All across America, there's a new trend in music that goes hand-in-hand with the explosion of yoga as a movement and spiritual-seeking as a national pastime: kirtan. And Austin has a few avid proponents. The most familiar kirtan artists include Krishna Das, Dave Stringer, Wah!, Deva Premal, and Jai Uttal. Kirtan, which literally means "to sing," is a type of participatory call-and-response of sacred chants, usually sung in the ancient Indian language, Sanskrit, and has the same soulful, longing ecstasy of American gospel music. Kirtan is an integral part of bhakti yoga, or "the path of devotion," which took the practice of yoga out of the exclusive realm of the priesthood and gave it to the people, the population at large. It is non-denominational, though Vedic in origin, and participants often bring instruments, like drums or guitars or even the harmonium. The chants are usually simple, the eyes are usually closed (so no self-consciousness) and the experience is always uplifting and fun.
