All articles by Jayadvaita Swami

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 22 The chanting of “Jaya Gurudeva” has become popular in ISKCON, but like other chants not received directly from Śrīla Prabhupāda, this one has its problems. Kripamoya Prabhu gives the following account: February 1977, Gaura Pūrṇimā. Before the first maṅgala-ārati, Pañca-dravida Swami had been chanting bhaja bhakata vatsala śrī gaura-hari for the maṅgala offering, before the ārati. During the maṅgala-ārati kīrtana someone had been chanting —for Prabhupāda, of course—Jaya Gurudeva. And Bhavānanda came down after … [Read more...] about Jaya Gurudeva!

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 21 Chant the Pañca-tattva mantra first In a Caitanya-caritāmṛta purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed: At the beginning of every function in preaching, especially before chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra—Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare—we must chant the Pañca-tattva’s names and offer our respects to them.1 In the previous chapter he had written: As preachers of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, we first offer our obeisances to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu by … [Read more...] about The Pañca-tattva mantra

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 20 In this book I several times cite or quote an article by Harikeśa Swami, “Important Kirtan Instructions from Srila Prabhupada,” published in 1988. Harikeśa Swami wrote this article when he was a leading GBC member, he wrote it at the request of other GBC members, and we have no reason to believe that later events have diminished its validity. I have included the entire article as an appendix to this book. In that article, Harikeśa tells especially of instructions Śrīla Prabhupāda gave for ISKCON Vrindāvan: Although the … [Read more...] about Core instructions from Śrīla Prabhupāda for Vrindāvan

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 16 Don’t concoct mantras Apart from mantras picked up from Indian popular culture, the internet, or the street, we sometimes invent our own. Speaking in a lecture in Vrindāvan on November 2, 1976, Śrīla Prabhupāda said: There are so many they have invented. Just like Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is prescribed in the śāstras, and they have invented so many. Although there is the name of the Supreme Lord, still you have to follow the śāstra. If you say Rāma Rāma Rāma, Rādhe Rādhe Rādhe, Kṛṣṇa—there are so many inventions. That is also … [Read more...] about Mantras in kīrtana

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 15 We know what we are supposed to chant: the songs and mantras chanted by our previous ācāryas. Yet other things – new sounds, new mantras – find their way into our kīrtana. And once they’re in, they’re hard to root out. After a while, they’re “what we’ve always chanted,” “what we were taught,” “what everyone chants,” “what we’ve heard since we joined.” In my kīrtana seminars I brought up examples of such catchy chants, and—sure enough—my students had heard them all. For example: Govinda bolo hari, gopāla bolo Where … [Read more...] about Don’t bring in new mantras

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 13 In a conversation with Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1969, the popular musician John Lennon said, “If all mantras are. . . just the name of God, . . . it doesn’t really make much difference, does it, which one you sing.” In the course of replying, Śrīla Prabhupāda said: [A] mantra should be captured from the disciplic succession. According to Vedic injunction, sampradāya vihīnā ye mantrās te niṣphalā matāḥ: “If the mantra does not come through disciplic succession, then it will not be active.” Viphala. Mantrās te viphalā.Viphala … [Read more...] about Mantras not received through the disciplic succession will be useless

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 14 Shortly after Śrīla Prabhupāda sent his pioneering disciples to London, an older, white-sari’d Vaiṣṇava lady came there from Vrindāvan named Śyāma Mātājī, who met them and chanted and danced with great enthusiasm. Among other mantras, she and the followers who had come with her chanted: Rādhe Śyām Rādhe ŚyāmHare Kṛṣṇa Hare Rām1 When Mālatī Dāsī wrote Śrīla Prabhupāda about this, Śrīla Prabhupāda replied that this Rādhā-Śyāma chanting was “not very good.” Although there was no harm in it, he said, the mantra was “not very … [Read more...] about That we heard it in Vrindāvan doesn’t mean we should chant it

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 12 "Stick to the authorities" The prayers and mantras we chant should be those we have received from the ācāryas. Other songs and mantras will not help us. Commenting on prayers offered by Brahmā to Lord Viṣṇu, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:" These prayers were not ordinary concocted prayers. Prayers must be approved by Vedic literature, as indicated in this verse by the words daivībhir gīrbhiḥ. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we do not allow any song that has not been approved or sung by bona fide devotees. We cannot allow … [Read more...] about Chant what’s authorized, not what’s concocted

“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 11 As Śrīla Prabhupāda said in a talk on his original Hare Kṛṣṇa record album: This chanting should be heard from the lips of a pure devotee of the Lord, so that immediate effects can be achieved. As far as possible, chanting from the lips of nondevotees should be avoided. Milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects. ((In The Science of Self-Realization and Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: The Topmost Yoga System this text has been edited slightly, as it has been here. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that chanting from the lips of … [Read more...] about We should hear from pure devotees