Nagara-sankirtana

Expressions researched:
"nagara-kirtana" |"nagara-kirtanas" |"nagara-sankirtana"

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 17.70, Translation and Purport:

Once Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu went to the house of Śrīdhara after kīrtana and drank water from his damaged iron pot. Then He bestowed His benediction upon all the devotees according to their desires.

After the mass nagara-saṅkīrtana in protest against the magistrate Chand Kazi, the Kazi was converted to a devotee. Then Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu returned with His saṅkīrtana party to the house of Śrīdhara, and Chand Kazi followed Him. All the devotees rested there for some time and drank water from Śrīdhara's damaged iron pot. The Lord accepted the water because the pot belonged to a devotee. Chand Kazi then returned home. The place where they rested is still situated on the northeastern side of Māyāpur, and it is known as kīrtana-viśrāma-sthāna, "the resting place of the kīrtana party."

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.8.36 -- Mayapura, October 16, 1974:

Simply glorifying the activities of the, of Kṛṣṇa. Just like we sing, udilo aruṇa pūraba-bhāge, dvija-maṇi gorā amani jāge. This is our subject matter of singing. What is this? Now, activities of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that as soon as there is early rise of the sun, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately started His nagara-saṅkīrtana. Not of any other. Śrī Caitanya... Tavehitam. Simply... The subject matter must be there. If I hear, the subject matter must be there. The subject matter is Kṛṣṇa's activities. Caitanya and Kṛṣṇa is not different.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 20, 1974, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: Oh, then it is all right.

Pañcadraviḍa: They gave Guru-kṛpa and Yaśodā-nandana special darśana. They took them into the circle where usually they'd only let special people...

Prabhupāda: Oh, then it is all right. Then that's all right.

Mahāṁsa: (break) ...very impressed because we have nāgara-kīrtana all over the place.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁsa: And if they are impressed, they can, when our construction starts, they will be very willing to also give a very huge donation. They are capable of...

Prabhupāda: How many people are going altogether?

Mahāṁsa: About fifteen devotees.

Prabhupāda: That's nice.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- December 7, 1976, Hyderabad:

Prabhupāda: So go there. What is the...? Make this.

Mahāṁśa: They can start today? The boys are ready. They want to move but it's just the leaders which have not decided on getting it done.

Prabhupāda: So decide now. What is difficulty?

Mahāṁśa: If you can give one bus they can go immediately. And another party can go to Nagpur and start arranging for the program there on the 25th. They can do nagara-kīrtanas, book distribution, and arrange for the program on the 25th and one bus can go to Kakinagar. So all the boys will be out and be engaged. And the boys from Hyderabad should go back to Hyderabad and get into the program there. There's so much work to be done in Hyderabad. They're suffering a lot.

Jagadīśa: What about the program here?

Mahāṁśa: The program here doesn't need too many people. Only five, six people is enough.

Haṁsadūta: (aside:) Close the door.

Mahāṁśa: Because the program here is just needing supervision.

Jagadīśa: No, but I mean kīrtana, constant kīrtana, and prasādam.

Mahāṁśa: Well, if you want constant kīrtana, then we have to have more devotees here.

Prabhupāda: Constant kīrtana? Who says constant?

Jagadīśa: Well, we have to engage the villagers.

Prabhupāda: Yes. So they'll come in the evening. We cannot be always...

Haṁsadūta: Why not?

German Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, we want to go nagara-saṅkīrtana to the villages and announce the program.

Prabhupāda: Go. Well, go.

German Devotee: But we cannot go because Candrodaya, he doesn't want to go.

Mahāṁśa: Take Rāma-kṣetra. He knows.

German Devotee: Take as much as possible devotees?

Haṁsadūta: Yes.

German Devotee: OK.

Prabhupāda: So write what you are going to do immediately. Write. Write the names, who is going where.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- January 6, 1976, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Everyone will die. But (Hindi). If you do something tangible, then you will live. And if you do something fictitious, then with your death everything is gone. (Hindi) But here the whole population is duṣkṛti. They are kṛti, but they are doing something wrong: duṣkṛti. How? Prapanna prapa jante mām. This is a miscon..., mischievous activity. Because he has not surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, whatever he has done, it is all mischievous. Kṛṣṇa says, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ (BG 7.15). Why he has done mischievous activities, mūḍha? The only test is, if one is not Kṛṣṇa conscious, whatever he does it is all mischievous. So immediately go and you'll see.

Devotee: Yes.

Mahāṁsa: Every morning we go on nagara-kīrtana to every village.

Prabhupāda: Mm. Yes, invite them. Invite them.

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Śrīla Prabhupāda, I have both, that one from London and New York.

Prabhupāda: That London is shorter.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: London is a lot shorter. This happened in London, England. It says, "Next morning in the court we pleaded not guilty to the charges laid against us." This is... "Our men were doing nagara-saṅkīrtana, so some constable, police officer, said that 'You are blocking the footpath with your nagara-saṅkīrtana, and I must arrest you.' " So they were taken to court. "The next morning in court we pleaded not guilty to the charges laid against us. The judge, therefore, deferred our case to a later time, the 2nd of February at two p.m. It was not until the day before the hearing that we realized the actual significance of the appointment. The second day of February was the appearance day of Lord Nityānanda Prabhu. After ending a morning of fasting and chanting with a blissful ārati and splendid prasāda, we set off for the great Marlborough Street magistrate's court in a confident mood, sure that Lord Nityānanda would protect us. We were accompanied by a new and enthusiastic visitor to the temple, the Reverend Norman Morehouse, second only to the Bishop of Norwich, who came to observe the proceedings."

Prabhupāda: He's our great friend.

Srila Prabhupada Vigil -- May 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: He's very big man.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He came with us to the court.

Prabhupāda: Impressed.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: "We arrived at the courthouse and waited in the big hallway while the Reverend went through to the public gallery. The plainclothesman who arrested us soon turned up, now dressed in uniform. It took a little persuasion before they cautiously took some of Lord Nityānanda's prasāda in the form of cookies while we waited for our case to turn up." The devotees brought prasādam with them to the courtroom and were distributing. "A stir went... At last we were beckoned into the courthouse itself and ushered into the dock. A stir went around the assembly in the court. Shaven heads and saffron robes were the last thing anyone expected to see in Her Majesty's court on a Tuesday afternoon. The magistrate, a balding, portly man in his late middle age, a red nose in his dark grey suit, surveyed us over the top of his gold-rimmed spectacles. We affirmed our plea of not guilty to the clerk of the court, and one of the constables who was sworn in at the witness box proceeded to report the supposed conditions of our arrest. The actual number of the chanting nagara-saṅkīrtana party miraculously grew from the original five first of all to seven when he started his account, and later to eight persons when he described how three devotees ran off and escaped arrest. According to his description, it seemed that many more people had been using Oxford Street than we had been aware of. Indeed, unlimited numbers of pedestrians had been obstructed and forced into the road at the grave risk of being run over by the almost nonexistent traffic. The judge listened impartially and then, since we had no advocate to speak on our behalf, he asked if we would like to cross-examine the evidence of the policeman. When we humbly pointed out that the constable, like everyone else, had imperfect senses, that he had contradicted himself in assessing the actual number of devotees, the judge politely suggested that it was a mathematical error. A titter of laughter rippled around the courtroom at his remark, while the police constable shuffled his feet and looked embarrassed. We were asked if we ourselves would like to speak for our defense, so having been previously chosen as a spokesman, I volunteered to be sworn in at the witness box. Surprised when the usher asked me to hold a copy of Bhagavad-gītā, I read out the words of the card presented before me." He didn't swear on the Bible; he swore on the Bhagavad-gītā. " 'I swear by almighty Śrī Kṛṣṇa that the evidence I give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.' Encouraged by smiles from the devotees in the dock, I began to describe the circumstances of our arrest, this time as they actually had happened. The magistrate listened as I went on to say, 'We understand that the police have a duty to perform, sir, but we also have a duty. We have been instructed by our spiritual master. Indeed, we are instructed by all the principle scriptures of the world, the Koran, the Toraḥ, the Bible, and in the Vedas, that we should glorify God by chanting His holy names. Whether you know the Lord by the name of Allah, Jehovah, Rāma, Govinda, or Kṛṣṇa, God is one.' 'Oh, quite so, quite so,' affirmed the magistrate. Encouraged, I went on. 'It is said in the Vedic scriptures, in the Bṛhad Nāradīya Purāṇa, harer nāma harer nāma harer nāmaiva kevalam (CC Adi 17.21).' 'In English. What does it mean in English?' the magistrate asked. 'Kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā. This is written in the Sanskrit language five thousand years ago. It means, "In the age of Kali, the present age of materialism and quarrel, there is no alternative, there is no alternative, there is no alternative for making positive spiritual advancement but the chanting of the holy name, the holy name, the holy name of the Lord." ' The judge, in fact the whole courtroom, sat there fascinated. I remembered Śrīla Prabhupāda's introduction..."

Prabhupāda: Bring some fruits.

Room Conversation -- October 10, 1977, Vrndavana:

Bhavānanda: Jayapatākā Mahārāja went over, but he was out that time. That Hṛṣīkeśa Mahārāja in Caitanya Maṭha was also there. All favorable and helpful. That big nagara-saṅkīrtana on Pūrṇimā, that was very successful. It healed a lot of misunderstandings between the temples.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Everyone could see also that there was so much support.

Bhavānanda: Oh, yes.

Prabhupāda: Floodwater entered our new house? No.

Bhavānanda: No. The lawn, the park in front of the temple, there was water. There were fish there, swimming.

Room Conversation -- November 3, 1977, Vrndavana:

Gaura-govinda: Bhadrak, there are three devotees now, Ātma-tattva, Kṛṣṇadāsa and Rohiṇī-nandana, and they were preaching and making some members. Bhadrak is a good place for preaching. And I also come there. Just on the 1st November, there was a festival that on that day Caitanya Mahāprabhu arrived there when He was going from Jagannātha Purī to Vṛndāvana. They observe that festival. So they have invited us to speak in that meeting on that day. Bhāgavata and I came. There was a great festival and we do nagara-saṅkīrtana in the evening. In the meeting Bhāgavata spoke and then I spoke. This was very nice.

Prabhupāda: People are coming?

Room Conversation -- November 13, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: By managing you can come, everyone.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Right. If you manage properly, then you can all come.

Lokanātha: So do I come with you, Śrīla Prabhupāda?

Prabhupāda: You will be the leader.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You're the leader of the party.

Lokanātha: So I have a vehicle. They also could travel with us, and in the same town they will do nagara-saṅkīrtana all day long and distribute books?

Prabhupāda: Hm.