Girish

Girish is a kirtan singer, percussionist and author who teaches the chanting of Sanskrit mantras. He started out as a jazz drummer, came to Kundalini yoga and meditation at university, and then lived for five years as a monk in a Tennessee ashram of the Divine Mother tradition, where daily chanting and the study of Sanskrit shaped his practice. Finding a pair of tablas there drew him back to music: he trained in the Nada Yoga tradition, learned Indian drumming in New York and later with the tabla master Swapan Chaudhuri in California, and travelled with the musician and teacher Bob Kindler, known as Babaji.

For years he played tabla behind well-known chant artists such as Krishna Das and Snatam Kaur and on close to a hundred recordings, before releasing albums of his own, among them Diamonds in the Sun, Sky of the Heart and Daily Chants for a Radiant Spirit. His book Music and Mantras presents mindful singing as a daily practice and comes with companion audio. He now tours studios, festivals and retreat centres, leading call-and-response kirtan and workshops on voice, breath and mantra, with beginner-friendly guidance on harmonium, guitar and drums, including New Year retreats at Kripalu and programmes at the Sivananda ashram in the Bahamas.