Kirtana standards: Lost over time?

“Srila Prabhupada’s Kirtana Standards,” installment 2:
Introduction (part 1)

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Background

When I first came to ISKCON, in 1968, kīrtana was simple. We chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa in easy-to-follow tunes with karatālas and mṛdaṅgas, with the emphasis on hearing and chanting the holy name. Over time, devotees became more expert in playing the instruments. But we basically followed the simple pattern of kīrtana we had learned from Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Kīrtana now has become quite different—and not always better. Innovations have appeared. Some trends and fashions have turned into norms. And over time the pure, simple kīrtana of the holy name has sometimes become lost.¹

At the request of temple leaders at ISKCON Juhu, Mumbai, in 2015 I gave a several-day seminar on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s kīrtana standards. I gave the seminar again in 2019 at the Mayapur Institute for Higher Education. Sometime later my godbrother Tāraka Dāsa asked me to turn the seminar into a book. So here you have it.

“What we’ve always done”

In my kīrtana seminars I gave an example of how something Śrīla Prabhupāda never did and never told us to do can become “what we’re supposed to do” and “what we have always done.” The example has to do with the way we chant japa. Many devotees have been taught that before (or after) each round, one should chant (on the head bead, I’ve often heard) the pañca-tattva mantra: śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya prabhu nityānanda śri advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. When I asked for a show of hands in my seminar in Mayapur, about half of the roughly fifty devotees present raised their hands to say that this is indeed what they had been taught. And they had been chanting this way for years.

Of course, there is no harm in chanting the Pañca-tattva mantra. We can chant it whenever we like. In fact, however, chanting it between rounds is not something Śrīla Prabhupāda ever told us we should do. Yes, there is a purport in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in which Śrīla Prabhupāda says that before chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa one should chant the pañca-tattva mantra.² But this, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, is for kīrtana, not japa.³ What did Śrīla Prabhupāda tell us to do at the end of each round and the start of the next? Just turn the beads around and chant in the opposite direction.⁴ That’s what he taught us, never anything else. Search the VedaBase and you’ll never find him saying to chant “śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya” between rounds. Yet we read the purport, we do a little creative headwork, and forty years later we have generations of devotees who think you’re supposed to chant “śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya” on the head bead before each new round. “It’s what we’ve always done.” And then we’re shocked—as half my students were—when we discover that “what we’ve always done” is not what Śrīla Prabhupāda told us to do.

So it goes with kīrtana as well.

The cat in the basket

Jayapataka Swami tells a story about a wedding ceremony.⁵ Everything was elaborately arranged, everyone had gathered, and the wedding was about to begin. But a cat had somehow strayed in and was dashing about and meowing and creating a ruckus. So someone caught the cat and put it in a basket with a lid, and the wedding was peacefully performed. Then some years later came the time for another wedding ceremony—that of the couple’s daughter. Again the elaborate arrangements, again everyone gathered, again the wedding was about to begin. But then the bride’s mother, remembering her own wedding, said, “What about the cat in the basket? There’s supposed to be a cat in a basket. It’s a family tradition.” So they found a cat, put it in a basket with a lid, and once again the wedding was peacefully concluded.

So it goes with kīrtana.

Sargal Singh is dead

While we’re telling stories, here’s one more. Śrīla Prabhupāda told it, but I remember it as a skit performed at an ISKCON Sunday feast.⁶

A man in the village had shaved his head, as one does when a relative dies, and was lamenting, “Sargal Singh is dead! Sargal Singh is dead!”

“Sargal Singh is dead?” asked the local grocer.

“Yes, he’s dead,” the man sobbed. “He was my dearest friend – so loyal, so faithful. He always just wanted to serve. And now. . . he’s dead!”

The grocer was so moved that he too shaved his head and began lamenting the death of Sargal Singh.

The word spread, men one after another shaved their heads, and soon the whole village was mourning the death of Sargal Singh, that great soul, so dear, so loyal, so faithful. But then one intelligent man asked, “Who’s Sargal Singh?” And no one knew.

So the question went back down the line: “Who’s Sargal Singh?” Each man asked the next, until finally the question reached the original mourner, a simple washerman, and it was discovered that Sargal Singh was the washerman’s ass.

And so it goes with kīrtana too. Misunderstandings, innovations, concoctions, tics, tricks, gimmicks, “wows,” flourishes, pretensions, dovetails, razzle-dazzles, trance inducers, imports from Vrindaban and Bollywood—all find their way into our kīrtana, and soon “This is what we’ve always done” and “This is what you’re supposed to do.”

Today’s trends and innovations and deviations may differ from those of tomorrow, but there’s always a new “cat in the basket,” and word keeps reaching us of the death of a new Sargal Singh. And so the need for this book.

Who this book is for

I have written this book for the followers of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, the Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). It is they who will naturally want to know and follow the standards he set. Because kīrtana is for everyone, other Vaiṣṇavas too may wish to know and follow the standards of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who spread the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa all over the world.

I especially hope that leaders of ISKCON at various levels, and especially leaders in kīrtana, will give renewed attention and regard to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s kīrtana standards.

yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas
tad tad evetaro janaḥ
sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute
lokas tad anuvartate

“Whatever a leading person does, other people follow. Whatever example a leader sets, the rest of the world pursues.” (Gītā 3.21) Śrīla Prabhupāda is ISKCON’s original leader. May the rest of ISKCON follow.

Purpose

As we learn from the Bhagavad-gītā, teachings may over time be lost. And already much of what Śrīla Prabhupāda told us about kīrtana seems to have been lost or forgotten or set aside. So in this book I lay out many of the standards Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us for kīrtana, and the reasons for them. They are for you to consider. Then do as you think best, ideally under the guidance of your own spiritual master and, if you’re at a temple, the local temple leaders.

Such standards and rules give kīrtana its authorized and transcendental shape, but they are not its essence. As Bhakti Vikāsa Swami writes, “The rules and regulations are to be followed, but not so as to stifle us. Their real purpose is to bring out and enhance the true spirit of devotion in kirtana, and help us become absorbed in the transcendental sound vibration of the holy names.”⁷

This true spirit of devotion is the essence of kīrtana. For in-depth discussions of this essence, I refer you to the books of Satsvarūpa Dāsa Goswami, Dhanurdhara Swami, Sacinandana Swami, Bhurijana Dāsa, and Mahatma Das listed in the References section. Organizers of public kīrtana can benefit by reading the book by Indradyumna Swami and Śrī Prahlāda Dāsa also mentioned in the References.

Some technical matters—and an offering of respects

For Sanskrit terms with which I assume you’re familiar, I have used roman type instead of italic. Where I quote from previously published writings, I have generally retained their original spelling, grammar, punctuation, and use or nonuse of italics and diacritic marks. For the record, “Bharadvaja” should be “Varadarāja.”⁸ Aratika should be ārātrika.

I have tried to spell the names of devotees the way the named devotees prefer. When I mention the names of sannyāsīs, I skip the honorific “His Holiness,” perhaps because the sannyāsīs I mention are all my friends, but here let me offer them my respects. May they look kindly upon me, think of me with affection, and forgive my faults. And why only my sannyāsī friends? I offer my respects to all my readers. May I serve you as much as I am able, and with the least offense.

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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!

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Notes

1. Sa kaleneha mahata yoga-nasta parantapa.[↩]
2. Adi-lila 8.4 (see also 8.24).[↩]
3. “I have advised that, that śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya, this Pañca-tattva, must be chanted, but that is kīrtana, and this is japa.” Conversation, July 3, 1974, Honolulu.[↩]
4. “You begin from here, big bead: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. . . . Similarly, next. In this way you come to this side, again begin from here to this side. Your godbrothers will teach you.” Initiation of Vilāsa-vigraha Dāsa, October 20, 1968, Seattle.[↩]
5. Jayapataka Mahārāja wrote me (August 18, 2021) that, apart from him, this story was among several told by Suhotra Swami as having been heard from Śrīla Prabhupāda. (https://www.suhotraswami.net/library/B-548_94-08-31_Reading_Stories_told_by_SP_Radhadesh.pdf, p. 7.) Suhotra Swami apparently heard some of the stories second- or third-hand, but he doesn’t mention his sources. In any case, the story is apt.[↩]
6. Among other times, Śrīla Prabhupāda told the story in a conversation on July 1, 1977, in Vṛndāvana (VedaBase reference: 770701R1.VRN). TKG’s Diary assigns this conversation to June 30. Satsvarūpa Dāsa Goswam relates the same story in Prabhupāda Nectar, Vol. 2, 48.[↩]
7. Bhakti Vikāsa Swami, “Kirtana,” p. 3[↩]
8. When Śrīla Prabhupāda gave a disciple the name Varadarāja in May of 1968, it was a name the other devotees hadn’t heard before. Because Śrīla Prabhupāda, in a typical Bengali way, pronounced the v as b (and so: “Baradrāj”), some more studious devotees thought that perhaps what was intended was Bharadvāja (the name of a sage). But “Varadarāja” is correct. It is a name of Lord Viṣṇu meaning “best of all givers of benedictions.” In Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, there resides a Deity with this name.[↩]