Did you ever think why do we like so many things from other cultures when we don’t really have a clue about them? For example - a lot of westerners like Chinese and Japanese cousins, without ever being to those countries. Or the fact that we like to wear Indian clothes and practice yoga, with no in-depth knowledge about them. Well, in case you didn’t know - we like all of those things because they are adapted to our own taste. All the people that I know that have been to China say that the real Chinese food has almost nothing in common with the one we order in our western shopping malls, and the people in India don’t actually wear the same clothes we consider to be Indian. We like the modified versions of things from foreign and far away cultures, and that is probably the best way to make the first step towards accepting the “others.”
Let me get to the point - Krishna Das is the perfect example of adapting cultural elements, in his case, Indian spiritual music. When I first heard his version of the kirtan (chanting the names of God) I was instantly drawn to his interpretation… far more than any original Indian variant. Why? Because he speaks the (musical) language I understand the best. Adapted to the western melodies, these sacred chants found the quickest way to my heart, and the words somehow became my own. Music is a powerful medium, maybe the strongest of all means of communication, and Krishna Das blended two cultural idioms in a perfect way. His devotion is undoubtful, and you can feel it in every single note of his musical and spiritual journey.
Krishna Das is an American singer who has studied ancient Indian meditation practices, Bhakti Yoga - in Hinduism, this is the yoga of devotion, and is now devoted to singing and teaching. He has released several CDs, and he travels around the world giving performances and teaching. He performed at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where his album, Live Ananda(2012), was nominated for the 2013 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. At the Grammy ceremony, he was referred to as the "Rockstar of Yoga." Krishna Das is arguably the best known U.S. singer of Indian kirtan-style devotional music.
