Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Saturday, April 18, 2026
Self–Realization Fellowship presents “The Divine Art of Music” on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, celebrating 100 years since Paramahansa Yogananda — author of Autobiography of a Yogi — introduced Indian devotional chanting (known as kirtan) to thousands of Westerners at the landmark venue.
The event honors Yogananda’s vision of music as a practice for awakening the soul. Attendees will be invited to experience firsthand how chanting focuses the heart, draws the mind inward, and elevates consciousness.
“Music that is saturated with soul force is the real universal music, understandable by all hearts,” wrote Yogananda in the prelude to his Cosmic Chants, a collection of devotional songs inspired by his own direct experience of the Divine. The collection includes original compositions as well as Yogananda’s translations and adaptations of traditional Indian chants, including: “O God Beautiful” by the revered Sikh Guru Nanak; Swami Shankara’s “No Birth, No Death;” the ancient Sanskrit chant “Hymn to Brahma;” and several by Nobel Prize poet Rabindranath Tagore, such as “Who Is in My Temple?” and “Light the Lamp of My Love.”
The program opens with a brief talk by Brother Devananda, a long-time monk of Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship. Drawing from the wisdom of Yogananda, he will share insights into the timeless science and philosophy of Kriya Yoga, its tradition of meditation, and how “soul-saturated songs” serve as a powerful means of divine communion.
The introductory talk will be followed by chanting, led by the Self-Realization Fellowship monks’ kirtan group, with some brief periods of meditation. The chants are from Paramahansa Yogananda’s Cosmic Chants and accompanied by traditional kirtan instruments.
“One who sings these spiritualized songs with true devotion,” said Yogananda, “will find God-communion and ecstatic joy, and through them the healing of body, mind, and soul.”
“My first outstanding experience with Western reaction to Eastern chants.”
On April 18, 1926, Yogananda opened a series of free lectures at Carnegie Hall, where the near 2,800-seat venue was stretched to its limit with more than a thousand people turned away at the door.
“One evening I started to chant ‘O God Beautiful’ and asked the audience, who had never before heard the song, to join me in chanting it,” recalled Yogananda. “For one hour and 25 minutes, the thousands of voices of the entire audience chanted ‘O God Beautiful’ in a divine atmosphere of joyous praise. Even after I had left the stage, the audience sat on, chanting the song. The next day many men and women testified to the God-perception and the healing of body, mind, and soul that had taken place during the sacred chanting, and numerous requests came in to repeat the song at other services.”
Yogananda’s historic appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1926 marked a turning point. He introduced a Western audience to the power of devotional chanting as a universal spiritual practice. Today, chanting has gained widespread popularity with spiritual seekers worldwide, offering a practical way to calm the mind and foster unity through shared spiritual experience.
The evening at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall welcomes both long‑time practitioners and newcomers to experience inner peace and divine communion.
About Paramahansa Yogananda and Self-Realization Fellowship
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) arrived in America in 1920 from India, an invited delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals convening in Boston. There he delivered a speech, “The Science of Religion,” marking a pivotal point for yoga in the West. Yogananda founded Self-Realization Fellowship that same year to disseminate his Kriya Yoga teachings, which have inspired many through the years to live with greater peace, joy, and purpose. Yogananda’s spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, continues to be recognized as one of the world’s most influential books.
Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) is the international nonprofit spiritual organization founded in 1920 by Paramahansa Yogananda to introduce to people of all races, cultures, and creeds the ancient science and philosophy of yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. Through its spiritual and humanitarian service, the society seeks to foster greater harmony and goodwill among the diverse peoples and nations of the world, and a deeper understanding of the underlying unity of all religions. SRF has more than 600 temples, centers, retreats and ashrams around the world — including a center in New York City. In India and surrounding countries, Paramahansa Yogananda’s work is known as Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS), which has more than 200 locations.
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Contact:
Blythe Fraser
Self-Realization Fellowship
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