NEW YORK (RNS) — One century ago, on April 18, 1926, an Indian Hindu monk named Paramahansa Yogananda — the now-recognizable guru on the front cover of the bestseller “Autobiography of a Yogi”— traveled to New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall to address a crowd of almost 3,000 people. Between talks on spiritual realization, Yogananda famously led the American crowd in an Indian musical devotional chant, or kirtan, for one hour and 25 minutes in a “divine atmosphere of joyous praise,” as he put it.  Even after he left the stage, Yogananda wrote at the time, the audience stayed, chanting an English translation of the sacred song by the revered Sikh Guru Nanak called “O God Beautiful.” Before the event, he had been advised by his companions that Eastern songs wouldn’t be understood by the audience.  “In 1926, if you think about it, the consciousness of people then, they were unfamiliar with Indian teachers, masters and gurus coming over,” said Brother Devananda, a 74-year-old monk in the…