The Birth of Kirtan: The Life and Teachings of Chaitanya is the biography of a mystic saint who pioneered devotional yoga (Bhakti) in sixteenth-century India and started the practice of sacred chanting (kirtan) that has now spread around the world. While Chaitanya’s practice has become a global movement over the last five hundred years, little is generally known about this spiritual reformer, as the two principal texts recounting his life were written in Bengali in the sixteenth century. In The Birth of Kirtan, Bhakti scholar and teacher Ranchor Prime adapts these two narratives into a moving and emotionally charged English-language biography for a modern audience. His poetic retelling is complemented by full-color reproductions of never-before-published nineteenth-century paintings of Chaitanya’s life.

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

“Singing is as human as breathing, and this book tells us why.” —Mark Guarino, contributing music writer, The Guardian Celebrated yogi-musician Girish opens new possibilities for transforming your life through song, combining the ancient art of singing mantra with twenty-first century neuroscience research. For as long as he can remember, Girish has created rhythm to accompany life. His first experience of music as sacred art came in college, playing with jazz bands. “During improvisational sessions,” he recalls, “there were these unexplainable moments of synchronicity and intuition that felt like magic.” This led Girish to an unexpected journey—a seeming detour to live as a monk in an ashram for five years that inadvertently nourished his musical artistry. Here, he studied Sanskrit as a means to understand the deeper meanings of ancient chants, which sparked a life-changing event that led him back to music—and to combine music with Sanskrit chants. Now he shares what he’s learned to help people of all ages, backgrounds, and traditions to transform body, brain, and life through mantra and music. With Music and Mantras, Girish has created an interactive toolkit—including more than ninety minutes of companion audio material—for personal transformation through singing, sharing his own experience as a musician, yogi, and former Hindu monk. Weaving simple, elegant mantras from ancient traditions with neuroscience, Girish shows us how to achieve greater peace of mind, clarity, calm, focus, and even improved health and wealth through the yogic art of chanting—an ideal practice for singing our way to happiness, health, and prosperity.

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

Religion in decline in an age of progress -- Untidy realms -- A Swadeshi Chaitanya -- Recovering Bishnupriya's loss -- Utopia and a birthplace.

This unique book provides comprehensive profiles of the three great incarnations of Sai Baba Shirdi Sai Baba(1858-1918), Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011) and the future Sri Prema Sai Baba whose advent in the present century has been prophesied. They carry the triple message of work, worship and wisdom. Shirdi Sai Baba laid the base for secular integration and gave the message of duty as work, Sathya Sai Babas mission was to make every one realize that the same God resides in everyone. The future Prema Sai Baba will promote the evangelic news that not only God resides in everyone but everyone is GOD. The special features of this book are: It presents research based new information on the first two Incarnations which will enable readers understand their lives, messages, miracles, and their status and unique roles as prophets --harbingers of the New Age Spirituality. It presents the thrilling future scenario of Prema Sai Babas divine life as revealed by Sathya Sai Baba to his closest devotee Vasantha Sai who has been assured that she would be his wife Prema when he incarnates as Raja who would later be known as Prema Sai Baba and the mother of their only son Rama. This book clears the prevailing confusion about Prema Sai Baba and gives a microscopic view of the New Age Spirituality.

Tucked away in ancient Sanskrit and Bengali texts is a secret teaching, a blissful devotional (bhakti) tradition that involves sacred congregational chanting (kīrtana), mindfulness practices (japa, smaraṇam), and the deepening of one’s relationship with God (rasa). Brought to the world’s stage by Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu (1486–1533), and fully documented by his immediate followers, the Six Goswāmīs of Vrindāvan, these unprecedented teachings were passed down from master to student in Gauḍīya Vaishnava lineages. The Golden Avatāra of Love: Śrī Chaitanya’s Life and Teachings, by contemporary scholar Steven J. Rosen, makes the profound truths of this confidential knowledge easily accessible for an English language audience. In his well-researched text, modern readers—spiritual practitioners, scholars, and seekers of knowledge alike—will encounter a treasure of hitherto unrevealed spiritual teachings, and be able to fathom sublime dimensions of Śrī Chaitanya’s method. Using the ancient texts themselves and the findings of contemporary academics, Rosen succeeds in summarizing and establishing Śrī Chaitanya’s life and doctrine for the modern world.

Kirtan and yoga are spiritual practices that originated in the mystic East. In fact, kirtan - singing for the Divine - is a form of yoga that engages the heart, evoking emotion and joy. The Yoga of Kirtan will introduce readers, many for the first time, to this blissful yogic tradition. Here we learn of kirtan's history and origins, its different musical forms,and the instruments used in its performance. But, most importantly, in The Yoga of Kirtan we hear the voices of kirtan yogis from ages past. They reach out to us through the hearts and minds of their present-day representatives, such as Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Deva Premal and Miten, Snatam Kaur, Vaiyasaki Das, Ragani and David Newman, among others. Through the insights of these modern-day chanters, we get a peek into the ecstasy of the chanting process. By allowing us to eavesdrop on their intimate conversations with Vaishnava scholar Steven Rosen, they unlock the mysteries of this age-old yogic tradition, helping us to see why chanting is indeed yoga and how easy and pleasurable it is to perform.