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KIRTAN STYLE IN SRILA PRABHUPADA’S ISKCON TEMPLES
By Rsi Kumar Dasa
Srila Prabhupada was always opposed to SPECULATIVE KIRTANA STYLES. Srila Prabhupada’s personal style of simple chanting in a pure and melodious fashion did not change when he was in India. Historically speaking, it can be traced that in the late 60’s and early 70’s however Western devotees coming to India had no place to stay but in some Gaudiya Math temples. In some of these temples, all different kinds of mantras were chanted without restriction. Although these mantras did not seem improper, Srila Prabhupada did not want us to use them in our temple kirtans.
“With regard to your question about Bengali style kirtana and mrdanga playing, one or two styles is best. To introduce more styles is not good. It will become an encumbrance. Who is that Krsna das Babaji who is teaching? If we introduce so much emphasis on style of kirtan, then simply imitation will go on. Devotional emotion is the main thing. If we give stress to instrument and style then attention will be diverted to the style. That will be spiritual loss.” (Letter to Satsvarupa Goswami, — New Vrndavana 30 June, 1976)
However this form of kirtan filtered into our movement very quickly since it was new and exciting and therefore rapidly accepted by the kirtan leaders. Variety is the spice of life. This variety however, did not actually please Srila Prabhupada. Now one may say: “Okay, I accept that Srila Prabhupada wrote about exclusive Hare Krsna kirtana which he desired his followers to sing. And I accept that Srila Prabhupada himself always lead kirtans by chanting the maha mantra and never used the other types of chants often used by Bengali devotees. But did he ever get personally involved in correcting improper chanting?”
CHANTING MELODIES: Srila Prabhupada was very strict in the melody sung during the mangala-aratika. He wanted the morning melody and nothing else. Before the opening of the Vrndavana Krsna Balarama temple in 1975, one morning Srila Prabhupada called his secretary into his room and complained about the singing. The devotee who led mangala aratrika kirtan had chanted melodies other than the morning melody. Srila Prabhupada said that he did not like the singing in the morning. He stated that the morning melody must be sung throughout the mangala-aratika and no other melody should be sung. He then demonstrated how the singing should be done by singing the first verse of the ‘Samsara davanala’. Srila Prabhupada was very insistent that the singing should be done in that way only. He then told his secretary to lead the mangala aratrika kirtans in the morning as a way to establish the standards within the temple.
CHANTING “JAYA RADHE…?” The morning after receiving that instruction, Srila Prabhupada’s secretary led the mangala aratrika kirtan in Srila Prabhupada’s room duplicating the melodious style which he had been shown the day before. Srila Prabhupada was pleased and seemed to enjoy the kirtan but unfortunately in the end, the secretary fell victim to speculation and sang a couple of “jaya radhe’s”. The Secretary writes in his account – “Srila Prabhupada looked at me with eyes blazing like fire… Voice choked and gagging, I ended the kirtan immediately without further formalites, never again to make the same mistake.” Srila Prabhupada never ended kirtans with various extra mantras, especially not “jaya radhe,” so why should I?” Srila Prabhupada didn’t want his followers to chant Jaya Radhe. He explained that Sukadeva Gosvami did not feel himself qualified to chant the name of Radha in the Srimad-Bhagavatam and therefore only indicated her name with the word “aradhana” while describing the topmost gopi friend of Krsna.
CHANTING JAYA GURUDEVA…? Srila Prabhupada objected to the chanting of “Jaya Gurudeva” since he considered it to be a direct insertion into our movement from the sahajiya sampradayas in Bengal who always say things like “Jaya Gurudeva,” without referring to any particular guru. Srila Prabhupada criticized this as impersonal and did not want it chanted by his disciples. “Who is the guru?” he would challenge. Srila Prabhupada also did not appreciate the extended chanting of Jaya Prabhupada at the expense of chanting the Hare Krsna maha mantra.
CHANTING JAYA PRABHUPADA…? Once when we were coming from a tour of the Gurukula Srila Prabhupada heard the devotees chanting Jaya Prabhupada over and over. He said he didn’t like the devotees chanting Prabhupada over and over and he told us to tell them to chant Hare Krsna. Once or a few times is ok but not more than that.
CHANTING ‘JAPA, BOLO, BHAJA’ HARE KRSNA…? In July of 1976, Srila Prabhupada was in New Mayapur in France. A raging kirtan was going on somewhere below his room. Srila Prabhupada was verbally dictating responses to letters he had received while his secretary sat before him writing the words down. Srila Prabhupada was very disturbed by something he heard. “Do you hear that?” he asked the secretary. “What is that, Srila Prabhupada?” replied the secretary. “Listen to what he is saying.” “I cannot hear anything special. What is wrong?” “He is chanting something before the Hare Krsna mantra. Go and stop this immediately.” The secretary immediately ran downstairs, danda in hand, and started pushing aside the crowds of ecstatic chanters to get at the leader of the kirtan. He could still not hear exactly what was being chanted, and neither could he imagine how Srila Prabhupada could hear it, but with full faith he plunged through the crowd expecting to soon be close enough to know who was leading the kirtan and what it was that he was saying before the Hare Krsna mantra. When he was about two meters away from the leader he saw that it was Prthu Putra Swami leading the kirtana and then he finally heard that Prthu Putra Swami was faintly saying “bhaja” before each Hare Krsna mantra. With this confirmation, the secretary demanded, in the name of Srila Prabhupada, that he not chant that before the mantra and that he never do it again. This caused a bit of a pause in the kirtan while everyone tried to understand what was going on, but before too long the secretary was again going back upstairs and the kirtan was being chanted correctly. Srila Prabhupada asked for a report of what happened and was satisfied that the mistake had been corrected. One should never chant anything before the mahamantra including “japa”, “bolo”, or “bhaja”.
CHANTING “GAURA NITYANANDA BOL…? One morning in the winter of 1975, after the temple was opened, Ananda prabhu was leading the kirtan. Ananda prabhu was a Godbrother of Srila Prabhupada who had been living in our temple for many years, humbly engaged in serving the devotees with great love and devotion. He was the personal cook of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and was extremely expert in preparing emergency medicinal herbs when the need arose (as when Saurabh das was bitten by a scorpion but was saved by Ananda prabhu’s timely herb application). He was also an enthusiastic kirtan leader. Srila Prabhupada was in his room as usual during the mangala aratika kirtan and his secretary was in the room next to him waiting for some order or command. The kirtan was loud and the speakers, combined with the reverberation of the hall, projected the sound into Srila Prabhupada’s room with great ease. He called his secretary into his room. The secretary already knew what was going to happen since he was trained by him the previous year about standards for kirtan. Ananda Prabhu was chanting “gaur nityananda bol” etc. Srila Prabhupada told the secretary to go to the temple room and stop Ananda from singing the kirtan. The secretary was shocked. This was the first time that he ever had to stop one of Srila Prabhupada’s own Godbrothers from singing a kirtan. But he dutifully marched off to the temple room to fulfill the order. Afraid of making an offense or being crude t,he secretary did not feel good about the matter yet he managed to mutter out some words to the effect that Srila Prabhupada didn’t want this mantra in the temple and that would he please chant Hare Krsna instead. Srila Prabhupada was extremely determined that the kirtan standard be maintained and not changed by the introduction of “other” mantras which were commonly heard in other temples and maths. ISKCON’s most famous kirtan leader also liked to chant “gaura nityananda bol.” Although very few devotees know this, Srila Prabhupada said that he did not like those kirtans and that that devotee ruined kirtan.
CHANTING “GAURA GAURA GAURA…? As far as standards go, Srila Prabhupada’s instructions could not have been more specific. During one of Srila Prabhupada’s stays in Vrndavana he was attending the evening kirtans and classes led by his disciples due to his being sickly and unable to speak. One night Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, Bharadvaja dasa, chose to sing a song which he said he got from a book by Gopal Bhatta Goswami. The song was a variation on the mantra “krsna krsna, krsna krsna, krsna krsna, krsna he,” but instead of the name “Krsna”, the name “Gaura” was chanted. The mantra went, “gaura gaura, gaura gaura, gaura gaura, gaura he”. Srila Prabhupada disliked this extremely, so much so that the next morning he called the president of the temple into his room and wanted an explanation of why Bharadvaja was chanting like that. The devotee could not give a proper explanation at that moment. Srila Prabhupada said that he never wanted to hear that again in the temple and that the temple president should never allow such kinds of “speculation” in kirtan. He then went on to specifically describe how kirtan should be done.
A. For mangala aratika: the samsara-dava prayer, then Sri Krsna Caitanya (panca tattva maha mantra), then Hare Krsna mahamantra, nothing else.
B. For the guru-puja: the “guru-prayer” (that’s what he called it) Sri Krsna Caitanya (panca tattva maha mantra), then Hare Krsna mahamantra, nothing else.
C. For evening aratika: the gaura aratika song, Sri Krsna Caitanya (panca tattva maha mantra), and Hare Krsna mahamantra, nothing else.
D. For all aratikas this basic pattern should be followed. The chanting of Sri Krsna Caitanya (panca tattva maha mantra) should only be for three times, not more.
E. No one should sing a bhajana unless all the devotees know what the song means.
F. No one should sing songs in Vrindavan temple that are in languages which the people do not understand. Yasomati-nandana may be sung since the people understand that. In regards to “D” above, Srila Prabhupada specifically placed this restriction on the chanting after one incident with Isana prabhu in Vrindavan. In July of 1974, when Srila Prabhupada first moved into his new quarters, kirtans were being conducted in his room in the afternoon and then he would give class. On one of the first days, Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Isana Prabhu, who at that time was doing what was to be later known as FATE doll exhibition, led a kirtan. He was simply repeating the Sri Krsna Caitanya mantra over and over again, perhaps for 15 times, when Srila Prabhupada demanded that he stop and chant Hare Krsna. It was after this that Srila Prabhupada became quite strict on the number of times the mantra was sung.
“BHAJA” OR “JAYA” SRI KRSNA CAITANYA? In the middle of 1977, ISKCON devotees noticed a sudden change in the way the panca tattva maha mantra was to be chanted. Up to that point, all of the kirtans Srila Prabhupada had led, both in person and on recordings displayed the song as: bhaja sri-krsna-caitanya prabhu-nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda Every devotee sang this song in this way in every kirtan. However, in May of 1977 Srila Prabhupada became very displeased with the kirtans of the group in the asrama next to Krsna Balarama Mandira in Vrndavana. There kirtans were taking place with the following speculated mantra, “(bhaja) nitai gaura radhe syama (japa) Hare Krsna Hare Ram.” Srila Prabhupada then requested the devotees to stop chanting the word “bhaja” before our Panca-tattva maha mantra since the word actually is not part of the mantra. There is no word which prefaces the mantra which specifically reads “sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrinda.” This mantra can be read in either Bengali or Sanskrit letters on the walls of every temple in Vrindavan or Bengal as it is one of the two essential mantras for Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Then Prabhupada thought about using some mantra from the Caitanya-caritamrta which he considered might go, “jaya sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda, jayadvaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrinda.” His Divine Grace had his servants and sanskritists look it up to see if they could find it. After a thorough search they realized that there was no mantra like that and that the closest mantra was “jaya jaya sri-caitanya jaya nityananda jayadvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda” which was not what Prabhupada wanted. Nevertheless, in order to definitively distinguish ISKCON from the other chanters across the road, Srila Prabhupada insisted on the change from the using the word “bhaja” to “jaya” preceding the mantra. Tamal Krsna Goswami also noted the change in his diary. At 3:00 p.m. Srila Prabhupada signed his will and had Upendra, Gopinatha, and myself witness it. During the kirtana, Prabhupada twice instructed Yasodanandana Maharaja not to sing “bhaja” before “Sri Krsna Caitanya.” Was it because of the bogus groups who chant this word first? Prabhupada said to chant “Jaya Sri Krsna Caitanya.” (TKG Diary: May 23, 1977 Vrndavana) “You can say ‘Sri Krsna Caitanya’ or ‘Jaya Sri Krsna Caitanya,’ but never ‘bhaja.’ You just glorify these five personalities and They will take care of everything.” (Srila Prabhupada speaking: TKG Diary: May 29, 1977 Vrndavana)
Question here is: To Follow Srila Prabhupada or Not or shall we say Half way? We can say “times have changed…after all this is all glorification” ok – so the million dollar question – How much shall I follow ?
EAGERNESS TO CHANT
By Bhaktin Bharathi
Chanting and Hearing anywhere, in any circumstance will surely help us.
Many of us have challenges on how to complete our 16 rounds of Hare Krishna Mahamantra japa amidst our busy schedules. We may be professional women – working full time or part time – or even house wives taking care of all household affairs. Still, the onus of making for time for Krishna is completely on us. It is really amazing when I hear from few devotees about how they are eager and totally enthusiastic to complete their rounds. Here is one such awe inspiring experiences of a devotee friend of mine:
About a year back or so, some of us devotees got together and were raising funds for the Jagannath ratha yatra. IN the course of this service, we happened to visit a doctor who we knew for a while through common friends. He is usually very busy always – with so many patients flocking to his clinic. We somehow managed to get an appointment and reached his clinic. When we peeked in, we were all in for a pleasant surprise – we could hear Srila Prabhupada’s voice in the corner of room singing the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. We were so thrilled to hear the vibrations of the Holy Names in a clinic where many patients visit!
We walked up to the doc and spoke excitedly, telling him that he is doing great service to Lord Krishna and the patients will be very much benefited by just hearing Hare Krishna Mantra especially in Srila Prabhupada’s own voice. For that he replied that whether his patients get benefited or not, he, for sure, was getting benefited. And he showed us the counter that he had wrapped around his finger to use to chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra with Srila Prabhupada everyday, while attending to his patients. He said he was completing his 16 rounds everyday and that he keeps chanting whenever patients are not there – which is very rare considering his clinic is always packed. Yet he found time to finish his rounds was a stunning revelation to us
We were amazed and very inspired. We made a resolution that even though our schedules turn out to be busy/hectic, we will make sure to find time for Krishna, chant and remember Him through out day. Even if we are busy with l hectic work schedule, chanting and remembering Lord Krishna is very important part of our lives.
Jai Srila Prabhupada!
CONSCIOUSNESS OF A DEVOTEE WHILE PREACHING
As practitioners of Krishna Consciousness, we come across many different people with many different personalities and propensities. It is indeed a challenge to understand how to deal with each person while also avoiding unnecessary interactions that can hamper our devotional progress. It is important for us to know that we have to develop and maintain the necessary attitude of a devotee towards karmis or even non-devotees – first being compassion.
Everyone in this world needs love, affection and genuine care and if nothing else, atleast empathetic disposition – all of which are so hard to come by in this Age of Quarrel. We have to help them without any expectations and how can we do this without being entangled in any one person’s problems?
There are three ways in which we can primarily induce someone to Krishna Consciousness, when they have no idea or interest in spiritual realization.
1. Offering them prasadam: This is the most effective and potent way of helping another living entity to get connected to Krishna and His direct Mercy.
2. Distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books to them: You can start with the small ones – and encourage them to read it by quoting examples on how it has made a difference in your life or anyone you know. Most people hesitate to explore spiritual realms because they feel they need to drop everything that they are doing and become ascetics. Srila Prabhupada says in his lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.2, “So it doesn’t matter whether you remain outside home or inside home, what is your occupation, but do not forget your real business”. So a devotee has to slowly and steadily remind all people he comes in touch with, their real business. And that, they can do it while remaining in whatever material position they are in.
3. Inducing them to chant Holy names of the Lord – the Hare Krishna Mahamantra: Namacharya Srila Haridasa Thakura says, “..The whole world will be inundated with the chanting of the holy name: with loud congregational chanting, the holy name is to be propagated widely among the masses. Those who are faithful will come forward and choose a bona fide spiritual master, receiving instructions and initiation in the name from him. By sincere chanting they will surely obtain love of Godhead, Krsnaprema.” (Harinam Cintamani). A devotee must always look for ways to expose karmis to the Holy name vibrations. Inviting them for a temple program, special festival, celebrations, rath yatra, prasadam treats etc. are great ways to do this.
They key here is to build that bridge of trust and faith. And convert that into a bonding through Krishna Consciousness (and nothing else!). When we related to everyone through and for Krishna, there is no scope of fall down or contamination. So the key is not to take their association but give them our association – for Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. Else, like Srila Rupa Gosvami says, “if we get too entangled in associations with worldly minded persons who are not at all interested in Krishna consciousness, our devotional life will be spoiled”
One should not, at any time, use the bond or relationship they build with mundaners, for extracting personal favors or benefits. Not should we make it all about money collection for the temple, which is a good thought but is only a means to an end. The end result we want for Srila Prabhupada is that, the people we associate with get attracted to Krishna and Krishna Consciousness movement. And then, they will volunteer to services with all their body, mind, intelligence and other resources.
Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita 9.13
mahatmanas tu mam partha
daivim prakrtim asritah
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jnatva bhutadim avyayam
“O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in
devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.”
Since all the devotees of the Lord are under the protection of His supreme potency, they should not deviate from the path of devotional service and take to the path of the karmi, jnani or yogi. This is called utsahan niscayad dhairyat tat-tat-karma-pravartanat, enthusiastically executing the regulative activities of devotional service with patience and confidence. In this way one can advance in devotional service without hindrance.
Above all, one should be careful to never be careless or relaxes on the importance of association with other advanced devotees. In Srimad Bhagavatam 4.9.11 Dhruva Maharaj prays,
bhaktim muhuh pravahataam tvayi me prasango
bhuyaad ananta mahataam amalaashayaanaam
yenaanjasolbanam uru-vyasanam bhavaabdhim
neshye bhavad-guna-kathaamrta-paana-mattah
“O unlimited Lord, kindly bless me so that I may associate with great devotees who engage in Your transcendental loving service constantly, as the waves of a river constantly flow. Such transcendental devotees are completely situated in an uncontaminated state of life. By the process of devotional service I shall surely be able to cross the nescient ocean of material existence, which is filled with the waves of blazing, firelike dangers. It will be very easy for me, for I am becoming mad to hear about Your transcendental qualities and pastimes, which are eternally existent.”
So we must always take shelter of the Lotus Feet of the Bona fide spiritual master and the Supreme Lord Krishna and Their instructions. Through them, our attitudes and associations – both get purified gradually and steadily and we can become dynamic, exemplary instruments in the propagation of Lord Caitanya’s movement.
Devotee Association 