Kirtan Standards Committee :Which Kirtan Performance is pleasing to Srila Prabhupada?

krsna · June 13, 2007

By Janananda Gosvami

Dear Devotees

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

As Kirtan is the single-most important activity of our movement, the GBC decided this year at Mayapura to form a “Kirtan Standards Committee”. I would like to briefly inform you of the progress in this regards.

The request of the GBC is to produce a book, laying out ISKCON standards and guidelines for Kirtan and related matters. By Mayapura 2008 the committee is expected to make a presentation to the GBC.

Our Krishna Consciousness movement is practically based upon music and dancing. Letter to: Mr. Levine, 25 January, 1969

Kirtana is our first duty. Letter to: Palika, 13 November, 1975

Lord Caitanya’s movement of Krishna consciousness is full of dancing and singing about the pastimes of Lord Krishna. CC Adi 2.2 purport

Kirtana means glorification of Lord Krsna. All activities in the Hare Krsna movement are meant for Krsna-kirtana—glorification of Lord Krsna. Although this glorification takes many forms, kirtana is particularly understood to mean chanting Krsna’s holy names. This is also called sankirtana. The prefix “san” means “complete” or “in association.” So sankirtana means “complete glorification” or “congregational chanting.”

Kirtana means alone, and sankirtana means in the assembly of many others. 741210SB.BOM

Sankirtana means when many persons combine together and chant and dance. 740417bg.bom

It is often experienced that without any checking, or guidelines, the standards for Kirtan, Bhajan, playing musical instruments, dancing, kirtan etiquette, dressing, consciousness, etc develop in numerous ways, many of which may not be pleasing to Srila Prabhupada or favourable for the awakening of pure devotional service. Many of them may be speculative, introduction from apa sampradayas or a show of false ego. It is the business of the committee, whilst inspiring everyone in the performance of kirtan, to nonetheless lay out the guidelines for this and future generations, based on Srila Prabhupada’s directions.

We can hardly imagine the possibilities of deviations in generations to come when even now 30 years after Srila Prabhupada’s departure we are faced with this phenomena.

During Prabhupada’s personal presence many incidents occurred where Prabhupada himself intervened to correct and establish the standard. There are other situations where no specific directive from Prabhupada is available. In these less clear areas the need to focus on Prabhupada’s approach would be even more essential. There are areas where according to time place and circumstance Prabhupada gave different directions. It is a challenge and a great privilege to render this service to ISKCON. We feel it is of great value to the society.

The committee consists of HH Lokanatha maharaja, HH Bhaktivikas Swami, HH Janananda Gosvami (convenor), HG Hari Sauri prabhu, HG Jagajeevan prabhu and HG Aniruddha prabhu.

We have set up a conference to exchange with each other. Later on after sorting through all the available materials and analysing them we will be calling upon the open forum of devotees to offer their input and comments.

On the 21st May, Hari Sauri, Aniruddha and Janananda Gosvami met to formulate a plan of approach and to establish a format for the book.

Our intention is to put forward Srila Prabhupada’s will, without losing the enthusiasm of the kirtan practitioners. Our aim is to portray the mood of Srila Prabhupada.

We are looking at presenting our findings in the easiest understandable and applicable way so the devotees can access the information as simply as possible. At the present the committee is finalising our strategy and approach to the outline – thematic etc.

We will need some devotees with some expertise, time and willingness to help with the data sifting etc. If any devotee would like to assist in this important service please contact myself. More details of this service will be released shortly.

HARINAMA SANKIRTAN KI JAYA

Your servant (on behalf of the Kirtan Standards Committee)

Janananda Gosvami

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Comments •

1 Dear Maharaja, Pamho. AgtSP !

It was last summer in Montreal that I relished chanting and dancing with you down St Laurent Street in Montreal during our Ratha Yatra in July. Congratulations on your taking sanyassa !

I have a humble suggestion. Have you considered involving other prabhus who specialized in kirtan and received direct instructions from Srila Prabhupada regarding kirtan, such as Uttama Sloka prabhu, Mangalananda prabhu, Baradaraj pabhu, Vaiyasaki prabhu, Aindra prabhu and the list goes on… ? There are many that I think should be consulted.

In one letter , Srila Prabhupada said “You can do kirtan in the tune of your own country”, yet from some quarters, I have seen objection to almost any tune that was not chanted by Prabhupada. Of course we relish chanting Srila Prabhupada”s melodies, because they reimind us of him, and they are pleasing to him, but does that mean that everything else is MAYA ?

Is Aindra prabhu “unbonafide” if he happened to use a tune from a cinema song to chant Hare Krishna with ? According to this quote by Prabhupada, he is not. Whatever gets people chanting, isnt that the bottom line ? There are no hard and fast rules is what Caitanya Mahaprabhu also said. Of course there are ragas that are more sattvic than a western tune, but is it not fanatical to rule out anything that is not “Vedic” ?

I remember one old letter I read from Prabhupada, that I dont think is even in the Bhaktivedanta Archives. In it , Prabhupada said that we should organize kirtan as a concert in a hall, and people should pay to purchase a ticket to attend. He said there should be a mrdanga, harmonium, tamboura andkaratals, and a very nice concert should be performed. Of course, we know he also shed tears of love when he heard George Harrison’s musical arrangement for Govindam, that we still hear every morning in an ISKCON temple , to this day, but he was using slide guitar, harp, bass , organ, a full drum kit, etc…

Just opening things up for broader discussion

Your servant,

Gaura dasa

Comment posted by Gaura Dasa on June 10th, 2007

2 I hope that volume of the kirtan is considered. I frequently find myself leaving the temple room because my ears hurt, and sometimes avoid even going if I think it will be loud.

This must turn off a lot of casual visitors.

Has it become a de facto standard that if you can’t play well, play loudly? It seems to.

Don’t get me started on the dancing. (eyes rolling upwards). I was taught we danced for the pleasure of Krishna, under the direction of Radharani, and that the swami two step was the best way to do that. Some twirling.

It seems that so many are unable to master the two step and its infinite variations and refinements, and instead gyrate and flop around like untrained dancing bears, simply dancing for their own pleasure, or to display raw athleticism to impress whomever they deem necessary to impress. If you can’t dance well, dance with lots of energy, another de facto standard.

Kirtan is supposed to be pleasing. If it ceases to be pleasing to listen to or to watch, is it still kirtan?

Comment posted by Madhava Ghosh dasa on June 10th, 2007

3 Haribolo! PAMHO.

Many bhajanas are written in local languages in India. I have long felt that we should popularize Bengali tunes with English lyrics, and in this way many may have more immediate entrance into the mood, and others would appreciate the

now-understandable meanings. Some devotees have done this, but I never hear them, at least not at the temple functions. Ii would be nice to hear more from them, in my humble opinion.

At New Remuna, Toronto temple, sometimes “Jaya Radha Madhava” gets the devotees going in a delightful thumping and tapping of the table around which we sit, accompanying the mantra and mrdanaga ,and it is brightly hilarious and enlivening for us all, but also somewhat ad hoc;, a spontaneous delightful dalliance on the edge of deviance, something innocently relieving to the soul living amongst all the rules and regulations.

So far as kirtana, the aratiks and ceremonies shoud be standard, but afterwards, why place restrictions on enjoying kirtana? When I travel to other temples, it is good to feel at home with the managala artika kirtana; Samsara, nama om, Jaya Sri Krsna Caitanaya, Hare Krsna… On street kirtana, or at home or after the main functions; some variety is spicy! .. and attractive to many?

As I recall, Lokanataha Maharajah’s name appeard amongt the committee members; I have not heard from Maharajah for years, and I wish to offer my humblest respects and well-wishes, from an old small-time padayatri. Hare Krsna!

Comment posted by Tamoharadasa on June 10th, 2007

4 Dear Janananda Gosvami

Please accept my humble obeisance.

All Glories to Srila Prabhupad.

I am very happy to read the Kritan Standards Committee has been formed

to recommend the actual Kritan standard in the temples and out in the public

as per the instruction of Srila Prabhupad.

Most of the time in our temples the instruments are played much much louder than the

Singer’s voice, it often happens that only the musical instruments are heard and the actual glorification of the Lord is barely heard. According the musical rules the instruments should be subordinate to the actual voice of the singer.

With this short note, I would like to request the concerned committee to add Jaiyadvaita Swami Maharaj in the committee. I was very impressed by his research regarding the Music, Noise and its long term effect on kids and adults.

Sincerely,

Dwija Raj Das.

Comment posted by loveharekrishna on June 11th, 2007

5 This seems to me to be a genuine attempt to write a book/train-up devotees on guidelines on Kirtan standards with reference and consultation to Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. It is not in my humble opinion a sinister attempt to establish the Kirtan police force run by Kazakh goverment officials

Comment posted by bhakta piyush on June 11th, 2007

6 Hare Krishna. A few years ago I acquird a text document of about 30 pages of kirtan standards based upon Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. I’m not sure who was the author, but it was very informative, and I appreciated it enough to share. (If someone wants a copy, e-mail me at pandu.bms{at}gmail.com). I look forward to reading this book.

Once I felt compelled to dismiss myself from a kirtan in the temple because the chanting had become so irregular and disturbing. Many times I’ve been unable to tolerate the loud instruments, or been unable to hear the chanting because of them. It would be nice to have everyone aware of some guidelines to help keep the kirtan pleasing to the Lord and attractive to everyone.

Hare Krishna.

Comment posted by Pandu das on June 11th, 2007

7 One thing I noticed from the wonderful new Prabhupada videos by Yadubar Prabhu et al, was how inept some of the early devotee musicians were in the early kirtans, for example in what I think was Thompkins Square Park in the ’60s.

Someone was mindlessly blowing random notes on a recorder, the harmonium was used as a drone instrument with just one key being held down, etc. We’ve come a long way baby.

I am glad that effort is being made to improve the musical standards and skills. There are many talented devotees and we can expect many different techniques and styles to flourish that will be very pleasing to the Lord and attractive to the public.

Of course, the important thing is the mood or feeling with which we chant, but if we have the proper mood we will be especially careful to do it nicely (and not to cause deafness by banging away loudly on gongs and karatals). Training and establishing standards of quality are important.

Comment posted by Akruranatha on June 11th, 2007

8 Dear devotees,

Just a few general comments from years of practice and observation:

- If you are approaching a kirtan group and all you can hear is the instruments drowning the Maha-mantra, such kirtan is deficient. The mantra must be heard clearly and distinctly over the instruments.

- If the lead singer introduces a complicated melody the rest of the group cant follow and as a result the congregational singing is weak, such kirtan is deficient. The same goes for complicated mridanga beats that do not follow the natural flow of the mantra and are just a show of player’s skill.

- If devotees in the temple room are talking among themselves while the kirtan is going on, that is a disrespectful behavior and a disruption to the kirtan. It is best to ask such devotees to carry their conversation somewhere else.

- Dancing devotees (especially those performing coordinated “wave” dancing) should keep in mind that some people may be chanting with their eyes closed, concentrating on the mantra and thus unable to avoid collision with the more exuberant dancers.

Kirtan is above all a meditation on the Holy Name. It combines the universal and timeless tradition of sacred chant and dance with the most potent sound vibration: Lord Krishna’s Holy Name. In meditation one must avoid distraction. Complicated melodies, off-key singing, off-beat or loud instrument use can be distracting to most participants. “Kirtan Standards Committee” sounds like a good project. At one time our kirtans attracted a lot of people to Krsna Consciousness. We should definitely focus on improving our kirtans.

y.s.