This Saturday evening (November 19) you’ll find me in a pew at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew.

Not that this is my church.

Or even that I’m much of a believer in any deity with a name.

Krishna Das will be in town. And that means it’s time for kirtan—call-and-response chanting—the Eastern equivalent of Southern gospel.

Why do I go? The appeal of singing with others in praise of something eternal. This started when I attended a non-denominational boarding school with mandatory church on Sunday morning and mandatory chapel on Sunday evening. And that morphed into an appreciation for Renaissance choral music.

But Krishna Das?

Short answer: He turns out to be a guy a lot of people can relate to. Born Jeffrey Kagel, he was a Long Island rock ’n’ roll kid who met Ram Das in 1968, then met Ram Dass’s guru. In the Himalayas, he got hooked on chanting the Names of God, became Krishna Das—“I’m Jewish on my parents’ side”—and started performing.

Not that he is a great singer. As he says: “Musically, I’m very limited in what I can do.” So why not limit his singing to the shower? “I’m just another person who hears me chanting, you know? That’s why I do it. I’m not doing it for anybody else. I’m doing it because it’s my lifeblood. It’s what I do. I recognize that many people get benefit from it. That’s wonderful. Isn’t that great? But that’s not why I do it.”

Because he’s close to ego-less, he comes across as the real deal; when he sings, there’s just a great feeling in the room. Some get joy and beam. Some get the cosmic joke and laugh. Some sob. Which is to say: This isn’t “Kumbaya.”

By 2009, Krishna Das had sold 300,000 copies of 11 CDs—he was the rock star of spiritual music. And so he did a very cool thing. On his latest CD, “Heart As Wide As the World,” he incorporated rock. Remember “For Your Love,” a ’60s hit for the Yardbirds (with Eric Clapton on guitar)? Add tabla to electric guitar and you get this:

Suddenly the song makes perfect sense—a love letter to God.

“For your love…
I’d give the moon if it were mine to give
I’d give the stars and the sun for I live
To fill you with delight
I’d bring you diamonds bright
Don’t you think it would excite
If I could dream of you tonight.
For your love…”

You can get tickets here.

And if church benches aren’t your thing… bring your own pillow.