Krishna Das: Flow of Grace
Krishna Das is an American author and vocalist known for his performances of Hindu devotional music known as kirtan. He has released seventeen albums since 1996 and is the best-selling western chant artist of all time. Krishna Das has just re-released his book, Flow of Grace, where shares 40 lyrical verses that give praise to Hanuman.
Krishna Das, Hanuman, and The Flow of Grace
Interview by Liane Buck
Krishna Das is known for his ability to transport his audience to other worlds with his deep, hypnotic voice. Fusing traditional kirtan of the East with Western harmony and rhythm, Krishna Das has developed his own musical style. Krishna Das has been called yoga’s “rock star because of the artistic layering traditional art of kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation.”
With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das ” known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD ” has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling western chant artist of all time. His album ‘Live Ananda’ (released January 2012) was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category. In February 2013, Krishna Das performed at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles, CA streamed online to millions of viewers. The award-winning film ‘One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das’ has been in over 100 US cities, over 10 countries worldwide and is available on DVD everywhere.
Krishna Das spent the late ’60’s traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, he finally made the journey to India, which led him to Ram Dass’ own beloved guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-Ji.
In the winter of 1968, Krishna Das met spiritual seeker Ram Dass and was enthralled by the stories of Ram Dass’s recent trip to India, where he met the legendary guru Neem Karoli Baba. KD spent the late ’60’s traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, Krishna Das left behind his dreams of being a rock ’n’ roll star and was on his way to India to spend three years with Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-Ji.
Given the name Krishna Das, KD began to chant as part of following the path of Bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion.
During this time, Krishna Das’s heart was drawn to the practice of Bhakti yoga—the yoga of devotion—and especially to the practice of kirtan (chanting the Divine names). Krishna Das returned to the United States and, as he continued chanting, developed his signature style fusing traditional kirtan structure with Western harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities.
He travels the world leading call-and-response kirtans and sharing this deep, experiential practice with thousands of people.
With the release of his 16th album Peace Of My Heart, October 2018 – KD on behalf of the Kirtan Wallah Foundation offers nearly two hours of deeply moving, meditative and artfully restrained new recordings born out of a request from a yoga teacher who works with children on the Autism Spectrum.
Forgoing the ecstatic tempo changes so common to temple-style kirtan, these 5 new tracks move slowly and deliberately. The song to song steadiness is both striking and soothing, and as emotionally impactful as ever.
In the new edition of the book, Flow of Grace, he shares the 40 lyrical verses that give praise to Hanuman Chalisa, the monkey god known as the pinnacle of bhakti (devotion) and the remover of fears and obstacles. It is said that just by reciting this ancient mantra, you will gain great strength and confidence and be filled with divine energy.
In 1977, the writer and pilot Richard Bach published the Novel Illusions: the adventure of a Reluctant Messiah, as a follow-up to 1970’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
The story circles around Donald William Shimoda, a tired Messiah that quits his mission because he is disappointed with the show performance business-side of the Miracles. Despite having the power to transform lives, Shimoda is just not satisfied by the public display of spirituality. Like Shimoda, Krishna Das is a reluctant spiritual luminary, humble and modest, he is a very timid soul. On our interview, many of the questions were answered in almost in a reticent way.
Krishna Das does not consider himself as a fearless person despite the enormity of the selfless work he had embraced in this lifetime. The art of anchoring the light in people’s heart is no small task.
In 2015, Krishna Das joined in with Peacemakers’ Bearing Witness in various retreats with Bernie Glassman- In Native American Bearing Witness Retreat at Wounded Knee Memorial Site, South Dakota USA and another one in Auschwitz/Birkenau, Poland. The Auschwitz-Birkenau retreat has been the central program of ZPI’s Bearing Witness programs – designed to bear witness to specific and collective expressions of human suffering in various places around the world, to develop bonds and facilitate creative and healing action.
Since 1996 the Auschwitz retreat has been an interfaith and immersive cross-cultural gathering event for over 1500 peacebuilders from different war-torn countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Palestine/Israel, Syria, Native American Nations, and over 20 other countries. To Know more about the Peacemakers, please visit their website
We talked with KD a little about his new revised version of Flow of Grace, his practice, and his music and his spiritual journey.
Interview with Krishna Das
OMTimes: Why did you feel it was necessary to produce a revised version of Flow of Grace?
Krishna Das: This book is written about Hanuman and the practice of chanting to Hanuman with the Hanuman Chalisa. Hanuman is a Being who lives only to serve the divine within us. The HC is a hymn that invokes his presence. Grace is the natural state of the Universe embodied in and manifested by the incarnations of God and Great Saints. Grace is always present and flowing to us and through us, but we are not aware of that. Grace is our natural state, but we’ve lost touch with that. When we invoke the presence of Hanuman, we turn ourselves toward the deepest part of our own being, which is the Love that lives within us. This love is always flowing in all directions at all times. Usually, we are too busy to look. We’ve also cultivated the habit of being identified with our thoughts and emotions and information from the senses. So, through the chanting of the HC. Hanuman is the energy that reunites the soul with the Supreme Being by removing the obstacles that prevent us from recognizing our own true nature.
OMTimes: I know the ageless art of Kirtan that you’re performing nowadays is essential art – the devotional singing and the grounding of energies. My big question for you would be how this happened in your life, how this came to be?
Krishna Das: When I first heard chanting in India, I recognized that this was a practice I could truly give myself to, and I had been looking for something like that my whole life.
OMTimes: Many people say Hanuman Chalisa is a miracle chant that brings liberation on many levels. Can you elaborate on some of these levels?
Krishna Das: There are Chalisas to almost all the deities. Durga Chalisa, all these Chalisas. There are a million Chalisas. But this is the one, the Hanuman Chalisa is the one from this lineage of Hanuman. We’re all in that lineage. Maharajji is in that lineage of Hanuman. His devotees saw Him as Hanuman, so we felt we were singing to Hanuman when we sang this, and He knew what we felt. He made us feel that way. So, He opened our hearts that way. So, it’s a very powerful chant, partially because it’s difficult to learn.
You have to really commit to learning. You don’t have to memorize it. You can read it.
Hanuman not only gives liberation, frees us, but in the process of freeing us, He allows us to satisfy the desires that we need to have satisfied to move on. He allows for the satisfaction and fulfillment of healthy desires that we have. The things that we need to have, that we need to get, in our own particular karmic predicament, individually, we’re talking about. He makes all that possible, too.
So, it’s not only that He gives liberation, but He also allows us to eat a little bit on the way.
So, this is Hanuman. Hanuman is that the ability to overcome all obstacles, to break all attachment, to remove suffering, remove calamities from our lives, all the stuff that keeps us back, obstructs our path and Hanuman Chalisa invokes the presence of that love.
