About kirtana standards

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 34 Getting the words right The Nṛsiṁha prayers are often mispronounced. In Nṛsiṁha that m with a dot over it indicates a Sanskrit letter pronounced as a nasal sound, as in the French word bon or like the ng in the English word thing or the geographical name Singapore. From what I’m told, North Indians and Bengalis pronounce it more like ng, South Indians more like the n in bon. In any case, the s in Nṛsiṁha is a simple s, not sh—except, I suppose, if we’re going with a more … [Read more...] about Nṛsiṁha kīrtana

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 33 Bhavānanda Prabhu recounts that on one occasion, during the Gaura Pūrṇimā festival in Māyāpur, Śrīla Prabhupāda heard the devotees chanting a tune that lent itself to saying “Ga-dud-hara” (in the second syllable a short a). Śrīla Prabhupāda called me in, and he said, “They are singing Ga-dud-hara.” He said, “It is “Ga-daa-dhara.” But no one ever listened to me. I told everyone, but they all continued to chant Ga-dud-dhara because it was more syncopated for the melody. The … [Read more...] about Śrī Advaita Gadādhara

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 32 What are the words? First of all, we should get the mantras right. Either namas te sārasvate devam or namas te sārasvate deve would be correct. But Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to Pradyumna that deve would be the most fitting word,1 so the BBT and ISKCON have adopted that as the standard. And as Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed, “You should pronounce it sārasvate, not sarasvatī. Sarasvatī is my spiritual master. So his disciple is [offered respects with] sārasvate.”2 Note the … [Read more...] about Chanting Śrīla Prabhupāda’s praṇāma mantras

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 31 Gurv-aṣṭakam In the morning we chant Gurv-aṣṭakam, often followed at once by chanting of “Jaya Prabhupāda!”—as if the Gurv-aṣṭakam were meant exclusively for Śrīla Prabhupāda, which I humbly submit it is not. These prayers are the Gurv-aṣṭakam, or Guru-aṣṭakam, the eight prayers to the guru. Your guru might be Śrīla Prabhupāda or else any one of our ISKCON initiating gurus. A few ISKCON members are even initiated by respectworthy devotees from outside of ISKCON. These … [Read more...] about Gurv-aṣṭakam & Guru-pūjā

What we chant in ISKCON’s daily program (continued) Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 30 Another practice sometimes found in ISKCON kīrtanas is to chant, toward the end, these verses: (hari) haraye namaḥ, kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥyādavāya mādhavāya keśavāya namaḥgopāla govinda rāma śrī-madhusūdanagiridhārī gopīnātha madana-mohana Sometimes we then sing the next verse—śrī-caitanya-nityānanda śrī-advaita-sītā, and so on—and perhaps the next one, honoring the six Gosvāmīs. This all comes from a bona fide song by Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura. But why have these … [Read more...] about Haraye namaḥ, kṛṣṇa yādavāya namaḥ

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 27 Apart from kīrtana, devotees may sing bhajanas, or songs of devotion to the Lord, as Śrīla Prabhupāda did and encouraged. As Śrīla Prabhupāda said on a morning walk, “What is sung by mahājana—Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura—that can be sung.”1 Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote: Songs composed by the ācāryas are not ordinary songs. When chanted by pure Vaiṣṇavas who follow the rules and regulations of Vaiṣṇava character, they are actually effective in awakening the Kṛṣṇa consciousness dormant in every living entity.2 The … [Read more...] about Bhajanas may be chanted