — One century ago, on April 18, 1926, an Indian Hindu monk named Paramahansa Yogananda — the now-recognizable guru on the front cover of the bestseller “Autobiography of a Yogi”— traveled to New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall to address a crowd of almost 3,000 people. Between talks on spiritual realization, Yogananda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}