Jai Uttal
What if your voice could open your heart to a deeper connection with yourself and the Divine — even if you’ve never considered yourself a singer?
Discover the freedom of sacred singing through mantra, devotional music, and deep listening — and let the feelings, prayers, and longings of your heart find their way into song.
There are things you feel so deeply that words alone can’t express them…
Longings you struggle to articulate. Prayers that seem to come from somewhere beyond thought. Emotions that ask for a voice, even when you don’t know how to give them one.
Yet, when you consider expressing yourself through song, self-consciousness, comparison, or the belief that you simply aren’t a singer can hold you back.
What if singing weren’t about sounding beautiful, getting the notes right, or performing for anyone — but about letting yourself be heard, just as you are?
Grammy-nominated sacred music artist and lifelong bhakti yogi Jai Uttal invites you to discover this possibility through a seven-week journey into the heart-opening practice of kirtan.
Rooted in bhakti yoga, the path of devotion to the Divine, this approach transforms singing into something more intimate than performance: a way to give your emotions, prayers, longings, and love a voice — and allow your whole heart to become part of your song.
Through melody, mantra, rhythm, and repetition, even grief or pain can become part of your devotional expression, helping you soften the walls around your heart and experience greater connection with yourself, others, and the Divine.
Under Jai’s expert guidance, you’ll explore your heart as a many-faceted diamond, giving each emotion and hidden part of yourself a place within your song.
He’ll guide you into Singing Into Surrender, an artful approach to kirtan that helps you free your natural voice and experience singing as personal prayer, creative expression, and sacred offering.
Jai understands the fear of singing firsthand. Although he’d been a musician since childhood, he was intensely shy and critical of his voice when he began studying Indian music.
His own journey through mantra, his time in India, decades of bhakti practice, sobriety and recovery, and nearly six decades of spiritual exploration eventually transformed singing from something he judged into a source of healing, connection, and service.
His approach invites you into that same freedom: less concern with how you sound and more intimacy with what your heart wants to express.
Over seven weeks, you’ll begin with breath, toning, call-and-response, and Indian melodies, connecting your voice with your emotional body. You’ll sing from different rasas, or flavors of emotion, explore ancient mantras and japa (the meditative repetition of a mantra or a divine name), practice receiving sound with your whole body, and experiment with melodies of your own.
You’ll even create personal prayers and songs of your own, setting aside the inner critic to rediscover the naturally creative and musical part of yourself — experiencing an inner aesthetic of beauty meant not for anyone else’s approval, but as an offering from your soul.
Over time, devotional singing can become more than something you do. It can become a practice of emotional release, creative freedom, surrender, and belonging that you can turn to when needed as it follows you into your relationships, community, and daily life.
Are you ready to stop judging the voice that’s uniquely yours and discover what becomes possible when you let your whole heart sing?
During this heart-expanding course, you’ll:
- Free your natural voice through chanting, toning, call and response, and Indian melodies, so you can sing from authentic feeling rather than worrying about how you sound
- Explore how breath, body, emotion, and voice work together, helping you bring more of your heart into your singing and devotional practice
- Learn to sing directly from emotions such as longing, sadness, joy, and grief, transforming feelings that may be difficult to express into sacred sound
- Experience mantra and japa as living practices for steadying the mind, using sacred names, whispered repetition, melody, and prayer to deepen remembrance and devotion
- Practice listening with your whole being, receiving sound through your body and discovering the inner melodies, prayers, and creative impulses that arise from deeper listening
- Create personal prayers, melodies, and a garland of sacred sound, setting aside your inner critic to discover the beauty and creativity already within you
- Discover how to make your voice an offering to your soul, the Divine, and those around you, allowing singing to become a practice of prayer, surrender, and connection
- Weave sacred singing into your everyday life and community, using your voice to nourish yourself, connect with others, and carry your prayers beyond you
- And much more…
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Weeks
In this 7-week transformational course, Jai will guide you through the skills and competencies you’ll need to sing from joy and pain, create prayers and melodies of your own, and develop a deeply personal singing practice you can carry into your spiritual life, relationships, and community.
Join the Livestream — or Stream Later to Watch at Your Convenience
You’ll connect with Jai and experience his teachings through livestreaming video via any connected device. This connection is easy to use and will enhance the impact of Jai’s transmissions. Can’t make it live? After each class, you can stream the video and audio recordings to enjoy anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Course Sessions are on 2026-11-24 1:00:00 pm.
This course will feature LIVE teachings, interactive sessions, experiential practices, and Q&A with Jai. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to discover a more embodied way to express and release what lives in your heart, using your own voice to transform emotion into prayer, creativity, and connection.
Open the Heart of Devotion to Turn Your Voice Into an Offering (2026-11-24 1:00:00 pm)
Begin your journey by discovering how your voice can become an offering — inwardly to your own soul and outwardly to something greater than yourself.
Jai will guide you into the intimate space where breath, heartbeat, feeling, and sound meet, helping you listen for what's alive within you rather than striving to sing a certain way. You'll explore how tenderness, longing, joy, strength, and even catharsis can move through your voice and become part of your devotional expression.
Through toning, call-and-response, chanting, and Indian melodies, you'll awaken your awareness of the breath, body, and vocal cords while entering a rich new sonic landscape. As you begin allowing what's present to shape your song, you'll experience how singing can become a practice of prayer, presence, and surrender.
In this session, you'll:
- Sing and chant with Jai through toning, call-and-response phrases, and Indian melodies, experiencing the powerful energy that can arise when voices come together in devotional practice
- Connect with your heart as the source of authentic expression, allowing what you're genuinely feeling to guide your voice rather than trying to sound a certain way
- Explore how your breath, body, and vocal cords work together to support a freer, more embodied experience of singing
- Discover how to let tenderness, longing, joy, strength, and catharsis move through your voice as expressions of prayer and devotion
- Begin practicing Singing Into Surrender as a way to make your voice an offering, whether inwardly to your soul or to that which is greater than you
Give Voice to Prayer to Deepen Your Faith (2026-12-01 1:00:00 pm)
A prayer held silently in your heart can be powerful, but giving it a voice allows it to become an offering — like seeds released into the wind to travel wherever they're most needed.
Jai will help you explore the voice as a direct pathway into the deep well of emotion within you, giving expression to feelings that may be difficult to touch in everyday life.
Through melody, breath, vulnerability, and faith, you'll discover how a whisper, a cry, or a simple sung phrase can carry the full presence of what's moving through your heart.
You'll also explore notes of the Indian scale that may feel unfamiliar to the Western ear, opening new emotional colors and possibilities for devotional expression. As you give your prayers a voice, you'll cultivate greater trust in their journey beyond you and into a vast field of possibility.
In this session, you'll:
- Use your voice as a living prayer as Jai guides you through unfamiliar notes of the Indian scale that can evoke new emotions and expand your experience of devotion
- Explore your voice as a direct pathway to deeper emotions, giving expression to feelings you may not normally be able to access in daily life
- Give your prayers sound, breath, and emotional presence, from the softest whisper to a full-hearted cry
- Cultivate faith in the power and journey of your prayer, trusting that what you offer through song can travel beyond you
- Experience sacred singing as a way to release what's in your heart into something larger, allowing your prayers to become offerings carried into a wider field of possibility
Explore the Flavors of Devotion to Transform Pain Through Song (2026-12-08 1:00:00 pm)
Discover rasa — the flavor or essence of emotion — and how singing from different emotional states can deepen your experience of devotion. Building on the practices you've already explored, Jai will guide you more deeply into the emotional content held within different melodies and scales, including the potent practice of singing from pain.
You'll explore your heart like a many-faceted crystal, giving voice not only to what shines brightly, but also to the unsung, unloved, and unknown places within you. Rather than pushing sadness away, you'll discover how bringing it fully into song can help you move through it, release what's been held inside, and even uncover unexpected joy.
As more of your emotional landscape finds expression through your voice, your singing can become a more honest and expansive offering of your whole heart.
In this session, you'll:
- Sing and chant from specific rasas, exploring how different melodies and scales can evoke distinct emotions and bring new dimensions to your devotional expression
- Discover rasa as a gateway into the emotional landscape of bhakti, revealing how different flavors of feeling can shape the way you sing
- Explore the potent practice of singing directly from sadness and pain, allowing your voice to express what words alone may not be able to hold
- Give voice to the unsung, unloved, and unknown places of your heart, welcoming more of yourself into your devotional practice
- Experience how singing from difficult emotions can become a pathway to release, transformation, and unexpected joy
Experience Mantra as a Living Presence to Steady Your Mind (2026-12-15 1:00:00 pm)
Deepen your relationship with mantra by experiencing sacred words not simply as sounds or meanings, but as living presences you can return to again and again. Jai will introduce you to a "bouquet" of powerful mantras from his lineage and personal practice, sharing the stories and traditions that have carried these sacred sounds across generations.
You'll discover japa, the whispered repetition of mantra with or without prayer beads, as a simple yet profound practice for protecting and steadying the mind. Through repetition, melody, and devotion, you'll explore how each mantra carries its own quality and can become an intimate companion in your spiritual life.
As you sing and repeat these ancient names, you'll experience mantra as a gift that can draw you out of mental distraction and more deeply into remembrance, prayer, and the heart.
In this session, you'll:
- Sing, whisper, and repeat a bouquet of sacred mantras with Jai, experiencing how melody, repetition, and japa can reveal the distinct living presence within each one
- Discover japa as a practice for protecting and steadying your mind, using whispered repetition with or without prayer beads
- Experience the Tāraka Mantra and Śrī Rām, entering a current of devotion carried through generations of sacred practice
- Explore Om Namaḥ Śivāya and the Hare Krishna Mahāmantra as practices of prayer, love, and remembrance
- Invoke the sacred presence and protection of the Divine Mother through Durgā mantra, receiving a taste of another powerful stream of devotion
Enter Your Inner Temple to Discover Your Unique Song (2027-01-12 1:00:00 pm)
Journey into the cave of your heart through a practice of deep listening that invites you to receive sound with your whole being, not simply your ears. Jai will weave together sacred singing, silence, call-and-response, and traditional Indian raga, inviting you to notice what arises when you become completely receptive to sound.
As he sustains a single note, you'll explore the art of listening as though every cell in your body has ears, allowing the vibration to penetrate more deeply into your awareness. Within this spacious inner temple, the walls separating you from love and your spiritual heart can begin to soften, creating room for your own unique expression to emerge.
From this place of inner listening, you'll be invited to create a personal prayer, poem, or melody, or bring a melody of your own to a traditional mantra.
In this session, you'll:
- Create a personal prayer, poem, or melody, or offer your own melody to a traditional mantra as an expression of what emerges from within
- Experience Jai singing and playing as you practice listening with your whole body, imagining every cell receiving the vibration of sacred sound
- Journey through singing, silence, and traditional Indian raga into the spaciousness and solitude of the cave of your heart
- Discover how deeper listening can help you hear your own inner song, rather than searching outside yourself for what wants to be expressed
- Enter your inner temple and spiritual heart, creating space for greater intimacy with the love and spirit already abiding within you
Create Bhakti as Art to Awaken Your Inner Beauty (2027-01-19 1:00:00 pm)
Explore Bhakti as Art by turning your attention away from outside judgments of what's beautiful and discovering the beauty you're capable of creating for yourself. Jai will invite you to approach your voice, melody, mood, and sacred words with the same loving care you might bring flowers, fruit, or a garland into a sacred space.
Drawing on the ancient relationship between sacred art, rivers, and the Goddess of the Arts, you'll explore singing as a way to nourish your inner waters and bring life to places within you that may feel dry or depleted.
You'll also challenge the idea that only certain people get to call themselves musicians, recognizing that the impulse to hum, sing, or create a melody is itself an expression of your innate creativity. As you set aside the inner critic and create something beautiful for your own ears, you'll begin to experience how accepting your inner beauty and allowing your creativity to flow can be deeply healing.
In this session, you'll:
- Create your own garland of sound, weaving melody, mood, and sacred words into something you find beautiful, without needing to perform or share it with anyone else
- Explore beauty from the inside looking in, loosening the habit of relying on outside approval to determine whether your voice or creative expression is worthy
- Discover how singing can nourish your inner waters, drawing on sacred traditions that connect music, rivers, creativity, and spiritual renewal
- Reclaim your identity as a naturally creative and musical being, honoring the part of your soul that wants to hum, sing, make melodies, and create
- Experience the healing power of creativity as you soften your inner critic, recognize your own inner beauty, and give your creative spark room to unfold
Expand the Ripples of Your Singing to Offer Your Voice to the Collective (2027-01-26 1:00:00 pm)
Bring your journey full circle by discovering how the sound you create can ripple beyond you, touching people and places you may never know. Jai will explore how the human voice can be experienced as something tangible, carrying emotion, prayer, and healing outward while nourishing the person who sings.
Drawing inspiration from traditions of communal singing, you'll discover how joining your voice with others can deepen connection and create a powerful experience of holding and being held.
You'll also explore singing as part of your dharma, weaving sacred sound into your work, meals, relationships, community, and the ordinary rhythms of daily life. As your final offering, you'll create a simple song from something meaningful in your own heart and discover how continuing to sing can become a way of offering yourself to the world.
In this session, you'll:
- Create your own simple song of praise, gratitude, grief, remembrance, or hope, with an opportunity to share it and experience the power of giving what's in your heart a voice
- Experience how your voice creates ripples beyond you, carrying feeling, prayer, and healing to others near and far
- Discover how singing in community can amplify connection and healing, allowing you to both support others and feel held through shared sound
- Embrace singing as part of your dharma and everyday spiritual life, carrying sacred sound into your work, meals, relationships, and community
- Carry Singing Into Surrender forward as a living practice, using your voice as an offering to the whole and continuing to share the songs that arise from your heart
SPECIAL BONUS OFFER
When you register by 2026-11-07 11:59:00 pm , you’ll receive special bonus offerings designed to complement Jai Uttal ’s transformative 7-module course — and deepen your understanding and practice even further.
Exploring Ten "Thaats" of North Indian Classical Music
Video From Jai Uttal
Deepen your exploration of the ten Thaats — the foundational scale systems of Indian classical music — by spending more time with the sounds that may feel unfamiliar to Western ears. Rather than focusing on scales that already sound familiar, you'll immerse yourself in those with distinctive notes, phrases, and tonal colors that may initially seem exotic or even surprising. As you sing and listen, you'll begin to develop a more intimate relationship with these unfamiliar musical landscapes, allowing their unique beauty to reveal itself over time. You'll discover how opening your ears to new sounds can become a practice of opening yourself to difference, moving beyond first impressions to appreciate the many ways beauty can be expressed. Through this devotional exploration, you'll expand your musical vocabulary while experiencing each Thaat as another unique expression of the Divine.
Mantra Love Day 1
Video From Jai Uttal
In this special bonus video from Seven Days of Mantra Love, you'll join Jai as he shares his deep love and devotion for the transformative practice of chanting. Beginning with the beloved mantra Shri Ram, Jaya Ram, Jaya Jaya Ram, you'll experience the simple joy of repeating the sacred names as an intimate expression of love rather than an idea or performance. As you chant with Jai, you'll be invited to let go of striving and allow the mantra to carry you more deeply into your heart. You'll explore how chanting can become a living prayer, opening a space for greater peace, love, connection, and presence. Together, you'll offer the mantra not only for yourself, but as a prayer for the happiness and wellbeing of all beings.
Plus... you’ll receive these bonuses too!
Mantra Love
Audio From Jai Uttal
From Jai's longer Mantra Love recordings to support your own devotional practice. Created as a special gift for The Shift Network community, these shorter chants make it easy to bring the sacred sounds of mantra into your day, even when you have only a few minutes. You'll experience five mantras that have accompanied Jai through more than 50 years of chanting, devotion, and spiritual practice. Jai often says that when you love something deeply, it loves you back, and he shares how these sacred sounds have nourished, supported, and carried him throughout his life. As you listen and chant along, you'll be invited to cultivate your own loving relationship with mantra and discover how these ancient sounds can become a source of nourishment, connection, and devotion in your life.
Sargam Exercises in Todi Thaat
Video From Jai Uttal
Explore one of the Indian scale systems that sounds strikingly different from scales typically heard in Western music. You'll become familiar with its distinctive tonal landscape by singing the Thaat as a straightforward ascending and descending scale. From there, Jai will guide you through simple vocal exercises that help you embody its notes, intervals, and unique musical character. As you practice, you'll expand your ear and voice beyond familiar patterns while developing greater ease with sounds that may initially feel unusual. You'll also discover the foundations of Raga Todi, a beautiful traditional morning raga, while building your confidence in the language of Indian classical music.
The Joy of Bhakti Part 1 and 2
Videos From Jai Uttal
Sing along with a vibrant gathering of bhaktas — devotees joined together in sacred song — during a joyful New Year's celebration at Blue Spirit in Costa Rica. Accompanied by drummer Visvambhar Sheth, Jai will lead you into an ecstatic flow of chanting where rhythm, melody, devotion, and community become one. As you add your own voice, you'll experience how chanting with others can lift your energy, open your heart, and carry you more deeply into the music. You'll feel the contagious joy of Bhakti and discover the unique power that arises when individual voices merge into a shared expression of devotion. Through these special recordings, you'll experience a taste of the connection, freedom, and collective ecstasy of singing together in sacred community.
What People Are Saying About Jai Uttal…
Poet and writer
Singer
Singer-songwriter
Actress who provided the speaking voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin
Author of Emotonal Intelligence
Join the Global Community
Sing Your Heart Into Surrender With Kirtan offers some of the most transformational online teachings available, within a thriving global community of learning and practice.
Join fellow students and practitioners to support and inspire each other as you integrate the teachings and practices Jai Uttal will share in this powerful program.
You’ll join an international community on the leading edge of manifesting a world grounded in the principles of cooperation, harmony, and reverence for all of life.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Sessions With Jai Uttal
Experience a unique opportunity to be mentored by and learn from Grammy-nominated sacred musician Jai Uttal — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a livestreaming video option, a teaching segment of 60 minutes, a Q&A for 30 minutes, and an optional breakout session for 30 minutes. Program sessions are on 2026-11-24 1:00:00 pm.
Seven Video Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the video will be available for you to stream in a high-quality format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can watch anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Seven Audio Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the audio will be available for you to stream. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Seven Transcripts of Class Sessions
You’ll also receive the entire class transcript after each session is completed. You can then review, print, and highlight the insights and practices you found most impactful.
Seven 30-Minute Interactive Breakout Sessions
Following each 90-minute live class, there will be a 30-minute optional interactive breakout session. You’ll be placed in a small, intimate Zoom group with a few other participants to interact, reflect, and share around a weekly topic, helping you more fully integrate the lessons. Breakout sessions are not recorded. Whether or not you attend the live sessions, the online community group provides a space for you to connect with each other and arrange alternative times to interact.
Interactive Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each week’s lesson.
Online Community
Our exclusive online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can continue the discussion about your course materials and interact with your fellow students to take your exploration to an even deeper level.
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Online Course, Sing Your Heart Into Surrender With Kirtan
We feel honored that Jai Uttal has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online course. This is a unique opportunity to interact directly with a kirtan artist and Grammy-nominated sacred musician whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about freeing your natural voice from self-consciousness and learning to use singing as a deeply personal practice of emotional expression, prayer, creativity, and devotion, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind program.
If you’re ready to take the next step in your own evolution, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
If you don’t absolutely LOVE Sing Your Heart Into Surrender With Kirtan — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form on or before December 8, 2026 and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Jai Uttal...
Author of A Gradual Awakening
Dancer and musician
Folk singer-songwriter
About Jai Uttal
EDIT
Grammy-nominated Jai Uttal is a kirtan artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist. He is a pioneer in the world music community, influenced by both Indian music and American rock and jazz. Jai has been leading, teaching, and performing world music and kirtan — the ancient yoga of chanting or singing to God — around the world for close to 50 years, creating a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices.
Growing up in New York City, he lived in a home filled with music. He began studying classical piano at the age of seven, and later learned to play old-time banjo, harmonica, and guitar. At age 17, he heard Indian music for the first time; two years later he moved to California and studied under the famous sarod player, Ali Akbar Khan. Jai later began taking regular pilgrimages to India, living among the wandering street musicians of Bengal, and singing with the kirtan wallahs in the temple of his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. He has released 20 highly acclaimed CDs, the latest being the double album, Roots, Rock, Rama!
Jai has emerged as a leading influence in the Western Bhakti movement. He considers Bhakti Yoga to be the core of his musical and spiritual life.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a virtual course?
Can I still benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
Can you tell me about the private online community group?
Are there scholarships available for this training?
Please note: Scholarship applications must be submitted before the refund deadline, as we are unable to accept applications after that point.
What’s your refund policy?
If you’re within the refund period, the deadline to receive a full refund is December 8, 2026. To request a refund, please complete this refund request form and submit your request. Qualifying refunds will be processed within five business days, and you’ll receive an email confirming the refund.
We’d also love the opportunity to address and resolve your concerns directly. If there’s anything we can assist with, please get in touch with us at [email protected] — we’re here to help!
Please note: Refund requests are not accepted after the deadline or for courses purchased with scholarship awards.
Do you have a mobile app where I can access content offline?
Yes! The Shift Network’s mobile app, Shift Companion, allows you to access your course sessions and resources directly from your phone or tablet — including the ability to download content for offline listening and viewing.
Whether you’re traveling, spending time in nature, resting away from screens, or simply wanting greater flexibility in your daily learning practice, Shift Companion helps you stay connected to the teachings that nourish and inspire you.
To get started:
- iPhone/iPad users: Download Shift Companion from the Apple App Store
- Android users: Download Shift Companion from the Google Play Store
Once installed, simply sign in using the same email address you use for your Shift Network courses.