Western Practitioners Put New Spin on Devotional Chanting

October 7, 2003

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK, October 6, 2003: The musician who calls himself

Krishna Das was born on Long Island as Jeff Kagel. When he sings in

Hindi or Sanskrit, he does so with an undeniably American accent, says

this article in Time magazine. But Das, who is known as K.D., has no

desire to hide his New York roots or the fact that his musical style

owes as much to the blues as to his Indian guru, Neem Karoli Babal.

K.D. is a practitioner of kirtan, devotional chanting. Chanters repeat

short phrases over and over, invoking the names of Hindu gods. The

ancient ritual is enjoying a vogue, and as practiced by K.D. and other

prominent American performers, it has taken on a decidedly Western

slant. Aaron Reed, a computer specialist in Los Angeles, attends

kirtans led by Dave Stringer. "It's like a rock concert," Reed says.

"Dave infuses it with rock 'n' roll, soul and the blues." Reed notes,

however, that at a rock concert, the audience gazes up at a performer

onstage, while at a kirtan, everyone participates. "It's empowering to

sing with others who experience the process with you," says Reed. Not

everyone agrees, however. Georg Feuerstein, founder of the Yoga

Research and Education Center near Redding, California, says kirtan is

an exclusively Hindu practice in which believers praise Gods to whom

they are devoted. He contends that although non-Hindus or those who do

not understand what they are chanting may experience a quasi-religious

feeling, "The traditionalist would want to know why divine Hindu names

are being used for that purpose."

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