scholarly journals From Meditation to Bliss: Achieving the Heights of Progressive Spiritual Energy through Kirtan Singing in American Gaudiya Vaishnava Hinduism

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 600
Author(s):  
Sara Black Brown
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Response Format ◽  
Call And Response ◽  
Hare Krishna ◽  
Spiritual Energy ◽  
Musical Styles

Kirtan is a musical worship practice from India that involves the congregational performance of sacred chants and mantras in call-and-response format. The style of kirtan performed within Gaudiya Vaishnava Hinduism is an expression of Bhakti Yoga, “the yoga of love and devotion”, and focuses on creating a personal, playful, and emotionally intense connection between the worshipper and their god—specifically, through words and sounds whose vibration is believed to carry the literal presence of Krishna. Kirtan is one of many Indian genres that uses musical techniques to move participants through a progression of spiritual states from meditation to ecstasy. Kirtan-singing has become internationally popular in recent decades, largely thanks to the efforts of the Hare Krishna movement, which has led to extensive hybridization of musical styles and cultural approaches to kirtan adapted to the needs of a diasporic, globalized community of worshippers. This essay explores the practice of kirtan in the United States through interviews, fieldwork, and analysis of recordings made at several Krishna temples and festivals that demonstrate the musical techniques that can be spontaneously deployed in acts of collective worship in order to create intense feelings of deep, focused meditation and uninhibited, expressive bliss.

Israel in Egypt

2021 ◽  
pp. 221-269
Author(s):  
Naomi Graber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Multicultural Community ◽  
Jewish Heritage ◽  
Street Scene ◽  
Musical Styles

Weill’s evolving relationship with his Jewish heritage is apparent in several of his works. Although the pageant The Eternal Road (1937) premiered in the United States, it was conceived with European audiences in mind. Thus, Weill’s score draws on both German and Jewish musical styles and forms in order to prove that—despite Nazi declarations—the two identities were not in conflict. He wrote his first Jewish characters for the mainstream Broadway stage in Street Scene (1947), which explores the place of Jews within a multicultural community. Lost in the Stars (1949) represents the culmination of Weill’s lifelong passion for racial equality, and hearkens back to some aspects of The Eternal Road, aligning it with emergent conceptions and agendas a “Judeo-Christian” community.

Squeeze This!

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dramatic Rise ◽  
History Of ◽  
Precipitous Decline ◽  
Musical Styles

No other instrument has witnessed such a dramatic rise to popularity—and precipitous decline—as the accordion. This book is the first history of the piano accordion and the first book-length study of the accordion as a uniquely American musical and cultural phenomenon. The book traces the changing idea of the accordion in the United States and its cultural significance over the course of the twentieth century. It focuses on key moments of transition, from the introduction of elaborately decorated European models imported onto the American vaudeville stage and the instrument's celebration by ethnic musical communities and mainstream audiences alike, to the accordion-infused pop parodies by “Weird Al” Yankovic as well as a recent revival within contemporary cabaret acts and pop groups such as They Might Be Giants. Loaded with dozens of images of gorgeous instruments and enthusiastic performers and fans, this book represents the accordion in a wide range of popular and traditional musical styles, revealing the richness and diversity of accordion culture in America.

Aligning Hare Krishna

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-58
Author(s):  
E. Burke Rochford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Frame Alignment ◽  
The North ◽  
Hare Krishna ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Communicative Processes

The underlying premise of this case study of the growth and development of the Hare Krishna movement is that frame alignment is a necessary, but largely unexplored, element in recruitment to religious movements. Attention is given here to the interactive and communicative processes used by ISKCON members in the United States as they strategically sought to align the practices, goals and beliefs of the movement with the unconventional interests and perspectives of recruits from the 1960s counterculture. The alignment processes described here represent attempts to gain the provisional interest of potential recruits. Whether successful or not, the alignment strategies helped define the Hare Krishna movement in America. As the counterculture declined in the mid-1970s, however, the leadership turned to a new constituent base of Hindu immigrants from India to secure the movement’s future. This required new forms of alignment that contributed to the Hinduization of the North American Hare Krishna movement.

Correlative microscopy in distrubuted (client/server) computing environments: tools for catalyzing the rapid dissemination of information about the cell biology of the human prostate

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 682-683
Author(s):  
A. Hakam ◽  
J.T. Gau ◽  
M.L. Grove ◽  
B.A. Evans ◽  
M. Shuman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Tissue Bank ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prostate Adenocarcinoma ◽  
Correlative Microscopy ◽  
Client Server ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Transplant Organ

Prostate adenocarcinoma is the most common malignant tumor of men in the United States and is the third leading cause of death in men. Despite attempts at early detection, there will be 244,000 new cases and 44,000 deaths from the disease in the United States in 1995. Therapeutic progress against this disease is hindered by an incomplete understanding of prostate epithelial cell biology, the availability of human tissues for in vitro experimentation, slow dissemination of information between prostate cancer research teams and the increasing pressure to “ stretch” research dollars at the same time staff reductions are occurring.To meet these challenges, we have used the correlative microscopy (CM) and client/server (C/S) computing to increase productivity while decreasing costs. Critical elements of our program are as follows:1) Establishing the Western Pennsylvania Genitourinary (GU) Tissue Bank which includes >100 prostates from patients with prostate adenocarcinoma as well as >20 normal prostates from transplant organ donors.

Digital image acquisition, processing, and analysis in a polymer microscopy laboratory

1994 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 454-455
Author(s):  
Vinod K. Berry ◽  
Xiao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Image Analysis ◽  
Digital Image ◽  
Image Acquisition ◽  
Image Transmission ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quantitative Image Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Image

In recent years it became apparent that we needed to improve productivity and efficiency in the Microscopy Laboratories in GE Plastics. It was realized that digital image acquisition, archiving, processing, analysis, and transmission over a network would be the best way to achieve this goal. Also, the capabilities of quantitative image analysis, image transmission etc. available with this approach would help us to increase our efficiency. Although the advantages of digital image acquisition, processing, archiving, etc. have been described and are being practiced in many SEM, laboratories, they have not been generally applied in microscopy laboratories (TEM, Optical, SEM and others) and impact on increased productivity has not been yet exploited as well.In order to attain our objective we have acquired a SEMICAPS imaging workstation for each of the GE Plastic sites in the United States. We have integrated the workstation with the microscopes and their peripherals as shown in Figure 1.

Silence of the Land: On the Historical Irrelevance of Territory to Congressional Districting and Political Representation in the United States

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rehfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Communities Of Interest

Every ten years, the United States “constructs” itself politically. On a decennial basis, U.S. Congressional districts are quite literally drawn, physically constructing political representation in the House of Representatives on the basis of where one lives. Why does the United States do it this way? What justifies domicile as the sole criteria of constituency construction? These are the questions raised in this article. Contrary to many contemporary understandings of representation at the founding, I argue that there were no principled reasons for using domicile as the method of organizing for political representation. Even in 1787, the Congressional district was expected to be far too large to map onto existing communities of interest. Instead, territory should be understood as forming a habit of mind for the founders, even while it was necessary to achieve other democratic aims of representative government.

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