“Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kīrtana Standards,” installment 7
Skipping ahead
Since Sivarama Swami has recently posted a podcast (which I’ve now drawn from) in which he talks about what I call “stage directions” in kīrtana, I’m skipping ahead and posting here a later section of the “Kīrtana Instructions” book that deals with that very topic.
What we mean by “stage directions”
Lately in kīrtana I have seen a growing trend towards the use of “stage directions.” By this I mean various vocal prompts made by the kīrtana leader to the other devotees chanting. It’s not enough just to chant and hear. The devotees need to be urged on or directed in various ways. And so:
- Louder!
- I can’t hear you!
- Everyone together!
- “All the men!” / “All the ladies!”
- One more time!
And especially:
- From your heart!
Not something Śrīla Prabhupāda did
This is not something Śrīla Prabhupāda did. In the very early days if people weren’t sure of what they should do, Śrīla Prabhupāda might sometimes have told them, “Chant.”1 And sometimes in kīrtana (for example, while circumambulating the Deities in Māyāpur) he would gesture with his hands for devotees to dance or jump. But that’s about it. No “Everyone together!” No “One more time!” No “From your heart!” Yet even without such directions, the devotees chanted all together, again and again, and from their hearts.
A few spontaneous “stage directions,” especially from senior devotees, might seem hardly worthy of comment. We’ve all been at public programs where we’ve wanted to urge people to join in. And a few of our most senior and respected devotees seem to have made “stage directions” a regular part of what they do. But now “stage directions” are no longer an occasional urging to a crowd or a personal mark of one or two respected leaders. Rather, “stage directions” seem to have become yet another doodad we can pull out of the ISKCON Kīrtana Box to add artificial life to kīrtana. Or else coming out with these verbal prompts may be something we do because that’s what we’ve learned from the example of others.
“From your heart” gets out of hand
Baḍa Haridās Prabhu told me of a kirtana festival he attended where a talented young girl, perhaps twelve or so, was leading kīrtana. And she too called out to the chanters, “From your heart!”
Now, really!
When the chanters include devotees senior to the leader by perhaps even fifty or sixty years, “From your heart!” might seem particularly impertinent or awkward. What business do we have to direct our seniors how to chant? But then again: Why are such directions needed at all?
Spoiling the show
Psychologists might even see “stage directions” as signaling a certain kind of “power relationship.” The kīrtana leader is the director, the controller, the person in charge, and the other chanters are the people who do as told, chanting “from their hearts” on cue.
Perhaps I am here just projecting my own attitudes. Maybe it’s just me? But I am not alone. Other devotees have expressed to me similar feelings. They’ve heard “One more time!” too many times. They’re bothered, even distressed, to see kīrtana grow full of flourishes and feathers. “Now all the boys! Now all the girls!” reminds them of the bodily platform they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa to transcend. Being told what sort of feelings they should summon up makes them edgy, even resentful. In short, for them “stage directions” simply don’t work–or, worse, spoil the whole show.
“The kīrtana guru”
Speaking against the trend for “stage directions,” Sivarama Swami has said:
When a kīrtanīya is saying “Chant from your heart,” the implication is that the other devotees aren’t chanting from their hearts and somehow the kīrtanīya is much more in tune with the holy name and is more chanting from his heart than everybody else. So he’s taking the position of, let’s say, a kīrtana guru.2
Noting that this seems presumptuous and unnecessary, especially in the presence of one’s seniors, Sivarama Maharaja says that thoughts about how best to get the benefits of the holy name could better be expressed by a few words at the beginning of the kīrtana.
Sticking to what Śrīla Prabhupāda taught us
Moreover, when we introduce new things into kīrtana (or adopt what others have introduced), over time they become clichés. What was meant to inspire grows tiresome and trite. What was meant to add brilliance grows dull.
In short, what’s added will be hit and miss. What works is the mahā-mantra.
And so Sivarama Mahārāja says, “Let’s just stick to the holy name without the purports to the mantra”—that is, without the stage directions—“and chant in the way that Śrīla Prabhupāda taught us to chant.”3
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
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