plays; question.

[Guest guest]

> As others have pointed out, Prabhupada had Jamuna and other ladies lead

> kirtan with brahmacaris and sannyasis present. I remember in LA, some

> brahmacaris made a big stink about Govinda Prayers and they wrote to Srila

> Prabhupada who was staying in Vrindavan at the time. He was quite upset

> with their silly arguments and said we are listening in Vrindavan, so if

> it is good enough for Vrindavan, what's the problem in LA?

>

> In service of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram,

> Deena Bandhu dasa

 

The incident is related in Transcendental Diary vol. 1. From December 12,

1975:

 

"During his massage Prabhupada heard a letter from Jayasacinandana dasa in

Los Angeles written on behalf of a group of brahmacaris. In every ISKCON

temple in the world the assembled devotees offer their obeisances to the

Deities in the morning as the Govindam prayers loudly play. George Harrison

recorded it and Yamuna dasi sings the mantras.

Disturbed by this custom, Jayasacinandana quoted Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

(as well as Srila Prabhupada) that if a brahmacari hears and is attracted to

a woman singing, it is a subtle falldown. "In light of this," he wrote,

"many of the brahmacaris approached the temple president to see if it would

be possible that when the Deities are greeted in the morning that instead of

listening to Gurudasa Maharaja's former wife singing the Brahma-samhita

prayers, we could listen to Your Divine Grace rather than hear a woman sing.

He did not want to change the tape because it had been a standard thing in

ISKCON since 1970. So requested by many devotees, I am enquiring from Your

Divine Grace if we could play a tape recording of you singing instead of a

woman when the Deities of Rukmini-Dvarakadisa are greeted in the morning. I

am sure that all the devotees would be enlivened to hear you instead of

electric guitars, the London symphonic orchestra, etc. etc."

Srila Prabhupada was not pleased. He said that constantly changing things is

"our Western disease." His reply was short and direct. "No! You have made

some discovery. All along you have been hearing the recording of Yamuna

dasi, and now you want to change. It is not ordinary singing, it is concert.

Many people are singing, so it is not bad. Just like sankirtana, many voices

are there-men and women; so it is the same thing, sankirtana. I approve of

it. Here in the Krishna-Balaram temple we are hearing the same recording

every morning. So if it is good here, why not there?"

 

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Chapter Two ~ Sri Vrndavana Dhama