Free Global Online Session
Janmashtami Special
Joyful devotion. Embrace the divine melody.
Somewhere at midnight, a conch sounds and a cradle is rocked. Five thousand years on, the flute still carries. Come and sing Krishna Janmashtami in with us.
The livestream, on this page
Tap Notify Me on the player and YouTube will remind you when we go live.
What is Janmashtami?
Janmashtami marks the birth of Lord Krishna, on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada. In the story he is born at midnight in a prison cell, and carried across a river to safety while the guards sleep. What follows is a childhood of butter stolen from clay pots, cows and cowherds, and a flute whose sound stopped whoever heard it.
It is kept with fasting until midnight, with bhajans and dance, with cradles rocked and sweets shared, from Mathura and Vrindavan to temples on every continent.
The teachings that come later, in the Bhagavad Gita, still answer the questions people bring to work on a Monday morning. But the festival itself is mostly joy.
Krishna Janmashtami 2026 falls on Friday 4 September. We are gathering on Sunday 30 August, ahead of the day, so that our global community can celebrate together while the festival is still on its way.
What to expect
Uplifting bhajans
Krishna bhajans and soulful melodies sung live, the songs that carry this festival wherever it travels.
Divine teachings
The story of Krishna's birth told from the beginning, and words from the Gita that still land today.
A global community
Voices joining from India, the UK, Europe, the Americas and Australia, all in the same hour.
The divine melody
The flute that stopped whoever heard it, and the music that has followed it for five thousand years.
Space for your prayers
Bring your own intentions to the chat. They are read, they are held, and you are not alone with them.
A blessing to carry
Something to take into Janmashtami week itself, and into the days that follow it.
One feather, worn since childhood
The peacocks of Vrindavan are said to have danced when he played, and to have offered their feathers freely. He has worn one ever since.
Songs that carry the festival
A harmonium, a pair of tabla, a set of small brass cymbals, and a room of people who know the words. That is the whole apparatus of a bhajan, and it has needed nothing more for centuries.
What the songs do is simple. They hold a crowd in one rhythm and let everyone in it forget, for a while, that they arrived separately. Some of these melodies are older than the buildings they are sung in.
A flute, and a feather
Two objects tell you most of what you need to know about Krishna. A length of bamboo with seven holes in it, and a single peacock feather worn in the hair.
The flute is the reason the stories keep saying that everything stopped: the cows, the river, the women carrying pots home at dusk. The feather is what the peacocks are said to have given him freely, for making them dance.
Neither is a symbol of power. That is rather the point of him.
Whenever righteousness declines, I make myself known.
Bhagavad Gita, chapter four
The line-up is being announced
Singers, speakers and musicians are being confirmed now. Check back here for the full running order, or tap Notify Me on YouTube and let the reminder do the work.
How to take part
One festival, ten thousand houses
As midnight crosses each meridian, somewhere the next lamp is lit and the next cradle is rocked. The celebration moves around the planet with the darkness, and has done for five thousand years.
Come and sing it in
Free, global, and open to everyone. Whether you have kept this festival for sixty years or you are meeting Krishna for the first time this Sunday.
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