Welcome to BARAKA Kirtan!!!

Baraka News!

Baraka just went into the studio to record our new kirtan album! We went into Airtime Studios and recorded with our friend Chip Reardon. Kirtan is call-and –response ancient and mystical chants which purify the consciousness and connect one to the Divine through specific mantras, tones, and musical vibrations.

We’ve been playing this music for a while now and getting invitations to yoga centers and temples and festivals, India’s Holy days, celebrations and more. It is time for us to finally have a professionally produced kirtan CD for all the growing number of fans wanting our music and for all those new connections we will make by taking this next professional step! Thus, we are excited!

We had some special guest musicians in the studio with us too!

Including: HH Vishnu Swami and Krsna Prem Das playing amazing Mridanga and Kartals. Josh and Michael Jackson (of Coyaba) on Bass and Drumkit on 3 tracks for some Reggae-Kirtan fusion, Rama and Paresh layed down some authentic Indian raga vocals, Bamboo Steve(Arun Baba’s dad) on exotic winds instruments, Ras Anebana laying down Nyahbinghi Drums on our reggae tracks and a plethora of background vocalists who put their love, devotion, & energy into our Kirtan Music!

Album Release Coming Soon!

Baraka leaves from Bloomington, IN for our summer Kirtan tour!
First Rainbow Gathering in Allegheny National Forest PA, New Vrndavan W. Virginia 24 Hr Kirtan & Ratha Yatra Festivals, Gita Nagari Port Royal PA, Shanti Villa H.O.M.E. Heal our Mother Earth Concert and Conference Tuskegee AL, Vanuatu Kava Bar in Asheville, NC, Art of Living Center in Atlanta, GA, Hare Krsna Temple in Columbus, OH, and many more street kirtans and home programs, house parties, Temples, Ashrams, and More… Be back in Aug for our Midwest Tour and CD Release Party of Baraka’s New Kirtan Album!

Rainbow Gathering news from Sakshi:
“Baraka have returned from 7 magical days at Rainbow Gathering in Allagheny National Forest! What an amazing time! I played music with some many bright souls and met so many more! My Mridanga drum was famous around the Rainbow village, and we did ecstatic kirtans everywhere, everyday, and everynight!
We had a ecstatic Harinam through out the whole gathering! What started with two of us, developed into over 30 or more different people at different times chanting and dancing to the Holy Names of Sri Krsna! We went all around the gathering with two Mridangas, kartals, and blissful chanting and dancing and ended up chanting thru trade-circle and ended up in Main Circle where Fantuzzi met up with us and we rocked out more kirtan for another 2 hours!!! After emerging from the mystic forest, we now find our selves at Gita Nagari, the amazingly beautiful Krsna Farm Community and next to New Vrindaban for Ratha Yatra Festival, then on to the rest of the tour!”

Baraka hosts special guests in Bloomington! The traveling monks HH Vishnu Swami, HH Avadoota Swami, Pankaj, Krsna Prem Das and more came into Bloomington on May 8th. First we did kirtan together at Global Gifts for World Fair Trade Day. The kirtan was ecstatic and many people on the Btown streets were awed and amazed by the surprise of loud kirtan on the central city square on this sunny Saturday! Then we went to The Tibetan Cultural Center of Bloomington and met many Tibetan monks (for the Dali Lama was just about to make his yearly visit to Bloomington), there were monks everywhere and Dali Lama buzz all around.

We did more kirtan in the main temple room at the Cultural center and then a friend David Haberman aka Prem Das (IU Prof of Hinduism, and fellow Vaishnava) met us at the Center and we spoke much about his scholarly books and topics about India, Vrndavan, Sacred Rivers and Trees, Kirtan, and Krsna! Then we did another ecstatic kirtan in which Prem Das led with HH Vishnu Swami on Mridanga. Video of this is below!

And finally Sakshi-I had the monks come into his late-night Radio show on 91.3 WFHB for interviews with the monks and more Kirtan!!!! Needless to say it was a fun and kirtan-filled day and evening!

Arjun Baba and Vijay Krsna (The Kirtaniyas) came on a kirtan tour through Indiana and Baraka opened for them at the two Indiana events we put together! May 6th we played at the Earth House in Indianapolis, IN and on May 7th we returned to Evolutions Yoga in Greenwood, IN. This is the 2nd year in a row that Baraka and Arjun Baba have teamed up in Indiana! Last year Arjun came to Evolutions Yoga and so everyone there was very excited to have him back! This was also the first meeting of Baraka and Vijay Krsna of the band The Kirtaniyas, it was surely a kindred link, and plans for more collaborations in Indiana and beyond is in the works for the near future!

Jaya Jagadambe Kirtan @ Evolutions Yoga in Greenwood, IN on May 7th 2010.

Reggae Hare Krsna

Jaya Ganesha