Over
200+ participants!
600+ attendees!
12 hours of non-stop kirtan!
It included Hare Krishna mahamantra kirtan and singing of Vaishnav Bhajans.
That was Damodar Desh YAtras’s (DDY’s) Bala Kirtan Mela on 26th April 2019
First time in the history of ISKCON, a dedicated Kirtan Mela for the children & by the children of the age group 6 – 16 years.
Damodar Desh Yatra has been having Kirtan Mela since 2016 and the idea of Bal kirtana mela developed during Dec 2018 Kirtan Mela. We decided to hold an exclusive Kirtan Mela for children. The need to give opportunity and exposure to our Bala kirtaniyas, the Vaikunta children, was very important.
Our Founder Acharya HDG A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada said, if we can make one child Krishna conscious, it is a great service. Lord Krishna will be very pleased.
Our great inspiration, Sri Maha Mani Krishna Das pr and family, with this intention in mind, started training us about 30 years back. Now, DDY has Bala Utsava classes, Dirdha Bhakti classes, Youth classes, Women classes, Mayapur Institute classes, Damodar aartis house to house programmes, Spiritual yatras every year, Kirtan melas, Festivals and much more helping us learn our scriptures and practice bhakti yoga happily.
The whole idea of training children of initiated devotees in Kirtan skills started with summer camp of children in July 2007 where they got trained by Mayapur International school teachers and soon after that in Jan 2008, Damodardesh yatra leader HG Sri Vallabha dasa prabhu announced weekly classes named “Dridha Bhakti “classes for children of initiated devotees. First batch had 35-40 children and soon with help of HG Vrajalila Nath dasa prabhu, a full fledged curriculum was designed for children to teach them all aspects of Krishna consciousness including the Kirtan skills. Children were taught to play kartala, Mridanga and Harmonium and a monthly Kirtan programme was held to train the children. This way chidren were picking up Kirtan skills to become good kirtaniyas. A great thanks to HG Damodar Krishna Prabhu for training children for Mridanga since beginning now almost 10 years. Then with arrival of HG Swarupa Damodar Prabhu in Damodardesh in December 2013, it became much easier to reach out to more children .
I am happy to mention that this Bala Kirtan Mela there were 220 children who participated in Hari Naama chanting and children only played many instruments like Kartala, Mridangam, Harmonium, Veena. Children are trained in singing Vaishnav Bhajans too and we had one Bhajan that too by children only in every 30 minutes. Children were totally trained and scrutinized before they came on stage to ensure we have best of performances.
One important thing we did, we created two stages on two sides of the width of the room, as soon as first stage Kirtan was over, the other stage was ready with kirtaniyas and instruments. So it went totally non stop for more than 12 hours. Each child or group was given 10-15 minutes for chanting. Kirtan was live on facebook and Mayapur.tv and full video recording has been done for the event.
This kirtana mela is to encourage children world over and for the parents to get children attracted to sing the glories of the Lord from a young age – and be ready to lead kirtans, preach the glory of the Lord whichever part of the world their education or carreer takes them to. Also Children singing, makes the elders a captive audience and also benefit from the kirtans.
A big thanks to all the teachers and volunteers who helped in making this Bala Kirtan mela memorable. Special thanks to all wonderful parents and our lovely kids. Great thanks to the venue providers. This event was a wonderful experience. Great Kirtans, mouth-watering prasadam was available whole day.
Just wanted to post this article to encourage children worldwide for training them in Kirtana skills. Now Bala Kirtan Mela is added to annual list of events in DamodarDesh YAtra.
Some of the kirtans are listed here, all rest are also on you tube channel.
Hare Krishna
Your humble servant
Vraja Lila Nath dasa