A voice rises over harmonium drone and tabla rhythm, repeating a Sanskrit salutation to the divine feminine: Ya Devi—salutations to the Goddess. The five-minute performance, filmed live in Sofia, Bulgaria, roots itself in one of Hinduism's oldest sacred texts, the Devi Mahatmyam. This is contemporary kirtan: an ancient devotional practice translated into a modern recording, with Sheela Bringi on voice, harmonium, and bansuri, supported by Clinton Patterson's guitar, Brent Kuecker's bass, and Miles Shrewsbery's tabla. Released in 2016 as part of the album Shakti Sutra through New Earth Records, "Ya Devi" demonstrates how practitioners keep thousand-year-old traditions alive and accessible in the present moment, allowing anyone with internet access to encounter spiritual practice that once lived only in temples and ashrams.
The verses at the heart of this performance come directly from the Devi Mahatmyam, an ancient sacred text on the Goddess. The invocation translates as: "Salutations to the Goddess, She who is manifested in all aspects of life, in all things, in all attributes and in all forms." In Sanskrit, ya points or indicates; Devi is the Goddess. Each utterance of the phrase is simultaneously a greeting, an acknowledgment, and an alignment—the voice aligning itself with a presence understood to exist everywhere, in all manifestation.
This isn't abstract theology. For the practitioner of this tradition, chanting the Devi Mahatmyam is an act of recognition that divinity isn't external or distant. It lives in matter, in the body, in the world, and in the self. The Goddess isn't something to reach for; she is the ground beneath the reaching. The mantra itself becomes a mirror, reflecting back the sacred nature of existence as it presents itself moment by moment.
Kirtan is the practice of chanting sacred mantras with music, typically in call-and-response form, designed to move beyond intellectual understanding into direct experience. Traditionally performed in groups—in temples, ashrams, and spiritual gatherings—kirtan uses rhythm, melody, and repetition to settle the mind and open the heart. Music is never incidental; it is the vehicle through which the teaching travels.
Sheela Bringi's arrangement of "Ya Devi" brings together instruments from different worlds: the harmonium and bansuri are rooted in Indian classical music; the tabla anchors rhythm in an Indian percussion tradition; the guitar and bass introduce timbral colors from Western musical languages. This isn't fusion in the sense of creating something new—it's translation, a way of honoring the ancient practice while allowing it to breathe in contemporary contexts and reach listeners who may encounter this music before they encounter the tradition itself.
The harmonium's drone is foundational. In Indian musical practice, the drone provides a constant reference point, a sonic anchor around which melody and rhythm move. Here, Bringi's harmonium serves exactly this function: it gives the entire performance its tonal ground, steady and unchanging, while everything else unfolds around it.
What might seem like mere repetition—singing the same phrase again and again across five minutes—is actually the mechanism through which mantra practice operates. Repetition allows the mind to settle beyond discursive thought. It creates a rhythm the nervous system can synchronize with. And it deepens meaning: by invoking the same thing repeatedly, the practitioner moves from knowing something intellectually to recognizing it directly.
In this recording, Bringi's voice doesn't remain static. There are shifts in dynamics, in emphasis, in the subtle coloring of her tone—variations that keep the repetition alive rather than mechanical. The tabla enters and evolves, creating rhythmic patterns that spiral and return. The ensemble responds to the energy of the moment, yet the core invocation—Ya Devi, Ya Devi—remains the heart. Each repetition is an opportunity to sink deeper into the recognition: the Goddess manifests in all things, in all forms, now.
"Ya Devi" was recorded at Nuboyana Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria, and released through New Earth Records. The track appears on Shakti Sutra, which dropped in October 2016 and is available on iTunes and Amazon, as well as other digital platforms. This distribution model represents a quiet revolution in spiritual music: what was once experienced primarily in person, in sacred spaces, is now accessible to anyone with a device, anywhere in the world.
A person in London can sit with this recording. A person in São Paulo can chant along. Someone in rural America can encounter the Devi Mahatmyam without ever visiting a temple. The recording becomes a gateway—not a replacement for the living, communal experience of kirtan, but an entry point that reaches far beyond what geography alone would allow.
The invocation of the Goddess in "Ya Devi" speaks to a contemporary spiritual current: a growing interest in practices that center the divine feminine. Whether approached from within Hindu tradition or from other spiritual contexts, the figure of the Goddess—as creative power, as presence in all things, as ultimate reality manifesting in form—resonates for practitioners seeking spirituality rooted in the body, in the earth, and in the sacred as immanent rather than only transcendent.
The Devi Mahatmyam has long served this function within Hindu practice. It offers a sacred text where the divine is explicitly feminine, where power and compassion are not opposed but unified in the form of the Goddess. In contemporary contexts, this text and the practices it inspires—like kirtan—extend this tradition into the present, making it available to anyone who listens.
For those drawn to this music, the full Shakti Sutra album offers additional mantras and devotional explorations. The Devi Mahatmyam itself is available in various translations for those interested in exploring the original text more deeply. Kirtan circles and yoga communities increasingly offer opportunities to practice chanting in group settings, providing the communal dimension that is central to the tradition.
The direct experience of singing a mantra—feeling your voice join with others or with a recording, allowing repetition to quiet the mind and open the heart—is available to anyone, regardless of background or prior spiritual knowledge. That accessibility, combined with reverence for the ancient source, is what keeps practices like kirtan alive across centuries and across continents.
