Ākharas (Added lines of elaboration)

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued)

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 37

In my seminar on kīrtana standards, devotees have sometimes asked about ākharas. Bhakti Vikāsa Swami explains:

Ākharas are lines added to songs for poetical effect. They are commonly used in Bengali kirtana to repeat or explain a point already made. They sometimes take the form of long poetical digressions. There are many standard ākharas for well-known Bengali songs. In ISKCON, only two simple ākharas are common: the lines gaurangera arotika sobha jaga jana mana lobha and sankha baje ghanta baje madhura madhura baje, sung in the Gaura-arati kirtana.¹

Śrīla Prabhupāda himself sang both of these ākharas. And as Bhakti Vikāsa Swami says, “Some ISKCON devotees, especially from Bengal, sing ākharas for every line of the Gaura-arati song.”² But Jayapatākā Swami writes: “Srila Prabhupada definitely told me not to add Bengali phrases to the Kirtan.”³

Notes:

1 Bhakti Vikāsa Swami, “Kirtana,” p. 29-30. Kṛṣṇa Abhiṣeka Dāsa confirmed to me that the definition given for ākharas is correct (personal interview, November 22, 2021).

2 Bhakti Vikāsa Swami, “Kirtana,” p. 30

3 Email to Hari Śauri Dāsa, Bhakti Chāru Swami, and others, April 1, 2007. (PAMHO text 13285707)