What do yoga, spiritual music, and Hare Krishna have to do with Barack Obama? At first blush, not a whole lot. Sure, Obama carried around a Hanuman trinket for some time, as indicated by Time Magazine. But there’s no direct evidence -- as far as we know -- that our new president has a penchant for boogying down with eastern rhythms.

Kirtana (pronounced keer-ton-uh) is a Sanskrit word that means “praise” or “glory.” The more common Hindi pronunciation is “keer-ton,” dropping the final “a.” Simply understood, it is a form of song that centers on glorifying God, commonly performed in a “call and response” style of singing.