
Natesh has led kirtan at BhaktiFest, ShaktiFest and other festivals, including daily "deep-immersion" chants at BhaktiFest & ShaktiFest.
Welcome! If this is your first visit to the website you might find the Website Intro page useful!
News Flash: Natesh has recently released a major update to his Bliss of Kirtan Music Book, with about 50 new chants! This is the first update to this book of Natesh's chant compositions in over 7 years. As always, it is available for free download, with donations most welcome.
Natesh has led over 700 kirtan programs and composed more than 200 chants. In addition to over 15 years of ongoing kirtan in Sedona, AZ, Natesh has led kirtan at BhaktiFest, ShaktiFest, and many other festivals and conferences and welcomes more opportunities to lead kirtan at festivals and community events. More about Natesh on his Bio page. While he has not been leading in-person kirtan in Sedona the past couple of years, he's offering weekly online on the Mohanji Family channel on Insight Timer and, between Insight Timer and Facebook, has gone live about 180 times in the past 30 months.
This album is first and foremost a kirtan album, with the intention to inspire people to chant along with the call and response format and to invoke ecstatic, even transcendent, states of bliss in the listener, through chanting along or even simply through listening.
I’ve intentionally kept the tempos much mellower than I typically do in a live
This album is first and foremost a kirtan album, with the intention to inspire people to chant along with the call and response format and to invoke ecstatic, even transcendent, states of bliss in the listener, through chanting along or even simply through listening.
I’ve intentionally kept the tempos much mellower than I typically do in a live kirtan so that the music can also serve as a backdrop for yoga, meditation and general daily activity.
The album is produced by kirtan producer extraordinaire, Ben Leinbach, and features a very talented group of supporting vocalists and musicians (see credits below), and I'm extremely grateful to all of the all of them for their superb contributions that make the album so beautiful.
Here are some representative comments on the album:
"a lovely and profound offering"
"stunningly beautiful for the ear and for the soul"
"full of heart" "chock full of gorgeousness"
"a realm of enchanted Bliss"
"a joy to listen to and sing along with"
"resonates with depth, devotion and a lush organic sound"
"blissful, beautiful and a balm for the heart"
"filled with deep bhav" "truly blissful"
"a quantam gateway to a state one normally only reaches through deep meditation"
If you like what you hear, please purchase the album and tell your friends about it!
Namaste, Natesh credits released January 2, 2014
Ben Leinbach: Producer; bass guitar, hand drums and percussion, keyboard, electric guitar, response vocals
Benj Clarke: Fretless bass and acoustic upright bass
Daniel Paul: Tabla
Eddie Young: Cello
Gina Sala: Call, response and additional vocals
Joni Allen: Call and response vocals
Madan Oak: Santoor
Monnie Ramsell: Esraj and response vocals
Prajna Brianna Vieira: Call and response vocals; kartals
Steve Gorn: Bansuri
Steve Oda: Sarod
Yvette Om: Call and response vocals
Natesh: Call and response vocals, guitars, drums and hand percussion
A Word from Natesh
For those who have developed a deep relationship with the spiritual practice of kirtan, it is like lifeblood or prana - a necessary element for life itself. For others, perhaps they are drawn to it because it makes them feel good or uplifts them in some way they may not understand. That latter is how it was for me in the beginning, and for decades now, it is lifeblood. There is so much Bliss in chanting the Divine Name with an open heart, and it's the easiest path to Liberation!
The Universe took back a chunk of my left middle finger (a major but temporary obstacle to playing guitar!) in late 2013 and more recently I experienced a minor stroke (from which I've almost fully recovered, thankfully!), which also temporarily impacted by ability to play guitar and chant. I thank God/dess with all my heart and soul that I can still chant (and play guitar)!
For over 40 years now I've been deeply impacted by the spiritual practice of kirtan. In 2013, after over 9 years of leading weekly kirtan in Sedona, I engaged kirtan producer extraordinaire, Ben Leinbach, and a host of very talented vocalists and musicians, to contribute their considerable talents in support of creating my first studio kirtan offering.
The result was the aptly named Bliss of Kirtan album, which has inspired comments like:
'stunningly beautiful for the ear and for the soul'
'filled with deep bhav'
'blissful, beautiful and a balm for the heart'
'chock full of gorgeousness'
'a lovely and profound offering'
'such rich nectar'
'a realm of enchanted Bliss'
More info on the album is available on the 'Bliss' page. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the album with you and grateful to all the wonderful souls who helped make it a reality and such a beautiful offering to the Divine.
The music player above allows you to listen to the full tracks. You can also use that player to download the album or tracks but to purchase the physical CD, please go to the Store page.
If you love your experience of listening to the album and chanting along with it, please tell your friends about it! One easy way to do that is to use the share button on the audio player. Thanks and namaste!