of sexuality and not condemn it. The temples of
Khajuraho above all celebrate the feminine form.
Women in every pose and posture, sexual and oth-
erwise, are depicted with great care and art.
Though the temples are variously dedicated as
Vaishnavite, Shaivite, GODDESS, and Jain (see JAIN-
ISM), they all appear quite similar; on the exterior
one sees only women and men in sexual postures,
and the sectarian identities are not apparent. Carv-
ings and pictures in these temples show a dizzying
profusion; every wall and ceiling is covered with
painting and sculpture.
Further reading: Devagana Desai, Khajuraho (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000); Krishna Deva,
Temples of Khajuraho (New Delhi : Archaeological Sur-
vey of India, 1990).
khalsa See SIKHISM.
Kirpal Light Satsang See RADHASOAMI
MOVEMENT.
kirtans
Kirtans are songs to the glories of a god. They are
usually sung in groups of people, accompanied
by an accordionlike instrument called the harmo-
nium. Percussive instruments are sometimes used
as well. Kirtan singing may be the most common
form of collective devotional worship in India.
Both men and women participate. Singing alterna-
tively slows down and speeds up until the singers
are in a trance, ideally experiencing the presence of,
or even union, with the divinity. Both kirtans and
BHAJANS are songs of worship sung in devotion.
Further reading: Gobind Singh Mansukhani, Indian
Classical Music and Sikh Kirtan (San Bernardino, Calif.:
Borgo Press, 1985); Hansadutta Swami, Kirtan: Ancient
Medicine for Modern Man (Hopland, Calif.: Hansa
Books, 1984).
Klein, Jean (c. 1916–1998) Western teacher of
yoga and advaita Vedanta
Jean Klein was an important 20th-century teacher
of non-dual VEDANTA, who focused on the direct
experience of the Self rather than the gradual,
progressive method of enlightenment.
Klein was born around 1916 into a family that
loved music, painting, and art. He describes the
family as “harmonious.” His childhood was spent
in Brno (Czechoslovakia), Prague, and Vienna.
He studied music and medicine in Vienna and
Berlin, where he explored the relationships among
thought, feeling, and muscle function.
He became a physician, and undertook the
study of Eastern philosophies, particularly the
works of Mohandas Karamchand GANDHI, Lao
Tse, Chuang Tsu, Tagore, Coomaraswamy, J.
KRISHNAMURTI, and Sri Aurobindo. After reading
Gandhi, he became a vegetarian. He also read
Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and the Western Sufi René
Guénon. Guénon’s writing on cosmology and tra-
dition proved a turning point in Klein’s life. What
struck him was the distinction Guénon made
between traditional and tradition—the principle
transmitted from teacher to disciple through ini-
tiation: “This awoke in me the feeling that it was
actually humanly possible to become fully inte-
grated and awake in the whole.”
He left Germany in 1933 and spent World War
II in France secretly helping thousands escape
from Germany. After the war, he left Europe for
India seeking an environment that would wel-
come self-inquiry. There he met a Pandit, a profes-
sor of SANSKRIT in Bangalore, Atmananda Krishna
Menon, who became his teacher and who initi-
ated him into the wisdom of ADVAITA (non-dual)
VEDANTA. He also deepened his long study of YOGA
by spending several months with Krishnamacha-
rya, the famous hatha yoga teacher of South India.
Although Klein could do ASANAS (postures) quite
well, he was not attracted to yoga of the physical
body. He wanted to understand how the body
can become more subtle, more energized, more
expanded; he began to see that the real body isKlein, Jean 235 J