It's Not Hindi—It's Human | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

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Christianity Today, May, 2008

It's Not Hindi—It's Human

Bringing the Ravi Shankar sound to Christian worship.

Andy Whitman | posted 5/21/2008 08:33AM

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Singing Christian worship songs in the Hindi language for an American evangelical audience can't be an easy sell. Not only is there a formidable language barrier, but cultural and theological challenges abound—like working within the Indian classical-music tradition while conveying deep Christian truths. But that's the approach used by Aradhna, a group of American and English musicians who have spent significant portions of their lives in central Asia. (Lead singer Chris Hale, for example, was raised in Nepal, where his parents were missionaries, and later served as a missionary to India with OM International.)

Amrit Vani (4 stars), Aradhna's fourth album, offers a wonderful if challenging alternative to contemporary worship's standard fare of three-chord jingles. The otherness of this album is actually its strength. Aradhna (Hindi for "adoration" or "worship") focuses on quiet, meditative devotional songs derived from the spiritual movement in India known as Yeshu Bhakti ("devotion to Jesus").

There are sitars and tablas— à la Ravi Shankar—and they sound as exotic as you would expect. There are acoustic guitar arpeggios that wouldn't sound out of place on a Windham Hill album. And in the merger of East and West, Aradhna forges something utterly fresh and beautiful. They keep it mostly calm and contemplative, but on "Narahari" (the Man-God), the final track, they showcase a soaring, post-rock crescendo:

You, who have offered yourself up, suffering agony, humiliation, and disgrace / The sacrifice of your life, destroying the poison within me / And you, who are the Desired One, my Beloved / The delight of my heart, you soothe my vision / And you, Victorious Crusher of cruel death.

Then Hale sails off into a wordless cry of the heart. It's not Hindi. It's human. And it is only one of several revelations on this strange, striking, and ravishingly lovely album.

Andy Whitman, senior contributing editor for Paste magazine

Related elsewhere:

Amrit Vani is available from Aradhna's online music store.

More music reviews are available on our site.

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May 2008, Vol. 52, No. 5

Comments (20)

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Displaying 1–5 of 20 comments

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Howie

June 03, 2008 10:22am

The new Aradhna album is simply beautiful.You don't have to know the language to understand the worship inside the music.The final song on the CD is very powerful.It gives me chills eveytime I play it.This CD never dissapoints.

May 30, 2008 4:03pm

At the birth of the Lord Jesus, the Wise Men brought gifts from the East. Baby Jesus received them with a smile, I suppose. As the movement of His Church and His Gospel travelled to Rome, Corinth, Galatia and Thessalonica and further to Europe and its affiliates, a musical genre flowered forth, with Gregorian Chat to Western Polyphonic. Mozart and Vivaldi became part of God's Holy Temple. Did anyone ever think that Thomas the Apostle, Francis Xavier, Beschi, DeNobili, Ziegenbalg, Schwartz, Neil, Newbigin and others were tirelessly evangelizing a land of rich culture, music, art and langauges" (as comparable to Greek and Latin)!!? Let us welcome the flutes, tamborines, tablas and cymbals in to the worship: all that has breath, may it parise my Lord!

Salami Swami

May 27, 2008 7:02pm

how dare they, use the sacred divine ragas and blessed instruments to sing praises of the foreign Western devil Christian god. Lord Krishna will not be pleased, I dare say! these blasphemers will be fortunate if they are reincarnated as dung beetles. divine justice will triumph, as it always has.

Martin Stillion

May 27, 2008 4:54pm

Wow. I'm sure few would accuse my own church of being very "multicultural," but we have a fairly strong connection with believers in Kenya, and once in a while we sing a Swahili worship song. It never occurred to me that there might be Christians who wouldn't find this acceptable, but perhaps the capacity for narrowmindedness is one of those things that can't be underestimated. I guess I'd better dive into my record collection and throw out the cantatas, chorales, etc., from Bach, Vivaldi, and Penderecki ... I don't speak German or Latin, so how do I know the lyrics aren't really about the Antichrist?

John McCollum

May 27, 2008 11:33am

Charitas? Ironic screen name, eh? At first glance I was sure you were joking. I'm still not sure. Anti-Christ? To be sung during the Tribulation? Whose translation do you read? If you don't think that the lyrics quoted in this article resemble, reflect and reinforce scripture, you haven't read the Psalms or the prophets. But you were joking, right? Please tell me you were joking...

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