All posts tagged: devotional

Carnegie Hall to present Hindu devotional concert

Carnegie Hall to present Hindu devotional concert

Published by Sam Flores

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.  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.  “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 …

What an ancient devotional text means for the women of Nepal

What an ancient devotional text means for the women of Nepal

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — I first heard the popular “Swasthani Vrata Katha” – a devotional text – recited in Sankhu, a village on the outskirts of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, some 25 years ago. The text tells the story, or “katha,” of the ritual vow, or “vrata,” that women devotees perform to earn the favor of Swasthani, a local Nepali Hindu goddess. Every day during the cold lunar month of January-February, 100 to 200 Hindu women, dressed all in red, carry out a ritual that requires them to bathe in the local river, eat only one meal per day, remain singularly focused and worship the Hindu god Shiva at midday. In the evening, they recite the devotional text or listen to it being recited. Women taking a ritual bath.Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, CC BY-SA This practice dates to the 16th century and continues today. Nepali families gather daily at their home or at a relative’s home to recite one of the 31 chapters of the text. The recitation is done even if no one in the family is …

The Divine Art of Music — Event to celebrate 100th anniversary of Paramahansa Yogananda’s devotional chanting in America

The Divine Art of Music — Event to celebrate 100th anniversary of Paramahansa Yogananda’s devotional chanting in America

Published by Sam Flores

Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Saturday, April 18, 2026 Self‑Realization Fellowship presents “The Divine Art of Music” on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, celebrating 100 years since Paramahansa Yogananda — author of Autobiography of a Yogi — introduced Indian devotional chanting (known as kirtan) to thousands of Westerners at the landmark venue. The event honors Yogananda’s vision of music as a practice for awakening the soul. Attendees will be invited to experience firsthand how chanting focuses the heart, draws the mind inward, and elevates consciousness. “Music that is saturated with soul force is the real universal music, understandable by all hearts,” wrote Yogananda in the prelude to his Cosmic Chants, a collection of devotional songs inspired by his own direct experience of the Divine. The collection includes original compositions as well as Yogananda’s translations and adaptations of traditional Indian chants, including: “O God Beautiful” by the revered Sikh Guru Nanak; Swami Shankara’s “No Birth, No Death;” the ancient Sanskrit chant “Hymn to Brahma;” and several by Nobel Prize poet Rabindranath Tagore, …