Awaken Your Heart with Sacred Song & Kirtan – Free Class with Jai Uttal
Some feelings seem to live deeper than words can reach. Longing, grief, tenderness, joy, and prayer can all ask for expression, yet the moment you consider singing, self-consciousness or the thought “I can’t sing” may get in the way.
Kirtan offers a different relationship with your voice. Rather than focusing on performance or sounding beautiful, this devotional practice invites you to let sound arise from what is actually present in your heart.
Grammy-nominated sacred musician and kirtan artist Jai Uttal will guide you through shared vocal practices using Aum, an easy call-and-response with the open sound Ah, and a simple mantra melody. Along the way, you’ll explore how breath, vibration, emotion, listening, and silence can become part of prayer and embodied presence.
Jai’s approach invites you to move beyond judgment about your voice and experience singing as a practice of self-acceptance, creativity, devotion, and surrender. You’ll be encouraged to listen inwardly and notice what emerges when singing becomes an expression of the heart rather than a performance.
Why Attend “Awaken Your Heart Through Song: A Kirtan Experience”
Music can reach places that conversation and analysis sometimes cannot, especially when what you are carrying feels larger than language. Sacred singing offers a way to give sound to joy, love, grief, longing, tenderness, and prayer without first needing to explain or resolve them.
The challenge for many people is that singing can immediately awaken judgment about whether the voice is good enough. Jai Uttal approaches kirtan from another direction, inviting you to use the voice you already have as an expression of devotion rather than measuring it against standards of performance.
Jai brings decades of experience with kirtan, Indian music, devotional practice, and cross-cultural musical exploration to this session. His own journey from intense shyness and criticism of his voice into a life centered on sacred music gives his teaching particular relevance for anyone who feels drawn to sing but still holds back.
What You’ll Learn
We’ll begin by moving out of the thinking mind and into the felt experience of sound, so you can approach your voice through breath, vibration, and presence rather than judgment. Jai will guide you into the shared vibration of Aum and an easy call-and-response using the open sound Ah.
From there, you’ll work with a simple mantra melody, which means you can explore devotional singing without needing musical training or confidence in your voice. Along the way, Jai will invite you to listen inwardly so that singing becomes less about how you sound and more about what your heart is expressing.
The practice also makes room for emotion and silence, and then you’ll have an opportunity to rest and notice what has shifted after singing. Jai connects these elements with prayer, creativity, self-acceptance, and surrender, so sacred sound becomes an embodied spiritual practice rather than a performance.
- How sacred singing can give expression to feelings that words may not fully hold
- Why kirtan does not require a polished, trained, or traditionally “good” singing voice
- How the shared vibration of Aum can help bring attention into the body and the present moment
- What an open Ah call-and-response can reveal about using your voice more freely
- How a simple mantra melody can become a vehicle for devotion and heartfelt expression
- Ways to notice self-consciousness without making it the center of your singing experience
- How grief, longing, tenderness, joy, and love can become part of sacred expression
- Why inner listening matters when you want your voice to reflect what is genuinely in your heart
- How mantra, melody, and silence can support prayer, creativity, connection, and surrender
Who This Is For
This event is for anyone who feels moved by music, mantra, prayer, or devotional practice but becomes self-conscious when using their own voice. It may be especially meaningful if you have told yourself that you cannot sing, worry about sounding good, or want a more embodied way to express emotions that are difficult to put into words.
You do not need musical training or confidence in your voice to take part. The session may also resonate with people already familiar with yoga, meditation, mantra, or kirtan who want to deepen the relationship between sacred sound, emotional expression, prayer, and inner listening.
- People who love music but feel hesitant or self-conscious about singing
- Those curious about kirtan, mantra, and Bhakti Yoga
- Spiritual seekers wanting a more embodied form of prayer or devotion
- Anyone exploring creative ways to express grief, longing, tenderness, joy, or love
- Beginners who want to experience sacred singing without a performance focus
- Experienced meditators, yogis, musicians, or kirtan practitioners drawn to deeper inner listening
About Jai Uttal
Grammy-nominated Jai Uttal is a kirtan artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist whose work has been influenced by Indian music as well as American rock and jazz. He has been leading, teaching, and performing world music and kirtan around the world for close to 50 years.
Growing up in New York City, Jai began studying classical piano at age seven and later learned old-time banjo, harmonica, and guitar. After hearing Indian music at 17, he moved to California two years later and studied with sarod player Ali Akbar Khan.
Jai later made regular pilgrimages to India, where he lived among wandering street musicians in Bengal and sang with kirtan wallahs in the temple of his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. He has released 20 highly acclaimed CDs, including the double album Roots, Rock, Rama!
Jai has emerged as a leading influence in the Western Bhakti movement and considers Bhakti Yoga central to his musical and spiritual life. His approach to kirtan emphasizes heartfelt expression, devotion, and the freedom to sing without turning the voice into a performance to be judged.
Endorsements
“Jai’s beautiful music has inspired me for many years. Relaxing, meditative, and powerful, it feels like it is a totally natural blend of cultures and that really resonates with me as a yoga teacher, with Indian heritage and a cross-cultural background. I remember during a workshop when Jai spoke about how mantra recitation plants the seed of bhakti, and this has stayed with me all these years. Whenever I need to reconnect, I listen to Jai’s music. Jai recounts the stories of ancient India with childlike enthusiasm, and his teaching of kirtan is truly a wonderful offering.”
“Studying with Jai was a wonderful experience. It helped me deepen my kirtan practice and inspired me to use my own voice to share these beautiful prayers with the world. It is something I cherish and will never forget. Deep bows, Jai, for all you have done to pave the way for so many!”
“My heart opens and my spirit transcends as Jai’s beautiful music carries me to a place of energy and grace.”
“When I get off the plane, whether I’m arriving in New Delhi or returning to New York, I say to myself, I’m home. Home East, home West: Jai Uttal’s musical heart is at home in either idiom. He could be called what Karl Jung termed a gnostic intermediary, an ambassador between the two cultures.”
“Jai is a shaman with wings big enough to carry all of us to ecstasy. Singing with him is a transcendental train to everywhere you ever wanted to go; all you have to do is sit there, surrender, and let your song rock.”
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Register to receive event access details, reminders, and the full-length recording, or join the final replay presentation on Saturday, November 7, at 12:00pm Pacific Time.
- Nov 07 2026
- Expired!
- 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: Nov 07 2026
- Time: 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm
More Info
- Worldwide
