Category Archives: Kirtan

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS Founder-Ācārya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda The Following Evening Lecture By His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami Was Given In Iskcon Iskcon Towaco, US, On 1 June 2014. His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: Okay, Haribol. Oh! Thank you. His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Devotees: Hare Kṛṣṇa. His Holiness(…)

 INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS Founder-Ācārya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda The following lecture entitled: ‘Connection with Kṛṣṇa means service’ was given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in Iskcon Budapest, Hungary, on 27 August 2013. Now we can see this transcendental knowledge, whether it is coming from the Kumāras or Brahmā or Laxmi(…)

Video of Devananda Pandit leading New Vrindaban’s Kartik 24 Hour Kirtan – October 19th, 2013.

Stepped out of home and didn’t realize the rain was so strong! Seemed like a mini storm out there – thrashing rain and wind. Unable to hold the umbrella open, i ran to the temple as fast as i could. Full drenched now, changing shoes with someone else’s and gathering few devotees, took the tram […]

Video of Bhakti Vasudeva Swami leading New Vrindaban’s Kartik 24 Hour Kirtan – October 19th, 2013.

Video of Acyuta Gopi dasi leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS Founder-Ācārya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda The following Radhadesh Retreat lecture on Śikṣāṣṭakam Lectures – Part 2 – Radhadesh Retreat Day 5 was given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in Radhadesh, Belgium, July 2011. Hare Kṛṣṇa Kīrtana and Jaya Rādhā Mādhava kīrtana Gaur Premānande Hari Hari bol. namo(…)

Video of Vishnujan dasa leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

Ter Kadamba Mandira (Shyama Sakhi, Vraja Kishor, and many other wonderful guests) have just released a new CD! “Sounds from …

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Ter Kadamba Mandira (Shyama Sakhi, Vraja Kishor, and many other wonderful guests) have just released a new CD! “Sounds from …

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Video of Vrinda dasi leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

Video of Varsana Swami leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

Video of Madhava dasa leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

  “I’m a participant and a presenter here at ILS. I’m feeling elated. I think ILS is a wonderful initiative from the GBC to take this movement forward to the next era. What we’re doing here in this process of strategic planning is enabling leaders to bring out the best in themselves and we’re giving(…)

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 13 January 2014, Mayapur, India, Lecture: Kirtan Academy 1) I would like to say something about kirtan since I like kirtan. There are different sides to it. There is the essential side which is the service that we render by chanting the holy name; engaging our mind and senses in chanting; and […]

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS Founder-Ācārya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda The following lecture on Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s Appearance Day was given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in Māyāpura 20 February 2014. Hare Kṛṣṇa Kīrtana Prema-dhvanī prayers. jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pada paramahaṁsa parivrājakācārya aṣṭottara-śata śrī śrīmad abhaya charanaravinda bhaktivedanta swami prabhupāda ki jaya!(…)

When Guru Mahārāja was young he read the Memoires of Winston Churchill. Churchill mentions there that one should travel when one is young. Together with his friend Sarvabhavana Prabhu they decided: “Let’s go and see the world”. And they travelled to Europe by hitchhiking I think. Guru Mahārāja loves so much travelling, he never stopped(…)

Guru Mahārāja and His Holiness Radhanath Swami Mahārāja jointly gave Bhāgavatam class. The best part of the class was that whenever either of them were getting the chance to glorify each other no one was missing the opportunity and the full audience was enjoying the nectar. Then at 11h30 AM we left for ISKCON Panihati(…)

Video of Ananta Govinda leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

Song Name: Adore Adore Ye All Official Name: Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s Vyasa Puja Offering (1935) Author: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Book Name: The Harmonist Language: English LYRICS (1) Adore, adore ye all The happy day Blessed than heaven Sweeter than May. When he appeared at Puri The holy place, My Lord and Master His Divine Grace.(…)

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Please read a brief report about the initiation ceremony held in ISKCON Ujjain on Nityānanda Trayodasi, 12th Feb 2014. There was an excitement in the air today morning. Today was Nityānanda Trayodasi and initiations for the 8 fortunate devotees. I got up a(…)

Video of Gaura Vani leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013

by Madhava Smullen New Vrindaban, ISKCON’s first rural community, is in the midst of a major transformation. When the community was first established under the guidance of ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada in 1968, it became, for many years, a shining example of the best that ISKCON had to offer. Prabhupada would often direct devotees from […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, March 2009, Leicester, United Kingdom, Lecture) One year, on Nityananda’s appearance day, I was in Sydney and something happened. We were having a long kirtan, before that we had some bhajan, aarti and abhishek, so it was getting quite long! The drummers had brought their special drums, so they were into it and […]

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, South Africa, 2010) This is the world where the dream is bigger than reality but in the spiritual world, the reality is way beyond the dream. The chanting of the maha mantra is coming directly from the spiritual world and if we place the holy name in the center of our life […]

Video of Hari Kirtana leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

Video of Jamuna dasi leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS Founder-Ācārya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda  Lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami in Brisbane temple, on Saturday 21 April 2007

 
 

EVERY WEDNESDAY (3pm-sunset) in Ocean Beach Park.

Video of Dhanya dasi leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS Founder-Ācārya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda The following lecture on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam Canto 6, Chapter 2, Verse 17, was given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 22 January 2014 in Iskcon Juhu – Mumbai, India. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Today was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s class. We just listened to the Śrīla […]

Video of Krishna Kishordasa leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s kirtan leading was always very meditative, deep, and focused.   He would often end in a crescendo but it was steady, long, and unrushed. 

“Gaura Gopala: I was right next to Prabhupada through the whole ceremony, playing the drum. He particularly liked to sing one tune through the whole time. He put his hands up in the air. He was dancing.” Ref. VedaBase => SPL 44: Let There Be a Temple

”It was clanging and banging. Kīrtana should be sweet and melodious.”

We had a kīrtana at the Rāma-līlā grounds, 1976 March, and Dīnanātha was leading, and tens
of thousands were attending and chanting. After the program Śrīla Prabhupāda and I were alone
in the back tent waiting for his servant and the car. As you know, he would often ask rhetorical
questions, and he asked me, “So, what did you think of the kīrtana?” Understanding this was
just a lead-in to his giving me an instruction, I answered with a bland “It was OK.”
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s definition to me then was as follows: “No, it was not nice. It was clanging
and banging. Kīrtana should be sweet and melodious. Come let us go to the ashram and have
kīrtana.”
And so we went — Śrīla Prabhupāda, his servant, Baradrāj, and myself. Except for his servant,
the three of us sat in his room and Baradrāj played harmonium on the request of Śrīla
Prabhupāda, and we had a long kīrtana. . . . On Śrīla Prabhupāda’s signal, the kīrtana ended. He
looked at me, smiling, shaking his head a little, and said, “So . . . sweet and melodious.” And
then he moved on with the rest of preaching and hearing. I had heard him say, and heard that
he also said, sometimes stopping kīrtana, “No screaming and shouting.” [remembrance by
Tejiyas dāsa, 12 Nov 2002]

I personally feel that if one becomes more focused on the Holy Name of Krishna with love and worry less on changing the melody their leading of kirtan will become more and more ecstatic.   This is especially in the case of those who are new to leading kirtan or who are not regular kirtan leaders.  In their nervousness or anxiety, they change the melody, perhaps thinking that others are bored.  This changing of melody may happen over 6 times in just a 15 minute period.  (BTW I not talking about the different parts of a melody but rather changing to completely different melodies)  Whereas kirtan stalwarts such as Indradyumna Swami, BB Govinda Swami, Madhava Prabhu and others keep it very steady and focused.  

Once I noticed a devotee chant Hare Krishna for the 30 minute Sandhya Ārati for a total of 2 minutes.  First he sang the standard Gaura Arati song and then the Hare Krishna Mantra for 2 minutes. (he also completely changed to different melodies within that 2 minute period)  Then he stopped chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra because he wanted to leave enough room for Jāya’ing at the end of the kirtan.   Śrīla Prabhupāda never was Jāya’er himself, so it is not actually necessary to do a Jāya session at the end of kirtan.  But the main thing is not to Jāya at the expensive of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.   It is called the Maha Mantra for a reason, it is the greatest mantra.   So my basic advice to new kirtan leaders is to keep steady the melody, even the parts of the melody should be steady, don’t shift it back and forth every few mantras and then run out tricks 2 minutes later.  

In the past I have given advice to new kirtan leaders for the arati as follows.  Chant the first part of the melody at least 10 times, then second at least 10 times.  Then you can go back to the first part and pick up the tempo.  The rest is up to you but starting if off like this is a good foundation. 

So all the best to you.  One simple item to test the efficacy of the one’s kirtan is to see if it creates smaraṇaṁ, even on a material level.  Will those who have heard it have it dancing through their minds throughout the rest of the day?  From śravaṇaṁ & kīrtanam comes smaraṇaṁ, rememberance. 

BTW here is a link to the Harinama Sankirtan Handbook by Indradyumna Swami