{"id":96750,"date":"2022-02-22T20:07:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T19:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=96750"},"modified":"2022-02-22T20:24:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T19:24:54","slug":"96750","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=96750","title":{"rendered":"Street Sankirtana&#8230; Chanting of the Mahamantra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/dRkLXzM.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Parasuram das: May I be so bold to give an opinion on Street Sankirtan, so unqualified as<br \/>\nI am, but it&#8217;s food for thought.<\/p>\n<p>It appears to me that Srila Prabhupada had a unique way of performing<br \/>\nSankirtan.<\/p>\n<p>It is quite different from a &#8220;traditional Bengali&#8221; style of chanting.<\/p>\n<p>His Kirtan are more rhythmic, meditative, easy to follow and respond to.<br \/>\nMaybe he designed it like this for the public so we could easily engage in<br \/>\nthe Kirtan.<\/p>\n<p>The first Kirtan YouTube link is started by HH Vishnujana Swami before<br \/>\nSrila Prabhupada takes over:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hare Krishna Kirtan ~ Srila Prabhupada &amp; Vishnujana Swami\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A6yBThkZdIs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This Kirtan link is the most well known Srila Prabhupada Kirtan:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Prabhupada-Hare Krishna-kirtan\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LeRXtDFtp7Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is a &#8220;traditional Bengali&#8221; style Kirtan:<\/p>\n<p><!--https:\/\/m.youtube.com\/watch?v=iByllXkfNns<!-- --><\/p>\n<p>When I ask a Srila Prabhupada disciple to lead a Kirtan, a Street<br \/>\nSankirtan, we generally find the Kirtan to be similar to the style of the<br \/>\nfirst two links, very simple, powerful, and upbeat. And since great Kirtan<br \/>\nleaders are departing from this mortal world to join Srila Prabhupada on<br \/>\nsome glorious adventure. Great Sankirtan  devotees such as HH Vishnujana<br \/>\nSwami , Tribhuvanth Prabhu, Hansadutta Prabhu, Madhudvisa Prabhu to name a<br \/>\nfew, there is a danger of the old ISKCON Kirtan being replaced a more<br \/>\n&#8220;traditional style&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>So a question arises, should we be performing &#8220;traditional style&#8221; Kirtan,<br \/>\nas can be seen with the Gaudiya Math.<\/p>\n<p>My reservations:<\/p>\n<p>It seems that whatever Srila Prabhupada did was unique and revolutionary.<br \/>\nSrila Prabhupada would tell Tribhuvanth Prabhu &#8220;that it&#8217;s so simple that<br \/>\nyou will miss it.&#8221; And he proudly referred to Tribhuvanth Prabhu as banging<br \/>\nthe drum.<\/p>\n<p>A strong beat to dance to, as dancing  is an important part of Sankirtan.<\/p>\n<p>And on the other hand Srila Prabhupada also liked Sacinanad Prabhu&#8217;s<br \/>\ntraditional bhajans and Kirtans.<\/p>\n<p>Traditional Bengali Sankirtan is wonderful when performed nicely but<br \/>\nsometimes it involves a lot of complex beats, singing in minor sad keys<br \/>\n(sad singing as if the WiFi just went down) , a lot of unnecessary vocal<br \/>\nsolos ( yodelling), the chanting of a variety verses and mantras, and an<br \/>\nimpossible beat to dance to.<\/p>\n<p>Or the new fashion to have two microphones, one devotee leads and the<br \/>\nsecond devotee also leads, so when do we respond with the chanting?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our process is simple, all-embracing, we have something to offer for<br \/>\neveryone. There is chanting, dancing, feasting and very perfect philosophy,<br \/>\nso everyone may be satisfied with our Krishna Consciousness Movement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(Srila Prabhupada Letter, October 4, 1973)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our movement is for ananda, simply bliss, and the method of pushing this<br \/>\nmovement is chanting, dancing, feasting and philosophizing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(Srila Prabhupada Letter, July 15, 1969)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our Hare Krsna movement is standing on three principal things: chanting,<br \/>\ndancing and eating *prasadam*. It is not very difficult. It is very<br \/>\nenjoyable to chant, dance and take *prasadam*. And if you like, you can<br \/>\nhear a little philosophy of this movement.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/dRkLXzM.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/>It appears to me that Srila Prabhupada had a unique way of performing Sankirtan. It is quite different from a &#8220;traditional Bengali&#8221; style of chanting. His Kirtan are more rhythmic, meditative, easy to follow and respond to. Maybe he designed it like this for the public so we could easily engage in the Kirtan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96753,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96750\/revisions\/96753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}