(this article appeared on pages 16-20 of THE VAISNAVA JOURNAL, Gaura Purnima edition 1988)

Important Kirtana Instructions From Srila Prabhupada

During the 1987 GBC meeting some of the members requested me to write down the instructions that I personally received
from Srila Prabhupada regarding kirtan. In pursuance of their order I present this short article for The Vaisnava Journal.

I have not presented this in a public forum in the past for fear of creating some polemic, and further, there were some in our
movement who simply didn't want to be restricted in their form of kirtan. Since we are presently trying to search out our "roots" in
the form of understanding the original instructions of Srila Prabhupada on all issues, it seems wise to include the standards set by him
in regards to our most important activity, kirtan.

Most devotees who were in India during the early formative years of our movement had a fairly good understanding of the
standards set by Srila Prabhupada in regards to kirtan, as well as a good understanding of where the other, newer (different, "fancier")
kirtan mantras and styles originated. We all know Srila Prabhupada's personal style of simple chanting in a pure and melodious
fashion and this did not change when he was in India, but very few are aware of how the additions entered in.

Srila Prabhupada was very strict in the melody sung during the mangala-aratika. He wanted the morning melody and
nothing else. He would sometimes stop kirtans if other melodies were sung in the morning. Of course he was not always doing that,
but when he was nearby and there was someone to appreciate the point, he would correct the mistake.

He objected to the usage of "Jaya Gurudeva" since it was a direct insertion into our movement from the sahajiya
sampradayas in Bengal who always say things like "Jaya Gurudeva", without referring to any particular guru. Prabhupada criticized
this as impersonal and did not want it chanted by his disciples. "Who is the guru?", he would challenge.

An understanding of how other mantras and techniques came into the movement is helpful in relieving the doubts that might
arise in the minds of those who were not informed of what Srila Prabhupada expected in kirtan. Some devotees had to leave America
due to various legal reasons and had no place to stay but in some Gaudiya Math temples. In some of these temples they chant all
different kinds of mantras without restriction. Although these mantras are not unbonafide and are seemingly proper, Srila Prabhupada
did not want us to use them in our temple kirtans. However this form of kirtan filtered into our movement very quickly since it was
new and exciting and therefore rapidly accepted by the kirtan leaders to increase the enthusiasm of the devotees. After all, variety is
the spice of life. This variety however, did not actually please Srila Prabhupada.

Although the Vrindavan temple was opened in March of 1975, Srila Prabhupada had started establishing the standards of its
functioning in the previous year. He was concentrating his energies on creating the proper Deity, kitchen, and economic standards. At
this time Srila Prabhupada asked me to be the president of the temple. He was personally instructing me in various aspects of the
management. Since we are writing about Srila Prabhupada's standard for kirtan, I would like to recount his specific instructions in
regards to the standards for kirtan which he wanted me to rigidly enforce.

As far as standards go, his instructions could not have been more specific. The exact cause of these instructions was a kirtan
in the temple led by Bharadvaja das, the night before. Srila Prabhupada had been in the habit of attending our nightly kirtans and
classes due to his being sickly and unable to speak. That evening Bharadvaja chose to sing a song (which he said he got from a book
by Gopal Bhatta Goswami) which was a variation on the mantra "krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna krsna he", but instead of it
being for "Krsna, Krsna" was replaced with "Gaura", so that the mantra went, "gaura gaura gaura gaura gaura gaura gaura he" & etc.
Srila Prabhupada disliked this extremely, so much so that the next morning he called me into his room and wanted from me an
explanation of why Bharadvaja was chanting like that. I could not give a proper explanation at that moment, but Prabhupada said that
he never wanted to hear that again in the temple and that I should never allow such kinds of "speculation" in kirtan. He then went on
to specifically describe how kirtan should be done.

More or less his exact words were, <<Now I want to establish the standards for kirtan. You may chant as follows: for
mangala aratika, the samsara-dava prayer, then sri krsna caitanya, then hare krsna, nothing else. For the guru-puja, the "guru-prayer"
(that's what he called it) sri krsna caitanya, hare krsna, nothing else. For evening aratika, the gaura aratika song, sri krsna caitanya,
and hare krsna, nothing else. For all aratikas this basic pattern should be followed. The chanting of sri krsna caitanya mantra should
only be for three times, not more. No one should sing a bhajan unless all the devotees know what the song means. No one should sing
songs in Vrindavan temple that are in languages which the people do not understand.

Yasomati-nandana may be sung since the people understand that. I did not put this section in quotes since it would be highly
presumptuous of me to think that I can remember Prabhupada's exact words after 13 years have passed, but it is close enough for us
to learn from.

Now there are some other things which he also taught at the same time. The next instance relates to the methods of singing
mangala aratika. We were chanting mangala aratika within the room of Srila Prabhupada each morning.

Sometimes Prabhupada would appreciate the singing and sometimes not. Later on in the morning after a particularly bad
kirtan, Prabhupada called me into his room and complained about the singing. He said, again, more or less, >>I did not like the
singing in the morning. The morning melody must be sung throughout the mangala-aratika and no other melody should be sung. It
should be sung sweetly and melodiously, like this... [and he proceeded to sing the first verse of the "samsara" prayer in a very sweet
and melodious voice with perfect inflection and musical accent].<<

Prabhupada was very insistent that the singing should be done in that way only. He indicated that he wanted me to lead the
kirtans in the morning as a way to establish the standards within the temple.

The next morning I led the kirtan in his room duplicating the melodious style which he had shown me the day before.
Prabhupada was pleased and seemed to enjoy the kirtan. Unfortunately I fell victim to that demon within the mind and started to
speculate a couple of "Jaya Radhe's" at the end of the kirtan. This was one of the bigger mistakes made by me at that time. Although
there is nothing wrong with "Jaya Radhe", Prabhupada simply didn't want us to chant it. He once explained that Sukadeva Gosvami
did not feel himself qualified to chant the name of Radha in the Srimad-Bhagavatam and therefore only indicated her name with the
word "aradhana" while describing the topmost gopi friend of Krsna. Furthermore, he had said that he did not feel himself qualified to
enter into the seva-kunj area of Vrindavan (and therefore we should not either), and again, when taking a bath in Radha-kund, one
should not place his feet in the water. These are all things that Prabhupada had said at that time or before that time, although perhaps
others might have another experience with Prabhupada at Radha-kund, but this was the statement in September, 1974. Prabhupada
also said to me, just for the record, that the entire spiritual world was to be found within the walls of the Krsna Balarama temple and
therefore there was no need whatsoever to ever go outside these walls on some pilgrimage.

Anyway, to continue the story, I had just started to chant Srimati Radharani's holy name, within Vrindavan dhama, Her
beloved Lord's abode, within the presence of Her most intimate devotee, during the most auspicious hours of the day, when Her most
intimate devotee looked at me with eyes blazing like fire and desirous of initiating my immediate destruction. Voice choked and
gagging, I ended the kirtan immediately without further formalites, never again to make the same mistake. Prabhupada never ended
kirtans with various extra mantras, especially not "Jaya Radhe", so why should I?

I would like to give some examples regarding Prabhupada and kirtan in order to illuminate the subject further. My personal
experience with Prabhupada began when I was his servant for awhile in July of 1971. At that time he had described to me in his room
that the chanting of the Panca Tattva maha mantra was much more powerful that [than] the Hare Krsna mantra. I immediately asked
him that since this is so, then why don't we chant some rounds of this mantra after finishing our 16 rounds of the Hare Krsna mantra
each day? Prabhupada replied that we should not do so since Lord Caitanya came just to show us how to worship Lord Krsna and
that the Lord wanted us to chant the Hare Krsna mantra and therefore we should follow His advice and example. Therefore he later
restricted the chanting of this mantra in kirtan to only three times.

Specifically he placed this restriction on the chanting after one incident with Isan prabhu in Vrindavan. In July of 1974,
when he first moved into his new quarters, we were both holding kirtans in his room in the afternoon and then Prabhupada would
give class. On one of the first days, Isan prabhu, who at that time was doing what was to be later known as FATE doll exhibition, led
a kirtan. He was simply repeating the sri krsna [caitanya] mantra over and over again, perhaps for 15 times, when Prabhupada
demanded that he stop and chant hare krsna. It was after this that Prabhupada became quite strict on the number of times the mantra
was sung.

There are two stories relating to the singing of the mantra "gaur nityananda bol, hari bol" & etc. The first relates to a time
when Prabhupada stopped a kirtan in England when this mantra was being sung, and the second time when Prabhupada stopped a
mangal aratika kirtan in Vrindavan. Since I was directly involved in the second instance and only heard about the first, I will only
relate the second story.

One morning in the winter of 1975, after the temple was opened, Ananda prabhu was leading the kirtan. Ananda prabhu was
a godbrother of Srila Prabhupada who had been living in our temple for many years, humbly engeged in serving the devotees with
great love and devotion. He was the personal cook of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and was extremely expert in preparing
emergency medicinal herbs when the need arose (as when Saurabh das was bitten by a scorpion but was saved by Ananda prabhu's
timely herb application). He was also an enthusiastic kirtan leader. Srila Prabhupada was in his room as usual during the mangal
aratika kirtan and I was in the room next to his waiting [for] some order or command. I was not to be disappointed. The kirtan was
loud and the speakers, combined with the reverberation of the hall, projected the sound into Prabhupada's room with great ease.
Prabhupada called me into his room. I already knew what was going to happen since I was trained by him the previous year and
know his standards for kirtan. Ananda prabhu was chanting "gaur nityananda bol" & etc. I knew that this was not what should
happen, but I was Prabhupada's servant at this time and not the president any longer.

Much to my surprise he more or less (again, sorry) said the following. >>Go to the temple room and stop him from singing
the kirtan. Tell him that this is your temple and that you will lead the kirtans the way you want.<< Well, this was quite a shock. It
was the first time that I ever had to stop one of his own godbrothers from singing a kirtan, but I dutifully marched off to the temple
room to fulfill the order. I was not at all feeling good about this as I was afraid of making some offense or being crass or crude about
it. Being fallen I just couldn't bring myself to say it exactly as Prabhupada had said it, but I managed to mutter out some words to the
effect that Prabhupada didn't want this mantra in the temple and that would he please chant Hare Krsna instead? This made a little
scene with the devotees not understanding what was taking place, so I managed to explain something to some others since the kirtan
was still taking place without interruption, but soon the kirtan was stopped and taken over by others.

Prabhupada was never abrasive towards others and especially I had never seen him act like this in the temple, but he was so
determined that the kirtan standard be maintained and not changed by the introduction of "other" mantras which were commonly
heard in other temples and maths, that he send me to stop his own godbrother from singing in the temple. This incident impressed me
greatly as to his determination in this regard.
 There were other occasions when Prabhupada had me stop kirtans which included elements he did not like. In July of 1976
Prabhupada was in New Mayapur in France. A raging kirtan was going on somewhere below his room while I was dictating his mail.
I was taking the dictation sitting in front of him. One could hear that there was a kirtan going on, but I, at least, could not make out
any individual words or understand who was singing since it was all muffled by the solid floors of the castle. Prabhupada, however,
could hear everything and was very disturbed by something he heard. "Do you hear that?", he asked me. "What is that, Srila
Prabhupada?", replied I, the normally good hearing, but whenever with Srila Prabhupada, the relatively deaf one. "Listen to what he
is saying." "I cannot hear anything special. What is wrong?" "He is chanting something before the Hare Krsna mantra. Go and stop
this immediately."

So I immediately ran downstairs, danda in hand, and started pushing aside the crowds of ecstatic chanters to get at the leader
of the kirtan. I could still not hear exactly what was being chanted, and neither could I imagine how Prabhupada could hear it, but I
had experience that he had super senses and therefore with full faith I plunged through the crowd expecting to soon be close enough
to know who was leading the kirtan and what it was that he was saying before the Hare Krsna mantra. When I was about two meters
away from the leader I saw that it was Prthu Putra Swami leading the kirtan and then I finally heard that he was faintly saying
"bhaja" before each Hare Krsna mantra. With this confirmation, I demanded, in the name of Srila Prabhupada, that he not chant that
before the mantra and that he never do it again. This caused a bit of a pause in the kirtan while everyone tried to understand what was
going on, but before too long I was again going back upstairs and he was chanting correctly.

When in Prabhupada's room again he asked me for a report on what happened and I told him who led the kirtan and that the
mistake was corrected. One should never chant anything before the maha mantra.

Now there are of course some extraordinary variations on these rules. The ones that I know shall be described herein for
completeness and fairnees.

At the end of 1975, Srila Prabhupada and crew went up to Sanand, a nice, small kingdom somewhere north of Ahmedabad.
There we were having kirtan in the palace of the King, where Prabhupada stayed. These kirtans were mostly filled with the village
women. Prabhupada had me lead the kirtans but he would instruct me what to sing and how. One time he asked me to make a kirtan
with "govinda jaya jaya" which went on for about a half an hour. Another time he asked me to sing just Hare Krsna, but one line at a
time, as these people were accustomed to sing it. That is, just Hare Krsna... Hare Hare the first time, they would respond, and then
Hare Rama... Hare Hare, the second time, and they would respond. It seems that if the people are accustomed to certain types of
kirtans that we could adjust somewhat to avoid disturbing their minds.

One item, which I find to be significant despite my personal fanaticism in regards to kirtans (in my zone we have been
following these standards all along, and other forms of kirtan are not appreciated), was something which occurred in Bombay in 1967
(month not remembered). There was a kirtan in the temple which was basically a lot of "hari bols". During this kirtan I was highly
skeptical and looked often to Srila Prabhupada to see if he wanted me to stop this kirtan or not. I think that Prabhupada knew why I
was looking at him and he specifically avoided me by looking downward or to the side the whole kirtan. At the end when we were
walking back to his flat at the back of the land, the following interchange took place. "Srila Prabhupada," I asked, "should I have
stopped that kirtan since it was not proper?" "No," he said, "at least they are chanting." You decide what is best.

There is one other kirtan factor which is extremely significant and which should definitely be discassed in such an article. In
June of 1977 Srila Prabhupada was not very pleased with the kirtans of the group in the asrama next to us. There kirtans were taking
place with the following speculated mantra, "(bhaja) nitai gaura radhe syama (japa) hare krsna hare ram" which especially got on
one's nerves if he had to live on the side of the building which faced their asrama. Prabhupada wanted that all mantras be bona fide so
he requested the devotees to stop chanting the word "bhaja" before our Panca-tattva maha mantra since the word actually is not part
of the mantra. There is no word which prefaces the mantra which specifically reads "sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita
gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrinda."

This mantra can be read in either Bengali or Sanskrit letters on the walls of every temple in Vrindavan or Bengal as it is one
of the two essential mantras for Gaudiya Vaisnavas.

Then Prabhupada thought about using some mantra from the Caitanya Caritamrta which he considered might go, "jaya sri
krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda, jayadvaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrinda" so he had his servants and sanskritists look it
up to see if they could find it. After a thorough search they realized that there was no mantra like that and that the closest mantra was
"jaya sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda, jayadvaita candra jaya gaura bhakta vrinda" which was not what Prabhupada wanted and
therefore was not the change which was to take place. However, Prabhupada insisted on the change from "bhaja" to "jaya" to
difinitively delineate us from the other chanters across the road. When he was asked about the change from "sri advaita" to "jaya
advaita" he simply said, "sri advaita, jaya advaita, what is the difference?"

Now on the basis of this the devotees of the world were told that Prabhupada definetely wanted that we chant "jaya advaita"
instead of "sri advaita" and that this should happen immediately. Since I was in Vrindavan at the time and heard this incident
immediately after it happened in the room of Prabhupada from one of the sanskritists who were engaged in the search, I knew that
this was not actually the case, and that the purpose of the changes were mainly to stop the chanting of "bhaja" in order to make a
distinction between us and the speculated mantra chanters.
 However, this idea became so much entrenched within the movement that it became the fashion to even change the mantra
in the prema-dhvani and even in such independent songs as "hari haraye namah krsna" wherein one line says "sri caitanya nityananda
sri advaita sita" which now due to this absolute change had to read "sri caitanya nityananda jayadvaita sita."

I have always felt that this is very damaging to our movement in general for the following reasons:

1) Prabhupada himself always chanted the mantra in the original fashion and there are hundreds of tapes to testify to that. Changes in
the mantra weaken the position of those who have followed Srila Prabhupada since it can be challenged as to why this change was
made. I also challanged it in the same manner.

2) Prabhupada writes the original mantra everywhere in his books. Prabhupada once chastised me for listening to someone else's idea
with the following words. "Regarding this idea that... Where have you heard this? Is this found in our books?" Whatever is written in
the books is law. If the mantra is found everywhere within Prabhupada's books do we think that he would just change it like that?

All he was doing was changing the introductory word which is not at all part of the mantra. Why were we so eager to change
some of the basic institutions of the society, such as one of the two basic mantras of the movement, so quickly without even
examining what this would mean for the future? After all, as mentioned before, this mantra is carved in stone and marble on all the
temples and everyone can see for time immemorial what the correct mantra is. It just doesn't look good or feel good to have a
different mantra than that which is preserved in temple walls and within Prabhupada's books and tapes. It weakens our authority to
some extent.

I recommend that we change our habits back to the original "sri advaita" although we must change the "bhaja" to "jaya" as
we already have to preserve Srila Prabhupada's sentiments in this regard to distinguish ourselves from the improper chanters across
the back alleyway in Vrindavan. This is my personal opinion and nothing more.

I hope that I have fulfilled the wishes of the Vaisnavas by describing these incidents in detail for the benefit of all.