One who sings these spiritualized songs, Cosmic Chants, with true devotion will find God-communion and ecstatic joy, and through them the healing of body, mind, and soul.
— Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
We welcome you to join the YSS monastics’ kirtan group in the joy of devotional chanting as a means to experience God-communion. The playlist below includes:
- Ten chants in English and Hindi, as featured in Paramahansaji’s book Words of Cosmic Chants, and
- Two devotional sankirtans in Hindi
Paramahansa Yogananda said: “…a song born out of the depths of true devotion to God and continuously chanted, audibly or mentally, until response is consciously received from Him in the form of boundless joy, is a spiritualized song. Such songs like live matches produce the fire of God-awareness whenever they are struck on the foundation stone of devotion.”
Playlist
States of Chanting
Characterized by increasing devotion and interiorization, Paramahansaji categorizes chanting into the following five stages:
- Chanting aloud
- Whisper chanting
- Mental chanting
- Subconscious chanting: When sung with great devotion, the devotee finds the chants repeating themselves in the subconscious background of his mind, bringing an ineffable joy even while he is in the thick of the daily battle of activity.
- Superconscious chanting: Gradually, with deeper and deeper attention, the subconscious repetition changes into superconscious realization, bringing the actual perception of God.
Receiving God's Response
Yoganandaji advises: “Singers of these songs who want the best results should chant them alone or with true devotees of God, with ever-increasing devotion and fervour. After the notes are learnt, one’s undivided attention should be given to repeating them with deeper and deeper devotion, striving fully to understand the meaning of the words in the chant, until one is immersed in the bliss of singing.
When this joy is felt, it is proof that God has answered the singer, and that his devotion has been properly tuned; the broadcasting of his ardour in chanting has been true and deep.”
