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<\/center><\/p>\nBy Patita Pavana dasa Adhikary<\/b><\/p>\n
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OK I know it sounds crazy, but the question is a serious one. But let\u2019s go back a bit \u2026 By \u201863 Bob Dylan was a teen idol turned hippest-of-the-hip. His vast talents combining new melodies (and old ones), accompanied by his freight train harmonica and songs of the road struck a nerve. Musically, his talents were at the top of their game since he could speak with his music as well as his words. Like some unspoken and unseen mass hypnosis from \u201966 tens of thousands of young persons simply walked out of their homes, destination San Francisco. He was the pied piper with his perfect meter, rhyming sequences and multi-layered depths of meaning. Many agree that his early masterpieces could only be explained as divine gifts. No singer-songwriter had ever matched the likes of early Dylan. Like some gravel-voiced Gandharva from the chorus of Chitraratha, the singer-songwriter who had appeared in the Midwest made it all seem so easy. Even so, his work has never been duplicated except in the mind of a million posers. His gifts were special, very special.<\/p>\n
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After Dylan appeared in Manhattan a shaktyavesha avatara<\/i> who was destined to change the entire world\u2019s concept of religion and understanding arrived in the midst of all this 1960\u2019s cacophony. Thus, by the time the world acharya<\/i> Shrila Prabhupada boldly sauntered off the Jaladuta in September 1965, an inspired minstrel had already announced the coming of the leader of Krishna consciousness through his anthem of a generation \u201cMr. Tambourine Man.\u201d For as it is said, \u201cKrishna\u2014God\u2014works in ways that appear strange to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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It is well-known among his millions of followers that Shrila Prabhupada is none other than the divinely inspired representative of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is none other than Lord Krishna Himself. All devotees understand that His Divine Grace was spiritually empowered by the Supreme Absolute Truth Personified to inaugurate this mini-Satya Yuga now becoming manifest even in this Kali Yuga. Therefore, does it not sound reasonable that some singers would take to their instruments by the will of Saraswati, the goddess of poesy, in preparation for such an historical arrival? It is our understanding that the entire 1960\u2019s was arranged by Lord Krishna as a part of His plan for the coming westward of the Gaudiya sampradaya <\/i>and sankirtana<\/i>. Therefore, during an unprecedented era in history, it is not strange at all that He would empower certain voices here and there to announce it. Quite simply, it is our conjecture that Dylan was one of those voices.<\/p>\n
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Human society in Kali Yuga is about as organized as a fistful of iron filings thrown to the wind and scattered here and there. At the time of Prabhupada\u2019s advent in America, many of society\u2019s so-called leaders were basically drug-addicted mad men. Kali Yuga was going into extreme spin and Prabhupada had arrived to single-handedly reverse the entire downward trend. Specifically in the sixties, the beatnik movement of NY\u2019s Lower East Side was just now giving way to the era of the hippies prevalent in San Francisco. Dylan spoke to both sides of the equation as did Shrila Prabhupada. The Jagat Guru was like a powerful magnet that passes above the iron filings. Just as the invisible power of the magnet straightens out the iron particles and points them into a single direction, so the call of the acharya<\/i> made sense out of the chaos of Kali Yuga. <\/p>\n
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Mahaksha dasa Prabhu, himself a 60\u2019s musician, was mystically drawn to Vrindavana and Prabhupada in the early 70\u2019s. He says, \u201cDylan is a writer with amazing channeling powers\u2014which he seemed to have until his motorcycle accident (if that\u2019s what it was). This means Dylan was drawing down lyrics from the \u2018akashic<\/i> records\u2019 as some people call it. It\u2019s the Universal language where we are all connected. Dylan was affected by Prabhupada\u2019s presence whether knowingly or not. There was an all pervading bliss permeating the atmosphere at that time mainly on account of the coming to the west of Vedic wisdom headed up by the Tambourine Man. <\/p>\n
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\u201cDylan must have seen or heard Prabhupada in all likelihood but I doubt he\u2019d admit it. He is very private about where his lyrics come from. Even he does not know where his lyrics came from\u2014he admits it in his Chronicles<\/i>. His work is definitely not meaningless drivel … Dylan did a deal with (who he calls) the Great Chief to receive all his empowered songs. They helped change and prepare a generation. Dylan is no way an ordinary man. He is a super power Archangel come to assist Universal redemption.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sankarshan Das Adhikari, an initiating spiritual master in ISKCON has posted on FB: \u201cDylan’s lyrics in \u2018All Along the Watchtower:\u2019 \u2018There must be some way out of here\u2014said the joker to the thief. There\u2019s too much confusion here, I can\u2019t get no relief \u2026\u2019 gave me faith that there was something beyond this material world and helped me come to Krishna consciousness. So I am indebted to Bob Dylan for that.\u201d <\/p>\n
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So we have set out to analyze if Dylan\u2019s song \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d was actually prophecy speaking of a coming Indian pure devotee armed with a pair of caratals<\/i> (though we used to carry tambourines on sankirtana<\/i> in the early days).<\/p>\n
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Hey, Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me,<\/b><\/p>\n
Here the singer calls upon another singer. He will explain that his own song has not been sufficient. Now he surrenders his song and seeks the highest song (which will come along soon enough as Hare Krishna).<\/i><\/p>\n
\nI’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.<\/b><\/p>\n
This is the disciple\u2019s surrender. Prabhupada often emphasized the ability to conquer sleep and taught us to revere Arjuna as Gudakesha. Shrila Prabhupada set this example in his own life and slept but little, so important were his many projects, especially his literary ones. By \u201cno place I\u2019m going to\u201d Dylan displays the disciple\u2019s surrender. \u201cWhere Shri Guru Maharaja leads me, and to that place I gladly follow \u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\nHey, Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me,
\nIn the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.<\/b><\/p>\n
The key is following, since the genuine disciple is a follower and he follows every example in the lotus footprints of the acharya as best he can. <\/i> <\/p>\n
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Though I know that evening\u2019s empire has returned into sand,<\/b><\/p>\n
This is an example of Dylan\u2019s lovely poesy\u2014ornate but not flowery. Here his expression equals Vedic analogies from the pens of great Sanskrit masters. Now the poet observes the passing of night to day\u2014the opposing ends of Nature. It is as though the darkness of night has melted onto the water-touched beach revealing the glorious rays of brightness. It is a time to greet the sunrise as brahmanas do half-submerged in holy waters singing to the sun god Surya.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nVanished from my hand,<\/b><\/p>\n
This is a joke that refers to the living entity who thinks that he can control Nature\u2014which is in control ultimately by Lord Shri Krishna. It is also an ironic ecstatic expression of the poet\u2019s understanding of Who is Supreme and an acknowledgement of the Higher Powers of Nature.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nLeft me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cBlind yet not asleep.\u201d The poet cracks the whip and makes a sudden shift in the anthem\u2019s tone (for this song would become an important anthem of a generation). When the guru decrees to the disciple, \u201cyou are blind\u201d at that time the disciple must awaken himself. For as any sincere follower of his spiritual master knows, our perfection lies in becoming the blind follower of the previous acharya. And that means to accept as shastra everything that the spiritual master says unconditionally. We kneel before Shri Guru for it is he who has taken us out of the dark well of illusion. Thus we pray: om ajnana timirandasaya \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
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\nMy weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet,<\/b><\/p>\n
He expresses weariness, i.e., dissatisfaction, with the material situation, though he is \u201cbranded on his feet\u201d or entrenched in samsara and the bodily concept of life. The seeker expresses his desire for release \u2026.<\/i><\/p>\n
\nI have no one to meet,<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cLet me now exchange the useless association of materialistic sense gratifiers for the association of Shri Guru and his acolytes \u2026 which is today is a world wide devotional organization called ISKCON\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\nAnd the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.<\/b><\/p>\n
This is a very pointed look at the \u201ceighth house\u201d aspects of life: the mysteries of forever dead past lives marked by ancient streets once trod in previous lifetimes. Here and now let me move beyond this dilemma of samsara, the cycle of birth and death, once and for all. Let me go to that place of eternal light and love.<\/i><\/p>\n
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Hey, Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me
\nI’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
\nHey, Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me,
\nIn the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you.<\/b><\/p>\n
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Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship.<\/b><\/p>\n