All articles by Jayadvaita Swami

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 50 Over-loud amplification Microphones and amplifiers can help make voices and instruments heard. But simply turning up the sound system full blast, making the kīrtana as loud as amplified rock music, may not be the best way to go.1 When the settings are at their best, the leader’s voice will not be louder than the sound of the devotees responding. Rather, those present will hear the leader singing with them as if at the same natural level. And the instruments, even if amplified, will never be so loud that they distract attention … [Read more...] about Microphones and amplifiers

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 49 During Śrīla Prabhupāda’s early days in the Second Avenue storefront in 1966, the young people who came for kīrtana brought all sorts of instruments. Satsvarūpa Dāsa Goswami writes: Prabhupāda was lenient during kīrtana. Visitors would bring harmoniums, wooden flutes, guitars, and they would follow the melody or create their own improvisations. Someone brought an old string bass and bow, and an inspired guest could always pick up the bow and play along. Some of the boys had found the innards of an upright piano, waiting on the … [Read more...] about Don’t divert attention to more instruments

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 48 There’s much to be said for sticking to one tune throughout a kīrtana, rather than switching from tune to tune. Back when I was a kid there was a television show called “The Original Amateur Hour.” Amateur performers would come on stage to sing, tap dance, do magic tricks, or what have you, each for perhaps two or three minutes. And this sometimes seems what kīrtana has become: two minutes for a tune, or three minutes, because we don’t want the chanters to get bored. We’ve got to keep changing the tune, and changing it again, the … [Read more...] about Sticking to one tune

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 47 Problematic tunes We sometimes hear devotees sing the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra to the tune of an old rock song or some popular Bollywood number. For those who know the source, this may naturally evoke memories far away from Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Thankfully, the once-popular “La Cucaracha” kīrtana seems to have become a thing of the past.1 Sometimes the tune wrecks the mantra. To fit an attractive tune, I’ve heard even respected kīrtana leaders chant (without realizing it) one extra “hare”: “kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare. . . hare.” Tunes … [Read more...] about Chant tunes people can follow

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 46 Śrīla Prabhupāda once wrote, “Any tune can be used. When it is in relationship with Krishna, that makes it bona fide.”1 Hayagrīva Dāsa has written that in 1967, in advance of a program at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, Allen Ginsberg asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “Don’t you think there’s a possibility of chanting a tune more appealing to Western ears?” And Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “Any tune will do. That’s not important. What’s important is that you chant Hare Krishna. It can be in the tune of your own country. That doesn’t … [Read more...] about Any tunes can be used

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 43 From musician to Vaiṣṇava Coming now to a higher level of musical refinement, suppose one is expert in the techniques of classical Indian music. Does that make one’s kīrtana “better”? It may not, and may in fact make it worse. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, in his Jaiva Dharma, tells the story of Kalidasa Lahiri, a wealthy brāhmaṇa from Śāntipura: Early in his life, while he was still a young boy, experts in the field of Indian classical music had taught him, and he considered that such instruction qualified him to … [Read more...] about Purity over professionalism, ecstasy over art

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 42 An incident in Māyāpur illustrates Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disdain for mere musical skills without the spirit of pure devotional service. For the Gaura Pūrṇimā Festival in Māyāpur in 1977, Jayapatākā Swami arranged for a two-day Kīrtana Competition, which, as Lokanāth Swami remarks, “turned out to be the first and last of its kind.”1 With a view toward attracting kīrtanīyas and other Bengali people to ISKCON Māyāpur from outside ISKCON, various kīrtana groups were invited to take part in the competition, and ISKCON kīrtana groups … [Read more...] about Professional kīrtanīyas rejected

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 41 Concerning a saṅkīrtana party he wanted to form, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote that the members should “perform Kirtana very rhythmically and melodiously.”1 Similarly he wrote: Chanting Hare Krishna does not require any artificial artistic sense, but still, if the procedure is presented rhythmically, then the people may be attracted more by the transcendental music.2 But Śrīla Prabhupāda consistently emphasized “transcendental” more than “music.” In 1969, when the first devotees in London were moving around to different … [Read more...] about We are not professional musicians

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 40 Another kīrtana innovation is the “double clap.” Instead of clapping hands to the standard 1-2-3 beat, at set intervals you clap hands twice in quick succession.1 This fancy maneuver may work well as part of a choreographed cultural presentation. But for normal kīrtana, where do we want to have our minds—on fancy clapping or on the sound of the holy name? In a Vyāsa-pūjā offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda, Jaya Gaurāṅga Dāsa wrote: So many times you corrected me while doing different things. Like the time I was sitting at … [Read more...] about The “double clap”

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 39 In ISKCON kīrtanas in recent years, particularly at large events, one feature that has come into vogue is long musical breaks, in which a musician, with a saxophone or what have you, plays a few bars of the melody and improvises on them while everyone else looks on in appreciation. Perhaps because this might make some devotees feel uncomfortable (Where is Kṛṣṇa? Where is the mantra?), the devotees in the kīrtana often provide an explicitly divine overlay by calling out “Rādhe! Rādhe!” and then, in response, “Śyām! Śyām!” for as … [Read more...] about Long musical breaks