“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 5
A follow-up
In response to my last posting, I received a letter from my godsister Mamatā Devī Dāsī:
“He didn’t approve of harmonium for kirtana. For bhajana it is all right.”
In the latest installment of your book I received via email, Bhakti Caru Swami defined bhajan as singing alone, then went on to make the above statement. There are many instances where using harmonium in a group seems very appropriate. Would you disagree? In Montreal, Srila Prabhupada personally trained the devotees who first went to London to sing together in a group with harmonium. He also approved of that even earlier, in San Francisco. There are many pictures of Yamuna Devi playing harmonium while leading a group in kirtan with SP present. I agree that harmonium is not appropriate for arati. I think this needs further definition than Bhakti Caru Swami gave.
Accordingly, I have added the paragraph below.
These guidelines, though succinct and excellent, do have an issue with them I would have asked Bhakti Chāru Mahārāja about if he were still present. As Mahārāja says, and as detailed later in this book, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that the harmonium is for bhajana, not kīrtana. Yet when bhajana is narrowly defined as being “when only one devotee sings,” we have to wonder whether the “no harmonium” guideline still fits. We have pictures of Yamunā Devī playing harmonium while leading a group in kīrtana with Śrīla Prabhupāda present. We have recordings of Śrīla Prabhupāda chanting “Jaya Rādhā Mādhava” before class, accompanied by harmonium with a temple full of devotees. And so on. We’ve even seen Bhakti Chāru Mahārāja himself leading devotees in chanting, accompanied by harmonium. So it seems that something here needs to loosen up—either the definition of bhajana or the “no harmonium” rule. We’ll look at this more closely later in this book.1 This issue aside, Bhakti Chāru Mahārāja’s guidelines can help us greatly in following Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mood and instructions about kīrtana.
1 My thanks to my godsister Mamatā Devī Dāsī for bringing this issue to my attention.
This is an installment of a draft for an upcoming book.
I especially welcome comments—suggestions, criticisms, questions, whatever.
Among other things: If you were personally present with Srila Prabhupada and received or heard instructions from him about kirtana, or were present at an instructive incident, I’m all ears.
I’m also particularly interested in hearing from “second generation” devotees (or third generation)—those born into the Hare Krishna movement or who joined after Srila Prabhupada’s departure. Again, I’m all ears.
Especially welcome: Thoughts or evidence that runs contrary to what’s in the draft or that adds a different perspective or nuance.
The draft has not yet been reviewed for spelling, italics, diacritic marks, and so on. I’ll handle that later. The same goes for formatting—headlines, subheads, and the like. For now, what matters is the content.
You can reach me by the contact form on this site. Or if you have my contact details, feel free to call me, message me, or send me an email.
Thank you very much. And happy chanting!
Notes
- My thanks to my godsister Mamatā Devī Dāsī for bringing this issue to my attention.[↩]
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