Community kirtan at ClearSpring Yoga

One of the world’s oldest sacred music traditions will be put into practice Saturday at ClearSpring Yoga. A kirtan is a devotional singing in the Hindu style.

“I jokingly call it Hindu gospel,” said Sydney Roberts, an organizer of the event. “We sing in Sanskrit. It’s traditional Indian folk music.”

The word kirtan is Sanskrit for “to repeat,” and the singing takes the form of call-and-response.

“The whole idea of a kirtan, since it’s a folk tradition, is that it’s designed for the audience to participate in,” Roberts said. “We sing a line of a song, and the audience sings it back. They’re catchy tunes.”