Kirtan in Rishikesh

Kirtan: singing together

Collective chanting in a call-and-response form: one voice leads, the room answers. The rhythm builds, clapping and dancing come in, and at some point you are no longer listening but taking part, even if you walked in "just to look". It is neither a concert nor a meditation, but a way of being together: easy to enter, hard to leave, and it leaves something warm behind.

Most evenings, somewhere in town. Ashrams and yoga centres run their own sessions after the evening programme; cafes and halls in Tapovan put up posters the same day: on the door, on a pole, at the guesthouse desk. Every spring the city also hosts Kirtan Fest, several days of sacred music with musicians from around the world; if you are here then, go to at least one session.