“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 curb with someone’s garbage, and they had brought it to the temple and placed it near the entrance. During a kīrtana, freewheeling guests would run their hands over the wires, creating strange vibrations. Robert Nelson, several weeks back, had brought a large cymbal that now hung from the ceiling, dangling close by the Swami’s dais.1
In 1968 Śrīla Prabhupāda recommended that a “World Saṅkīrtana Party” he wished to organize use kartālas, mṛdaṅgas, tambouras, and harmonium.2
That same year, Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to Śyāmasundara Dāsa in London:
Also your description of progress in kirtana performance with Gurudasa playing sitar and Mukunda playing khole is encouraging. Practically we see that as we sincerely try to improve our chanting for the pleasure of Krishna, Krishna reciprocates and we feel our greatest pleasure which is devotional service to the Lord. So, you may continue with this method, it is very nice and approved by me.3
In May of 1972 while Śrīla Prabhupāda was in Honolulu, Gaurasundara Dāsa and others would lead the evening temple kīrtanas with electric guitars, and Śrīla Prabhupāda, present for the kīrtanas, didn’t object. On the same visit, Śrīla Prabhupāda and the devotees did a program at the Church of the Crossroads, near the university. Siddhasvarūpānanda Goswami led a rock-and-roll kīrtana with electric instruments, and Śrīla Prabhupāda, when it ended, chanted the Prema-dhvani prayers and lectured.4
In June of 1972 Śrīla Prabhupāda appeared on a television show in Mexico City, and in kīrtana the devotees accompanied him with guitars, Mexican style.5
Even as late as 1975, Śrīla Prabhupāda gave permission for his disciples to use various instruments for public kīrtana:
Regarding the instruments, stringed instruments are Vedic, but the real Vedic instrument is mrdanga and karatala. Anyway, you have to do according to the time and circumstances if you use these other instruments. So you have got my approval and you can go on.6
And for preaching in Communist countries Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote:
Along with tampura and mrdanga played very rhythmically let them chant. Perform this musical demonstration and sell books as far as possible, and feasting. Then everything will be successful.7
In Auckland in April of 1976, while Śrīla Prabhupāda was about to leave for the airport,
He paused, listening for a moment to the sweet kīrtana downstairs led by Hare Rāma on guitar. “Who is that chanting?” he asked. “This is very nice,” he added, and sang along softly.8
For the most part, though, it seems that the use of varied instruments was something Śrīla Prabhupāda conceded to more than promoted. In 1969 he wrote to Jadurani:
Regarding your question about kirtana, practically we are not concerned with the instruments. They are used sometimes to make it sweeter, but if we divert our attention for using the instruments more, that is not good. Generally kirtana is performed with mrdanga and karatalas, but if somebody is expert instrument player, he can be admitted to join Sankirtana. We can accept everything for Krishna’s service, but not taking the risk of diverting attention to any other thing which will hinder our Krishna Consciousness. That should be our motto, or principle.9
Bhūrijana Prabhu remembers:
Our preaching in Hong Kong was successful because we were using friendly and relaxed means to attract the local Chinese people. In our creative attempts at preaching, we held kīrtanas with guitars and mṛdaṅgas. I decided to ask Prabhupāda about it.
“Prabhupāda, we have been holding kīrtanas using guitars. Is that all right?”
“Kīrtana means khol (mṛdaṅga) and karatāla. That’s all.”
“But it is so difficult to preach in Hong Kong. And the Chinese people like kīrtanas better when they are soft and with guitars. They don’t like loud kīrtanas with many instruments.”
Prabhupāda acceded to my pushing and gave us permission to also use guitars in our kīrtanas along with the standard khol and karatāla.
Reflecting on this exchange, Bhūrijana Prabhu writes:
Our spiritual master may sometimes agree to our requests because we present them forcefully, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is Kṛṣṇa’s desire. We should be careful that our own enthusiastic vision does not cover our ability to recognize our guru’s actual desires.10
In a letter to Rūpānuga in 1975, Śrīla Prabhupāda was more strict:
Regarding instruments for temple kirtanas, karatala and mrdanga are sufficient. There is no need of other instruments.11
In a lecture in Bombay on December 10, 1974, Śrīla Prabhupāda had said:
There is no need of even instrument, but because Lord Caitanya introduced this khol, karatāla; otherwise this clapping is sufficient.
For some time in the 1970s an energetic ISKCON “Rādhā-Dāmodara Party” traveled around America holding festivals and performing saṅkīrtana. Dravinākṣa Dāsa remembers some instructions Śrīla Prabhupāda gave the party about instruments:
Prabhupāda was saying we just should use khole and karatālas. And at that time we had many instruments. We had harmonium, we had an esraj, which was like a violin, we had an ektar. And we had an instrument—it had strings and you play it with little hammers. So there was a discussion where Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying just use khole and karatālas. And Ādi Keśava said that the people were attracted to the party because of the instruments. And Prabhupāda didn’t seem to take that very seriously. And then Ādi Keśava said, “But Viṣṇujana said. . .” And Prabhupāda cut him off and said, “Who is Viṣṇujana? I am your spiritual master.”12
Dravinākṣa continues:
And also in that meeting Prabhupāda said there shouldn’t be any harmonium during the āratis. Previously. . . You hear a lot of tapes of Baradrāja and others playing harmonium. So that was stopped, during ārati. And didn’t seem like Prabhupāda just wanted some expert musicians. He wanted devotees. So that was stopped. And at that time the Rādhā-Dāmodara party just went back to mṛdaṅga and karatālas on the public kīrtanas—for a while. And eventually we added a couple of instruments here and there–I had heard, with Prabhupāda’s permission. (I don’t know for sure.)13
In a conversation in Bombay in 1976, Śrīla Prabhupāda again explained his reasons for sticking to mṛdaṅgas and karatālas:
The other musical instrument, if he plays, his attention will be diverted in musical instrument, not to chanting. “We have to see melody, whether it is going on nicely.” But that is not good. Our concentration should be hearing Hare Krsna. That is bhakti. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, simply this karatala, khol, that’s all. In those days. . . of course, there was no harmonium, but many stringed instruments were there—sitar, esraj—but these things were not used. Sometimes we do use to attract, but it is not required.14
Revatīnandana Dāsa remembers instructions Śrīla Prabhupāda gave about instruments, and also about other aspects of kīrtana:
Srila Prabhupada gave a Sunday feast lecture about kirtan, and he said things that I never heard him say at other times, particularly not during a lecture. He remarked that melodic instruments, including the harmonium, are not meant for kirtan, and he explained why. He said that the ear will automatically follow musical strains, and then our attention will be diverted from the mantra.
He said that rhythm instruments are good for kirtan because they make one more inclined to dance, and dancing, in turn, unlocks devotion. . . .
Another time he told Visnujana that he did not like melodies that had long, extended notes in them. He liked the melody to be filled with the mantra.
During the lecture he gave that day he also said, “Don’t harmonize during the response.” The leader may sing little variations, but the group should sing a steady response. One person shouldn’t be singing one melody and another doing another melody during the response.
These things, he said, will help one pay more attention to the mantra as one is chanting and dancing. That way one will get the maximum benefit, and the kirtan will also become more ecstatic.15
Caturātmā Dāsa tells a story of a man keen to use rock guitar in kīrtana:
One night there was a darśana with one musician. I never got the understanding whether this was a person coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness or whether this was already a devotee. I always thought it was someone coming to Kṛṣṇa consciousness that wanted to use their Western rock-and-roll guitar style in service to Lord Caitanya, and Prabhupāda was very adamant, and the guy kept bringing the point up two or three times, and finally Prabhupāda said “No!” and he pointed – there was this beautiful picture of Pañca-tattva on the wall of his room. He said, “You see Mahāprabhu: kartālas and mṛdaṅga, that is all.”16
In sum: Although Śrīla Prabhupāda was sometimes flexible and allowed or even appreciated other instruments, for the most part he directed, sometimes quite strongly, that we stick to karatālas and mṛdaṅgas.
Notes:
1 Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, Volume 1, Chapter 19.
2 Letters to Hansaduta, January 22, 1968, and February 4, 1968.
3 Letter to Syamasundara, November 24, 1968.
4 Bhakti Abhaya Āśrama Mahārāja, personal interview, February 23, 2022. During Śrīla Prabhupāda’s 1972 visit, Āśrama Mahārāja says, Śrīla Prabhupāda did object to other things, such as devotees’ having large, long śikhās flowing down to their shoulders, but he didn’t object to the kīrtanas. Āśrama Mahārāja was present for these occasions.
5 Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlā, Volume 7, Chapter 8.
6 Letter to Bahudak, November 10, 1975.
7 Letter to Harikesa, October 28, 1976.
8 The Great Transcendental Adventure, chapter 13.
9 Letter to Jadurani,May 26, 1969. As Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote, instruments are sometimes used to make the kīrtana sweeter. Example: the four tracks of “the Bombay kīrtanas” (CD 15, tracks 1, 3, 4, and 5) in which Śrīla Prabhupāda is accompanied not only by karatālas and mṛdaṅgas but also by a stringed instrument. On one recording of Śrīla Prabhupāda chanting the “Prayers to the Six Gosvāmīs” (CD 02-1) we hear a sarod, but it wasn’t originally there. A disciple dubbed it in.
10 My Glorious Master, Part II
11 Letter to Rupanuga, February 2, 1975. Śrīla Prabhupāda was responding to a letter in which Rupanuga had asked, “The question of proper instruments for temple kirtans, particularly aratiks, has been raised. Is it that the proper instruments for temple aratiks and kirtans are only the kartals and mrdanga? Or can harmonium, tambora, and tambourine also be used?” (Reported in “Musical Instruments to be used for Kirtan and Bhajan in Temple Worship and Public Presentations in ISKCON”)
12 Video: “We Remember Dravinākṣa Prabhu Remember Śrīla Prabhupāda.” At 3:40.
13 Ibid, at 4:31.
14 Room Conversation with Kartikeya Mahadevia and others, December 26, 1976, Bombay. Just previously in the conversation, Kartikeya Mahadevia had mentioned that someone was teaching harmonium. “He plays very good harmonium.” And Śrīla Prabhupāda had replied, “No, we don’t want to introduce harmonium.”
Yamunā Devī has said, “I prefer kirtanas supported by a few well-played instruments, not the big-band kirtanas popular today that can be more performance kirtanas than Gaudiya-tradition supplication and service to the holy name.” (Letter to Akiñcana Kṛṣṇa Dāsa, quoted by Dhanurdhara Swami in The Kirtan Sutras, p. 23.)
15 Revatīnandana Dāsa, Memories, Vol. 1, p. 177.
16 Caturātmā Dāsa.Memories of Śrīla Prabhupāda DVD 51.
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